A Wind of Change (14 page)

A
s I stood
in the desert, rubbing my throat and watching the three vampires disappear through the boundary, I was overwhelmed by a mixture of confusion and relief. I had not the slightest clue why Jeramiah had let us go so easily, but I felt nothing but gratitude to finally be beyond the boundary of that terrifying place. And the fact that my brand had stopped burning only added to my euphoria.

I clutched my sister close to my chest, kissing the top of her head and holding her tight. Hassan returned my backpack, which I strapped on my back again. Joseph was still staring at the spot where the three vampires had left us.

Until now, we had been so focused on just how we were going to escape The Oasis, we hadn’t talked about what we would do once we actually got out.

Now that we found ourselves free, so suddenly and so unexpectedly, I wasn’t sure what our next step was.

For one, I wasn’t the same person I had been on entering The Oasis. While I practically trembled with excitement at the thought of reuniting with my family again, I wondered what my life would be like now as this bizarre… creature. I guessed it was almost like being a human. I could still eat regular food, and be in the sun, at least for short periods. There were also perks I still hadn’t quite wrapped my head around—like my superhuman speed and strength, and my heightened senses. I’d just have to find a way to cope with the aching cold…

I wasn’t sure if my grandfather had told my mother yet that Lalia and I had gone missing—I assumed by now that he would have since days had passed. It made me ache inside to imagine how much pain she’d be in. She’d be worried sick. I couldn’t wait to see the relief on her face.

But I was getting ahead of myself. We were still in the middle of the desert. One thing was for sure: I wanted to get as far away from this area as possible, in case Jeramiah changed his mind.

I approached Joseph and placed a hand on his arm. He looked down at me, his expression serious.

“What now?” I asked.

“Now…” He looked around the area, and his eyes fixed on a point in the far distance. “Now you need to reach the nearest town with your sister, Morgan and Hassan, and contact the police to take you back to your families. If you make your way to the hunters”—he pointed toward the area he was staring at, and I could make out the outline of tanks in a row—“they should help you get there. You are a half-blood, so they have no reason to harm you. You have no claws, no fangs, and are no threat to them or any humans whatsoever. Also, you have those gold coins, in case you need money.”

My throat had tightened as he spoke. “What about you?” I asked.

“I must leave. It’s not safe for a vampire to hang around here.”

My mouth dried out.

There had been so much build-up to our escape, and then it had happened so quickly, the idea of parting ways and never seeing him again came as a shock. I hadn’t had time to prepare myself for it.

Although we’d known each other for only a short time, it felt like I’d formed a stronger bond with him than I had with friends I’d known my entire life. He had been there during the most traumatic and darkest time of my life. For us to be torn apart so suddenly, so unceremoniously… it was hard to swallow.

“Wh-Where will you go?” I asked, my hand still resting on his arm as I looked up into his face.

“I’m not sure. I have some… things I need to figure out about myself.”

I didn’t want to let go of his arm. I didn’t want our conversation to end. I didn’t want to watch him race off into the darkness of the desert.

But I knew I couldn’t keep him any longer. It was dangerous for him out here. He needed to leave.

So I just said, “Thank you.”

He smiled, showing me his dimples for what would be the last time.

“You’re welcome. And I should thank you too.”

I moved closer to him and slipped my hands around his midriff. Resting my head against his chest, I hugged him tight. His arms wrapped around me and he hugged me back, his strength engulfing me. I felt teary as I looked back up at him. I reached for his neck and pulled his head down to my level so I could plant a kiss on his cheek. And then I stepped away.

“Goodbye, Joseph. It was… nice knowing you. If you ever happen to turn back into a human and like Lebanese food, you’re welcome to visit me in New York any time. I, uh, don’t really have a way to give you my number though…”

He chuckled. “That’s okay. I’d have to track you down somehow… Goodbye, River.”

I
didn’t miss
River’s eyes moistening as I walked away. Truth be told, I was hurting to leave her too. But there was no point in dwelling on it. She had a different life to lead than mine. A very different life.

I still hadn’t told her that she was immortal now, and a part of me felt guilty for it. It would come as a shock to her when it finally hit home. But now hadn’t been the right time to tell her. She’d been too elated at finally escaping for me to drop such a bombshell on her. She would have to realize it on her own.

As I sped up along the sand, my ears picked up on a beeping in the distance, coming from the direction of the tanks. I had to get out of this area fast. The last thing I wanted was to escape The Oasis only to be recaptured by an army of hunters.

I was grateful that at least I didn’t have the burning in my arm to distract me. I was almost too far away to make out the outline of tanks in the distance when a scream pierced the night air.

I skidded to a stop.

I knew that scream by now.

That was River’s scream.

And then there was another sound that chilled me even more: Gunshots.

River. They’re attacking her? But she’s not a vampire. She’s no threat to them.

