A Vial of Life (A Shade of Vampire #21)(23)

Although nothing could injure me anymore, I felt hesitant to move any closer to them. They were just so… strange. What were they exactly? Apparently yet another species of supernatural creatures to blow my mind. But what were they doing on Julie’s ship? And the blood staining their fingers… could that be Julie’s blood and that of her companions? Perhaps these creatures had hijacked their ship as they’d navigated away from Cruor.

I backed away from the pale creatures clinging to the ceiling, and cleared my throat. “What are you?” I spoke up.

They remained still, silent and barely breathing—as though I hadn’t spoken at all.

I backed further away from them, deciding to abandon my curiosity about them and focus on finding the box I feared Aisha was still trapped in. It was nowhere to be found on this level, so I took the staircase down to the deck beneath.

The last I’d seen of the box had been on the rocks beneath the mountain where I’d encountered Basilius. As a spirit I’d roamed that whole area during the time it had taken me to build up courage to abandon my physical form on the cliffside. I would’ve noticed the box if they’d left it there. So I could only assume that they’d carried it back to their ship. And as it turned out, I was right. Moving from room to room, I discovered the white oblong box in a small storage room near the galley.

I lowered my hands over the lid of the box. They didn’t pass through it, as my form did with other hard objects. Instead, I felt resistance, the same kind of resistance I’d felt while pressing my hands against The Oasis’ invisible barrier. I found myself relishing the illusion of solid contact. The feeling of touching something gave me a sense of grounding. I continued to press my palms down against it for several moments before calling, “Aisha?”

There came no reply. My hands instinctively roamed down the side of the box, searching for the lid’s ridge. The box was locked with a padlock, but as I moved to grab hold of it, my fingers passed right through it. I could feel resistance with the box’s surface itself, however. Did I have any strength to force the lid open? I curled my fingers around the curve of the lid and tried to heave upward, but the effort caused my feet to sink into the floor.

Even if I was able to stand on a solid surface, this box was clearly magical. I doubted that anything but its key could open it.

“Are you in there, Aisha?” I asked again.

I cursed in frustration. It was torturous to be less than a foot away from the jinni and yet completely unable to help her. What do I do now? I was certain that Aisha was in the box. I couldn’t imagine for the life of me what reason Julie and her companions would have for releasing her—they would know full well that Aisha would unleash her wrath on them the moment she got free. Aisha had already threatened Julie’s life once back on the island where we met Arron, and I’d seen how shaken the vampire was by her.

I’d stopped Aisha from murdering Julie that day. Now I thought bitterly to myself that I should have just let the jinni drive a knife through her.

I heaved a sigh, staring down at the stubborn box. There’s nothing I can do to open this. I just had to hope that somehow Aisha would find a way out. If she did manage that, I wouldn’t worry about her. She was powerful and she would be able to find her way back home… although after what Bahir had said about Nuriya being in grave danger, and Aisha having feared The Oasis was under attack, I wasn’t sure what kind of home she’d return to.

Whatever the case, my hovering over this box any longer wasn’t going to help her. I stood up and was about to leave the room when I caught sight of a mirror hanging directly in front of me. Yet as I stared into it, my reflection didn’t stare back. All I could see was the empty wall behind me.

I’d become invisible. And, given the lack of movement from those creatures out in the hallway when I had spoken, I suspected that I was inaudible to the outside world, too.

I staggered backward, half of my back disappearing into the wall, my eyes still locked on the mirror.

It’s like I don’t exist.

I didn’t know what I’d been expecting—that ghosts were visible to people? I hadn’t thought much about it. Now I realized that even if I made it back to The Shade, nobody would even know. They couldn’t see or hear me, I couldn’t touch them… heck, I couldn’t even pick up a pen and write them a note. I was trapped in this… half-existence.

I would be nothing but a shadow, roaming the woods, trying to reconnect with my former life. It took a while for the notion to fully sink in.

But still, I needed to return to The Shade. Even if I couldn’t communicate with them, I needed to know that everyone was all right, if only for my peace of mind. Besides, that island was my home. If I didn’t return there, where would I go?

Pulling myself together, I tore my eyes away from the empty mirror and moved back out into the hallway. I climbed back up the staircase, intending to return to the upper deck, but on arriving at the level beneath, I found myself face to face with one of the ceiling-hanging creatures, all the more alarming now that it stood directly in front of me.

For the first time, I took in its face. Its lips were withered and two long, razor-sharp fangs—sharper than I’d ever seen in a vampire—protruded from its mouth. Its nose was partially receded into its skull. It was staring straight at me, or rather, straight through me. It lurched suddenly, and although my instinct was to duck, I should’ve remembered that there was no need. It passed right through me, as though I was nothing but a cloud of mist, and continued down the corridor. Its movement was strange. It almost shuffled, as though it had injured one leg, and yet it possessed an alarming speed and agility.