A Trail of Echoes (A Shade of Vampire #18)(30)

When Rose finally began to show signs of consciousness, and she stopped coughing up blood, I wiped her down with a wet towel and placed it over her forehead.

Then she became still.

I removed the pillows from beneath the blood-soaked tarpaulin and piled them up against the headboard. I helped her sit up and leaned her against them.

I kissed her cheek. Her cold, pale cheek.

“Rose,” I said gently.

When her eyes flickered open and met mine, I witnessed their vibrancy as a vampire for the first time. They were a vivid emerald green. Rose’s eyes had taken my breath away when she was a human, but now they were all the more stunning. Her dark hair contrasted starkly with her pale skin.

I snapped myself out of admiring her beauty and reminded myself of our next concern.

Had she or had she not woken up like her brother?

I placed my hands on her shoulders. “How are you feeling?” I asked.

She still looked in a daze. Her eyes were slightly unfocused even as they looked up at me. Her lips opened as if she wanted to say something, but then they closed again.

“Rose?” I pressed.

She motioned to sit forward and I let her. Crouching down on all fours on the mattress, she breathed heavily for the next three minutes. Then she looked up and, without warning, leapt off the bed.

Her eyes were wide as she gripped her throat, her expression desperate.

“Caleb,” she wheezed. “I need blood.”

Grabbing hold of her arm, I pulled her out of the bedroom and led her into the storage room. There I picked up a large sack of blood and, sitting her down in one corner, opened it and helped her to drink it.

I watched with bated breath as she swallowed mouthful after mouthful in quick succession until she had downed the entire sack of animal blood.

“More,” she breathed.

I reached for another sack, and fed that to her too. And then another. And then another. Although she wrinkled her nose in disgust at the taste, she kept drinking more.

I kept expecting her to throw it all up any second now.

But half an hour passed, and nothing happened.

Once she felt that she had consumed enough blood, I took her out of the storage room and led her into the bathroom. Removing her blood-stained underwear, I guided her beneath the shower and soaped her down, removing all traces of blood from her soft, milky skin. She still looked like it hadn’t quite sunk in, as though she was in a world of her own. I kept asking her how she was feeling, and whether she was sure that she’d drunk enough blood. She kept replying that she was okay.

After showering her, I dried her and helped her into clean clothes. Then, avoiding the upstairs deck where it was now sunny, I led her into the living area and sat down on the couch with her. I gathered her in my arms and held her close against me.

We passed the next two hours in that way, me talking gently with her and her recovering from the shock and adjusting to her new body.

After five hours had passed and she became thirsty for more animal blood, one truth became apparent to both of us:

There was something seriously wrong with Benjamin.

Chapter 20: River

After passing the Philippines and finally entering the Pacific Ocean, I was relieved when Ben said we’d reached the final leg of the journey.

The merfolk remained in the cabin we had allotted for them, and we went to check on them every now and then—more out of curiosity than anything else. They were still alive, though they hardly budged an inch. I wasn’t sure what we intended to do with them when we arrived in The Shade, but for now, we didn’t have a choice but to keep them with us.

As we entered deeper into the Pacific Ocean, I just prayed that we wouldn’t meet with any more obstacles before arriving in The Shade. My prayers weren’t entirely answered.

After the fifth day in the ocean, we found ourselves caught up in a hurricane. We’d been forced to surface for fresh air due to a malfunction in the carbon dioxide scrubber, and now Ben struggled to navigate the submarine against the strengthening current. We had to stop for a while and try to weather the storm.

The night when the hurricane was at its strongest, I’d just finished having a shower. The submarine started rocking more than ever. I was terrified that we’d find ourselves stranded in the middle of the ocean.

Ben had already left the control room and by now he had retired to his cabin. Though I was sure that he wasn’t sleeping. I didn’t know how anyone could sleep through this turbulence.

I turned the corner of his doorless cabin. Sure enough, he was sitting upright in bed with a bunch of maps. He raised his gaze to me as I approached. He gathered up the maps and moved them onto a table, making space for me to sit next to him.

Though I didn’t sit. I stretched out my legs and lay on my side, indicating that he do the same.

He looked down at me curiously, then got into the same position. He reached out to touch my face, then ran his hand through my hair.

“You okay?” he asked.

I brushed a thumb over his lips, then moved in to kiss him. It felt like home as his strong body enveloped me and the storm faded into the background.

Despite his coldness, a warmth spread through me as his right hand traveled slowly up and down my back, stroking me, reassuring me.

I shut my eyes tight, listening to the beating of his heart.

Benjamin Novak.

I’d been hoping against hope that we would reach The Shade, but now that we were nearing it, a part of me was dreading it. The Shade marked the end of our journey, possibly the end of us… whatever us was. A brief friendship. A sweet romance. Two straws being drawn together in a current and then being pulled apart.