Doubt upon doubt crowded my mind, but all of them were a waste of time.

I felt a crushing guilt. I’d been the one who had assured her that she would be safe with them.

“Bastards,” I spat, as I began hurtling back toward the area.

As I got closer, I could make out a lone figure darting to and fro among the dunes with supernatural speed. River. Sprays of sand exploded all around her. She was dodging bullets.

“I’m coming, River,” I breathed. “Hold on. I’m coming for you.”

She began moving farther and farther away from the hunters, and I thought that she might be close to escaping their range entirely, when she let out another scream—strangled this time—and collapsed on the sand.

No.

No.

I pushed my legs harder, reaching the area just as tanks began closing in. I was a blur as I whisked past and scooped her off the ground. Another roar of gunshots exploded, spraying the sand all around me. One passed so close to my ear it practically grazed it. I raced away, holding River tight against my chest but not daring to look her over yet. I was scared at what I might see. Right now, I just needed to get her—us—as far away from danger as possible.

The minutes that followed were tense. I managed to escape the range of the hunters without being hit by one of their fatal bullets, but then I needed to find somewhere safe I could lay River down and examine her. The hunters’ technology had clearly been developing rapidly and they had trackers that could detect vampires—it seemed that they could detect a vampire’s presence for miles. I wouldn’t have been surprised if helicopters started surrounding the area soon. And so I kept running until I came across a collection of small mountains that were indented with caves.

I chose the largest cave and carried River inside. I walked right to the back, and, after checking for snakes, placed her down on the ground. I removed her backpack so she could lie more comfortably. My eyes lowered to her right thigh. She was losing blood. Too much blood. A bullet had lodged inside her. I bent down closer to her. She groaned and squirmed as I eased the metal out of her and threw it aside.

It was a wonder that she was still alive at all. If this was one of the hunters’ notorious bullets, it should have burned her up from the inside out. I could only assume that either this bullet hadn’t been fired from one of their UV guns, or such bullets didn’t have the same effect on half-bloods. It appeared to have just penetrated like any regular bullet.

Whatever the case, she wasn’t looking good.

Lowering her shorts slightly, I checked that she was wearing underwear before removing the shorts completely. I needed to have full access to her thigh, and the shorts were getting in the way.

I took off my shirt and cleaned up her wound as best as I could with the cleanest corner of it. Then I cut my palm to feed her some more blood. Her face was still contorted in pain as she sucked my hand. Then she seemed to calm down a little. Although her wound was showing clear signs of healing, it took much longer than I’d expected. Only once it had fully closed did I allow her to attempt to sit up.

Putting my arm around her, I helped her upright. She looked in a daze. She stared at me with wide eyes, her lips parted, her breathing still uneven.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

W
hen we approached the tanks
, four men leapt out to see us. I explained to them that we had just escaped The Oasis, and they seemed to understand what I was talking about. They said they’d help us back to the police. But after they took Lalia, Hassan, and Morgan into one of the tanks, when it was my turn to get in, three hunters whipped out guns and aimed them toward me.

I didn’t know what to think. I was just bewildered. Why were they trying to kill me? What had I done to deserve this? It was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. To be treated like an animal, worse than a criminal—having committed no crime. Even after all the wrong my father had done, he had not been treated like this.

If it hadn’t been for my new-found speed and lightning reflexes, I would have been shot the moment they pulled out their guns. I darted away from the tanks, away from my sister. I ran about the dunes, trying to dodge the bullets, until one caught me in my side.

When I fell to the sand, I was sure that that would be the end of me. The hunters would close in on me and lodge a final bullet in my head.

But then arms grabbed me, lifted me up from the ground and whisked me away.

Joseph. I still couldn’t believe that he’d come back for me. I didn’t understand why he bothered doing it, risking his life by coming right into the midst of the hunters just to save me—a girl he barely even knew.

After he brought me to a cave and healed me, although I was devastated at being ripped from my family once again, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for this young man.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.

“It’s not your fault,” I replied.

“I should have given it more thought.”

“There was no way you could have known.”

“It seems they’ve adopted an absolutely zero tolerance policy for anything supernatural, harmless or not…” He paused, then asked, “How are you feeling?”

I looked down at my thigh. “Better.”

“Did they take your sister and the others?” Joseph asked.

“Yes,” I said, pain building in my chest at the reminder of my sister.

Poor Lalia. I didn’t know that her nerves could take being separated from me once again. My only comfort was that at least this time, she wouldn’t be surrounded by bloodsucking vampires and would hopefully be returned to our grandfather.

“There’s nothing supernatural about them,” I murmured, “so I just hope the hunters take them straight to the police.”

I looked around the cave. There was a rattle coming from the far corner, near the jagged entrance. A rattlesnake, by the looks of it. I shivered, another wave of coldness intensifying in my bones.

“What now?” I asked, my voice unsteady.

