A Shade of Vampire 22: A Fork of Paths (12 page)

Braithe remained just as unconscious, and not even the smallest tinge of blood emerged from the cut. The wound remained dry, almost brittle.

Uma replaced the knife on the counter before continuing, “The body of a human-turned-vampire such as yourself, if left without blood for too long, can start to morph and mutate into something different. Quite different.”

“But not all of those creatures on the ship were starved of blood,” Aisha said, frowning. “I saw with my own eyes how perfectly normal vampires were turned by the Bloodless into one of them in a matter of hours.”

“Correct,” Uma said. “Originally, there was a vampire, possibly even more than one, who got deprived of blood for too long. In the process of their bodies adapting to survive without blood, they still retained the vampiric ability to turn… except now, their victims take the form of their new evolved bodies.”

There was a span of silence as Aisha and I waited with bated breath for the witch to continue.

“Regarding the ‘original’ Bloodless, so to speak,” Uma said, “I imagine that during the earlier days of blood deprivation—the first few months perhaps, maybe even up to a year, depending on how recently they’d last fed—their bodies consumed their own blood for preservation… In time, when no new blood was consumed, the body had to start finding another way to survive. What you see here”—she eyed the length of Braithe—“is nature’s answer. A body that craves blood more than anything else… but that no longer requires it to function.”

My mouth hung open as I gazed at her, enraptured, scared to miss even a single word.

“What about Derek Novak?” Aisha asked the witch. “You must know of the legendary ruler of The Shade. He survived four hundred years without blood, and he didn’t turn into one of these things.”

“I am aware of that vampire’s case,” the witch replied. “But he had the assistance of a witch at the time— a witch who cast a sleeping spell upon him, that would have also served to preserve his body.”

“Hm,” Aisha murmured.

“I haven’t examined this one internally yet,” Uma went on, eyeing Braithe again, “so I can’t go into precise details regarding how his body is able to function exactly, but I think I’ve gleaned enough to help wipe out the ship…” Uma’s eyes fell on me. I guessed that she would need to cut Braithe open at some point, especially if she was ever going to find a cure. I hoped that she wouldn’t make a mistake in the procedure and end his life accidentally.

“You mentioned, Julie,” the witch continued, “that you already tried to stake a Bloodless through the heart—perhaps the most common way to kill a vampire. I think I know the reason why that doesn’t work. As I’m sure you’re aware, when a human is turned by a normal vampire, the vampiric infection is transferred through the blood and settles in the heart first and foremost—that is where the nature of the Elder takes root, which gradually affects the rest of the body physically. But in the case of the Bloodless, based on the fact that staking the heart doesn’t kill them, I’m taking a guess that the absence of blood has caused the original infection’s concentration in the heart to break down and infuse the entire body.”

Aisha shook her head and held up a hand. “Wait, you’re losing me. I know that a vampire’s immortality is due to the Elders’ nature infecting their heart—which is why destroying the heart also destroys the immortality—but if in the case of the Bloodless the Elders’ nature has dissipated from the heart due to lack of blood, wouldn’t that make the Bloodless more vulnerable? More mortal, not stronger?”

“You’re right in a way,” Uma replied. “The vampiric infection that causes immortality still exists in them, but it is broken down and leaked throughout the body which simply means that no particular part of the body is especially vulnerable. You have to strike in multiple places to end them—for example, chop them to pieces so that they can no longer physically move.”

There was a pause as Aisha and I let Uma’s words sink in.

Aisha crossed her arms over her chest. “What I don’t understand is how an original Bloodless could even come about. How long would they need to starve in order to reach this state?”

“Taking a wild guess, I would say at least six years,” the witch replied. I was grateful that Aisha had no way of knowing the real truth of how the original Bloodless came about, my own Hans being part of the group.

“I don’t get how a vampire could in reality be deprived of blood for so long,” Aisha continued. “I can’t imagine why he or she would not have at least been able to procure some animal blood.”

Uma shrugged. “I don’t know how the original Bloodless came to be. That’s a mystery yet to be unraveled.”

“Back to the topic of killing them,” I said to the witch, eager for a change of subject. “Please tell us more.”

“Yes,” the witch replied. “If you want to kill one of these, I believe that you will need a razor sharp blade—sharper than what you tried using— and you will need to sever the body in several spots… for example, chop off the head, sever the midriff, and perhaps also the legs. I’m afraid that I’m not aware of the extent of their bodies’ healing capabilities, but they certainly do not appear to be as fast as a regular vampire’s.”

Another silence engulfed us as the three of us glanced over Braithe’s form again.

