A Fork of Paths Read online

  Tears blurred my vision as I thought back to the event that started all this; our encounter with Hans back in the cave in Cruor.

  What has become of you, Hans? What has become of us? Of our story?

  Where was he now, the real Hans? I still couldn’t bring myself to believe that the creature who had attacked his own brother had been my Hans. How could somebody change so drastically? It was one thing for the physicality of a person to alter, but there wasn’t even a sliver of the Hans I used to know left in that body.

  As about a dozen more of the creatures burst out from the trees, each of them carrying victims—both vampires and witches—I shook myself to my senses. What am I doing still stalling like this? Get a grip. I had to get us both out of here before we ended up the same way.

  Tightening my hold on the reins, I urged the sharks forward.

  Arletta’s eyes were fixed in horror on the beach. She watched as the creatures piled into their ship—our ship—with their newly found victims.

  “Keep your head down lower,” I ordered her, even as I did the same. Some of them might notice our boat, but hopefully they wouldn’t see much more than a seemingly empty boat. The sharks could have gotten fed up of waiting for their master in the harbor.

  I needed to navigate us away from their ship, but before I could, thanks to a line of buoys that marked the enclosure of the small harbor, I was forced to swerve outward, closer to the ship. As we moved around the boulders, something caught my eye up in the mast of the ship. Something… someone… was perched there. With long, matted black hair, and a slim body that extended only to the hips before turning into smoke, it was Aisha.

  I averted my eyes and focused even harder on racing away from this forsaken place, but she had already seen me.

  Aisha

  I’m going to kill that vampire.

  The moment I locked eyes with Julie Duan, fury erupted in my veins. So much anger welled within me at the sight of her that it even diverted my mind from mourning the loss of my family.

  My body felt weak, weaker than ever, but I left my spot on the ship’s mast and glided down toward the two vampires who were now speeding away in their boat as fast as they could. I caught up with them and landed directly in front of where Julie sat, blocking her view of the ocean ahead.

  The two vampires froze, panic lighting up their eyes. Abandoning their positions behind the reins, they hurled themselves off the boat and into the ocean. I wasn’t going to let them off the hook that easily. I dove in after them, swimming deeper and deeper beneath the surface until I spotted Julie, her legs kicking up a whirlpool as she desperately swam for escape.

  Forcing my aching body to move faster, I extended my hands and closed them around the vampire’s ankles. She kicked and flailed to break free of me, but slowly, I pulled her back up to the surface. Still clutching her, I tried to lift her above the surface of the waves. To my horror and embarrassment, it was a gargantuan effort to support anyone but myself, and she was only a short woman.

  Still, my determination took over and I found a way to lift her. I was greatly tempted to carry her back to the ship, drop her down to the center of the deck, and then return to the mast and watch with satisfaction as the monsters ripped into her. For betraying Benjamin, that was the most fitting punishment that I could think of. Besides, I was feeling too lethargic and weak to keep struggling with the vampire myself. I wanted to hand her over to them and have them finish the job for me.

  Then there was the other girl with her… I wasn’t sure who she was, but she was clearly an accomplice. Maybe she deserved the same fate too. But she had swum further away, and as I hovered over the waves, I couldn’t spot her beneath the surface. I could always come back for her later. Julie was the main culprit. She was the one who was going to feel the bulk of my wrath.

  Perhaps it was all my pent-up emotions unleashing all at once in a flood—the grief, fear, hopelessness—but as I carried the flailing vampire toward that ship filled with monsters, something had snapped in me. I felt as bloodthirsty as those creatures.

  “No! Please, don’t!” Julie sobbed beneath me.

  I dug my nails spitefully into her ankle. “You’re going to regret what you did to Benjamin, you little bitch. And I’m going to enjoy every single second of it.”