“We need to leave this cave and reach the nearest town by daybreak.”

I looked toward the sky outside. It didn’t look like it would be long now before the sun rose.

“And then what?”

“Let’s just get there first,” he muttered. “With these hunters on patrol, we can’t afford to get stuck in the desert. If we get caught out in the daytime, when I can’t go in the sun without being blinded, they could have us trapped.”

Joseph stood up, and, reaching down a hand for me to take, helped me up too. I replaced the backpack over my shoulders.

I was wearing nothing but Ben’s shirt and my underwear, but my shorts were too torn to put back on, so I had no choice but to travel as I was.

“Climb onto my back,” he said. “It’ll be faster.”

I was glad he suggested it. Although my thigh had healed, I was still feeling shaken and weak. I’d lost a lot of blood and my mouth was parched for water.

I climbed onto his back, feeling the taut muscles beneath his bare skin. Joseph’s hands closed around my calves and secured me in place. Then, without warning, he shot out of the cave and began racing along the dunes again.

I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of the hunters. After ten minutes and God knew how many miles, the coast still seemed to be clear. Joseph had managed to shake them off, and I guessed that they were now searching for us in another part of the desert entirely.

Although I had so many things that I wanted to ask him, and seek reassurance about, I didn’t speak to him as he ran. We both needed to concentrate.

He was the one who broke the silence. He stopped running and raised a finger.

“You see that?”

I strained to see where he was pointing.

Yes. I could see.

In the distance was the outline of buildings, the outskirts of the city. And closer still was what looked like an early-morning market. There were poles sticking up, and wooden stalls being erected. I wasn’t sure what day it was today, but the market seemed mainly for the locals. I couldn’t imagine many tourists being up at this hour.

Joseph tensed.

I already knew what was going on with him. Human blood. I really wasn’t in the mood for him to dig his fangs into me again, so instead I raised both wrists closer to his face.

“Do you think my scent is enough to block out the temptation?” I asked.

“If you keep close to me the whole time… I should be okay. I was while half-turning that woman…”

As we approached the market, I could make out the types of wares that were being sold. Mostly garments and shoes, with the occasional stall of dates and other dried fruit.

“We should stop here,” Joseph said.

“Why?”

“For one thing, you’re wearing no pants. We need to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible, and that sure isn’t going to help. I’m also half naked and in general look like I’ve just murdered someone. We’ll use a gold coin to pay for clothes.”

“Okay…”

Joseph cautiously approached the nearest clothes stall and set me down on the ground. He placed his arms around my waist, standing behind me with my back against his chest, keeping me close to him. I could feel his breath on the top of my head as he breathed me in while we moved closer to the stand.

The stall owner—a short woman wearing a hijab—gave me a disgusted look as I stood there half undressed. I ignored her expression. I was beyond caring at this stage.

I picked a black headscarf with a veil that covered my entire face except my eyes, and then a long black robe for the rest of my body. Then I looked for something suitable for Joseph to wear. I just ended up picking a black robe to help him blend in better.

And then it was time for payment. Removing the backpack from my shoulders, I reached inside and pulled out the smallest coin that I could find. Even still, the clothes we were buying would be worth only a tiny fraction of it.

The woman frowned as I placed the coin on the table. Then looked back at me.

“Hm? I only accept cash,” she replied in Arabic.

“This is all I have,” I replied, also in Arabic.

She picked it up and stared at it. I guessed she thought it was fake. I couldn’t blame her. What moron would pay for a few garments with a gold coin of this weight? She placed it between her teeth and bit hard. I was about to walk away with the clothes, but she said, “No. Wait.”

I heaved a sigh, even as I wrapped the new robe around me and placed the headscarf and veil over my head and face. She made her way over to a small vehicle where a man sat in the driver’s seat—presumably her husband. I watched as she showed him the coin. He examined it carefully, just as she had done. And then he nodded.

She looked over at us. “Okay, you can take the clothes.”

I scoffed.
Thanks.

Joseph was still breathing heavily as we backed away. Once we were at a distance where he was comfortable taking a few steps back from me, he put on his own robe. Now that we were dressed, I resumed my position on his back and he continued running toward the borders of the city.

“Where do we head first?” I asked, as the sand gave way and we arrived at a concrete road.

“We need to find somewhere safe to stay until this evening.”

I looked up and down the road, trying to see if I recognized anything about this area. I didn’t. So Joseph just started running along the road toward where the most noise was coming from. We passed along narrow road after road until we eventually reached a square that was lined with shops. In one corner, I spotted a sign that read
Guest House
.

I pointed it out to Joseph and we arrived outside a mud-brick building a few seconds later. I climbed off Joseph’s back and was about to head inside when Joseph pulled me back.

“Look,” he said.

