AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I really was in a state of shock, my jaw hanging down low enough that a bug could fly into it, but I was still struggling to catch up with the moment. The Shrouded Shriek was one of the original Five Blessed Bloodlines?! That was so historically significant, how could no one know that? No one but an incredibly old vampire who lived most of his life in hiding as a religious leader. The Shrouded Shriek really had done the absolute most to erase himself from the annals of time.
But if he was one of the originals, then we knew something about him. The real him, and it meant we finally had a jumping off point to find his weakness. Our opponent was no longer a faceless, nameless terror, more ephemeral than a nightmare and less tangible than a ghost. Our opponent was real. He had history.
Goosebumps began to rise along my arms. I knew we were only at the first step of mounting our offense against him, but it still felt like another victory.
An intimidating, terrifying victory, but one nonetheless.
“So, what you’re saying,” I started cautiously, as if the wrong word would send the moment spiraling off into the wrong direction, “is that the man who cursed me as a baby is one of the original blessed bloodlines, and is older than most of society itself?”
“If the Shrouded Shriek is the one that cursed you, then yes.”
As much as the information we were getting was great, I also felt a deluge of despair. If my nemesis was truly so old and powerful, what hope did my little remedy have realistically? It felt like it was working, but I had no way of knowing, and unlike many curses with a direct cause and effect, mine was much more… roundabout in its nature. I could try summoning it in physical form again, but if I did, that’d be releasing it from the bonds I’d worked so hard to place around it.
Damn it.
“Does he have any weaknesses?” Kai added, picking up before I could fully spiral. Ever the attentive mate, he reached over and gave me a gentle squeeze. It was the comfort I needed to put my apprehension on pause for at least a few moments. There was still more to learn before I allowed myself to freak out.
“Not that I know of. All I know is that after thousands of years of war, destruction, and unchecked massacre, he has accrued more power than ever. I’m not even sure if he’s a warlock at all anymore, or even a cryptid. He may be something else entirely.”
That was daunting, to say the least.
“There’s one missing.”
I jerked, having forgotten that Oren was even in the room. Kai and I both looked to where his best friend was standing as he leaned against the wall, arms crossed and expression resolute.
“What was that?” Darla asked, this time in her own cadence.
“Three bloodlines intermingled. Another’s the Shrouded Shriek. There’s supposed to be five bloodlines though, so one’s missing.”
“Tomas says few know about the fifth one. The information was rare and incredibly protected back when he was first turned, and now it’s been either forgotten or scrubbed from existence.” Scrubbed from existence? But why?
“But the fifth bloodline did the opposite of what the Shrouded Shriek did. Whereas he became obsessed with hoarding the power and maintaining superiority, she believed that having such powers could only lead to corruption and greed. She trained a select few of her kind in the ways of power where she had been blessed and made them swear not to flaunt it, not to spread word of how they’d come by their knowledge or power, and then she disappeared from the world entirely.”
“She just disappeared?”
“Yes. The only thing we know about her is that she was selective in the coven member she chose to carry on her gift. We don’t even have an idea of who they were, so her bloodline is impossible to trace.”
The idea of that was so baffling to me, I didn’t realize that everyone was looking at me for a couple of beats. “What?”
“What if that’s your bloodline? You don’t know who your parents are, right?” Darla said, her eyes flying open, hope so evident within them. “I mean, you’re the most powerful witch I’ve ever met. That’s for certain.”
It was hard not to shrink back with so many eyes on me, but I sadly shook my head. “I don’t think so. If I were, I think the coven would have trained me quite differently. Also, I have met plenty of witches more powerful than me. They’re just not as… wily?” Or bullheaded if I wasn’t being as nice about it. Or maybe desperation fueled me to try things others would never even think of. “I would say Luci is likely much more powerful than me, she’s just gotten frailer in her elder years.”
“Well, you’ve been cursed since you were a child, right?” Oren said. The man was an example of someone who preferred to listen instead of drawing attention to himself. “What if it’s been holding you back? Siphoning off your power this entire time? What if that’s one of the reasons it was put on you in the first place?”
I didn’t think it was possible, but Darla’s eyes shot even wider.
“Holy shit, that would make so much sense, though!” Would it? “So, the Shrouded Shriek is the one who cursed you, right? What if he found out you were a part of the lost bloodline and did this specifically to siphon off your power? It would make sense with his obsession.”
“I’m sorry, but I just don’t see how that’s possible. What would be the chances of that?”
“I don’t believe it would be prudent to rule the idea out completely. It has some legs. At least it’s a possibility.”
“I agree,” Darla said resolutely. “I think it’s an idea we should be open to.” But suddenly, she winced, and her eyes snapped closed again. “Tomas said he’s told you everything he knows, so he’s fulfilled his side of the bargain. It’s now your time to keep up your end. He will not be contacting us again.”
Just like there, there was a flare of gray across the circle, like ash spreading out in artistic lines, and Darla nearly collapsed backward. Of course, Oren was there to catch her, brushing her hair off of her face as he listened closely to her breathing.
“She’s all right,” he said after a moment, his expression grim. Honestly, I had to admire how much he kept it together. Unlike myself, Darla wasn’t really prone to passing out often.
