Once the light had faded, Derek and I, along with Rose, Caleb, Aiden and the other vampires, faced The Oasis. The boundary had been broken and now we could see what had been hidden beyond its walls. My eyes fixed on the camel stable before roaming the ground in search of the trap door. We soon spotted it. Approaching it, we discovered that it was locked.
The jinn emitted another painful flash of light and the trap door popped open obediently.
The sound of scurrying came from beneath us, footsteps echoing across marble floors, in the vampires’ atrium. I could only assume they had already detected our intrusion. Cyrus was about to descend toward the lower levels when Derek spoke up.
“Wait,” he said. “A coven of vampires live in this upper atrium and it’s not necessary to cause harm to them. The jinn are the ones who hold the boy in question—my son—as a prisoner. These vampires are mere puppets. I would also request that you leave all humans alone.”
I understood the motive behind Derek’s words. Of course, he wasn’t the harsh ruler he’d been when I met him, and he didn’t want to cause unnecessary bloodshed. But he also knew that Lucas’ son, Jeramiah, lived here. Derek regretted the hateful relationship he’d had with his brother, and he didn’t want to make an enemy out of Jeramiah, who, at least so far, didn’t appear to have played much of a role in Ben’s troubles. If anything, Jeramiah himself was under the control of the jinn.
“We have no interest in the vampires,” Cyrus said. “Nor much in the humans… Just tell us where to find the Nasiris.”
“Beneath this atrium lies a prison filled with humans,” Derek replied. “Beneath that is where the Nasiris reside.”
The jinn glided down the stairs that led from the desert to the top level of the atrium, whose walls were made of glass, giving us a view of the many levels below. Dark figures streaked across the verandas—vampires, carrying weapons, and all moving in our direction.
One of them looked upward—a young woman with thick blonde hair—and the moment she laid eyes on the jinn a scream escaped her lips.
“Enemy jinn!” She began yelling to her companions and pointing up toward the jinn standing and watching behind the glass. “Retreat!”
More vampires stopped in their tracks and gazed up at us, their faces filling with fear and dread. They scattered in all directions as they hurried toward doors and locked themselves inside apartments. All of these vampires were clearly well accustomed to the might of the jinn.
Even as the jinn flattened the doors leading down to the prison, neither Derek and I nor any of our other companions knew exactly how to reach the Nasiris’ home. Although we had been here before, we had been transported by the jinn’s magic—not by foot—so we’d never come to know of its exact location. Ben, however, had described the entrance to us briefly—deep in the network of cells, in a small storage room, hidden behind a cabinet. We described these details to Cyrus, and strangely, now that we were down here it was almost as though he didn’t need them. He began leading us all forward with a surprisingly strong sense of direction. As we moved, I couldn’t help but notice with a shudder the looks of hunger on the jinn’s faces as they eyed the humans we passed by.
The jinn’s speed picked up and the rest of us had to run to follow. After what felt like half an hour, Cyrus drew us all to a halt outside a narrow door. He pushed it open to reveal a small storage room. The jinni raised a hand for silence and sniffed the air.
Then he nodded. “This is the room your son spoke of. I can feel their closeness.”
There wasn’t enough room for all of us to step inside at once, so Cyrus and three other jinn moved in first. They shoved the cupboard to one side. Sure enough, behind it was the secret door Ben had spoken of. Cyrus forced it open.
We found ourselves at the top of a small staircase and, descending in single file, we made our way down to a beautiful kitchen. The aroma of exotic spices still lingered in the air from the family’s last meal.
We crossed to the other side of the kitchen and emerged in the magnificent atrium. Cyrus’s face was impassive as he took in the heavenly abode.
My grip around Derek’s hand tightened, the thought of reuniting with my son filling me with anticipation.
Cyrus looked around at his companions and nodded. They nodded back, and although no words were exchanged, they appeared to know what to do. They rushed forward at once, sweeping toward the nearest line of doors like a wave.
There were screams. Shouts. The crash of furniture and bang of doors. More jinn flooded into rooms. There were so many of the Drizan jinn present, soon every level was swarming with them. My daughter, father and the other vampires moved with the dragons to stand safely in the central gardens on our request, while Derek and I followed Cyrus in search of Queen Nuriya herself.