A Wind of Change (9 page)

I listened for about a minute longer, but when I was unable to pick up on anything interesting, I motioned to move away and continue listening in another part of the atrium. But then the door clicked open and an elderly woman appeared behind it. Her white hair was tied up in a tight bun.

I feared at first that she was a vampire—I still wasn’t sure how to tell the difference when a vampire’s fangs and claws weren’t extended. But as a smile spread across her face, she looked like the friendliest person I’d come across so far in this ghastly place.

“You look lost,” she said. “Are you one of the new recruits?”

I wasn’t sure whether to stay and respond to her, or run. But something about her evoked trust in me, so I nodded. “Yes.”

She stepped back from the door and opened it wider so I could see into the room. There was a crowd of people—if I could call them people—sitting around a long rectangular table. They had plates of food in front of them and were eating away while chatting.

“Are you hungry? Would you like to join us?” the woman asked. “I’m Pamela, by the way. I’m a half-blood too, in case you couldn’t tell.”

Although my stomach could have done with some food, I still didn’t think I had enough of an appetite. But I nodded all the same and let her lead me inside. I was still thinking about Michael lurking around looking for me. Going into this room with these half-bloods might hide me from him a little longer and I could ask them about my sister.

“When did you get here?” Pamela asked.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. A part of me had been avoiding thinking about it, because it only made me feel more desperate about Lalia.

“Just very recently,” I replied, my voice stiff.

“Where were you taken from?” another half-blood asked—a girl who looked no older than thirteen.

“Just from the desert outside,” I replied.

“Whose half-blood are you? Or perhaps you’re just a general servant like most of us here?”

“A vampire named Michael took me in.”

No sooner had I said the words than a hushed silence fell around the table and all eyes fixed on me.

I stared back at them. “What?”

“Michael Gallow,” a man in his forties replied. “And he made you his slave?”

“Apparently.” I was beginning to feel impatient. “Please, I need your help, if there is anything you could tell me at all—my sister, she’s been taken—”

The middle-aged man stood up from his seat, his hands clenched into fists. He looked from me to the rest of the half-bloods sitting around the table.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, uneasy.

The atmosphere was suddenly electric with tension.

“We don’t know that Michael is definitely going to get rid of one of us.” Pamela set her fork down on the table. “Calm down, Frederick.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down.” The man glared at the old woman, then looked round the table. “What are you waiting for? This is Michael’s new muse, for whom one of us slaves is going to be sacrificed by the end of the week.”

My stomach flipped.

Oh, no.

I didn’t need a lot of wit about me to know that it was time I left this room. I darted for the exit, but four male half-bloods formed a wall in front of it, blocking my way. Each of them held knives. Then they began to approach me.

“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” Pamela said, eyeing the men. “You might all get into more trouble than it’s worth if you touch a half-blood Michael has already claimed as his own.”

The rest of the half-bloods in the room acted as though they hadn’t even heard Pamela speak.

“Pamela’s right,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “I wouldn’t do this if I were you.” I didn’t want to show fear, because fear was the first sign of defeat. I’d just survived several encounters with blood-sucking vampires, I couldn’t allow myself to be finished off by a group of half-bloods.

Five of them lurched toward me at once. They were fast, just like me, but I managed to throw myself under the table in time to miss their blades aimed directly at my chest. More half-bloods chased after me, trying to grab me as I emerged at the other end of the table. The room was small, and there was only one of me. I knew my tactics were just a way to delay the inevitable—unless I managed to reach the door in time.

I might have been safer with Michael after all…

I tried to make my way toward the exit, but I was hopelessly outnumbered. I’d managed to fight my way within five feet of the door when a man lurched for my midriff and sent me crashing to the ground. Straddling my waist, he raised a bread knife and brought it down toward my heart. If I hadn’t forced my leg upward and kneed him in the groin, the blade would’ve sunk right through me.