I wished once more in frustration that Uma could just tell me what ideas she’d come up with regarding a cure. I could hardly bear to look at Braithe like this. I just wanted him back. I wanted Hans back. I wanted all of them back. I wanted my life back.
Is that really so much to ask for?

“Well,” Aisha muttered, interrupting the quiet, “that’s what this specimen here is for. We can test your speculations right now.”

Before either the witch or I could react, the jinni had shot toward the counter where Uma had left the knife. Swiping it, she shot back to the examination table.

I wanted to scream at the jinni to step away, but I managed to restrain myself. Such a reaction would be far too much of a giveaway.

“Wait, Aisha,” I said, fighting to adopt a steady tone of voice. I reached out and closed my hand around hers and gently pushed the knife downward.

“For what?” she snapped.

“We don’t even know if Uma has finished with her experimentation on this one yet,” I said, the words flying from my lips as I thought of them. “Shouldn’t we ask? She might have more things to explain to us first.”

Aisha turned on the witch. “Well, do you?”

“I do, actually,” the witch replied calmly. She walked over to Aisha and took the knife from her hand. She set it back down on the table behind her. “In fact,” Uma continued, “I would rather that we don’t kill this one in particular. I’m in the process of a number of experiments. I’ve already pumped his body with a couple of potions.”

Aisha grumbled, but didn’t insist. I let out a quiet sigh of relief.

“So how exactly do you propose that we storm the ship?” I asked. “We need a lot of sharp blades. That’s it? Couldn’t you use your magic to get rid of them?”

“Yes,” Uma said, “I could certainly attempt to slice through them with my magic. As you noticed when I stunned this one with a spell, they aren’t instantly receptive to witch magic—at least, there’s a small delay, which is another reason to have you by my side assisting me. I’m still not quite sure as to why a delay is there, that’s something I have yet to find out… How many did you say were on that ship?”

“I haven’t counted exactly,” I admitted, “but it looked like there were over sixty… at least. They might’ve even reached some other island by now and turned more vampires to join them.”

“All right,” she said, standing up and walking over to a counter in the corner of the room. It was only now that I noticed a steaming black cauldron on full heat. She stood before it and stirred it with a large ladle. Picking up a glass vial, she tipped a spoonful of dark gray liquid into it before bringing it over to us. “This is a tranquilizer I’ve managed to develop in the past few hours that I believe will work on these creatures.”

“Okay…” I murmured, eyeing the concoction.

“I will equip you with blow darts tipped with this potion. You have to shoot the dart into the creatures—preferably their throats, although other parts of the body will do—and make sure that it penetrates the skin. The poison should cause their bodies to go into paralysis for at least two or three hours. So when we arrive at the ship, after I have singled out a few to keep for my own research, we will start work on the creatures. I suggest that the first thing you do is try to slice them in three places as I have described simply because this is the fastest method. But if you’re finding yourself in a particularly difficult situation, use one of the darts to tame them first.”

I breathed out. “Good,” I said. I liked the idea of the paralyzing darts. Knowing that I was equipped with them would definitely offer some reassurance when down there fighting with those lethal creatures.

“Will there be a delay in this potion getting through to them?” I asked.

“A delay of a few seconds,” she replied. “I already tested the potion on this creature here. I brought him out of my paralyzing spell and then shot him with one of the darts—in the throat.” I scanned Braithe’s neck, where the skin seemed to be particularly thin and almost translucent. “You won’t see the mark now,” Uma added. “It’s had time to heal. Anyway, the potion took approximately five point five seconds to take effect on him. Then he drifted off into a deep slumber.”

“What’s all that blood on your apron?” Aisha asked the witch, wrinkling her nose.

“The blood of the last victim he consumed,” she replied grimly. “I had to make several iterations of this potion because the first few caused him to throw up. I’m sure he expelled almost all of the blood in his system. Now he is quite pale again, as you can see. ”

“All right,” Aisha said. “We should return to the ship.” She paused, her eyes settling on Braithe’s face. “But isn’t it a risk keeping Bloodless alive here? It only takes one of them to break free from your castle to recreate the problem we have now.”

Uma shook her head. “You need not worry about that, jinni,” she replied. “This specimen and the ones I choose from the vessel will be kept securely locked away. And once I’m finished with my experimentation, I will end their lives.”

That seemed to satisfy Aisha, or at least enough that she didn’t argue further.

The witch returned to her cauldron filled with tranquilizer potion and turned off the heat. “The two of you can go wait outside in the entrance hall. I will bring you everything we need.”

Aisha and I looked at each other, then respected the witch’s request. Perhaps she wanted some time alone to clear her head before we descended on the ship. Although it pained me to leave Braithe as he was, stark naked and stretched out on the treatment bed like a cadaver, I trusted Uma enough to believe that she would put him away somewhere safe, and keep him safe while we were gone.

