“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.
“There’s also something else I should tell you, River… as a half blood, you won’t age.”
“What?”
“You’re immortal. Just like vampires. You never age past the age when you were turned. You won’t pass away from this world unless someone manages to kill you.”
“Immortal,” I gasped. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the word.
It was still too much to take in at once. I felt overwhelmed. The implications of such a notion began to flood my brain.
“But… But my family. They are not immortal.”
Ben shook his head.
“I-I can’t be immortal. I can’t remain while everyone I love dies around me.” Just like you can’t die while everyone you love lives.
Ben lowered his eyes to the floor, his face ashen.
“How come you didn’t mention this before?”
“I couldn’t find the right opportunity,” he said.
“There must be a way for me to turn back into a human!” I stood up, the blankets falling to my feet. I looked at Ben in desperation. “There must be some way to cure me.”
He looked doubtful. “It’s possible that there is a cure. But as I mentioned before, it won’t be easy to find, and I have no idea what it might be.” He paused, wetting his lower lip. “But… I do know some people who might be able to help you. Back in The Shade. There are people there more knowledgeable and experienced than me. I’m not sure how to reach there from here, and I wouldn’t set foot with you on the island—”
“Why not?”
“I still have my own mysteries to solve… But I can try to help you get there.”
“You’d do that for me?”
He shrugged. “I can’t just leave you stranded like this.”
I fell silent, still trying to process everything he had just told me. Immortal. I’m immortal. That was insane.
The idea of never dying—never growing past seventeen—was terrifying to me.
But Ben’s words had provided at least some thread of comfort that perhaps there was hope for me. That we might discover a way for me to turn back into a human and return to my family who so desperately needed me.
I fixed my eyes on Ben’s stoic face. And once again I caught myself wondering why he would put himself out for me like this. I wasn’t used to this sort of kindness without some expectation in return.
I drifted off into my own thoughts, and, it seemed, so did he. We were silent for a long time, until finally I asked the question that had been at the back of my mind ever since we left The Oasis.
“Ben. Why do you think Jeramiah let us go so easily?”
His eyes darkened.
“I’m not sure why. But I hope we never find out.”
Epilogue: Derek
I looked around our long candle-lit table. We’d pulled it out onto the veranda to dine beneath the stars. Surrounding me were some of my closest friends and family. Sofia sat next to me on my right, Rose on my left, while Caleb sat on the other side of my daughter. Further along the table were Eli, Vivienne and Xavier; Kiev and Mona; Aiden and Kailyn; Gavin, Zinnia and Griffin; Ashley and Landis; Anna and Kyle; Corrine and Ibrahim; and, of course, the two guests of honor—Yuri and Claudia. The latter had just returned from their belated honeymoon to Paris and had successfully accomplished what they’d set out to do. Claudia was now officially pregnant.
She positively beamed as she sat at the opposite end of the table, digging into the meal Sofia and I had prepared together. They had not been gone long—not that any of us had expected it to take long.
Claudia’s animated voice filled my ears as I ate from my own plate of food, while all the vampires present just drank blood. Claudia dominated the conversation, asking question after question about what had happened on the island since they’d been gone.
“You missed Caleb’s and my wedding,” Rose said, through a mouthful of quiche. She held up her ring finger.
“Oh, my God. You got married!” Claudia practically bounced in her chair. “Are you going to turn into a vampire?”
Rose shot me a sideways glance, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “We don’t know yet,” she replied. “Ben still hasn’t returned and we still don’t know what went wrong with his turning… So we’re just wa
iting for now.”
“What about your honeymoon?” Claudia asked.
Rose blushed as she looked at her new husband. “We’re still deciding on that also…”
Sofia changed the subject and proceeded to explain about the dragons. Claudia seemed to be most interested in gossip about the relationships the fire-breathers had struck up with the humans around the island. Not that it interested me much. Rose mentioned that none of the girls had revealed any details about their relationships, but they all seemed to be exceptionally happy—which was all that mattered.
As for the dragon prince, he had left unexpectedly after my daughter’s wedding, and nobody was sure exactly where he’d gone, or if he would ever be returning.
“You’re going to have to do some detective work yourself about those dragons, Claudia,” Vivienne said, grinning. “Those girls are tight-lipped.”
