A Shade of Vampire 13: A Turn of Tides (3 page)

“What use are half-vampires to you anyway? What are they?” I asked.

“They make useful, and more permanent, servants. While they’re not as strong as us, their blood isn’t at all appealing. It’s bitter. They live a long time. They’re preserved just as vampires are. And they’re of no threat to us because they haven’t gotten far enough into their turning to have developed fangs or claws. Nor do they consume only blood. They can eat regular food too—so they’re not a burden to feed.”

“How is it that a newly turned vampire can do this and not an older one?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Younger vampires’ venom is less strong. It isn’t as developed and it’s less fast-acting. That’s why I believe you might be useful to us… You can try, at least. Worst case—you fail and kill an enemy.”

I stared at the hunter he’d placed but a few feet away from me. I had enough reason to want to kill these hunters after what they’d just done to me. But the truth was, I didn’t hate hunters. My grandfather had been one—hell, my own father had been one before he’d turned into a vampire. Besides, even if this hunter did deserve it, I was trying to fight off the darkness digging my fangs into this man would only plunge me further into.

Michael scowled. “All this explanation, Jeramiah, you’re making out that we’re desperate for him. He’s got much more to gain by his joining us than we have.”

“True,” Jeramiah said. He looked at me seriously, studying my face. “So, make your decision. Try to half-turn this man, and if you succeed you can come with us. Fail and, well, you’re in the same situation as you are now. I can guide you how to do it. But I need to see if you have enough self-control.”

I gulped as I laid eyes on the hunter again. I would have to be crazy to think that I could pull this off. The moment my fangs grazed his neck, I’d be sucking out his blood. I wouldn’t have the restraint to turn someone, let alone half-turn them.

As much as I was sure my body was going to regret this, I took a step back. Everything about Jeramiah’s request felt wrong. Half-turning someone so they became a slave for the rest of their lives? And I didn’t even know these vampires. What did they actually do with half-vampires?

I didn’t care for this hunter, but it was more for myself than for him that I stepped away from him. This all felt a step closer toward the darkness I was trying to escape.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

Jeramiah raised a brow in surprise. “Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

The vampires exchanged glances and remained silent. “Very well,” Jeramiah said.

“Let’s go,” Michael said. “We’ve wasted enough time already. We don’t need anyone else, we’ll manage ourselves. Worst case, we just turn one of the humans we have already and then train them to half-turn if we want more half-bloods.” Michael turned on his heel and began to walk away. The other vampires followed. It was Jeramiah who remained beside me, still staring at me.

“Wait, Michael,” he said. Michael stopped short, no longer bothering to hide the impatience in his face. “Hand me your phone.”

“Why?”

“Just hand it over.”

Michael looked taken aback, but reluctantly pulled out a small black flip phone from his pocket and handed it to Jeramiah, who held it out in front of me.

“What’s this for?” I asked, taking the phone in my hand and flipping it open.

“In case you change your mind,” Jeramiah said. “My number is the only contact on there. You’ll be able to contact me wherever you are. It’s not an ordinary phone.”

I was about to hand the phone back to him—I wasn’t sure I wanted to accept any kind of gifts from these people—but I had second thoughts and kept it.

I nodded.

“If you want to join us,” he said, “you’ll find a human, half-turn them and call the number. Then we’ll talk. Perhaps you’ll be desperate enough in a few days of trying to survive alone by yourself… Remember, the trick is to stop before you feel you’ve started.”

I looked at him in confusion. Before I could ask him anything else, he bent down, picked up the human again, and followed the others. I stared after them as the group disappeared into the trees. I had no idea where they were heading. And I had no idea what I would do now that I’d been left alone again.

I breathed more freely as they rushed off, the scent of human blood becoming fainter and fainter. But I was beginning to feel the burning again. The agony I’d endured in the sun had taken a lot out of me.

Once they’d disappeared, I looked down at the phone, then slipped it into my pocket. I didn’t know what I was going to do now. But somehow, going with them didn’t feel like the right path. I was giving into darkness enough as it was. Something told me that their company might make it settle permanently over my eyes. I was better off trying to figure myself out on my own. What they did to humans and the way they managed wherever it was they lived—it seemed to be everything my parents had come to fight against.

Besides, I didn’t know them. They could have been enemies of The Shade for all I knew.

