The Vampires' Birthright (36 page)

“Children, please!” shouted Kazikli; his blue eyes flashed for an instant like blazing sapphires.

Everyone’s attention shifted to him. At that instant, Gustav and Xuanxang appeared in our midst.

“Why, brother, it’s good to have you back.” Gustav moved over to Kazikli, where they hugged and kissed each other in the old world custom. “Has he improved since you began the treatments?”

“He did for the first few days, but for the last week, the virus has not retreated any further,” said Kazikli, while I listened in stunned silence.

Treated for at least a week and yet no one told me shit?

“Then you don’t think he can be saved, do you?” said Gustav. “Perhaps we should end his suffering now, instead of dragging this out and killing him in the end.”

“We’re talking about Peter, right? My Peter?” I asked a touch shy of shouting, before Kazikli could reply. “You can’t just kill him! This is Alaia’s dad, and I know he loves her
so
very much! It would crush her to learn someday that you killed her father!”

My entire body shook with rage and grief and guilt over a dumb decision on everyone’s part just to bring me some kind of closure. We
all
willfully endangered an innocent man who could’ve carried on a happy life without our intrusion. Now his family and fiancé were dead, and mongrel vampires had ravaged his body and his mind. All of this because of my thoughts projecting an immature need to try and force a family situation, where there couldn’t be one. I love my daughter more than anything, but she wasn’t born out of love or even lust. As precious as Alaia is, she is still the offspring from a cold and calculated ceremony. It wasn’t fair to try and drag Peter back into our lives and a violent vampire world.

“There is a chance he can be healed, a remote one, but a chance nonetheless,” said Kazikli, eyeing me compassionately before looking at Armando, Garvan, and Franz for support. They all nodded, although their expressions remained grim. “Give me a few days to work with the herbs and minerals here in these islands. It should be enough time for me to give you an accurate prognosis by then.”

Gustav considered it, offering an uncharacteristically compassionate look toward me. Xuanxang and even Koimala remained stoic, as if neither wanted anything to do with the decision to save or kill my former boyfriend.

“Very well,” said Gustav. “We shall give him a little more time. For now, Txema can see him, but Alaia stays here.”

I almost said something to the effect this was my decision to make, but the look he shot me stopped those words before they ever made it out of my throat.

“Come, Txema,” said Chanson, who had crossed the reception area in what seemed like a carefully timed approach to coincide with Gustav’s verdict on how this would be handled. “Let me be the one to go with you. If a crowd will incite Peter to violence, then we must avoid making him feel so threatened.”

I nodded ‘yes’ while a mixture of fear and excitement continued to fill my entire being.

“There will be two vampires in attendance with you tonight, Txema,” said Gustav. “Chanson is more than capable of protecting you in most cases, but as long as Peter remains violent, then I will insist more than one companion accompanies you.”

“Let it be me,” said Garvan. “After all, I’m the only one he recognizes at all.”

He motioned to Armando and Franz to hold their protests, while nearly everyone looked toward him with surprised looks. Only Kazikli nodded for him to go on when Raquel openly questioned why Garvan thought of himself so highly in this regard.

“Because, I’ve seen his pain up close when he pulled it back inside his soul. That happened before anyone else in our group had seen him,” he said, and then gazed defiantly around the room. “Therefore, it should be me. I’m the one who found Peter. Let me help try to save him!”

To conserve Garvan’s weakened body, instead of flying, Chanson and I walked with him along the beach until we reached the small cave system where Peter was detained. The main entrance supposedly often filled with water from the tide. But, when we arrived that evening, the tide had retreated. I was able to enter without worry of being pushed or pulled into the sharp rocks that Mohini had mentioned. Of course, my companions were impervious either way.

Chanson and Garvan allowed me to use a flashlight that Racco had retrieved from his plane to light my path. After moving through two small caverns, we reached the chamber that housed Peter.

“Do not let his bonds or physical condition alarm you,” whispered Garvan, halting at the entrance. “As long as he is a menace to others and himself, we have no choice but to use full restraints. Peter might even try to get you to release him or come physically close to him. I can’t allow that to happen, for your safety, of course. But you will be able to converse with him from a safe distance. Am I clear, Txema?”

“Yes,” I said, finding it hard to control my nervous excitement. “I’m ready to see him.”

Garvan exchanged nods with Chanson and led the way in. At first, I only saw a barren room with wet walls that glistened in the weak glare of my flashlight. After a moment, I detected a form dressed in filthy rags. I gasped once I recognized them as the remnants of the same suit Peter had worn when I met him at the Cascades restaurant four weeks earlier.

His head hung low, but he raised it slightly toward me. The handsomeness was still there, although badly soiled from dirt and what looked like dried blood. His eye in profile regarded me suspiciously in its luminance, almost gold around the edges. The skin on his face, left arm, and hand were bluish in their paleness.

Another part of my past is dead and risen as a vampire!

“Peter, it’s me, Txema,” I said gently, taking a step toward him. I could almost feel my guardians flinch, ready to strike him if he turned savage.

“Ch-ch… cheema?” he asked. “G-Garvan said he c-could find you for me… I-I… wh-where am… um… where is h-here?”