He pointed to a poster attached to one of the lamp posts. A poster with my, Lalia’s, and Hassan’s passport photos on it. I guessed this was one of many posters that were put up the night I disappeared too.

“Oh.”

“It’s a good thing you’re wearing a niqab,” Joseph said quietly. “You don’t want to be seen by anyone now that the hunters are after you… Let’s keep moving.”

I tore my eyes away from the poster as Joseph ushered me into the building. We found ourselves in a small bare-walled reception room that reeked of detergent. There was a desk in the center of it, but nobody was sitting behind it. I rang the brass bell four times.

A man with a unibrow and a thick bushy mustache emerged from one of the back rooms.

Joseph’s grip around my waist was almost painful.

“Yes?” the man said in English, looking from me to Joseph.

“We would like a room,” I replied in Arabic as I clutched Joseph’s hands around my waist and loosened them slightly. “Just until this evening.”

He eyed Joseph more closely. “Are you married?”

“No,” I replied, already realizing where this was heading.

“We don’t allow cohabiting between unmarried men and women. You will need to book separate—”

“We won’t be sleeping here. We’ll be leaving tonight, as I said.”

He looked at me suspiciously. “You are not Egyptian nationals? I will need to see your passports.”

“We don’t have passports with us.”

“Then I’m sorry, we can’t accommodate you here.”

I breathed out in frustration. Sliding the backpack off my back, I pulled out another gold coin and planted it on the desk none too gently.

“How about now?”

His eyes widened as he looked down at the coin. He picked it up and examined it. He was faster to realize its value than the clothes merchant. He nodded toward a narrow staircase.

“All right,” he said. Reaching into one of the drawers, he pulled out a key and handed it to me. “Until this evening only?”

That coin might have paid for a hundred nights in this basic guesthouse.

I just nodded politely. “Please, and I hope you’ll provide drinking water.”

“Of course,” he said, bowing his head.

He walked back through the door he’d first entered from and returned a moment later with a two-liter bottle of water. He handed it to me, and then Joseph and I made our way up the staircase.

“You seem to be getting a bit better around humans?” I asked, once we were out of earshot.

“Only because I’m practically smothering you,” he said. “Even with you standing a foot away, I can feel the difference.”

We found our room—small, with twin beds lining opposite walls. It was very basic, but it seemed clean. We locked ourselves inside. After opening the bottle of water and chugging down an entire liter, I offered the bottle to Ben. He declined.

I tore off my niqab and then hurried over to one of the twin beds. I grabbed the blanket, wrapping it around me. It was too thin to provide me much warmth. I was grateful when Joseph reached for the blanket on his own bed, walked over and wrapped that around my shoulders too.

“Thanks,” I said.

He sat down on the bed opposite me and breathed out slowly, rubbing his face with his hands. Then he looked up and stared at me.

“River… there’s something I should probably tell you about myself.”

I raised a brow. “What?”

“My name is not Joseph Brunson.”

I stared at him. “Huh?”

“My name is Benjamin Novak. Or Ben, if you like.”

“Ben-Benjamin Novak… Why would you want to keep your name a secret?”

He leaned back on the bed. “That’s kind of a long story. But I’m prince of an island known as The Shade. It’s an island unknown to mainstream society. My parents rule the place, and it’s a haven for all vampires and other supernaturals.”

My mind was reeling.

Joseph—Ben—is a prince?

The Shade?

“Then… if that’s your home, how on earth did you end up trapped in The Oasis?”

“I left The Shade after my father turned me into a vampire, because I displayed… unusual symptoms. Symptoms that nobody else on the island had displayed in such severity. And I did something bad. Very bad.”

“What?”

“I murdered one of my own people.”

Wow.

“Most vampires are capable of drinking animal blood, however disgusting it is for them. But I was physically incapable of it. I couldn’t risk killing another person, and in my position, leaving was the only right thing to do. I swore that I wouldn’t return until I’d figured out what was wrong with me.”

“But, Ben,” I said, frowning, “you told me before that you know how to cure vampirism. Why don’t you just take that cure and turn back into a human?”

He paused before answering. “There was a reason my father turned me into a vampire. My birth… let’s just say that it was unusual. My blood as a human was deemed valuable by enemies of my parents and made me a target, and so I turned. But even if that threat had passed by now, I’m not sure I could live the rest of my life as a human. Almost everyone I care about—my whole family, except for my sister, and most of my friends—are vampires. I always expected to turn into one as soon as my parents agreed. Growing old and dying while everyone in my life lives on… ” His voice trailed off.

“How old is your sister?”

“She’s my twin,” he replied. “We’re both…” He stopped. “I think our birthday was just recently. I’ve lost track of the date. But I think we’re eighteen by now—although I turned when I was seventeen.”

I was surprised. He seemed older than seventeen.

“I’m seventeen, too,” I said.

I became quiet as I tried to process all that he’d just told me. Then he dropped another brick on me.