A Vial of Life (A Shade of Vampire #21) (6 page)

Then he nodded. “This is the room your son spoke of. I can feel their closeness.”

There wasn’t enough room for all of us to step inside at once, so Cyrus and three other jinn moved in first. They shoved the cupboard to one side. Sure enough, behind it was the secret door Ben had spoken of. Cyrus forced it open.

We found ourselves at the top of a small staircase and, descending in single file, we made our way down to a beautiful kitchen. The aroma of exotic spices still lingered in the air from the family’s last meal.

We crossed to the other side of the kitchen and emerged in the magnificent atrium. Cyrus’s face was impassive as he took in the heavenly abode.

My grip around Derek’s hand tightened, the thought of reuniting with my son filling me with anticipation.

Cyrus looked around at his companions and nodded. They nodded back, and although no words were exchanged, they appeared to know what to do. They rushed forward at once, sweeping toward the nearest line of doors like a wave.

There were screams. Shouts. The crash of furniture and bang of doors. More jinn flooded into rooms. There were so many of the Drizan jinn present, soon every level was swarming with them. My daughter, father and the other vampires moved with the dragons to stand safely in the central gardens on our request, while Derek and I followed Cyrus in search of Queen Nuriya herself.

Cyrus’ instinct was that her apartment would be right at the top, and it appeared that he was right. We stopped in front of a door that was larger and more heavily ornamented than all the others. The jinni lost no time in breaking down the door.

Before entering, he whirled back round to face us. “Wait here,” he said. “I will handle this alone.”

And so Derek and I hung back. I peered anxiously down the shadowy corridor of Nuriya’s apartment as Cyrus disappeared down it. A few seconds later came a bloodcurdling scream.

“No!”

The anguish in the queen’s cry chilled me to the bone.

“Please, Cyrus! Don’t do this to me! Not again!”

As much as I resented the jinni for what she’d done to my son, and needed the bond to be broken, her cries of fear and pleas were hard to swallow. I didn’t want to think about what he was doing to her as her screams intensified.

“You’ve already taken so much from me,” she sobbed. “Don’t take my family. Please! Don’t wreck me again! I’ve suffered enough.”

Cyrus hissed, “Not enough.”

“Freiyus is dead! You killed him along with our newborn! Take me, but spare my family this time. Please! They have done nothing to harm you!”

Her pleas clawed at my chest and I found myself slightly out of breath. “What is he doing to her?” I murmured, a sick feeling settling into the pit of my stomach.

Derek gave me a dark look.

As Nuriya’s voice broke from her pleading, I couldn’t handle it anymore. I left Derek’s side and ran into the apartment.

“Sofia!” Derek hissed, hurrying after me.

I sprinted down the corridor to a bedroom whose door was left open. Nuriya, draped in a midnight-blue nightgown, now torn and awry, was being pinned up against the wall by Cyrus. His hands were clamped around her neck. Part of me wondered why she didn’t vanish, but I guessed Cyrus’ powers ensured that she couldn’t.

I stood rooted to the spot, staring at the couple. Before I could have second thoughts about my intrusion, Nuriya spotted me over Cyrus’ shoulder.

“You’re Ben’s birth mother,” she gasped.

Cyrus twisted around to face us, a look of irritation in his eyes.

“Why are you here?” he asked. “I told you to wait outside.”

“Come on, Sofia,” Derek said, having arrived behind me.

Even as my husband gripped my arm and tugged at me, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Nuriya’s terrified face.

“Where is my son?” I asked her.

She appeared to have reached levels of hysteria too high for her answer to be coherent. “Please!” she called to me. “Don’t let him do this to me! I only want the best for Benjamin. I only ever wanted to protect him, to make him my own! I’ve nurtured and helped him like he was born of my own womb, in ways that you never could. P-Please, don’t let the Drizans destroy my family!”

It shook me how she was crying to me as though I was the one who had her by the neck. Of course, Derek and I were responsible for this raid. We were the ones who’d instigated it.

Cyrus’ hand closed hard around the jinni’s neck, strangling her voice.

“Did you not hear me, vampire?” he asked, his dark eyes digging into mine. “I asked you to leave. Fear not about your son. I will find your son, wherever he is in this place, and bring him to you. The Nasiris will be weakened, and their bond with him will be broken. Now go wait with the others in the gardens.”

