A Trail of Echoes (A Shade of Vampire #18)(42)

His mother gave him a tight hug, and then his sister.

Ben turned to face me, his bright green eyes looking deep into mine. Butterflies erupted in my stomach as his hands rested around the back of my neck and he dipped down to press his lips against mine. That he should kiss me so openly in front of his family made the blood rise in my cheeks.

“Good luck,” I whispered.

Chapter 29: Ben

As I stepped inside the Pit, the sun blazed down on me like a thousand knives. The brightness was blinding as I staggered into the center of it. I’d felt the sun on me before, but in this small enclosure, it felt hotter than I’d ever experienced.

Every fiber of my being screamed to rush back out to safety, to the cool darkness. But I had to go through with this. There was no other way.

I focused my mind on stepping out again in a few hours as a human. All of my bloodlust problems solved. Feeling normal again around my father and all the other humans I held dear. No longer feeling like an uncontrollable beast. Feeling myself again.

As much as I tried to focus on the end, there was just no way to ignore the burning in my flesh.

Although it was normal to feel pain like this when turning back into a human, part of me kept panicking that something was going wrong.

I did my best to remain silent, and not groan or make a sound. It would only make the experience more torturous for my loved ones standing outside.

The pain soon brought me to my knees, and I crouched on all fours, panting and drawing deep breaths, trying to find some way to not lose my mind.

I’m going to make it through this.

I’m going to make it through this.

I tried to distract myself with the thought of River, standing and waiting for me on the other side. I tried to lose myself remembering what it felt like to kiss those soft lips of hers, to run my hands along her curves, and look down into her gorgeous eyes.

That helped more than anything, but it still wasn’t enough to bring me relief.

I heard them calling for me, but I couldn’t focus on their words. They entered my ears mangled and disjointed, and I could barely make sense of them.

Hours passed.

My skin felt like it had been deep-fried in a pan of oil and then scraped off with a carving knife, but my vision was too blurred to see the true state of it. I had lost my sense of touch temporarily. Although I ran my fingers along my arms, I couldn’t sense what I was feeling other than the pain that spread throughout my entire body.

Lying on the floor, my eyes shut tight, I was no longer able to summon the strength to even move an inch. My throat was so dry and parched, it felt like I’d just swallowed a mouthful of nails.

Finally, the entrance swung open. Someone hovered over me—perhaps more than one person—and then the next thing I knew, my body lurched and I had been vanished out of that blazing hell. I landed on a soft mattress.

Opening my eyes, I felt my vision slowly returning. I was looking around a cool, dim chamber in the Sanctuary. My parents, my sister, Caleb, River and the two witches stood around my bed.

“Benjamin.”

I began to regain my sense of hearing. It was Corrine speaking. She touched either side of my face, and then my arms, my chest.

“Benjamin.” It was my mother this time. “Can you hear me?” She spoke slowly, enunciating every syllable.

The back of my throat twinged painfully as I tried to speak. So instead I just grunted.

Bunching up the sheets between my fists, I managed to find the strength to sit up against the pillows and look around the room I was in. River, who was standing right next to my head, placed a hand over mine.

I looked down at my hand.

Its color was tinged red, but it was still unmistakably pale.

Can a human be this pale?

“Benjamin,” Corrine said, her eyes wide with worry. “You are still a vampire.”

I almost choked. Before I could respond, she held up another vial full of blood and tipped it into my mouth. The sweet immune blood trickled down my throat like honey, and every part of my skin began tingling.

I found my voice again. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you’re still a vampire,” Corrine said.

I looked at myself in the mirror fixed on the other side of the room. The rest of me was pale, just like my hands and arms. Opening my mouth, I bared my fangs. Then I flexed my claws.

“But… this is impossible,” I gasped. “Remaining a vampire all that time beneath the sun… How could I have? I should’ve died.”

“I have no clue,” Corrine said. “Like you say, there’s no reason for you to still be alive now. Your skin was reddish and blotchy just now before the immune blood healed you, but you endured nowhere near the damage you should have done as a vampire beneath the blazing afternoon sun for all those hours… You should be dead.”

I’m still a vampire.

No, this cannot be possible.

“But you gave me a ridiculous dosage of immune blood. How could I not have turned? Sh-Should you have given me more?”

There was a pause, everyone in the room eyeing me nervously.

“I’ve a feeling,” Corrine said slowly, “we could have given you all the immune blood in the world, and you still would not have turned.”

Chapter 30: Derek

It was a mystery to all of us. Not only Ben’s inability to turn, but how in hell he was still alive.