As I made my way across the hot sand back toward my submarine, trying to run as quickly as I could beneath the sun’s rays, the craving for blood returning full force, I felt glad that I hadn’t told them my real name. Not just for my own safety, but because I didn’t want to mar the name of my parents.

I
n many ways
, returning to the submarine was a foolish move, especially since I’d already detected my hunger coming back. It wasn’t more than a few hours before my eyes became clouded again and my bloodlust took over my brain. I found myself navigating back toward shore and arrived by the time it was evening. I had reached some South American coast. As I climbed out of the hatch, part of me dreaded what I might find, while the other part of me was trembling with anticipation. For the rush that would once again fill my veins with ecstasy.

The beach I’d landed on seemed quite empty. I stalked along for several miles, but on still finding nobody, moved further inland. I walked through a tree-lined path, sniffing the night air for any sign of human proximity. I stopped abruptly as I reached a main road. The occasional car whizzed by, but otherwise it was quiet.

But it didn’t take long for me to find a square full of people. Young people, not much older than myself, hanging on the swings and smoking. As soon as I laid eyes on them, I was a lost cause. I sped into the center of the square like a flash of light. They barely knew what hit them. I rushed off, a man in my arms, my fangs already burying deep into his neck as I ran.

The screams of the others drowned out as I lifted him up a tree and finished sucking out every last drop from his veins. Then I let go of the body, letting it smash against the concrete below.

The pleasure was still lighting up my brain. It was still too early for the horror and guilt to kick in. I’d expected to feel full after consuming that man. But I didn’t. I had room for another. Perhaps it was the sun that had drained me, or perhaps my bloodlust was increasing, I didn’t know. I didn’t care. I just knew what I wanted. And I took it—a young woman this time, from the same square.

Scooping her up in my arms, I raced with her back toward the beach. I stopped outside the vessel, finishing the last of her blood before discarding her body in the waves and climbing in.

I closed the hatch above me and leaned back against the metal wall, closing my eyes and relishing the fresh rush of blood flowing through me, nourishing every cell of my body. I felt so strong I could crush a ball of iron with my fist. So drunk on blood I felt invincible. I’d had no idea that blood could make a vampire feel like this. It satisfied their hunger, the burning in the stomach, that I understood… but this? It was like a drug to me. I couldn’t remember even my father describing bloodlust with this much intensity.

I pulled myself to my feet and staggered toward the control room, putting the vessel into reverse and moving away from the shore. I stopped about three miles out, lying back down on the floor, staring up at the dark ceiling.

It felt like I was in the early stages of an addiction. The more I killed, the more I felt the urge for it. It seemed to be easier and easier each time I tried. Each gulp of blood I drank came with less guilt. Less hesitation.

It was only after five hours of sitting alone in the submarine that the slightest flicker of guilt resurfaced in my dark mind.

I can’t keep killing like this.

And yet I knew that I would as long as I remained alone in this submarine. I had nobody to hold me back. Even when I tried to stay away from the shore, once the darkness clouded my mind I just found myself returning again.

I walked over to the bathroom and stared at myself again in the mirror. I almost yelled in shock. My eyes had turned pitch black. It was as if they had never been green.

I splashed cold water on my face, drying it with a towel, as if this would somehow change the color of my eyes.

I staggered back, my back hitting the wall of the bathroom.

What is happening to me?

T
he moment
of clarity that had descended on me in the submarine didn’t last long. I soon went back to relishing the way my body felt after consuming so much blood. I sat in the control cabin for hours, staring out at the dark waters. I sat for almost a day before the craving for more fresh blood took hold of me again, and, like a slave to my own senses, I found myself being dragged back to shore.

I barely even felt the sun digging into my skin as I sought out my next victims. All I could think about was the exquisite liquid seeping into my mouth.

I began to lose track of how many people I killed in the days that followed. But after what was perhaps the tenth murder, the guilt was practically non-existent. I was barely self-aware enough for this to scare even me any more. Slicing through a man’s throat was beginning to feel no different than slicing open an orange—a means of sustenance I couldn’t do without.

It wasn’t until the phone rang in my chest pocket that I gained some sense of who I was again.

I scrambled to pick it up.

“Hello?” I said.

“Joseph.” It was Jeramiah’s voice.

“What do you want?” I breathed.

“I thought I’d check in on you. How are you coping?”

“Fine,” I grunted.

“Good. Good. So you’re finding blood all right?”