Beneath the surface of his politeness bubbled intense irritation. After all, in his eyes, it was none of my business what transpired between the two. His end of the deal was simply to free our son, no matter what method he chose to use.

“Come on, Sofia,” Derek said through gritted teeth. He placed an arm around my waist and led me out of the room, even as I felt torn.

From the little that I’d gleaned about Nuriya’s life before she’d taken refuge in The Oasis, it had been a miserable existence. She’d been forced to marry someone she didn’t love while her heart belonged to another man who wasn’t socially acceptable. Then she’d been kicked out by her father, and then hounded by this Cyrus beast… who’d killed not only her lover but also her newborn child.

My son had told me about her obsession with family and holding people close to her, as though they were her own flesh and blood. She was obviously traumatized by the events of her past. And although she was keeping Benjamin trapped in her world, my heart went out to her. I knew what it felt like to lose a newborn. I’d gone through the torture of losing two. It was a feeling I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.

Even though I let Derek lead me back outside the apartment, my mind remained in the bedroom as Cyrus continued to taunt and torture the desperate woman. I turned my back on the front door, clutching the railing.

Derek stood by my side and placed his hand over mine on the railing.

“Sofia,” he said, gripping my shoulders and twisting me to face him. His blue eyes looked down seriously into mine. “This woman is keeping our son as a prisoner here. Don’t forget that.”

With that, he caught my hand and walked back down the levels to join Aiden, Rose, Caleb and the other vampires, who were waiting with the dragons in the center of the gardens, while the Drizan jinn finished raiding the atrium. They’d lined up dozens of Nasiri jinn against the walls, bound by their wrists in some kind of glowing, bright green rope. I hated to think about what the Drizans’ plan might be for them now.
Will they murder them?

I should have been relieved that we were closer than ever to getting Ben back, but my stomach was twisted up in knots. Yes, Derek was right that she’d imprisoned our son, but this lady clearly had issues. And she hadn’t done anything to actually harm Benjamin. If anything, she had protected him on his journey from Egypt to The Shade. She wanted to look after him, adopt him as her own son. As unnerving as these powerful creatures were, at least with Nuriya, I didn’t get the sense that she was malicious. She seemed to be just… broken.

And as a woman, a mother, I could relate to her in a way that Derek couldn’t. She was clearly still suffering from trauma and for us to storm in here like this and be the cause of Cyrus abusing her… I swallowed hard, recalling the way she’d looked at me back in the bedroom. She’d seemed so weak, so helpless, as she was being tortured physically and psychologically by a man twice her size… And Derek and I had just left. No matter what grudge I held against her, this just didn’t seem humane on our part.

“There has to be another way of doing this,” I said, looking around at the rows of bound Nasiri jinn. Each of them looked petrified, with some of the younger jinn crying for their mothers. In spite of what they’d done, these jinn in The Oasis were just another family.

“What other way?” Derek asked. “Besides, it’s too late to backtrack now.”

He was right. As much as I hated what we were doing to these creatures, I couldn’t think of any other way but force. Nuriya was so attached to Ben that she’d formed this strong bond that would tie him to her for his entire life. Ben himself had been convinced that there was no negotiating to be done, that it was set in stone.

I rested my head against Derek’s chest, trying to shut out the horrible scene around me. When Jeriad had made the offer of help to Derek, I hadn’t thought that it would be such a violent route as this. I’d thought that perhaps Jeriad’s jinn acquaintances might be able to help us in some other way, perhaps via a friendly connection of Nuriya’s who might put in a good word for us and persuade her to let Ben go. I had been so anxious to accept Jeriad’s proposal, since there was nothing else on the table, that I hadn’t stopped to consider what exactly this would involve.

“Let’s just hope we’re reunited with Ben soon,” Rose murmured to my right. She held my hand and squeezed it.

Ten minutes later, it appeared that the Drizans had emptied every single chamber. They piled out of the apartments and gathered around the Nasiris being held captive on the ground. Some of the younger Drizan jinn dipped down to poke and taunt the Nasiri cruelly. I had half a mind to snap at them to stop, but I knew that wouldn’t help.

“Now we’re just waiting for Cyrus,” Derek muttered.

“They’re coming.” Aiden pointed toward the staircase nearest to us.

