Chapter 147: Vampire Guilt
DMITRI POV
The spatial tear nearly swallowed me whole.
I threw myself backward as reality split open like a wound, showing the dark space between worlds. Cold air rushed out, bringing whispers in languages that hurt to hear. My vampire strength was the only thing that stopped me from being sucked into the void.
"Another one," I gasped, pulling out my phone to mark the position. "That’s the fifteenth tear this week."
I’d been hunting these dimensional wounds for three months, ever since Lily gave herself to stop the Devourer. Each tear was a memory of what my kind had done. Vampires had fed on dimensional energy for centuries, weakening the walls between worlds. We’d made it possible for monsters like the Devourer to break through.
And now Lily was paying the price for our greed.
My phone buzzed with a text from Viktor, my vampire clan leader: "Stop this foolish journey. Come home."
I deleted the message without answering. I couldn’t go home. Not when I knew the truth about what we’d done.
The tear in front of me pulsed, getting larger. Through it, I could see shapes moving in the darkness. Things that shouldn’t exist were trying to push through into our world. I grabbed my rescue kit and started working.
The dimensional patch felt cold in my hands. It was made from crystallized moonlight and phoenix tears, materials that cost more than most people made in a year. I’d bought hundreds of them with my own money, using every coin I’d saved in five hundred years of life.
"Come on," I muttered, pushing the patch against the tear. "Stay closed this time."
The wound fought me, trying to spread. The things on the other side pushed harder, feeling weakness. For a moment, I thought I’d lose the fight. Then the patch took hold, closing the tear with a flash of silver light.