  There wasn’t a single bit of mercy running through my veins as I arrived at the ship and floated with her higher, toward the spot where I’d been perched at the top of the mast. If I’d still been in full possession of my own powers, perhaps I might’ve concocted a worse way for her to suffer, and a more enjoyable one for me to watch… though I doubted it. But even if I could have, right now, my magic was faded and other than basic movement—which I struggled with considerably—there wasn’t much I could personally do to Julie that would be satisfying enough.

  I cast my eyes downward, scanning the deck that was now swarming with the pale monsters again. Their visit to this quiet little island had been brief. I’d watched them all pile off the ship and disappear into the trees, but I hadn’t found enough strength or willpower in myself to follow them. My mind had been rooted to the spot, grieving for my family. But then when the creatures had started to return, and I’d noticed Julie trying to escape in her little boat, a surge of adrenaline had jolted me to life, as though I’d just been electrocuted.

  Now the monsters were laying out their newly found victims in rows along the deck—the same way they’d positioned their previous catch. Though they had captured a number of vampires, I was shocked to see more than a few witches lying among them. Were these brutes really capable of overpowering witches? Wouldn’t the witches have just used their magic to blast them away? Or perhaps the monsters had taken them by surprise, crept up on them in their sleep and dug their vicious fangs into their necks. I guessed that was the more likely scenario—that the witches hadn’t even had a chance to retaliate before it was too late. Now that I looked more closely at the victims, the witches were quite still as they lay on the deck, with blood seeping from deep wounds in their necks. They were not displaying signs of consciousness—unlike the vampires who were groaning in pain and writhing about the wooden floorboards.

  With Julie still dangling and thrashing beneath me, I knew my hold on her couldn’t last much longer. As a vampire, she was strong, and although I still had a little strength left in me, it wasn’t enough to keep my grip on the little snake forever.

  As what appeared to be the last of the monsters ascended the ramp and arrived on board, I moved closer to the center of the ship where the crowd was thickest. Then, clearing my hoarse throat, I bellowed down, “Hey, folks!”

  Each pale face shot upward in unison.

  “No!” Julie screamed, her whole body shaking with hysteria. “Please, I beg of you!”

  My fingers loosened.

  I let go.

  She howled as she went plunging downward. But, to my dismay, she did not land where I had intended. The force of her flailing just before I’d let go of her caused her to swerve and miss the center of the crowd. Instead, she fell headfirst into a barrel of water.

  Still, it didn’t matter. The pale creatures had watched her dive, and were already lurching toward the barrel. One of them turned the barrel on its side, spilling out its water. Julie went skidding across the deck. She scrambled to her feet, gazing all around her in sheer panic. She had nowhere to run. She was surrounded by the monsters, and they were quickly closing in on her.

  Her gaze shot to the sails. I already knew what she was going to do. Dammit. She leapt upward just as one of the monsters reached out to grab her. She got scraped by his claws and only narrowly avoided his fangs aimed for her neck.

  I swooped down on her as she attempted to gain a stronger stance on a wooden boom. I grabbed the back of her neck and whacked her head down against the wood, attempting to bring her into submission. I felt ashamed of how much of a struggle it was to fight with her. If I’d had my powers working at full strength, those monsters would already be feastin
g on her by now.

  Just as I had detached her left hand from its hold and was on the verge of pulling away her right hand, a frigid breeze penetrated my skin. It was so piercing, it felt as though it reached through to my very bones.

  I sensed a presence. A cold, dark presence. A presence that made my stomach churn.

  I paused, momentarily forgetting my struggle with Julie and allowing her to regain her hold on the boom. I was too preoccupied by the vision unfolding before me on the deck. A strange black mist had settled over it, emerging from nowhere. It swirled and began forming a denser fog.

  Even the monsters became distracted from Julie. Those who’d been impatient for me to loosen Julie and drop her down to them had been on the verge of leaping up, but now the focus of each of them was on the black vapor. Their faces were blank as ever, though I could have sworn that I caught a glimpse of curiosity behind them.

