A Vial of Life (A Shade of Vampire #21)(28)

Her convoluted theories were crazier than just accepting the situation for what it was. And, in fact, I knew that she couldn’t really believe her doubts—she’d seen too much already. She was just clinging to them as a way of coping with her reality being turned on its head. I was just waiting for her to say out loud that yes, supernaturals existed, and we were living on an island full of them.

We stayed with Anna and Kyle for the first few days. They treated us like family. They had three children of their own, and the older two had already been turned into vampires. Still, they cleared out two rooms for us and made our stay as comfortable as they possibly could. None of us wanted to be a burden on them any longer, and Anna found us a three-bedroom townhouse that wasn’t being occupied just a few streets away from theirs. So we’d recently moved there.

My mother talked of returning to New York, but I told her that I couldn’t return, at least not now. First of all, I was still a half-blood and there was no cure for me yet on the horizon, and secondly, even if I could leave The Shade… it would feel like cutting off any connection I had left with Ben. This was his home. His world. As unceremoniously as I had been thrust into this world of supernaturals, I was a part of it now. Even if we found a cure for me, I simply couldn’t imagine going back to my life in New York. I could never see things the same again, nor simply resume the life I’d had like nothing had ever happened.

Although there was much talk of supernaturals of late—especially after the footage that had been broadcast by the media—like my mother, and indeed like I had been, most of the population was still living in denial. If I were to ever speak to anyone about what I’d witnessed, I’d be deemed crazy.

Of course, my mother wouldn’t return without me, and so we all found ourselves staying here in The Shade. My sisters found the place both wondrous and terrifying, but they were much quicker to adjust to their concept of the universe being blown apart than my mother. Jamil, on the other hand… never mind all this crazy supernatural stuff, he was still acclimating to being able to walk on his own two feet, being able to talk and perform the most basic functions that we all took for granted. We were all still getting used to this new life of his.

One of the countless things he had asked us about was our father, and my mother told him the truth—in front of Dafne, too. My mother told him our father’s downward spiral leading to imprisonment had been many years in the making. Jamil was surprisingly accepting of it. He said that he had been aware of our father not being around much, even if his symptoms had been so severe that he couldn’t quite form the conclusion as a coherent thought.

I looked at him now as he stood next to me, his face turned toward the ocean, his brow slightly furrowed. I slid my hand into his and squeezed it. He was still like a stranger, to us, and to himself. I hadn’t wanted to overburden my family with too much information about supernaturals, but my mother had insisted that I tell her what happened to me.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Jamil, my voice slightly hoarse from underuse.

He nodded slowly, glancing down at me with his dark eyes. “Okay,” he said.

He paused, running his tongue over his lower lip.

“What are you thinking about?” I wondered.

“I… I don’t really know,” he replied, running a hand through his dark hair. “Everything that I couldn’t think before, I guess… I’m honestly not sure what my life was before now. It’s almost like it never happened. As though I’ve just woken up from a long, strange dream. And how I am now was my natural state all along. Like I just needed something to wake me up… am I making any sense?”

I nodded encouragingly. “I understand.”

“Thinking back on it now,” he continued, “it seems to be a blur of colors, frustration… and Mom.”

I smiled, tears creeping into the corners of my eyes. “You know Mom didn’t love you any less because you were autistic. She would’ve continued caring for you for as long as she physically could.”

He swallowed, his own eyes moistening. “I know.”

My eyes traveled to his lower arm, bare beneath his T-shirt. His tattoo was gone, as was mine, and everyone else’s who had returned from The Oasis. This had been part of Ben’s deal with the jinn. It was strange to be without the tattoo. I’d had it for such a long time that I’d gotten used to its unpleasantness.

I’d been scared at first that the removal of Jamil’s tattoo could somehow affect the miraculous recovery he was exhibiting. That perhaps, since I was no longer officially part of the Nasiri family, they were no longer interested. They would withdraw this gift from me. Thankfully, the cure that the jinn had given him seemed permanent, unaffected by whether he remained branded by them or whether I remained one of their serfs.

“I feel… excited,” my brother murmured, interrupting the silence that had fallen between us. His eyes were filled with wonder as he took in our breathtaking surroundings. “I can walk, talk… heck, even think clearly. It feels like I’ve entered a new world where anything is possible.”

I reached my arms around his neck and pulled his head down so that I could plant a kiss on his cheek. “Anything is possible,” I whispered, clamping my eyes shut. The words lanced through my heart as they reminded me of the small hope I still clung to that Ben would return to me.