A Shade of Vampire 41: A Tide of War(7)

“If he needs the vampire transformation to stay alive, then I will happily give it,” she confirmed.

“Claudia, careful. We don’t know if the sentries can withstand the change,” my grandpa reminded her.

“If it’s his only chance, then we have to try it,” Yuri replied.

“And have him go through the transformation while we’re at war?” my mom asked quietly.

Claudia nodded.

“It’s for Ruby. We have to try everything we can.”

I was glad to hear that Claudia and Yuri were both willing to turn Ash if it came down to it. I knew that my best friend’s happiness depended on Ash staying alive—whatever form that happened to be in.

I squeezed Claudia’s hand, an unspoken gesture of gratitude. The woman nodded, and a second later Mona had joined them, and they were gone.





Ben





I held River’s hand under the banquet table. She smiled at me, both of us glad the other was safe, along with Grace, Lawrence and, hopefully, Field. Our family had made it through the battle in one piece, and though there wasn’t much about this morning I was grateful for, that was the one thing that mattered to me more than anything.

Reluctantly turning away from River, I looked around the room. GASP, Tejus, Queen Memenion and a few other ministers, including the aged Impartial Ministers, had assembled to discuss our next steps.

“The first thing we need to understand is what those creatures are—or at least what the entity actually is.”

My voice cut through the mumbles of conversation that had broken out across the table. Everyone turned to me with varying degrees of blankness.

“The Elders are the closest comparison I can make,” my father replied. “Clearly the entity’s taken Tejus’s brother’s body and held him under possession in a similar way it did with Benedict.”

“This is much stronger though,” Tejus said. “When Benedict was under the possession of the entity, he never attempted to harm us directly—he was consumed by his mission to collect the stones. Jenus seems to be fully instated with the entity’s physical strength.”

“Benedict had moments of clarity, didn’t he?” my dad asked.

Tejus nodded. “During the day.”

“He was completely himself,” Hazel added. “And confused about what he’d done the night before—he could remember certain bits, but not the full picture.”

“It would be interesting to see if Jenus is affected the same way,” I replied. “If he had moments of lucidity, it might mean that the entity is weak at that point.”

“That could be the case,” Tejus replied slowly, “but judging by what Benedict and the others saw at the cove, and Jenus’s power, I wonder if this change is more permanent.”

I was worried that Tejus was right, that the seemingly unbeatable strength and resilience of his brother couldn’t be compromised in any way—not even with our weapons. The only saving grace was that they were at least effective against his armies…but even then, there seemed to be an unlimited supply of ashen-faced forms that had emerged from the black mists.

“Do you know anything that might be able to help us?” my grandfather, Aiden, growled at the Impartial Ministers, who were seated silently at the table, their eyes downcast as if they wished they could disappear.

One of them looked up, shaking his head.

“All we know is that whatever those creatures are, they were the first to inhabit Nevertide. Nothing more is said of them in our history books—we have searched, but each time it’s proven to be fruitless.”

I sighed inwardly, frustrated by the inability of the old men to come up with answers. It was looking like our only hope was my adopted son Field, my nephew Benedict, and the others—their success in finding the jinni or jinn they sought out, the only creatures of this land who would know anything.

“We need to see what’s beyond Nevertide’s waters,” I announced. “There might be other supernatural communities that are familiar with the history of this land.” I looked at Tejus, who was frowning. Queen Memenion was shaking her head—clearly she too was under the impression that Nevertide was alone in this dimension. That they were so isolated from the rest of the supernatural world that they’d never come across any of our kind before amazed me.

“I know you say there’s nothing out there, but that can’t possibly be true. We’re in the supernatural dimension. Nevertide must somehow be connected to other lands. They might be at some distance, but we need to search.”

After a brief pause, Tejus nodded his agreement, raking a palm across his brow. I respected the sentry, I understood that he—like most rulers or commanders—was proud, but he went up in my estimation in admitting that his world view might have been incorrect. It wasn’t an easy admission to make.