The towering form of Cyrus descended the stairs, carrying Nuriya in his arms. He’d tied her with the same strange rope the other jinn had been bound by. Her cries of anguish on seeing her family lined up along the wall were muffled by a gag in her mouth. She coughed and choked.

Cyrus laid Nuriya down on the ground in front of the rest of the Nasiri jinn, and, to my surprise, removed her gag. Perhaps he enjoyed the sound of her sobbing.

I tried to avoid looking at the queen, seeing as there was nothing I could think of to alleviate her suffering or prevent the Drizans’ path of vengeance. To my dismay, she addressed me directly, forcing me to look up.

“Benjamin’s birth mother,” she gasped, as though she didn’t know my name. “You don’t understand. My darling Ben is in grave danger. He needs us. If you let the Drizans have their way with us, your son will be lost to you forever. Bahir is with him now protecting him, but he will sense my pain and leave Ben. If that happens, oh! I can’t bear to think of it! He’ll be left stranded and—”

“Enough!” Cyrus snapped. He stuffed the gag back in her mouth.

The blood drained from my face. “What?” I choked, staring down at Nuriya. “What do you mean, Ben’s in danger? Where is he? What happened to him?”

I stumbled forward, ignoring the angered expression on Cyrus’s face as I reached down to pull the gag from Nuriya’s mouth. But, bizarrely, as much as I tugged, it was stuck fast. I turned to Cyrus with pleading eyes.

“I need to hear what this jinni has to say about my son,” I breathed. “Please, remove the gag.”

Cyrus’ eyes smoldered as he looked from me to Nuriya. Then he turned on Jeriad, whose face remained stoic as he witnessed the scene. Cyrus’ jaw twitched as he stooped down and pulled out the gag.

Nuriya coughed and spluttered, tears streaming down her cheeks.

I bent down to her level and touched her shoulder. It felt surprisingly solid for such an ethereal creature, and I gripped it hard.

“Where is Benjamin? He’ll be left stranded where? Are you saying that he’s not here in The Oasis?”

Nuriya bit down on her trembling lip and nodded. “He’s not here. After you left, an oracle informed us of something terrible about Benjamin.” She swallowed hard. “The Elders intend to make him their slave for eternity. They want him for themselves—they have since he was a newborn. An Elder imprinted on him when he was an infant and formed a bond that would connect the two of them for as long as Benjamin’s heart remained beating. Ben is currently in the supernatural dimension with Aisha, my niece, and Bahir, my partner, trying to find a way to get rid of the bond that the Elder formed with him. The Elder is calling Benjamin back to Cruor, and since he drank so much human blood recently, the spirit has become strong enough to take control of Ben’s body like never before. I don’t know exactly where they are now in the supernatural world, but Bahir is inside Ben, battling the Elder to keep his mind from being taken over. If I continue to be harassed, Bahir will sense my disturbance and come for me. He might be on his way already! Benjamin
needs
two jinn with him!”

Her words left me speechless. I froze, kneeling on the floor and gaping at the jinni.

My son, bonded to an Elder?

“What does the Elder want with him?” Derek asked, shock shaking his voice.

“He wants to use Ben to nurse himself back to health and help all the Elders rise up. Other vessels are of no use to them, for they are too weak to inhabit regular vessels. But Ben’s Elder, Basilius, managed to form a special bond which allowed him to gain nourishment from the blood Ben consumed. If he manages to lure Ben back to Cruor, he will certainly be strong enough to inhabit Benjamin and take him over fully.”

“When did he leave?” I asked, shaking her shoulders. “How long has he been gone?”

“Days now,” she replied.

Oh, no. No. Not my son.

I’d often feared that something bad had happened to Ben while he’d been in Aviary, but nothing could have prepared me for this.

Nuriya had every reason to lie to us regarding Ben in order to save her and her family’s skin from the Drizan jinn. But something in her eyes made me believe that she was telling the truth. As hard as it was to swallow, Ben having been bonded to an Elder would explain a lot of things, like why he was the only vampire we’d ever come across who couldn’t physically stomach animal blood.

And if there was even the smallest chance that Nuriya was speaking the truth, breaking Benjamin’s bond with the jinn would actually do more harm than good. Possibly irreparable harm. I clenched my jaw at the irony. This bond created by jinn that had caused me so much pain before now appeared to be his saving grace. And by trying to cut it off, we were cutting off my son.