Aisha and I didn’t exchange a word as we sat together in the entrance room, but the witch didn’t leave us alone long. She emerged carrying two bulging grey shoulder bags and four long, sheathed swords. She approached us and handed one of the bags to me, along with two of the swords. Then she turned to Aisha, giving her the other bag and the other two swords. I winced. Surely, this was a direct insult to the jinni, who should not require the use of crude weapons and brute force to end the Bloodless. But strangely, Aisha did not act offended. Rather, she accepted the witch’s offerings without a word.

I looked down into my own bag to see that it was heaped with feather-ended blow darts. Beside them, in a thin, long inner compartment of the bag, was the blowgun itself—smaller than I’d expected it to be, and made of mahogany.

The witch now stood empty-handed. She would work only with her magic.

“Will your sister accompany us, too?” I asked.

“My sister is not home. She’s visiting a relative.”

“Oh, okay,” I said, disappointed. It wasn’t so much that I thought we couldn’t handle the ship with the three of us, but I would have been comforted to have a second witch there as a barrier against Aisha in case she decided to murder me the moment we finished with the Bloodless. I would have begged both sisters to help me escape. They might even stick up for me, if only to behave contrary to the jinni. But there was only one witch—Uma. I had no choice but to rely on her.

“Let’s go,” Aisha pressed.

“All right,” the witch said, a hint of apprehension in her eyes as she glanced at me. “Let’s go.”

F
or the second time
, just before the witch vanished with me, Aisha reached out and clutched my arm, allowing herself to be transported by the witch’s magic. When we reappeared, hovering over an endless expanse of waves near where we’d left my ship, I couldn’t help but ask her why.

The jinni glowered at me and pursed her lips.

“Can either of you see the ship anywhere?” the witch asked.

I turned my attention to the matter at hand. Gazing around, I couldn’t spot any sign of it.

“Are you certain we’re in the right area?” the witch asked.

“Yes,” Aisha replied, half confident, half impatient. “Let’s keep moving.”

The witch kept hold of me, allowing me to glide alongside her, while the jinni flew beside us by her own magic.

“Over there,” Aisha said, after about five minutes of soaring and scanning the waves. She was pointing south of our position. “Do you see it?” she asked, squinting.

“Yes,” the witch and I replied. Now that she’d pointed it out, I could see it. It was my boat—I could tell even from this far distance. We zoomed toward it with supernatural speed. When we arrived above the deck, it was empty except for the bloodied corpses of a few witches strewn about the deck. The absence of Bloodless up here shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise, considering that it was daytime. Like regular vampires, I guessed that they weren’t sun worshipers.

We touched down on the floorboards, near the broken trap door. My hand locked around the hilt of my sword as we carefully descended to the lower deck. My heart ached again at what a wreck it was. Gazing around, we moved along the corridor, searching each of the cabins… only to find that they were empty. We moved on to search the other levels of the ship. We didn’t find a single Bloodless. The ship was still moving, but apparently, that was by the will of the sharks alone.

“What happened here?” I breathed. I couldn’t understand for the life of me where they could have all vanished to.

“Seems they’ve abandoned ship,” Aisha murmured.

The witch furrowed her auburn brows. “Why would they do that?”

Aisha shrugged. “Let’s keep moving. They can’t have gotten too far. Maybe they took one of the lifeboats?”

“Even if they took all of the lifeboats, the Bloodless couldn’t all have fit on them,” I said, shaking my head.

We returned to the deck and checked the lifeboats all the same. There were three left in total. Only one was missing—the same one Aisha and I had taken to travel to Uma’s island. We moved around the circumference of the ship, scanning the water surrounding us, but none of us spotted a surge of Bloodless swimming beneath the waves. We would need to leave the vessel and continue soaring over the ocean.

The witch carried me higher than she’d flown with me before, and the jinni followed suit. The higher up we were, the wider area we could scan at once.

We kept our eyes peeled for what felt like the next hour as we flew in search of the monsters, until we began reaching even deeper waters. Waters the Mansons and I had always tried to avoid due to the ghastly sea creatures that were rumored to inhabit them.

As we continued flying, I caught the sound of distant shouts. Though it was more than shouts. It was deep, guttural roars.

I looked in the direction of the noise. A ship loomed on the horizon.

“Hurry,” I said, pointing toward it.

As we neared the vessel, its features became clearer. Going by its heavy-handed construction and black sails, I guessed that it belonged to ogres. Maybe it was even the infamous
Skull Crusher
itself.