He backed away from me, doubled over in pain, and I scrambled to my feet again. Fighting my way to the door, I pushed it open and staggered out. I headed straight for the rose garden and dove into a cluster of bushes, ignoring the thorns scraping my skin. I tried to keep hidden within the bushes as I scrambled away, but a strong hand closed around my ankle, dragging me out of the bushes toward the clearing in the center of the rose garden. Another large man stood over me, and while he wasn’t armed with a knife, his fists were like iron balls as they began pounding down against my face. They were merciless, and by the sixth blow, I felt close to unconsciousness. Any second now, another person would arrive and hand him a knife. This would be my end…

“What are you doing?” A deep voice spoke.

The man on top of me didn’t let up his pounding. If anything, he hit me with more vigor. My eyes were so puffy and bloodshot, I could hardly see through them.

“Why are you beating this girl?” The voice spoke again, more aggressive this time.

I barely heard the half-blood’s answer. All I was aware of was the pain coursing through me, and the pounding of blood in my ears.

Then I felt arms beneath my body. I was lifted from the ground by a man and he began carrying me away from the gardens. He sped up and then the sound of an elevator filled my ears. We ascended several levels, and after walking some distance along another veranda, a door clicked open.

I began to struggle. Whoever this man was, I couldn’t believe that his intentions were anything but evil. Just like everyone else in this godforsaken place.

I groaned as he laid me down on a bed, my battered limbs brushing against the mattress.

His weight pressed the bed downward by my side, and then the man’s face appeared above mine, staring down at me.

“Don’t hurt me,” I gasped. “Please.”

A cold hand touched my forehead, and then withdrew. My ears caught the sound of slicing flesh. I feared for a moment that it was my flesh, and I was just so numb that I couldn’t feel it. But when the man’s wrist pressed against my mouth and cool blood trickled into my mouth, I realized that he’d just cut himself. I coughed and spluttered. His blood tasted even more disgusting than mine.

“You’re a wreck,” he said. “Stop spitting out my blood. Drink it. It will speed up your healing.”

I still didn’t know whether to trust him, but the thought of relief from the pain was enough to make me begin swallowing his blood. I held my nose to make the taste more bearable, though the strange texture of it remained off-putting as ever.

Within a minute of drinking the man’s blood, a miracle happened. The pain all over my body and face subsided. My vision returned to me. I found myself staring up into the face of a handsome dark-haired man with vibrant green eyes. It was the same man who’d stormed out of the sauna earlier, after Jeramiah had asked him to half-turn me.

“Joseph?” I said, sitting up slowly and backing away toward the headboard.

He nodded, then stood up from the bed.

I stared at him, studying his face and trying to figure out whether he was any danger to me now. I wondered what his agenda was in saving me from those half-bloods. His face was quite expressionless as he looked me over. It was hard to come to any kind of conclusion.

“So you’re… a vampire?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Why did you help me?”

“Because I saw them beating you into a pulp for apparently no reason.”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “Why would that bother you?”

He paused, frowning as if he were unsure of the answer himself. Then he shrugged. “It’s what any man would have done who wasn’t a total monster.”

So you’re not a total monster?

“What are you going to do with me now?” I asked.

“I’m not going to
do
anything with you. In fact, it’s best you leave. Are you coupled with a vampire?”

The thought of leaving made me panic. I still didn’t trust this vampire, but so far he hadn’t given me any reason to fear him.

“A vampire called Michael stole me and brought me down here.” I bit my lower lip. “Please… don’t make me leave. He’s going to put me through torture when he finds me again.”

A flicker of discomfort played across Joseph’s face. “So Michael hasn’t been treating you well?” he asked.

I gathered my knees to my chest. “He’s a sick bastard.” That was all I wanted to say of Michael. I was trying to forget the trauma he’d put me through. I didn’t want to relive it over again.

“Where did Michael steal you from?”

“The desert. They also stole my sister and a friend. I was out looking for them. I walked right up to that weird barrier, and Michael pulled me through it… Who are you exactly?”

He paused before responding. “Joseph Brunson.”