I smiled at my sister, eyeing her growing bump. She grew more luminous by the day. We still didn’t know if she was carrying a boy or a girl, but none of us could wait to meet our newest addition to the family.
By the end of the meal, we’d recounted everything else that had happened that we could think of while Claudia and Yuri had been in Paris. After a dessert of cheesecake and fresh fruit, I leaned back in my chair, listening to the conversations around me. Then I locked eyes with Xavier. I nodded subtly, and he nodded back.
I leaned over to Sofia, who was chatting with Corrine, and kissed her neck.
“I’ll see you later,” I said softly.
My wife understood where I was going. She squeezed my hand and kissed me back.
Then I took my leave with Xavier. We headed out of the penthouse and made our way down to the ground. We walked silently through the forest and to the Port. A seventeen-foot boat was waiting at the end of the jetty—a new one that Caleb had recently designed. Xavier and I boarded it and navigated it across the waves toward the boundary of the island. We stopped just before we reached it and scanned the ocean surrounding us.
Even without vampire vision, I could see clearly three large gray ships floating in the distance.
“So they’re still here,” I muttered.
“They’re too close to The Shade for this to be a coincidence,” Xavier said.
Of course, he was right. These ships had first been spotted by Micah three days ago, and they had been floating in the same area ever since. Clearly, they were also strategically distanced from each other—the space between the three of them was identical. Their presence here was precise and calculated.
Someone had discovered The Shade’s location, and was watching us.
And that someone was a hunter.
There had been several more sightings of supernatural creatures in the past week that had been picked up by mainstream media—sightings that had not been of anyone from The Shade. No, there were other supernaturals who knew how to enter the human realm, and they were no longer bothering to keep themselves hidden since the code of secrecy had been broken.
The most recent sighting had been a trio of ogres, up in Canada, near Mount Logan. The most disconcerting thing was that Mona’s map marked many gates connecting this human realm to the supernatural one. But there wasn’t a gate within hundreds of miles of Mount Logan. And there was no way that three huge ogres could’ve traveled that far without being noticed. This left us with the chilling conclusion that there were more entrances into the human realm than were marked on the map. Which meant that, even if we managed to close every single gate listed on this map, there were still other ways supernaturals were getting into this human realm.
I looked from one gray ship to the other. They looked like naval ships.
Eli and Aiden were convinced that the hunters were no longer the clandestine organization they had once been—funded by independent backers with a personal grudge against bloodsuckers. Rather, Eli and my father-in-law believed that the hunters were now being supported directly by the government. All of this exposure in mainstream media was striking panic in people and putting enormous pressure on leaders to take drastic action.
That meant that these hunters would soon be—or perhaps already were—a very different breed than any we’d experienced before. Being backed by the government meant they had unprecedented resources, and they were no longer just driven by a blind thirst for revenge. I could foresee a future where becoming a hunter would be a career route for young people, much like joining the Navy. The new generation of hunters would be cool, calculated, more technologically advanced than I wanted to think about and driven solely by intelligence. And there would be many of them. Too many for comfort.
A strong gust of wind blew against me, making my skin prickle.
The world was changing.
And my son was still out there.
He needed to be careful. He’d soon find himself in a whole new world.
A world to which nobody knew the rules.
* * *
Ready for the next part of Ben & River’s story?
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A Trail of Echoes releases September 25th 2015.
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I’m so excited to embark on this new journey with you!
See you soon…
Love,
Bella x
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Read More by Bella Forrest!
A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES
Derek & Sofia’s story:
A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)
A Shade of Blood (Book 2)
A Castle of Sand (Book 3)
A Shadow of Light (Book 4)
A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)
A Gate of Night (Book 6)
A Break of Day (Book 7)
Rose & Caleb’s story:
A Shade of Novak (Book 8)
A Bond of Blood (Book 9)
A Spell of Time (Book 10)
A Chase of Prey (Book 11)
A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)
A Turn of Tides (Book 13)
A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)
A Fall of Secrets (Book 15)
An End of Night (Book 16)
Ben & River’s story:
A Wind of Change (Book 17)
A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)
A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY
A Shade of Kiev 1
A Shade of Kiev 2
A Shade of Kiev 3
BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY
Beautiful Monster 1
Beautiful Monster 2
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Bella Forrest, A Wind of Change
(Series: A Shade of Vampire # 17)
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