A Vial of Life(38)

We formed a search party, while ten vampires volunteered to stay behind and keep watch on the merfolk on the beach.

Our search group split into two and began running in opposite directions. Each would work its way around the circumference of the island and we would meet again at the halfway point. Although I still hadn’t turned back into a vampire and was technically a human, in addition to my ability to wield fire, my speed was nearly fast enough to keep up with a vampire— they lagged a little to keep up with my pace, but we were still able to cross the island quickly. I instructed everyone to keep a sharp ear and instantly report any screams or even the slightest sounds of struggle.

My throat was tight as we ran, my heart pounding. I kept expecting one of them to report an attack at any moment. Thankfully, we made it halfway around the island with no such alarm, and we didn’t see any signs of an incident along the way. When we met up with the second party, led by Xavier, they hadn’t come across any attack either.

Ibrahim came to us and informed us that the second boundary had been erected. Then it was time to deal with the merfolk we had left guarded by the other vampires. I arrived on the stretch of beach to find that most of the creatures had come to by now. Some had been bound, an attempt by the vampires to keep them in check. The latter all looked relieved to see me as I approached.

“So?” Ashley, who’d remained as one of the guards, asked, hands on her hips. “What are we going to do with these creeps?”

I was tempted to instruct the witches to hover the merfolk over the hunters’ ships, still floating outside, and give them a nasty surprise. But of course, that was not the most tactful way of handling the situation.

In the end, I just had the witches transport them to the shore of a deserted island situated on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. I was certain that now that they knew where The Shade was, it wouldn’t be too difficult to find their way back, especially if we had others still lurking within our boundaries who could call for them. But for now, this was the best we could do. In the meantime, we had to double down and try to figure out how to purge our water of any remaining merfolk. And until we did that, we were stuck with this hostile environment, feeling like prisoners on our own island.





Chapter 10: Rose





Caleb and I considered going to the meeting that my father had called in the Great Dome, but since they would only be discussing what we already knew, I didn’t see any real reason for us to be there. I was aching for my brother as it was, and hearing the whole story repeated all over again would only end up making me more depressed.

So I suggested to my husband that we skip the meeting. Since our honeymoon, we had moved into our own treehouse. It was near my parents’, and within the area of the Residences in general, but far enough away for us to feel like we were living alone.

I was still in the process of moving my stuff out of my old room in my parents’ penthouse. It was amazing how much I had accumulated over the years. I found objects under my bed that I’d forgotten I even possessed. The room was jammed with gifts from my eighteenth birthday combined with Caleb’s and my wedding. My bedroom was large, but we’d received so many generous gifts, they had barely fit in my room. We had moved much of that to our new place already, but there still remained at least two loads’ worth of stuff. I couldn’t wait to hang up the painting of The Shade’s Port that Anna and her family had created for me.

I could’ve asked one of the witches to help in moving the stuff, which would have been far quicker, but with everything that was going on in and around The Shade, I didn’t want to bother any of them with such a trivial matter.

Seeing that Caleb and I had some downtime now, Caleb came with me to help move the rest.

“Do you actually need all this?” Caleb asked, scrunching his nose as he eyed the remaining possessions I had, some packed up in bags, some still strewn around the room.

I threw him a grin. “Why do you ask? We’re not exactly lacking space in our new apartment. We’ve got to fill it up with something.”

“Uh, no,” he remarked. “There is a joy to space and simplicity. Not every room has to be cluttered like a trinket store.”

I couldn’t deny that I had already cluttered up our penthouse quite a lot, but I found it amusing that this was the first time Caleb was commenting on it.

He bent down and scooped up my hair straightener. He eyed it with a frown. “What’s this?”

I moved up to him, taking the straightener from his hands and snapping it shut. “Oops,” I murmured. “I didn’t mean for you to see this. It’s a kind of torture device wives keep for their husbands when they don’t behave themselves.”