Taylor Davis and the Quest for the Immortal Blade - Taylor Davis, #3

"Don't let it touch you!" Ranofur yelled. He bounded toward Elena with lightning speed, but the opaque, shimmering form was already closing with her. "If it makes contact, it will suck away your Lifeforce!" His warning came too late. Elena didn't see the apparition until it surrounded her. She went slack, head and shoulders slumped forward, her body held upright by some invisible force. "What is it?" I was already running with Emblazon in my hand.  Mike arrived the same moment I did.
His skin had turned a sickly white. "It's a Shade." You'd think that after defeating Bartholomew Swain twice, I'd get a shot at a normal life. Instead, my teammates and I are called up to discover why Swain has a taken sudden interest in old graveyards. Our investigation leads us to the medieval Silk Road, to the epicenter of the Black Plague outbreak, and to the Immortal Blade that  can command both the living and the dead. And then the Timekeeper disappears.
Time ticks away as we race to keep the Schedule of all future events out of the hands of Hades' leadership, and I run headlong into my final confrontation with Bartholomew Swain.