A Trail of Echoes

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Going for a dip.”

  He removed the sheet around his waist, now just in his boxer shorts, and dove into the sea. I walked up to the railing and watched him submerge and then re-emerge, rubbing his face. Although it was a cool night, I decided to join him since I was feeling sticky myself.

  Fastening my sheet dress so that it wouldn’t slip off the moment I dropped in the water, I dove into the sea and resurfaced near Ben.

  The water was rougher than I had expected. As I neared Ben, a wave carried me right up close to him—so close I ended up colliding with him. His hands caught my waist, the strength of his arms engulfing me as he kept me in place, anchoring me. I placed my arms around his neck as we floated together in the waves.

  My eyes level with his, I gazed into his green irises that reflected the glimmer of moonlight on the waters.

  His breathing became more uneven. His eyes fell to my lips.

  Slowly, he reached a hand up into my hair at the back of my head. The next thing I knew, he was leaning in closer. And then his lips were on mine.

  I breathed hard, pulling him closer as his mouth locked with mine. I tasted the salt on his lips, felt their coolness, their firmness as they pushed against mine and closed around them. When the tips of our tongues touched, fireworks erupted in my chest.

  I had never kissed a boy before. But Ben’s kiss was everything I had imagined it would be… and so much more.

  Even the echoes in my ears that I’d heard again earlier that evening vanished completely as I was consumed by the vampire prince of The Shade.

  Chapter 14: Jeramiah

  I looked around the room at the sacks of ground human bones that Michael and I had just finished processing in the machine. We had done extra this week and there were too many to carry downstairs comfortably, so Lloyd came to assist us. Entering the prison beneath the atrium, we walked swiftly past the half-bloods’ and humans’ cells, traveling deeper and deeper into the maze of cells until we reached the farthest chamber that was hidden behind a storage room. Entering inside, I told Lloyd and Michael that they could leave.

  Looking down at the trap door in the center of the room, I bent down and lifted it open to reveal a dark, metal chute. A fragrant aroma of cooking wafted out. I’m just in time. I dropped the sacks through one by one before closing the trapdoor.

  If this were a usual day, my work in this room would be done now. But today, I had something else to accomplish.

  Opposite the main entrance to the room was a smaller, narrower door. I pulled it open and began making my way down the staircase behind it. Reaching the bottom, I found myself standing in the corner of a kitchen the size of a large hall. Everything about it oozed extravagance, from the table tops made of solid gold to the shiny silver cutlery.

  Several large pots were bubbling over stoves and snake heads were baking in the giant oven. The sacks of ground bones I had just dropped through the chute were piled up in a heap in one corner, ready for the chef to return.

  Passing through the kitchen, I opened its rosewood door and stepped out into another atrium. Situated directly beneath ours, this atrium was similar in design, except that it was much larger and immeasurably more luxurious. There was barely an inch of surface that wasn’t made of some kind of precious stone or metal, and in the center was row upon row of celestial fountains. It was truly a glimpse of heaven.

  I began to make my way along one of the heavily ornamented verandas when a veil of light blue mist appeared before me. I stopped and stared at it until the body of a man manifested in thin air from the waist up. Beneath his torso was nothing but the light blue mist, which had thickened and now looked more like smoke. With gleaming golden eyes, long, curling black hair and a thickset jaw, Karam levitated before me.

  Karam Nasiri—brother of the head of the Nasiri family of jinn. Our cohabitants and self-proclaimed masters of The Oasis.

  “I have brought you three times the requested amount of supplies today,” I said. “Now my wish is to see your sister.”

  He frowned at me, then nodded. “All right,” he replied, his voice low and throaty. “Come with me.”

  He kept himself manifested so I could see him, and I followed him as he levitated toward the uppermost level of the jinn’s atrium and stopped outside a gold-plated door studded with red rubies.

  He opened it and moved inside. “Wait here,” he said, before closing the door behind him.

  I stepped back and leaned against the wall of the veranda, looking down at the sparkling fountains below.

  Sometimes I still couldn’t believe that we had lived this way all these years. When my coven and I had first escaped the Elders decades ago and I’d gotten the idea to come to The Oasis, we’d had no idea what we might find here. We’d guessed we’d come upon—at the most—a ruined palace. And indeed that was what we’d found. With the help of our five witches, we’d renovated and built up The Oasis into the beauty that it was today and placed a protective spell over it. What we hadn’t realized was that The Oasis had already been inhabited since the Maslens had lived here. The place had been infested with a family of jinn—one of the oldest of this mortal realm.

  We had already put so much effort building up this place and making it our home, when we discovered what we were living with, we couldn’t find it in ourselves to move.

  And yet the jinn, who had made their palace deep underground, would not allow us to live in peace without submitting to their rules—not even our witches could resist them. At the time, I didn’t know where else we would go. We didn’t want to risk leaving The Oasis to get stranded in the desert or be discovered by hunters, so we’d seen it as the lesser of two evils to stay, and provide them with certain… luxuries.

