A Trail of Echoes (9 page)

But the door did not budge.

River looked bewildered as she looked from me to the door from the spot she was hiding in beneath the bed.

No hunters stepped through it. Not even after two minutes of waiting.

Is this some kind of a trap?

What in the world are they waiting for?

Even though I had no idea whether it was safe, I slid back down the walls and cautiously peered through one of the holes in the door.

I could hardly believe my eyes.

Strewn about the floor were the still bodies of half a dozen hunters. Each lay in the same position—on their backs, their eyes blank and wide open, gazing up at the ceiling. And their mouths… blood was trickling from them and pooling beneath their heads.

As I pushed the door open, River slid out from beneath the bed and stood next to me.

“What happened?”

“I have no clue,” I replied.

“They’re dead,” she said.

I approached the nearest man to me and felt his pulse, even as his blood called to me.

“Yes. Dead.”

I moved along the submarine, checking in other cabins for hunters. Then I climbed up the ladder and poked my head through the hatch. The submarines that had been chasing us had come to a standstill, and as my eyes fell to the water surrounding us, I spotted more bodies floating in the water.

I didn’t think that it was possible for me to feel more bewildered, but as I ducked back down into the submarine and entered the control room with River, it was to see that the window was no longer smashed. It was completely repaired, as if it had never been broken to begin with.

I
drained
and stored the blood of the dead hunters lying in the corridor, then threw the corpses into the sea. I had been worried about what I was going to do for human blood for the rest of the journey. I didn’t need to think about that problem again for a while now.

River and I were still lost for words as we took a seat back in the control room and I started up the submarine again. I stared through the perfectly smooth glass.

I had no idea what had just happened, but when River’s and my tattoos started prickling as we dipped beneath the surface of the waves and continued our journey underwater, I couldn’t help but link the incident to the last bizarre experience we’d had—blood raining from the sky.

River drew the same conclusion.

“Something is following us,” she said, brushing her fingers gingerly over her tattoo.

But what?
Neither of us knew how to even begin to speculate. It was all so bizarre. If it were really Jeramiah’s witches following us, why would they even bother? If they wanted us to return to The Oasis, they could magic us there by force. Why follow us around and play these mind games with us?

A slapping noise came from the back of the submarine.

I groaned internally.

“We still have those merpeople back there,” I muttered.

“What are we going to do with them?” River asked anxiously.

“Let’s go and take a look at them.”

Once we had gotten well away from the area where the hunters had been, I put the vessel back on autopilot and the two of us headed to the back of the submarine.

I opened the door of the cabin where we’d left the mermaid and merman. They were curled up together in a corner in the same fetal position.

I walked over to the male and nudged his slimy shoulder. He didn’t even look up at me, though he was clearly still alive.

“We can’t risk throwing them back in the water again. For some weird reason, they’ve decided they want to be inside our submarine. If we let them go, they might try to break through the glass again.”

“Then what?” River said, frowning. “We just keep them locked in here?”

“Yes. For now,” I muttered, leading her back out of the room and closing the door. “It’s their own stupid fault they climbed in here. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for them.”

They seemed docile, and they might even die on their own anyway. Those slimy creatures were really the last thing on my mind right now.

We spent some more time in the control cabin while I plotted our course for the rest of the journey, and then we headed to one of the cabins—whose door was broken thanks to the hunters—and sat down on the bed. She leaned back against a pillow, pulling a blanket up around her, while I leaned against the wall.

“Mermaids,” she muttered, still looking traumatized. “I feel like I’m ruined.”

I shot her a glance. “Ruined?”

“I wanted to be Ariel when I grew up… now that movie will never be the same again.”

I smirked. “You still watch that cartoon?”

She poked me in the shoulder. “Don’t judge.”

She heaved a sigh and we fell into silence. She moved closer to me on the bed. I slid my arms around her as she nestled against my chest.

When she spoke again, it was in a deeper voice. “I honestly thought that we were going to die in this room.”

I kissed the top of her head. “So did I.”

A
fter Caleb agreed
to turn me, I promised not to speak of the subject again for the rest of our trip. And I kept my promise.

Our honeymoon turned out to be everything I could have imagined it to be. Having so much uninterrupted time with Caleb was bliss. Just the two of us, adrift in the middle of the ocean. We ended up spending longer at sea than we’d planned before reaching the first island, just because we were so wrapped up in each other’s company.