  The black fog, now so thick that I could no longer see through it at all, took on a reddish tinge. Then came a bone-chilling voice. The voice of an Elder.

  “Children,” it hissed. It was addressing the monsters, I could only assume. Could they even understand it?

  The dark, fluid smoke dipped down and engulfed the nearest creature to it. The Elder is attempting to inhabit him. The monster let out a guttural snarl and began shaking his head violently from side to side. He dropped to the floorboards on all fours, arching his back like a cat, his hissing and snarling intensifying. A moment later, the Elder reappeared. The black fog drifted out from the body and floated upward. The Elder let out a long, agitated hiss. Its attempt to possess the monster had apparently gone in vain.

  There was a pause, and then the smoke moved down again, attempting to consume a different creature this time. But as before, the Elder was expelled after barely a few seconds had passed.

  Who was this Elder?

  Based on the noises it was making, it was growing more and more angry and frustrated. Then it stopped trying to enter the creatures’ bodies and instead drifted higher, until it arrived at Julie’s level. Just as I’d been frozen in my spot, Julie had also been gaping at the Elder. It would have been wiser for her to use this distraction to attempt to escape, but it seemed that she was too taken by the scene to think of it.

  Now that the Elder had arrived right next to her, her face grew paler than it already was, if that was even possible. She gaped at the Elder’s ethereal form.

  “Basilius?” Julie breathed.

  “You failed me, girl.” His voice turned to ice.

  “I-I’m sorry,” she stammered, her knuckles stark white as they gripped the boom.

  Basilius moved closer to her, and before she could even leap away, his mist enveloped her body. Her eyes bulged and her lips parted, shock flashing across her face. And then the Elder emerged again, almost as fast as he had apparently been forced to exit from the monsters beneath us. “You see,” Basilius continued, “the Novak boy was our only hope. He was the one I was meant to inhabit and now he is lost to us forever.”

  “What?” Julie and I gasped at once.

  “The vial,” he hissed. “He drank from the vial you left in his pocket. His body is now useless! He is dead!”

  Benjamin. Dead. The words hit me like a punch in the gut. My already wrecked heart had just been ripped further.

  And what vial? I hadn’t even been aware that Benjamin was carrying a vial. He’d never mentioned it to me… then again, he’d never talked to me much. He only ever spoke to me when he needed to.

  Did he really commit suicide?

  Despite the way he shoved aside my advances and made it painfully obvious that he neither liked me nor wanted me around, I couldn’t help but become attached to him during the time we spent together. I might have even loved him. Tears heated the corners of my already sore and bloodshot eyes.

  “You see that I cannot inhabit you—a regular vessel,” the Elder continued his chastisement of Julie. “Or even the Bloodless.”

  The Bloodless? I gazed back down over the pale creatures. That’s what the Elders call these things? I eyed their stark white skin. They certainly looked bloodless.

  “What are the Bloodless exactly?” Julie asked, feebly, jerking her head down toward the creatures who were still distracted, staring at the Elder.

  I wasn’t sure what made the Elders think that they could inhabit the Bloodless, if they weren’t even strong enough to inhabit regular vampires. If what Basilius had just told us was really true—that Benjamin was gone—this Elder was running only on the strength he’d built up during the time that he was able to gain sustenance from Benjamin’s blood consumption. I guessed that this leftover strength was the only reason that he was even able to travel to this ship. Evidently, they were desperate. They must have hoped that this strange species of monster would be easily inhabitable by them… their natures were certainly infused with the same evil.

  Now their hopes had been dashed to the ground. Whatever these dark creatures were, at least the Elders weren’t able to inhabit them. Due to Basilius’ bond with Benjamin, the Elder had been able to influence and gain strength from him, but with Benjamin dead, it seemed that the Elders truly had lost their final hope of a resurgence. For without vessels even one of them could inhabit, they had no means of procuring new blood or resuscitating themselves.