  Some of our vampires had protested and refused to cooperate. They all ended up leaving, and we never saw them again. We didn’t know what had happened to them—whether they’d escaped the desert safely or not. The rest of us who decided to stay were marked by the jinn, initiated as part of their extended family.

  It certainly took some getting used to—I’d never seen a jinni in my life and hadn’t even known they existed until arriving here. I’d hated everything about them at first—the way they used their wish-granting powers to manipulate a person’s mind and always twisted things for their own benefit—and truth be told I still did. But as time had gone by, I had gotten used to them. If there was one thing I’d learned in all my dealings with the creatures, it was important to control one’s mind and one’s desires around them. They thrived on uncontrolled emotions and unfulfilled wishes. That was how they manipulated their victims. The more you desired in this place, the more sway they had over you, and the more indebted you became.

  That said, they did treat us as family, in that they saw us as their own. So long as we remained loyal to them, we could count on their protection and help in times of need. They granted us wishes and luxuries to live how we wanted upstairs, and allowed as many half-bloods as we wanted—provided that we stuck to a fixed ratio of half-bloods to humans we collected. They never wanted us to overstep this ratio, since the humans were primarily caught for their bones, for the jinn. The blood we derived from them was just a byproduct, in the jinn’s eyes, and they saw half-bloods as solely servants of the vampires. This ratio was an assertion of their superiority over us—something they always liked to remind us of.

  “You may see me now.” A silky female voice spoke behind me, breaking through my thoughts.

  I turned around to find myself standing before the unearthly form of Nuriya Nasiri. Queen Nuri, as they called her. Like her brother, she too floated on a cloud of pale blue smoke, and only half of her stunning form was visible. Her ivory skin shimmered as she laid her golden eyes on me.

  “Come in, Jeramiah.”

  I followed as she led me inside her lavish apartment. She showed me into her living room and I took a seat on one of the silk embroidered couches.

  She r
emained levitating a few feet away. “What is your wish?”

  “Tell me who Joseph Brunson really is.”

  Chapter 15: Jeramiah

  I had suspected for a while now that Joseph had lied about his identity, though I wasn’t sure who he was exactly. It had been eating at me since the day I’d begun to suspect it and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get it out of my mind until I got an answer. And so I’d decided to use up a hard-earned wish to find this out.

  Nuriya eyed me. Then, moving to the center of the room, she pointed to the floor. It had been empty just a few seconds before, but now a swirling pool of mist hovered over it, and was beginning to form a scene. Wide-open waters. A sea. Or an ocean. There was a black dot in the center of it, which was growing larger and larger as the vision zoomed closer. Soon it was clear enough to see a boat coming into view. And the two people on board. Joseph and his half-blood girl, River.

  “So you want to know who this man is,” she said calmly.

  “Tell me.”

  “His name is Benjamin Novak.”

  My voice caught in my throat. I looked up from the swelling vision and stared at the jinni.

  “Novak?” I stuttered, wondering if I had misheard.

  “Novak,” she repeated.

  “Our surnames are not a coincidence? He is related to me?”

  “You are cousins.”

  Cousins.

  I stared back down at the vision, now scrutinizing every aspect of Joseph’s—Benjamin’s—appearance.

  I’d never laid eyes on my father, not even in a photograph. So I had no idea what he’d looked like, nor what his younger brother and sister looked like. Nor any of the rest of my family for that matter. But now that I thought about it, I could see similarities in Ben’s and my appearance.

  “He is the prince of The Shade,” Nuriya continued. “The son of Derek Novak, king of The Shade.”

  The Shade.

  My breathing became heavier as the jinni’s words sank in.

  Benjamin was my cousin.

  He was prince of The Shade, while his father was king.

  I knew from the jinn that it was Benjamin’s grandfather who had murdered my father. His whole family were my father’s sworn enemies.

  If it weren’t for them, I would’ve been able to meet my father today. He would still be alive. Hell, after my grandfather, Gregor Novak, Lucas Novak had rightful rule over The Shade. He was the oldest of the three siblings.

  If it weren’t for Benjamin’s family, I would be prince of The Shade right now, not living in this jinn-infested desert.

  I was losing control of my emotions. I needed to calm down.

  Regulating my breathing, I stilled my mind, forcing my thoughts away from the injustices and back to the present time.

  “I see that I have upset you,” Nuriya said softly.

  Loosening my clenched fists, I cleared my throat and shook my head. “No. I am quite all right.”

  I looked again at the figures of River and Benjamin Novak—now swimming in the ocean near the boat.

  “I just wonder,” I said after a pause, “why have you not reclaimed them already?”

  Nuriya smiled, revealing a set of pearly white teeth that were far too thick and strong for a human’s.

  “Sometimes loved ones need a little time before they realize what is good for them…” Her voice trailed off as she glanced at Benjamin and River once more before vanishing the swirling vision. “You know what I mean?”

  I nodded.

  “Jeramiah,” Nuriya continued. “Benjamin Novak and River Giovanni are two of our own now. Now that I have answered your question, you do not have permission to harm him. Do you understand?”