As we hovered over the deck, I let out a gasp. Beneath us was a scene of utter chaos. The roaring had been coming from ogres, lumbering around the deck, wielding axes and spears, as Bloodless tore into cell after cell of… humans.

Oh, God
.

This must have been one of the ogres’ cargo ships. Perhaps they’d come too near to the Bloodless on my ship, and, smelling the blood of humans, the Bloodless had leapt aboard.

The floor was scattered with humans, some writhing on the floor—apparently in transformation—while others appeared to be dead.

By the looks of it, the ogres weren’t doing a good job at quelling the Bloodless’ attack. The Bloodless were too agile and quick for the thundering ogres, and by the time the ogres had lurched toward them with an ax, the Bloodless had already darted in the opposite direction.

I was shocked to see that even ogres lay dead on the huge deck, while some were strewn in the ocean—in both cases, drenched in their own blood. It seemed that these creatures really would attack anything—humans, witches, ogres, werewolves…

“Okay,” Uma said, her voice steady even in the midst of such carnage. “Before we float down, I will keep aside those I wish to use for my research, and then the rest can be finished off.”

Aisha had already unsheathed a sword and was clutching it in her hands. It seemed that she really was going to use brute force in slaying these creatures rather than her magic.

I quickly scanned the vessel for Hans’ siblings. In all the commotion that was going on, I couldn’t spot them. They were all moving too fast in their massacre of the humans, and in the ogres’ desperate attempt to stop them. The Bloodless were practically blurs of pallor whizzing about the deck.

“Well, come on then,” Aisha complained. “Choose them and let’s get this over with.”

I caught sight of a group of Bloodless standing on one of the raised platforms, near the wheel of the ship. They were prowling around one of the still unopened cages of humans. After verifying that none of them were Hans’ siblings, I suggested to Aisha, “Well, we can start already, I guess.” I pointed toward the crowd by the unopened cage. “Why don’t we begin over there, and then Uma has the rest of the ship to choose her specimens from.”

Aisha took the bait, and, with barely a backward glance to see if I was following her, she moved toward them with a murderous gleam in her eyes. The girl was mad, I was sure.

As she reached the crowd, she leapt toward one and brought her sword down against his neck. I should have immediately been focusing my attention on finding Colin, Frederick and Arletta, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. The first strike didn’t sever his head. Neither did it sever the second or even third time. Only after the fourth strike did she finally manage to send his head rolling to the floorboards. No blood spilled, and his body keeled and collapsed in a heap. Aisha then began hacking at the rest of his body, as if she feared that it would rise again, headless.

I refocused my attention on my priority and swept my eyes once more around the deck from where I still hovered with the witch in the air. Finally, I spotted them. All three of them were huddled together in one corner, sharing a human amongst themselves. I found the sight bizarrely heartwarming.
At least they’re sticking together
. I wondered if they recognized each other at all. Whether they could even experience finer emotions like love or attachment… or whether all they experienced was an all-consuming desire for what their bodies were incapable of holding in—blood.

Discreetly, I pointed the siblings out to the witch.

“That’s them,” I whispered.

“Just those three?”

“Yes,” I said, taking a deep breath. “You need to make it look like you’ve just chosen those three on your own, randomly. And get them out of here.”

“All right,” she said. “I’ll vanish with them back to my island. It’ll only take a few moments, and then I’ll return.”

“Thank you,” I said, my heart swelling with gratitude.

“I’ll need to put you down somewhere first though,” she murmured.

“Just”—my eyes traveled around wildly—“just drop me on that mast.”

I wasn’t as afraid for my safety now compared to before, not with the distraction caused by all this fresh human blood. But taking me to the mast I’d pointed to wasn’t quite as simple as I’d anticipated. It was already occupied by a couple of Bloodless, perched among the sails, sucking on a human between them. The witch darted around with me until we found an empty mast where she could let go of me. Balancing, I scanned the deck anxiously again to verify that Colin, Arletta and Frederick were still—

“Aisha!” A scream erupted from my throat.

In the short time that Uma and I had had our backs turned, she had abandoned the group of Bloodless that she had been working on near the wheel and had approached the siblings. Colin, Frederick and Arletta. They… they lay on the ground, decapitated. With blows so quick her hands were almost a blur, she was in the process of hacking the rest of their bodies into chunks.

I leaped from the safety of the mast, down to the blood-encrusted deck with a crash. I hadn’t even considered the danger I was putting myself into. The witch also hurtled forward, but we were both too late.

No.

No!

I gazed with stunned eyes from the twitching pieces of the siblings’ mangled bodies to Aisha. The jinni wiped sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, a look of satisfaction on her face.