“Yes.”

“All right. I was just curious. Not all newly turned vampires are cut out to be murderers, you see. Some prefer others to do the killing and just partake of the blood. But it seems that you’re doing just fine.”

With that, he hung up.

I removed the phone from my ear, staring down at the receiver. There was something about those last words that didn’t sit right with me, and I wasn’t sure why.

Murderer
. That was what he’d called me.

I’m a murderer.

The word finally triggered the emotions I’d been struggling to feel the past few days. Regret. Guilt. Fright at what I was becoming, perhaps had already become.

No. I can’t let myself fall like this.

I pulled myself to my feet, still staring down at the phone.

I’m not a murderer.
I kept repeating the words over and over in my head, as if just saying them would make it true.

I walked to the end of the submarine and slammed my fists against the wall, making two more dents. I stamped my foot on the ground, making the vessel rock from side to side and shudder.

No, I can’t do this.

I tried to think of my parents, but they seemed like a distant memory, as did Rose.

I have nobody but myself to save me now.

I have to stop killing.

My whole body shuddered, as though it was already starting to go into withdrawals just at the thought.

My last kill was still fresh in my memory, my stomach still filled. I looked down at the phone again.

Perhaps I would have been better off joining Jeramiah. At least I might not have to do the killing myself. He said they had blood.

Perhaps that would give me the chance I needed to climb out of this pit.

I
f I was going
to seriously consider taking up Jeramiah’s offer, I needed to act quickly. Before the next wave of hunger. I’d just finished consuming three humans. I doubted I could drink more blood now even if I tried, I was so filled to the brim.

I found myself flipping open the phone, my fingers hovering over the keypad. Jeramiah had said I’d have to “half-turn” a human and bring them with me if I was to be accepted into their group. That required self-control beyond measure. Any normal vampire would have had trouble with that, let alone me—I could barely look at a human without salivating.

But I had to try. I couldn’t keep living like this. If I did, I’d never be able to return to The Shade.

I couldn’t imagine getting any worse than I already was, so I would have nothing to lose by joining Jeramiah’s clan… wherever that happened to be.

Navigating to a different shore than the last, I ventured back onto the beach. It was night, making it easier for me to slip in and out of the crowds unnoticed. This seemed to be a holiday resort. The beaches were teeming with people, even at this time of night. That was both advantageous and disadvantageous. There were plenty of people to choose from, but most were tightly packed in groups. I didn’t want to cause more commotion than I had to.

I walked past the beach and reached a highway. I crossed to the other side, where there were lines of restaurants and shops. I looked up and down the stretch of road, wondering which place was best to start. Then something caught my eye. A sign for a hospital.

Even in my current state, I wasn’t far gone enough for that to not mean something to me.

I was about to condemn someone to a lifetime of servitude to a group of bloodsuckers I knew nothing about. I ought to at least try to put some thought into whom I chose.

A hospital, on the other hand, would have sick people. Perhaps even terminally ill people. People who would do anything to be given another chance at life.

I still didn’t know all the symptoms that would come with being a half-vampire. But Jeramiah had said that their lives are preserved as vampires’ are. Whether that life would be worth living was another matter entirely. But I felt a strong sense of wanting to take someone who had already given up on life. It would make the act I was about to commit feel at least a little less monstrous.

So I began heading in the direction the sign was pointing. I sped up to a run, following sign after sign, until I eventually found myself standing at the foot of a tall, glass-windowed building. This was it.

I was grateful that I’d had the presence of mind to change into clean clothes back in the submarine. Going in covered in blood would have made me look more like a patient or a serial killer than a visitor. Taking a deep breath, I strode through the doors.

Fluorescent lighting beat down on me as I walked up to the reception desk. Two dark-skinned women sat behind it, filling out medical forms. One of them looked up at me and spoke in Spanish.

“How can I help?”

I felt grateful for the Spanish I’d been taught in school.

“May I have a floor plan, please?”

She reached into a drawer and handed me one.

“Are you here to visit someone?” she asked.

I nodded, but didn’t give her a chance to ask me whom I was here for. I stepped back and began to study the map. My eyes settled on the plan of the top floor—for long-stay patients, according to a helpful note.

I didn’t have time to figure out how to get there legitimately. My body was still an alien to me, and for all I knew it could suddenly decide that it was thirsting for blood again. I had to make this quick. I tucked the leaflet into my shirt pocket and walked back out of the exit. Staring upward, I began to circle the building. It was almost completely sheer except for narrow ledges sticking out beneath each row of windows.

