When there was a knock on my door in the early hours of the night, I assumed it would be Jeramiah. I was right.
“Jeramiah,” I said.
“Would you come with me?” he said.
“What is it?”
“It’s easier if I just show you.”
“All right.” I wasn’t wearing a shirt, but I just went with him as I was. I doubted he’d keep me long, whatever it was.
He was silent as we walked along the veranda. He stopped eventually outside the door of an apartment.
He knocked on the door. “Michael,” he called.
So this is Michael’s apartment. I wondered why he was bringing me here of all places.
There were footsteps and the door opened. Michael appeared behind it, his lower lip stained with blood. Perhaps we’d interrupted him during a meal. The traces of human blood on his mouth made my stomach lurch, even though I had already downed three glasses earlier this evening.
“Come in,” Michael said—more to Jeramiah than to me. He opened the door wider and stepped aside as we entered.
I still didn’t understand what Michael found so objectionable about me—I’d never done anything to insult or harm him. Not that I gave a damn.
“Through here,” Michael said, leading us along the long corridor. He took a left down another hallway and stopped outside a door at the end of it. He drew out a small key from his pocket and opened it. Before I even realized what was happening, Jeramiah had stepped behind me and pushed me through the door into what turned out to be an unheated sauna room. Following closely behind me, he slammed the door shut after us.
I was confused at first as to Jeramiah’s hurry to get me in the room, but then I was aware of nothing but the scent of hot human blood overwhelming me. As I laid eyes on a young woman cowering in one corner of the paneled room, puncture wounds in her neck still bleeding, I realized that agreeing to come here with Jeramiah had been a terrible, terrible mistake.
Chapter 8: River
My head was still spinning.
Vampires.
They exist.
Did this mean that other creatures my mother and I had seen reported on TV existed too? Witches? Dragons?
I felt like I’d gone insane even entertaining the thought.
And yet here I was locked in this sauna room with fang marks in my neck.
I was past hoping that I would wake up.
This was no dream.
When the door opened, I was terrified that it would be Michael back for more of my blood. The sight I was met with was no less terrifying: two vampires—Jeramiah, and another young man who looked over six feet tall, with deep green eyes and dark, almost black hair.
My first thought was that this must be the Joseph person Jeramiah and Michael had been talking about earlier.
Now I wondered whether it would have been better for me if Michael had shown up again.
I was expecting one of them, perhaps both of them, to launch on me and inflict more pain, perhaps even end my life. Instead, the green-eyed man jerked backward the moment he laid eyes on me and darted toward the door. Jeramiah reached it before him and blocked his exit. Joseph’s shoulders were heaving as he kept his back facing me.
“What’s wrong?” Jeramiah asked.
“I’m willing to serve The Oasis, but not like this,” Joseph said, his voice deep and strained.
“I’m not going to ask you to kill this girl. Just half-turn her.”
“Step aside.” There was urgency in Joseph’s tone.
“You said that you felt you were ready to come out with us on a hunt,” Jeramiah continued, making no motion to step out of the way. “Half-turning humans shouldn’t be difficult. And I’m here to oversee it. I’ll make sure you don’t take things too far—”
Joseph gripped Jeramiah’s shoulder and shoved him aside. Casting him a glare, he said through gritted teeth, “I can’t… touch this girl.”
He clutched the handle, forced the door open and stormed out of the room.
I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or dread what was to happen next.
My stomach squirmed as Michael stepped back into the room with Jeramiah.
“Now what?” Michael said, eyeing me.
Jeramiah looked quite unfazed. “Joseph isn’t going to do it,” he replied. “So that means we’re going to have to create another new vampire from one of our humans.”
“Which one?”
“It doesn’t matter much,” Jeramiah said. “Just choose one who is smaller than us—someone who won’t be impossible to control soon after their turning. Because I’m not willing to wait days for a new vampire to calm down. As soon as they turn, they’ll begin work right away.”
“A damn annoyance only new vampires can half-turn humans,” Michael muttered.
Both men stepped out of the room. The door shut behind them, leaving me alone.
It was all I could do to not lose myself to despair when I imagined what my sister might be going through. I could only pray that she was being treated better than me. But what do they want her for? What do they want me for?
My chest ached as I imagined how sweet Lalia’s blood might taste to them.
Please, Laly, wherever you are, be safe. I’m here. I’m gonna come for you as soon as I can.
I almost leapt out of my skin as the door swung open again. It was Jeramiah, alone this time. He was holding a syringe. Panicking, I scrambled to my feet and tried to distance myself from him, but he closed in on me.
“Be still,” he said calmly as he slid a hand around the back of my neck and positioned me against the wall. I struggled until the needle pricked my skin and the drug seeped into my bloodstream. Consciousness soon left me after that. The numbness was an unexpected mercy.