His shoulders and head shook for a moment. For the first time, I saw a fang―short like Tyreen’s―as he grimaced and growled from some kind of seizure. It broke my heart seeing him like this, so incoherent and in obvious confused pain. I wanted so badly to run to him and throw my arms around him, but knew I’d likely be dead in a matter of seconds if I did.

“Peter, we’re going to help you. Kazikli is going to treat your illness and make you whole again,” I said, picturing in my mind what a healed vampire version of Peter would be like, while knowing he would never be whole again. At least not in human terms.

As he listened, he stopped shaking as much, and seemed more cognizant of my presence, as well as Chanson and Garvan. But, his grimaced anger soon turned to tears, and torrent of red streaks streamed down his face.

“Wh-whole again?” he said, still regarding me from a profile view. “If t-that’s a joke, it’s c-cruel of y-you! I can n-ne-never be wh-whole again! N-not after wh-what they t-took from m-me-mee!”

He started to rise to his feet, but slumped to his knees in agony. Smoke rose from where the rusted metal chains that held his arms and legs touched his skin. I desperately wanted to rush to his side against my better judgment, but Chanson held me back with a firm hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t try to engage him physically,” said Chanson. “You’ll only aggravate his pain, which will steadily grow worse as the mercury invades his skin.

“Those chains are coated in mercury?”

I felt horror at the realization of what this chamber must be used for. The thick bolts used to attach the chains to the floor and walls of this cave room suggested it was part of an ancient dungeon of some sort. Meanwhile, Racco’s words about the effects of mercury on vampires resonated in my head.

“Yes, they are,” she said, wearing a curious expression. The look faded a moment later, as she nodded her understanding of my thoughts. “It’s a minute amount—enough to ensure the prisoner’s cooperation. But, the mercury can be quite painful for a young vampire.”

“Did Ga-Garvan tell you wh-what they d-did to m-me?”

At first I was confused, wondering what Garvan and the others might’ve done to Peter beyond this torture, and hoping to God I wouldn’t soon hate them.

“R-Ralu… h-he killed m-my mom and dad, and I c-couldn’t do a-a-anything!” he cried. “H-he… th-they tore them apart and m-made them s-su-suffer… M-m-mom begged them to st-stop-p-p—I b-begged, but th-they laughed and ki-killed th-them-m-m… Th-they took Sa-Sara and m-ma-made her hurt and t-tore her head off when he was d-do-done.”

I didn’t know what to say. I was too horrified to speak, and when I looked over at Chanson, her expression matched what I felt inside.

“See what I mean?” said Garvan. “He’s been severely traumatized, and I don’t see what we can do to fix this. Ralu was the one who attacked him after he murdered his family and fiancé, and it is Ralu’s blood within him.

“Y-yes… h-he will c-come for m-me-e-e.”

“What?” said Garvan, perhaps unaware of the disdain in his tone toward Peter. “What are you talking about now?”

“He read my thoughts,” said Chanson, worriedly. “I was thinking ‘Thank God that Ralu can’t find him here.’ How does a vampire read another vampire’s thoughts?”

“Gustav can do it,” said Garvan. “He keeps it to himself and never talks about it anymore…”

However, he didn’t have to spell out the next deduction in line for either of us. I tried to think of anyone I knew of who could read another vampire’s thoughts. Gustav had turned Chanson, but I had no knowledge that she could read the thoughts of any other vampire, including her maker.

“I can’t do it. Truthfully, I
can’t!”
she said. “I have no idea how it’s possible for Ralu to do it if Gustav can’t—it makes no sense whatsoever!”

“It’s be-because he fed m-me-e-e his blood
tw-twice,”
shouted Peter, who stood up as straight as his gnarled body would allow. He howled in a rage while turning toward us fully. I felt ashamed of my reaction, but I couldn’t help it. I shrunk away from him. “H-he told me-e-e that I would-d-d be his eyes-s-s and e-ears to f-fi-find Ch-e-e-m-meh. An-d-d here y-you ar-r-re.”

I collapsed to my knees while I broke down in tears. Chanson and Garvan moved to comfort me, telling me to look away from the wretched creature engulfed in smoke as his flesh burned while trying to escape his bonds—a hideous monster who used to be a vibrant and gorgeous man.

But Peter was no longer remotely attractive, as the half of his face and body that were hidden from me until that moment were entirely Chupacabra. Half of his scalp had rotted away, leaving fragments of a once regal hairline, and the right side of his face and body were covered with the same sores I saw upon Ralu when he visited me by dream in Nepal. Even his teeth were an uneven jigsaw along that side.

I knew that the man I once loved more than any other was still locked somewhere inside this misshapen beast of a vampire. Even so, my heart sank at the realization that where Peter was trapped was likely beyond anyone’s reach. At least he was for now, and perhaps forever.

But if what Peter said was true, and he unwittingly became the spy and servant of Ralu? If true, we were all in terrible trouble. It meant Ralu could hear us. Ralu could see us, too.

It was only a matter of time before he arrived in the Maldives to stake his claim. For Peter Worley? Maybe… but most certainly for Alaia and me.

“We have been played for fools!” Chanson’s face distorted into a mask of rage that was terrible to behold and then she was gone, leaving only a cool breeze to mark her passage. We followed moments later and when we arrived at the palace preparations for battle were already being made.