  I smiled courteously.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it. I do, however, have one other request…”

  Chapter 16: Ben

  Staying with River on the boat for so many days, I was relieved when we finally kissed. I’d felt the tension building up between us, and I’d wanted to kiss her much sooner. I suspected that she had too. We just hadn’t found the right moment.

  With the guilt of claiming yet more human lives fresh in my heart and mind, River brought me the release of emotion I needed.

  Closing my eyes as I continued to taste her lips, I pushed her up against the side of the boat. My hands roamed her body, exploring her curves through the thin sheet she wore in a way I hadn’t had the chance to do until now.

  I kissed her harder. Too hard. She let out a soft moan as my fangs caught her lower lip. I should’ve raised my head to see if she was all right, but the fact that her lips continued to knead passionately against mine a moment later told me that she was. I was so consumed by the sweetness of her kisses, I barely noticed the bitterness of her blood.

  The current parted her sheet-dress. I tensed as I felt the bare skin of her upper thigh brush against my right hip. Something about that touch intensified my desire for her and before I knew what I was doing, I’d gathered her in my arms and leapt back onto the boat with her.

  I didn’t know what I was planning to do, or why I had just lifted her out of the water. My brain seemed to have shut down, my passions leading the way. All I knew was, the closer I felt to River, the more I touched and kissed her, the more the pain and darkness shrouding my mind diminished.

  My feet carried us down into the depths of the boat, toward River’s bedroom. But just before I stepped inside, I stopped short.

  What am I doing?

  I detached my lips from hers and set her down on her feet.

  My eyes traveled the length of her, the wet sheet clinging to her soft curves.

  She didn’t know how alluring she was to me in that moment. How much I wanted her…

  I swallowed hard.

  It took all the willpower I had to step back.

  She looked at me, wide-eyed and breathless. Her lips, flushed red, were slightly parted.

  Although I wanted her, part of me was influenced by the need to forget that I’d just murdered again, and I knew that I would regret it if I took things any further with River tonight.

  I cleared my throat, even as I continued to take in her beauty.

  I found my voice again. “Good night, River.”

  “Good night,” she replied, hoarsely.

  I sensed hunger in her eyes, which made me believe that she felt the same heat.

  But this wasn’t right. Not now. And not like this.

  * * *

  We were both awkward around each other when we crossed paths in the corridor beneath deck the next morning. She looked up at me through her dark lashes, her expression bashful.

  “I…, uh, good morning,” she murmured.

  Every moment of last night played in my mind. Our kiss. What might have happened if I’d let it…

  “I don’t want things to feel awkward between us now,” I said quietly.

  My glance moved to her lips and I felt the urge to taste them again. Breaking the ice, I took a step closer to her, slid a hand beneath her chin and tilted her head upward. I lowered my head and brushed my lips against her neck, her cheek, before kissing her full on the mouth.

  Her breath hitched, but then a smile spread across her face.

  “Neither do I,” she said, twining her fingers with mine and planting my hands on her waist. “But I’m glad we held back last night.”

  “I am, too,” I said, relieved that she felt the same way.

  It was clear that we both had too much on our minds, too many obstacles to overcome, to start a relationship in that way. But at least I’d feel more relaxed in her presence now that we were being honest about our attraction for one another.

  “But,” she continued in a low voice, draping her arms around my neck and drawing me down closer to her again, “I’d like you to keep kissing me.”

  I pulled her body flush against mine. The tips of our noses touching, I whispered:

  “I’ll see what I can do about that…”

  * * *
br />   Our journey across the Arabian Sea was thankfully uneventful. The echoes in our ears continued, but by now, this was no longer shocking. As we neared Sri Lanka, it became clear to me that we would need another vessel. There were things going wrong with this one, and we’d almost come to the end of our supply of extra fuel.

  We neared Colombo early afternoon, but we waited until evening before approaching the shore. I grabbed River’s backpack, filled with cash and the coins that hadn’t yet been converted, as well as the vial of amber liquid that she didn’t want to let go of yet. I took her hand, and we abandoned the boat along a deserted beach and began to run toward the port. River had washed our robes in the sea and dried them on the deck in preparation for our arrival, so at least we weren’t running around in bedsheets.

  We soon arrived at the main harbor and our search for a new vessel began. River pointed out a few, suggesting that I check them out, but this time, I was looking for something different than just a regular boat. What I wanted was a submarine. But one proved to be hard to find. There weren’t many around. And those I did spot were far too difficult to break into without damaging the vessel. But eventually, I found one in a private bay area that I managed to gain entry to.

  There was terror in River’s eyes as we lowered ourselves inside. I could practically see the image of another set of security guards chasing us in her imagination. Thankfully, this time we weren’t chased—at least we didn’t notice anyone. I was able to start up the submarine without much delay, since it was quite an outdated vessel, and then I navigated us away from the harbor. I glanced at River to see her staring at the control panel as she took a seat next to me.

  “You’re… really smart,” she said, running a hand over the panel. “I wouldn’t be able to start this thing if you gave me a million bucks.”

  “It helps when your uncle has been teaching you since you were a kid,” I replied.

  “Well, you have a cool uncle.”