I finished scoping the building and decided that climbing up the back would garner less attention. Tightening my belt around my waist and pulling my hood over my head, I leapt up and began to climb.

I’d thought that even as a vampire it would be a challenge. So I was shocked to leap from one ledge to the next as though I’d done it a thousand times before. As I reached the top level, I dared look down for a second. My stomach flipped. I wasn’t sure that even I would survive that fall if I didn’t land just right.

I forced my focus back on the task at hand. Since none of the windows were open, I climbed onto the roof. Less attention would be drawn to a door being forced open right at the top of the building than a whole window smashing open. Possibly into an operating room…

I lifted myself onto the roof and looked around. There was indeed a door in the center of the roof. I approached it and pulled at the handle. It was locked, as expected. Gripping the handle, the metal crushing beneath my fingers, I yanked it off. That would draw less attention than kicking the door down.

I pushed the door open to find myself at the top of a dark staircase. Keeping the hood of my cloak over my face, I closed the door again before hurtling down the steps. Light streamed through a pair of glass doors as I reached the level beneath. I pushed it open to find myself in some kind of storage room. There were shelves upon shelves of medical equipment. I crossed the floor and reached the door. Opening it led me to another storage room. I was about to open the door when my eyes caught sight of a pile of white overalls and visitor cards. I put an overall over me and attached a visitor card around my neck.
Perfect
.

When I opened the door, the scent of human blood was stronger. Nurses and doctors passed through the corridor. I waited until they’d disappeared before stepping out. I kept my eyes fixed on the floor as I tried to walk at the speed a human would. I didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone.

Now that I’d reached the level I needed to be on, it was a matter of finding the right patient. The scent of human blood was filling my nostrils—both sweet, healthy blood and also a more sickly, stale scent of dying blood. The latter was the type I needed. One that wouldn’t be so appealing. I would have a better chance of not killing the human if his or her blood tasted disgusting.

I walked in and out of rooms, looking for a bed that had few people around it and was almost empty.

As it turned out, my victim found me.

As I was walking along a particularly empty-looking ward, plastic curtains rustled in the bed a few yards to my right. I whirled around to see curious eyes looking at me, an emaciated hand holding open the curtains. It was a young man. It was hard to tell his age—he looked so thin and sickly. But I guessed he was no older than his mid-twenties.

“Hey,” he called out in a frail voice.

I approached him cautiously, raising a brow.

His face contorted with pain. “I need help.”

I was surprised that he spoke to me in English.

“What’s wrong?” I said, stopping at the end of his bed.

He scowled, his breath hitching as he reached for his chest. “The drug you gave me earlier isn’t working.”

I bent closer to him, looking at where he was touching, and as I did his eyes seemed to come into focus.

He swore. “It wasn’t you. It was someone else… I’m in so much frickin’ pain I can barely see.” Given my white overalls he obviously thought I was a doctor.

“That’s all right,” I said. “I can help you.”

He reached for a clipboard at the side of his bed and shoved it toward me. “This is my medical file. Read it before you start meddling.” He glared at me. “This damn hospital. They wouldn’t be able to figure out how to assign me just one doctor even if it was my last request.”

I flipped to the first page of his file and my eyes fell on the first words written on the form at the top of the page.

“Tobias Cole. Bronchial cancer. Stage four.”

That’s good enough.

I pretended to be studying the file for a few more minutes before taking a seat next to his bed. I reached over and felt his pulse.

He squirmed away from me. “Christ, you’re cold.”

“Sorry,” I murmured, withdrawing my hand.

I swallowed hard, staring down at the man. He looked up at me expectantly, tears forming at the corners of his eyes from the pain.

Jeramiah’s last words rang in my ears.

“The trick is to stop before you feel you’ve started.”

What the hell does that even mean?

Tobias was growing impatient. I didn’t have much time to figure it out. I just had to hope that his blood was disgusting enough to aid me in pulling this off. He certainly smelt of death. I grimaced.

“What?” Tobias croaked.

“Nothing.” I assumed a stoic expression and stood up, pushing him down flat on the bed. “I will make the pain go away. But first, I want you to close your eyes. Can you do that?”

He looked confused, but he didn’t argue. He nodded and shut his eyes.