When we finally began stopping at islands, I realized that Caleb hadn’t been joking when he’d said that he would take me to remote parts. We hardly spotted a single human. By day, we stayed on the boat, and at night, we roamed the islands. I had also brought a number of small instruments with us from my father’s music room. We bathed in hot springs, went on long walks and explored the gorgeous landscapes. Often I would spark up a bonfire and we would sit around it, playing and making up our own melodies. Our nights often ended up with making love on the beach before returning to the boat before the sun rose. Even though Caleb tired me out and we were out all night, I found that I just couldn’t sleep much. I just wanted to be with him. And of course, he barely slept anyway.

Once we hit New Zealand, things got more upbeat. Despite agreeing to stay away from humans, we did spend many nights in clubs on the beach, and during the day continued sailing around different parts of the magnificent country.

I took a charmed phone with us, and remembered to call my mother once a week as I had promised to assure her that we were still fine. But time flew by, and before I knew it, we’d been gone several weeks.

Since we had finished touring all the places that Caleb had planned out, he suggested that we start making our way back. We stocked up on food supplies for me with the money we had brought with us, and there was still plenty of blood in the boat’s storage room.

And then we took off into open ocean, making our way back toward The Shade.

We traveled slowly. We wanted to make the most of our time away, but I suspected that Caleb was also going slower because he was beginning to feel more and more nervous about the end of the journey, when he’d promised to turn me.

We spent a few more days on the ocean, enjoying the last of our long honeymoon. But finally, we began to near home.

It was close to midnight one night when Caleb felt that we had neared close enough to The Shade. He moored the boat and then looked at me. I couldn’t miss the worry in his eyes as I stood with him in the control room.

Taking my hand, he led me out onto the deck. He looked toward the distance, scanning the shoreline. I couldn’t see so far into the darkness.

“Do you think those hunter ships are still surrounding The Shade?” I asked.

“We’re not close enough to them now to see. But if I had to take a guess, I would say that they are still there.”

Gathering me closer to him, he leaned down and closed his mouth around mine, caressing my lips slowly and tenderly. He kissed me as though I was the most precious thing in the world.

Raising his head again, he looked deep into my eyes.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” His voice sounded hoarse.

I swallowed hard. “Yes.”

“Because the last thing I want is for you to regret this decision,” he said. “You know that it will mean losing your fire powers, right? They will become dormant, like your father’s do when he is a vampire.”

I raised my hand to his face, my thumbs brushing either side of his lips as I kissed him harder.

“I want you to turn me, Caleb.”

I had grown attached to my fire powers and I was sad at the thought of losing them, but this was what I wanted. Still, the pain and danger of the experience had been built up so much, I couldn’t help but feel nervous. But I made sure to not show it in my expression. I didn’t want Caleb to see even the slightest bit of hesitation in me, because this was difficult enough for him as it was.

He nodded slowly. “All right.”

Taking my hand, he led me down to our bedroom.

“Is this really the best place to turn me?” I asked. “Won’t we get the bed all… messy?”

“Yes, it’s going to be messy,” Caleb said grimly. He had a dark expression as he looked around the room. “But I would rather have you in a contained space than out in the open. I don’t know what kind of state you’re going to wake up in. The last thing I want is for you to go diving into the ocean.”

My spine tingled as he sat me down on the bed.

“Wait here,” he said.

I did as he requested. He returned a minute later carrying a large blue tarpaulin. I lifted myself from the bed as he spread it out over the mattress, covering the silk linen.

Then he nodded toward the center of the bed. I positioned myself there and looked up at him, my heart fluttering.

He removed his shirt and dropped it to the floor. Then he climbed onto the bed and crawled toward me. He positioned himself over me until his legs straddled my hips. He unbuttoned my shirt and removed it completely, discarding it on the floor next to his own. Then he removed my jeans. Now I wore only my underwear.

His breath hitched as he positioned himself over me, his eyes falling to my neck.

He placed his hands either side of my head, his fingers tangling in my hair. He lowered his head to mine and caught my lips in his. I could feel how tense he was, and I could feel him trembling slightly. I reached up my hands and cupped his face, hoping to reassure him. When his lips broke away from mine, I whispered:

“I trust you, Caleb.”

M
y hands shook slightly
as they rested in my wife’s hair.

I closed my eyes, relishing the feel of her warm hands against my face. I didn’t know when I would feel her heat again.

Rose’s sweet scent engulfed me as I dipped down lower. So close to her, normally by now I would be in full-blown battle mode to restrain myself. But this night would be different. For the first time since I had met her, I would taste her blood. I swallowed hard as she stared up at me, her eyes so wide and trusting.

“Just try to keep as still as possible,” I said, my mouth dry.

