An End of Night (A Shade of Vampire #16)(60)

I propped myself up on my elbow and looked him in the eye.

“Because that’s how heroes are made.”

Epilogue: Ben

I stared down at the mark of a black cross etched into my right bicep.

Who did this?

I got to my feet and looked around my bedroom, scanning it for any sign of someone having entered. I couldn’t spot anything out of place. I sniffed the air. I was familiar by now with Jeramiah’s scent, but I couldn’t detect it. I walked out of the bedroom and entered the dark corridor outside. I headed straight for the front door at the other end of it. No sign of forced entry, that was for sure. Of course, whoever had done this would have had a key.

I returned to the doorway of my bedroom and stood there, looking over the luxurious Egyptian furnishings. I was still coming to terms with the fact that I’d been drugged. Heavily, to not have woken up while my skin was being inked.

I glanced down at the tattoo again. It was beginning to prickle less. I wondered how long ago it had been done. For all I knew, it could’ve been just minutes before I woke up.

One thing was clear: I’d been right in my instinct to not trust these people.

Unwilling to just sit about my apartment now that I’d woken, I opened the front door and stepped out. I looked up and down the terrace outside. It was empty. I could hear deep breathing coming from the apartments surrounding me. I also couldn’t hear any noises coming from the desert above. They must have finished up their festivities by now and retreated to their rooms.

I was about to turn right and begin making my way around the atrium when I caught sight of a girl on the terrace opposite me. She was slumped on a bench, a bottle of wine in her hand. Her complexion was white, and as I looked closer, I realized that she was Jeramiah’s half-blood girlfriend. Marilyn. She was drunk out of her mind. Her head lolled back against the wall. She was muttering inaudibly to herself, and I couldn’t be sure whether she had noticed me or not. I walked swiftly forward, acting as if I hadn’t noticed her.

While most people seemed to be sleeping after a night of drinking, I wanted to take this opportunity to explore this place at my own pace, without Jeramiah’s gaze on me. I doubted it would bring me any closer to discovering who had branded me, of course. For that, I’d have to wait until people started waking.

Avoiding the elevator, I walked down a flight of stairs to the level beneath me. I circled the entire level, trying a few doors behind which I couldn’t hear snoring, but most were locked. Jeramiah had said that the apartments on these levels were the quarters of vampires and witches in any case. I imagined they’d look much the same as my and Jeramiah’s apartments. I descended level after level in the atrium until I reached the ground floor. Mixing with the sweet aroma of jasmine, the scent of human blood was strong. Strong enough to cause my mouth to water, even though I had only recently topped up on blood.

Clenching my jaw, I moved toward the room I had waited in while Jeramiah had disappeared with the human I’d half-turned, Tobias. I approached the door, clutching the handle and expecting it to be locked. It wasn’t. I was able to push it wide open and step inside the dark, bare room. My eyes fixed on the door at the opposite side of the room that Jeramiah had carried Tobias through.

I was still afraid of my inability to control myself around fresh, hot blood. But this was a part of The Oasis I hadn’t seen at all yet. I felt I needed to explore it at least once.

I breathed in deeply, trying to reel in my cravings, before reaching for the handle and twisting it.

This door was locked.

I looked around the room for a key. Never mind a key, there wasn’t anything in this small, dusty room.

Bending down on my knees, I peered through the keyhole. This seemed to be a basic lock, nothing sophisticated. I was confident that I’d be able to pick it, if I had something long and sharp. I was unsure of where to start looking for a suitable object. Then I realized that I might be already be equipped with what I needed.

Looking down at my hands, I extended my claws. If this was going to work at all, the claw in my forefinger seemed to be the best fit for the job.

I inserted two claws through the keyhole and began to pick the lock. My claws worked surprisingly well. I’d been worried that they might be too thick. After a minute, I managed to get the door to click open.

If I was quick and didn’t get caught by anyone already in the basement, nobody needed to know that I’d ventured down without permission.

The scent of blood intensified as I stepped through the door and found myself standing at the top of a narrow winding staircase. My gut clenched. I hoped that I wouldn’t regret this decision.

Reaching the basement, I was met with a much less primitive prison than I had imagined. Thanks to my foray into the territory of the black witches, I was used to dungeons being separated into cells by mere gates, with no bedding to sleep on or even clean water to drink.

This place, however, looked civilized, at least on first glance. I found myself standing at the end of a narrow corridor lined either side with doors. I peeked through the thin strip of window at the top of the first door to my left. I found myself looking into a small room with a bed, a sink, and even a door that apparently led to a toilet. It also looked relatively clean. A man who looked middle-aged was sleeping on the bed, a blanket pulled up to his neck. I kept moving, looking through window after window, hoping to find Tobias. It was clear that I was in the wrong section though. I could only smell human blood among these rooms, no half-blood.