Oh, God.
I looked around frantically for a key, but found none. I couldn’t spend any more time looking. I kept expecting Michael to race up to me and grab hold of me at any second. I gripped the handle again and pulled down as hard as I could. To my shock, the handle snapped off and I was able to push the door wide open. I might not have had the strength of a vampire, but whatever I had become, I was stronger than I could have imagined. It was an uncanny feeling to possess such strength while having done nothing to earn it. It was like… magic. My whole body had transformed into this bizarre species that I hadn’t even known existed until only hours ago.
I could hear Michael cursing in the background as I dashed off down the wide veranda. I must have hurt him quite severely.
I’d had to defend myself once like this before, in my neighborhood back home. I’d gone out to the convenience store too late one evening, and on my way back, someone had tried to mug me. I’d jabbed him in the eye. God knew what would’ve happened that night had my reflexes not been so fast.
I had no idea where I was running to. I just kept speeding as fast as I could.
I threw a look over my shoulder, fearing that Michael would already be chasing me. Thankfully he wasn’t—yet. I ran round and round the circular veranda, and when I reached the elevators, I entered one and traveled upward to the very highest level—the one directly beneath the trapdoor that Michael had brought me down through. I hurried up the winding staircase and began fumbling with the latches. The metal clanked and was so noisy, it was a struggle to work in silence. Every time a voice came from down below, my heart jumped into my throat.
Please, open up.
I have to escape.
I still had no idea where my sister was, but if I went looking for her, I would end up getting caught and then there would be no hope for either of us, or Hassan. I had to call for outside help, somehow get the attention of those tanks that were set up not far away. I believed now more than ever that they had to know about this coven of vampires. Otherwise why would they be so near?
This door proved much harder to budge than Michael’s door had been. But to my relief, just as an elevator creaked, I managed to open it.
As soon as my feet dug into the sand of the desert, the brand in my right arm began to burn. I had to pause for a moment to get a handle on the pain before hurrying forward again through the dark. I bit my lip, trying to focus on the boundary in the distance, where it appeared the sun was out. After I had traveled perhaps five miles, to my horror, I hit an invisible barrier. I didn’t know what I’d been thinking. Perhaps, as a half-blood, I would be able to walk right through, just as the vampires seemed to be able to do. But that wasn’t the case. I ran all around the area hoping that there would be at least one weak spot, but it was hopeless. I tried screaming and shouting for help. Nobody answered. The tattoo on my arm continued to burn mercilessly. I looked back toward the entrance of The Oasis and was relieved to see that nobody had followed me out yet. Perhaps the groaning of the elevator had been someone descending to the lower levels, not coming up to me.
The thought of willingly returning down there made me shiver. I was surprised that Michael hadn’t already followed me out here, but I suspected that he would be looking for me around the atrium, perhaps with a dozen other vampires, just waiting to punish me.
Still, I had no other choice. There was no way I was going to break free through this barrier.
I hurried back across the sand, hoping that at least nobody had noticed me come out here. I reached the entrance, but before climbing back down the iron staircase, I looked around to see if anyone was on the platform beneath me. There was nobody. Gathering all the courage I could muster, I began my descent down the staircase, easing the trapdoor shut above me. Once I touched back down on the floor, I crept to the nearest wall of glass and looked around at the atrium. I could see several vampires milling about along the verandas, but nobody seemed to be in any particular hurry.
With their sense of hearing, I would’ve been shocked if nobody had detected me leaving, not to mention hearing my screaming above ground. Perhaps nobody had paid it any mind because for whatever reason, half-bloods couldn’t pass through the invisible barrier the same way vampires could.
I took a deep breath as I walked back into the elevator. It was clear there was no escaping to bring help from outside. I had no choice but to figure out how to help myself from the inside.
I had this time away from Michael—time I couldn’t help but think would be horribly short-lived—and I had to do what I could to locate my sister and Hassan. I prayed that Michael hadn’t been lying to me when he’d said that my sister was okay.
I descended all the levels of the atrium until I reached the ground level. I had no idea where to even start, but I figured that the ground floor was the logical place. I ran into a rose garden and crouched down among the bushes, barely even breathing as I listened as hard as I could. I was hoping that I’d overhear some snippet of conversation that could give me an idea as to where she could possibly be.
There were a number of conversations going on in the chambers surrounding me. But one in particular caught my attention, perhaps because it seemed to be the closest one to me, only ten feet away. Keeping low against the ground, I crawled through the bushes.
Ouch.
I looked down at my forearm to see a line of blood. I instinctively raised it to my lips and sucked on it, hoping that my saliva would help it clot faster. I almost choked. My blood tasted… horribly bitter. Then I noticed something that made me doubt my eyesight. My wound was beginning to heal before my very eyes. Soon I would never even have guessed that I’d scratched myself in the first place, had it not been for the bloodstains on my skin. I reached up to touch my cheek where Michael had cut me earlier with his claw. The skin felt completely smooth—again, as if there had been no cut in the first place.