“Did you call me?” she asked in an innocent voice, cocking her head to one side.

“You killed the wrong ones!” I screamed like a banshee. I fell to my knees and gazed in horror, barely believing my eyes.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Aisha drawled. “I didn’t realize…”

“You were supposed to start with those over there!” I bellowed, thrusting my finger toward the Bloodless she’d abandoned by the wheel, even as tears streamed down my cheeks.

I was blowing my cover, but I couldn’t even care anymore. She already knew about what I’d planned. Somehow, she had figured it out.

I could no longer contain myself. I’d been through too much in too short a time. This was the final straw for me. I exploded. I barely even registered the words spilling from my mouth as grief consumed me. I hurled every curse word I knew at her before lunging toward the jinni with my sword drawn.

She swept up into the air, dodging my advance.

“So, the witch was going to save those three for you, was she?” Aisha asked as she hovered above me.

I lost the strength to even continue my attempts to attack her any more. I dropped the sword and sank back to the floor. My head thrust back, my face toward the heavens, I howled.

“Why did you do this?” the witch asked the jinni. “I was to take these three back with me. That was the deal.”

The jinni stiffened. “Do you really think I’m that stupid? You’re only choosing these three as a favor to Julie.”

How did she find out?
I could only guess that I’d underestimated her hearing.

Aisha swooped down on me, gripping my throat. She hauled me to my feet and then lifted me up into the air. Her eyes sparkled malevolently.

“I told you what would happen if you stepped out of line,” Aisha hissed.

“Let go of her,” the witch spoke up. “What harm has she done to you?”

Still retaining her grip on me, Aisha turned her glower on the witch.

“Oh, I’m afraid that she has done much harm. More harm, I suspect, than you’re aware of. Clearly, the little snake didn’t inform you of the destruction she almost brought upon the supernatural world.” Aisha’s thick jaws clenched hard. “And of what she did to a dear friend of mine.”

The witch faltered. She frowned, her eyes falling on me, and raised a brow.

“Don’t believe her!” I gasped, trying to pry myself free from the jinni’s grasp. “She’s lying. Please, help me!”

“Speaking of dear friends,” Aisha continued, making my blood run cold, “she also murdered one of yours. Arron.”

“Arron?” Surprise flashed in the witch’s eyes.

“She murdered him on your very own beach.”

“She’s lying!” I screamed.

“She’s the only liar here,” Aisha replied, her fingernails digging into my flesh.

“You have to believe me,” I breathed, looking desperately at the witch. “Please. Would you really trust a jinni over a vampire?”

There was doubt in Uma’s eyes as she looked at me. Then, to my horror, she took a step back. Arron must’ve meant a lot to her for her to take a jinni’s words so seriously. It seemed that the girl had shaken Uma enough to want nothing more to do with me.

But she still has Braithe in her castle!

“Wait! Please!”

“I-I’m sorry, Julie,” Uma said, her voice deep. “I don’t know which of you is telling the truth. You two clearly have—”

Her voice faltered as a violent tremor ran through the boat. While Aisha had by now pinned me against a mast, Uma had still been planted on the deck. The shudder made the witch lose her footing, and she fell to the floor. The boat tilted sharply and abruptly, sending the witch crashing along with several Bloodless against the railing of the ship. The next thing I knew, several gargantuan, reddish poles with speared tips thrust down from above. One pierced right through Uma’s gut. I gasped, too stunned to scream. It had all happened so fast, I doubted she’d even had time to realize what was happening to her before it was too late.

The spell of shade the witch had cast to protect me from the sun vanished, plunging me into agony as rays touched me. The witch was dead.

Squinting through the sunlight and trying to get a handle on the burning sensation that erupted in my skin, I followed the poles upward with my eyes, only to realize that they weren’t poles.

My heart stopped and my eyes bulged. I gaped up at what looked like a colossal crab, hanging over the edge of the ship. The middle of its body was a furious red, with two glossy black eyes set wide apart on either side of its head and terrifying pincers that clicked together. Three of its freakishly long, spear-like legs had crashed down over the side of the vessel as it clung on—one of which had ended the witch, while the others had speared through two Bloodless. The monsters’ feet splintered the wooden floorboards as it heaved itself onto the deck, revealing a full set of eight such deadly legs. It let out a nasty screech that made my eardrums ache and raised its forelegs in the air. The legs that had pierced the witch and the Bloodless still had their bodies attached to them.

Horror rushed through me. I knew what these were. These were the legendary Great Sea Arachnids. Some called them water spiders, while others called them crabs, but they were rumored to live in these parts of the ocean. I shouldn’t have been surprised at their arrival. They would have scented the dead bodies in the water.