  “What are these creatures?” I asked the question a second time, for Basilius had still not answered Julie. Of course, the Elder had no reason to reply to a jinni, or to Julie, considering how angered he was by her. The fury in his voice was almost tangible. Julie was lucky that he was too weak to occupy her, otherwise I was sure that the punishment he would have meted out on her would have been hell. Maybe even on par with vampire-zombies ripping into her.

  Still, the question plagued my mind. What exactly are the Bloodless?

  The Elder refused to answer. With another hiss of frustration, he jerked away from Julie and began whirling round and round the ship before he vanished. Almost instantly the temperature became warmer again, and the pleasant, mild breeze returned. As though someone had just flicked a switch, Julie, the monsters and I resumed the positions we’d been in before the Elder’s interruption had paused time.

  Julie began to scramble further up the mast, away from the Bloodless below as they once again set their dull eyes on her. I hurried toward her. Grabbing hold of her arm, I slowed her down in her ascent.

  “No! Aisha, listen to me. Please, you must! I-It’s what Benjamin would’ve wanted.”

  Playing the Benjamin card was the very worst thing she could have done. My fury reached a boiling point. Raising my hand, I backhanded her in the face. “How dare you even utter his name!” I seethed.

  “Unless we do something about this infestation, it is going to spread!” Julie panted, her eyes wild and desperate. “We’re the only people who know about them, the only people who are here…” Her voice trailed off as one of the Bloodless reached her level on the mast. Kicking hard, with one swift motion she dove off the ship and landed with a splash in the waves. I shared a grunt of frustration with the Bloodless who’d just swung for her and followed her down as the rest of the monsters also corrected course.

  Hovering over the foaming waves, I plunged my hand into the water and caught her ankle before she could get too deep. I tugged her up to the surface. Gripping her by the shoulders, I hauled her into the air.

  “Aisha,” she gasped. “The Bloodless are going to continue to multiply. What don’t you understand about that? We’re the only witnesses alive who can do anything about it. Please, we need to work together, at least until we’ve gotten rid of them. If we let them go, the supernatural realm is going to become flooded with these monsters! We have a responsibility!”

  I didn’t trust a word coming out of her lips. Yes, we were the only ones around with the power to do something about this before they expanded further—which did seem to be their plan—but I didn’t believe for a moment that even a single bone in her body was genuinely concern
ed for the wellbeing of her fellow residents of the supernatural realm. Not after she had so viciously betrayed Benjamin. This was just a pathetic attempt to save her neck, and citing our responsibility to deal with these monsters was nothing but an excuse to delay her demise.

  She squirmed harder as I dragged her back toward the ship.

  “Please, Aisha! These creatures are dangerous not only to vampires. Didn’t you see that they killed dozens of witches? What’s to say they’re not a threat to jinn too? We need to—”

  “There is no we,” I growled. “Even if I wanted to spend my time acting for the greater good of our supernatural realm, I don’t need your help. I can do it by myself.”

  Of course, that wasn’t entirely true. In fact, not really true at all. I could manage basic movement, and could just about carry Julie because she was only small and light in weight—although even that was a struggle when she squirmed fiercely—but taking on an entire ship filled with these creatures would be too strenuous without command of my full powers. Julie would have been of use, in fact, but I would sooner see the entire supernatural realm infested with these nightmarish creatures than accept this wench’s offer of help.

  “Aisha, I’m sorry,” she continued to plead shamelessly.

  “Oh, I’m certain that you’re sorry. And you’re about to become a lot sorrier.”

  “Two wrongs don’t make a right!”

  “My math works differently.”

  “No! Please, let her go!” a female voice shrilled behind us.

  Annoyed by yet another distraction, I turned to see the girl who had been traveling with Julie in the boat before she’d jumped into the waves and escaped from my sight. Now she swam toward us in the ocean, terror gleaming in her eyes as she looked from Julie to me.

  “Please,” she said frantically. “Have mercy. Don’t kill Julie. I can’t survive without her. I’ve lost everyone!”