A Trail of Echoes (A Shade of Vampire #18)(41)

“I know,” I said. “I’ve already thought about it.”

“I just wonder why Ben has a problem and you don’t,” my father said, voicing the question that had been at the back of my mind ever since I turned into a vampire.

“I wonder if something could have happened in Aviary,” my mother said, her face tense.

I looked at Ben, who appeared just as clueless as the rest of us.

“I just don’t know…”

Chapter 28: River

After Benjamin’s parents had recovered from the shock of seeing their newly married daughter as a vampire, all of us traveled to the shore. Rose and Ben sat close to me, as far away from Derek as possible. As we reached the Port, Derek stepped off first and distanced himself from the twins, and then I stepped out with them. Ben had an arm around my waist, while Rose had linked her arm with mine. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the way both were clinging to me.

Sofia looked at Benjamin. “Are you sure you’re ready for the cure?” she asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Ben replied grimly.

“Then I suggest we go straight to the Pit and get this over with,” Sofia said. She looked up ahead toward her husband. “Derek, why don’t you go and fetch some witches… Ibrahim and Corrine?”

Derek nodded, and then headed off into the woods.

“What’s the Pit?” I asked, part intrigued, part chilled by the name.

“You’ll see,” was all Ben replied.

“We should travel around the outskirts of the island rather than going through the woods,” Sofia said. “That way we’ll stay further away from the humans… Will you come with us, Rose and Caleb?”

“Of course I’m coming,” Rose said, as though it was a stupid question. She glanced at Caleb. “You coming too?”

“Yes, I’ll come.”

And so we began to run along the borders of the island. Truth be told, I enjoyed every moment of it, admiring the scenery we passed by, until we reached the borders of a mountain range. We climbed over rocks, winding in and out of boulders.

“This area used to be called the Catacombs,” Ben said to me. “It’s where The Shade used to house its humans, or should I say imprison… Things have changed a lot since then.”

Arriving in an area sheltered by rocks, we stopped outside a gated entrance.

“Through there,” Ben said, still addressing me as he nodded toward it, “is the only place on the island other than Sun Beach where the sun shines through. It was once used as a torture chamber, to punish vampires who didn’t abide by The Shade’s law. Now, it’s where all vampires who wish to turn back into humans come and lock themselves… It’s where you will come if you ever decide you want to turn back into a human and we manage to figure out a cure for half-bloods.”

“How long does it take vampires to turn back?” I asked.

“It varies from vampire to vampire… But it’s in the hours, not minutes.”

Hours of agony. Not something to look forward to.

As we stood outside the entrance, Derek appeared out of thin air ten feet away, accompanied by a man and a woman, whom I could only assume were the witch and warlock Sofia had mentioned, Corrine and Ibrahim.

Their eyes rested briefly on me, and then focused on Ben. Corrine moved forward and drew him in for a hug, while Ibrahim patted him on the back.

“Welcome home, Ben,” Corrine said, eyeing him anxiously. She was holding a canvas bag in one hand that was bulging with something. “I think it’s best that we don’t talk about this too much.” She rested the bag on the ground and began pulling out vial after vial of red liquid that could have only been blood, laying them out on a nearby rock. “Let’s just give you the cure as soon as possible so you can stop being such a threat to our humans, and then we can talk about the next step.”

“That is a lot of immune blood,” Ben said, eyeing the vials on the rock.

“We don’t want anything going wrong,” Ibrahim said. “There is something different about you, and we can’t afford to take any risks.”

“We’re going to make you down twenty times the usual dosage that a vampire would take during the cure,” Corrine said.

“Twenty times?” Ben said, taken aback. “Okay.”

“And this is pure immune blood,” Ibrahim added. “Not mixed with animal blood.”

“Why would it be mixed with animal blood?” I couldn’t help but ask.

Ibrahim turned to me. “To make our supply last longer and not keep having to draw blood from our resident immune, Anna, we figured out how to filter in animal blood while still maintaining the same effect. We kept aside just a small supply of pure blood…” He looked back at Ben. “And it’s a good thing we did. Don’t waste a drop, Ben. This stuff is precious.”

Ben eyed the blood. “Okay.”

He moved near the rock, and, opening all the bottles, began downing vial after vial of the blood. Once he was finished, he breathed out in satisfaction. Then Ben moved toward the Pit’s entrance.

“Good luck, Ben,” Derek said, looking at his son with trepidation. It looked like he wanted to draw him in for a hug, but he remained standing apart from him.

“Thanks,” Benjamin murmured.