Shadow Revealed (The Enlightened Species Book Two) Read Free Page B

ones had survived decades. They were generally the hardest for Umbrae to shield against. It rarely failed that eventually they would find the killer’s established bond to her, then attempt to beg and plead with her to release them from his madness. When that failed, they would curse her as useless, cruel, and spineless, inevitably morphing into resentful anger as Zakel’s evil corrupted their very souls. Tirades would come from them railing at her, and the spirits would concur with Master Zakel calling her “blood bag whore.”
    If she could free them from Master Zakel, she would have. It was not as if she wouldn’t kill the Morsdente if she had the chance. Zakel had always kept her weak, chained, and always contained her psychically with a hood. No matter how long it took him to find a victim, no matter how insane and deranged he got, he had never dropped his guard enough for her to feel she had a chance of gaining the upper hand, nor had he ever left a weapon lying around. His weapons were in his mouth. He kept a few utility type knives in his travel bag. None of them were capable of cutting his head off. She dreamed of stumbling across a sword, or an ax, even a field scythe. To date the Fates had yet to put anything of that nature in her path.
    Etana had always been kind and understanding. Perhaps it was because Etana had been with Master Zakel long enough to have witnessed everything. Etana had started calling her Umbrae (Shadow) nearly from the first time she made contact. It was the closest thing to a given name she had, even if it was given to her by the disembodied energy of one of the killer’s victims. At least it wasn’t demoralizing.
    This was the longest Master Zakel had gone without a victim in the last few years since Master Zakel had taken to living on the outskirts of humanity in the United States. A group of humans had discovered the existence of the other species. They had also figured out different ways to bait and trap them. The Tellus species had shown to be the most vulnerable. As a species, they had long avoided the surface, but with the formation of the SOSC, they were coming out more and more. They were committed to helping the other species; the problem was they weren’t familiar with the barbaric evil some of them encountered. The humans would catch them, and if they were lucky they were sold to underground study facilities run by other humans. Then they’d at least have a chance of being found and rescued, she hoped.
    The unlucky ones were marketed to the Morsdentes that now hovered around waiting to snatch up what they consider an easy fix. In addition to the Tellus, humans would capture and market an occasional Aquatie, usually some sorry youth who happened to be out of water to help a Tellus or a Volaticus in need. The new push was for iron-rich Hulvens like her; it seemed Master Zakel had started a fashion trend. Morsdente from around the globe were just chomping on the bit to have their own portable blood bag. It also seemed that most of the Morsdente weren’t as good at not killing their Hulven blood bags for the psychic high, once they finally got one. Who knew addicts lacked restraint.
    Many Morsdente would buy a human from the smugglers, pack it around for feedings until it was drained, give the corpse to the human smugglers for disposal, and get another one. The smugglers were the buffer between the Volaticus warriors who have always followed the human dead body trail in the hunt for Morsdentes—a job made more difficult by the current slave market. Humans have proved to be more adept at victim selection and body disposal than the Morsdente.
    How the smuggler trade had advanced. When she had been taken, they had been bumbling fools, selling her for pennies on the dollar, not realizing she was the prize. If they had put her in a basement and handed her down through generations they would have been wealthy men. The rare Hulven she had seen on the auction were young males; rumor