It irritated me that his name was all the information he offered. “And? You seem to be different than the other vampires I’ve met here so far. Why did you storm out of the sauna the moment you saw me? I thought you were going to attack me.”

He averted his gaze away from me. “Long story,” he said darkly.

Although I was curious, now certainly wasn’t the time for long stories. This vampire, for whatever reason, was behaving sympathetically toward me and didn’t seem to be as crazy as all the others I’d met here so far. I had to take advantage of the situation while I could.

“You must know where the humans are kept in this place, right?” I asked. “Do you have any idea where my sister might be?”

He took a seat on the edge of the bed, still keeping his distance from me, and breathed out slowly. “Humans are kept in the basement beneath the atrium. But simply knowing this isn’t going to be of much use to you.”

My heart lifted a little, even as my anxiety increased. “The basement? Can you take me there?”

He furrowed his brows. “What’s your name?”

“River. River Giovanni.”

“River,” he said, a deep frown still on his handsome face. “Even if I knew exactly which cell she was being kept in, and you managed to get her out of the prison without alerting anyone, and then up through the many levels of the atrium which is swarming with vampires who can detect human blood miles off, you still couldn’t escape. The boundary surrounding The Oasis won’t let you out.”

“C-couldn’t you help us through the boundary? You’re the only sane person I’ve come across so far in this place. Could you not find it in yourself to help us?”

He breathed out impatiently. He shot a glance toward the door, as if to check nobody was standing there, and then spoke in a low voice. “If I knew a way out, I wouldn’t be here myself.”

His answer took me by surprise. “What do you mean?”

“I can’t pass through the boundary either.”

I stared at him, wondering if he was just lying to me. “But you’re a vampire?”

“Yes. And not all vampires have permission to come and go as they please.”

I was trying to wrap my mind around his words. “So you’re… you’re a prisoner here too?” I asked disbelievingly.

“You could put it like that.”

“How long have you lived this way?”

“I’ve lost track of time down here, but it hasn’t been long.”

I leaned a little closer toward him. “Have you tried to escape?”

“How else would I have discovered I couldn’t pass through the boundary?”

His words dealt my hope a crushing blow. If he, a vampire, couldn’t figure a way out of here, what chance did I have?

“So there’s really no way out of here?”

“There is no immediate way out.”

“What do you mean?”

“An escape will require time and planning,” he replied so quietly he was practically mouthing. “And even then, of course, there’s no guarantee.”

“And have you been planning to escape? Surely you can’t be happy living here forever. What have you discovered so far? Is there anything I can do to help—”

I jumped at a banging on the front door. My eyes widened in panic.

Joseph froze, staring at the door, then looked back at me.

I scrambled off the bed and rushed over to him, gripping his shoulder. I dared not speak but mouthed instead. “Please, if that’s Michael, hide me. Keep me here. I beg you, don’t let him take me.”

He looked reluctantly from me to the door again. It was impossible to know what was going through that mind of his.

There was another round of banging and then Michael called, “Open up, Joseph.”

Somehow he’d managed to find me. Perhaps one of the half-bloods had told him that Joseph had taken me away.

I was relieved when Joseph grabbed my arm, pulled me out of the bedroom, and led me along the corridor toward the farthest room, which happened to be… a sauna. I knew by now that vampires didn’t need saunas, so I wondered whether Joseph had a half-blood of his own already.

Silently, he pushed me inside and closed the door. I pressed my ear against the wood, listening to his footsteps disappear down the corridor.

The front door opened.

“You have my half-blood,” Michael said.

“
Your
half-blood?”

“Yes,
my
half-blood,” Michael replied irritably.

“The same one you left to be beaten by a gang of men?”

“Just hand her over, Joseph,” Michael snarled. “She brought it on herself by running away from me.”

“And what made her run away?”

“That’s none of your business… You seem to forget, vampire, that I am one of the rulers of The Oasis. I suggest you hand over the girl now lest you sorely regret it.”