Drawing the curtains, I bent down and, covering his mouth with my hand to stifle his struggling, dug my fangs into his neck. He was too weak to make much noise anyway. And the noise he did make was hardly distinguishable from the other moans of pain echoing through the halls of this level of the hospital. I felt the blood begin to rush into my mouth and breathed out through my nose in relief that it tasted as stale as it smelt.

Stop before you feel you’ve started.

Again, I found myself wondering what that meant. Hell, I didn’t even know how to inject venom into someone. I knew how to suck blood, but I’d never released venom. I tried to recall the way my father’s fangs had looked when he’d turned me. I spread my lips to give my fangs as much leeway into his flesh as possible. And then it happened—a flow of ice-cold liquid shot from them and injected into the man’s bloodstream.

I jerked my head away from him. It felt like I might have stopped too late. Quite a bit of liquid had already entered his bloodstream. I just had to hope that I hadn’t released too much.

He began convulsing on the bed. Now that his transformation—or hopefully semi-transformation—was beginning, I had to figure a way to get him out of here and back to my submarine as soon as possible.

Wrapping him up tightly with the sheets so that his face was covered and his limbs restrained from convulsing too wildly, I picked him up in my arms and raced toward the exit of the ward. There was no point trying to hide my speed anymore. Someone was going to notice I was carrying a writhing patient away from his bed, so I might as well travel so fast they wouldn’t have a chance to even register what they’d seen until I was already well out of reach.

I whizzed through the halls, and Tobias’ struggling stopped. My speed had likely knocked him breathless. I crossed corridor after corridor, ignoring the shouts that were becoming louder and louder behind me. As I reached the first storage room, an alarm began ringing throughout the hospital. I sped across the room and entered the next. I didn’t let up until I reached the double glass doors leading to the staircase leading up to the roof. I sped up to the top, kicked open the door and ran out onto the roof. A light drizzle had begun to spray the night air.

I rushed to the edge of the building and looked down.

I swore beneath my breath. I hadn’t really considered how I’d get the two of us down alive. Tobias was certainly in no position to be holding onto me. And he was a tall man—not that much shorter than myself. With him squirming like this, there was no way I’d be able to hold on to him while also getting us both safely to the ground.

I ran around the circumference of the roof and was relieved to spot what I’d hoped to see. Another roof about fifteen feet away. This was the more sensible option. I could jump that without difficulty.

I stepped back away from the edge a few yards and, gripping Tobias more tightly, gathered speed and leapt through the air, landing on both feet with ease on the roof parallel to the hospital. This building was lower, about two stories lower. Still high, but at least I’d made some progress in getting down to a level from which I could just jump to the ground without risk of injury to either myself or, more importantly, Tobias.

Once I’d landed on this lower building, I ran around the edges once again. While the building next to it wasn’t any lower, there were ledges that looked much thicker and easier to handle. So I leapt again onto this second roof and, taking it slowly, managed to climb down to the ground on the overhanging balconies.

Now that I was on the ground, I lost no time in lurching forward. I took a wrong turn a few times, but it wasn’t long before I found myself back on the promenade before the beach. I ran across the sand and entered the water, holding Tobias up and kicking with my legs, propelling us toward the submarine I’d anchored about half a mile away from the shore. I dragged him up to the submarine roof, opened the hatch and slid in with him. Breathing heavily, I placed him down on a bed in one of the cabins and locked the door behind me. Wiping sweat from my brow, I walked into the control cabin and picked up the phone Jeramiah had given me.

I flipped it open, expecting to need to go up to the roof to get a signal, but there was clearly something different about this phone. It had a full signal already even in the thick walls of this submarine.

I slumped down into the chair, wiping sweat from my brow. I navigated to his contact number and pressed dial. I put the phone to my ear, listening to the rings. The first. The second. The third. He picked up after the fourth.

“Yes?”

I swallowed hard. “I think I’m ready to take you up on your offer.”

There was a pause at the other end of the line. “You were successful in creating a half-blood?”

“He’s in transformation now. I’ll know in a few hours.”

“Call back then.” Jeramiah hung up and the line went dead.

I placed the phone down on the dashboard, staring at it as I chewed on my lower lip.

Tobias Cole.
I just had to hope that he would wake up as a half-blood and not a vampire. I didn’t need a mad vampire for company. I already had myself to contend with.