She nodded, and then, after dipping down to taste her lips once more, I moved toward her neck and pressed my mouth against her soft skin. I bared my fangs, feeling her tender flesh beneath them. My mouth salivated. I could practically taste her blood already. I pressed down harder. Rose gasped, her fingers digging into my back as I broke skin.

A hot rush of blood flowed into my mouth, setting my tastebuds alight. Her taste overwhelmed my senses. It was more exquisite than I had imagined. As the blood glided down my throat, my gut clenched. My instinct was to lose myself in her and take draught after draught until I had sucked her dry.

I couldn’t stop myself from swallowing three mouthfuls, but after that, I managed to regain control of myself. Forcing myself to focus, I released my venom.

Rose moaned and squirmed.

Lowering a hand to her right thigh, I repositioned her beneath me as I finished infecting her. And then I withdrew, my mouth dripping with her blood as I raised my head above her. I stared down at my beautiful wife. Her eyes were shut tight, her forehead now covered with a sheen of sweat. Her head rolled from side to side as her convulsions grew stronger and stronger.

And then came the vomiting of blood.

I never would get used to witnessing a turning. The horror of my own was still fresh in my mind, even though it had taken place many decades ago. I would never forget the pain. The fear…

I might not be able to do anything about the pain for Rose, but at least I could help to alleviate her fear.

Moving to the side of the bed, I placed a palm over her forehead and stroked it. I reached for her hand and clasped it tight.

“You’re doing fine, Rose,” I said calmly. “I’m here with you, and I’m not leaving.”

I wasn’t sure whether my words registered with her, or whether the pain was all-consuming. But I hoped that the steady sound of my voice would help reassure her.

The waiting that followed was torturous. As promised, I didn’t once leave her side. I lost all track of time as I remained in that bedroom with her. My only relief came from seeing that she did not seem to be vomiting more blood than was usual. I had not been there to witness Ben’s turning personally, but I had heard from his parents that he had been expelling huge amounts of blood.

When Rose finally began to show signs of consciousness, and she stopped coughing up blood, I wiped her down with a wet towel and placed it over her forehead.

Then she became still.

I removed the pillows from beneath the blood-soaked tarpaulin and piled them up against the headboard. I helped her sit up and leaned her against them.

I kissed her cheek. Her cold, pale cheek.

“Rose,” I said gently.

When her eyes flickered open and met mine, I witnessed their vibrancy as a vampire for the first time. They were a vivid emerald green. Rose’s eyes had taken my breath away when she was a human, but now they were all the more stunning. Her dark hair contrasted starkly with her pale skin.

I snapped myself out of admiring her beauty and reminded myself of our next concern.

Had she or had she not woken up like her brother?

I placed my hands on her shoulders. “How are you feeling?” I asked.

She still looked in a daze. Her eyes were slightly unfocused even as they looked up at me. Her lips opened as if she wanted to say something, but then they closed again.

“Rose?” I pressed.

She motioned to sit forward and I let her. Crouching down on all fours on the mattress, she breathed heavily for the next three minutes. Then she looked up and, without warning, leapt off the bed.

Her eyes were wide as she gripped her throat, her expression desperate.

“Caleb,” she wheezed. “I need blood.”

Grabbing hold of her arm, I pulled her out of the bedroom and led her into the storage room. There I picked up a large sack of blood and, sitting her down in one corner, opened it and helped her to drink it.

I watched with bated breath as she swallowed mouthful after mouthful in quick succession until she had downed the entire sack of animal blood.

“More,” she breathed.

I reached for another sack, and fed that to her too. And then another. And then another. Although she wrinkled her nose in disgust at the taste, she kept drinking more.

I kept expecting her to throw it all up any second now.

But half an hour passed, and nothing happened.

Once she felt that she had consumed enough blood, I took her out of the storage room and led her into the bathroom. Removing her blood-stained underwear, I guided her beneath the shower and soaped her down, removing all traces of blood from her soft, milky skin. She still looked like it hadn’t quite sunk in, as though she was in a world of her own. I kept asking her how she was feeling, and whether she was sure that she’d drunk enough blood. She kept replying that she was okay.

After showering her, I dried her and helped her into clean clothes. Then, avoiding the upstairs deck where it was now sunny, I led her into the living area and sat down on the couch with her. I gathered her in my arms and held her close against me.

We passed the next two hours in that way, me talking gently with her and her recovering from the shock and adjusting to her new body.

After five hours had passed and she became thirsty for more animal blood, one truth became apparent to both of us:

There was something seriously wrong with Benjamin.