“We lost a member of our coven recently,” he said. “He used to live over there. You can have his place now.”

“What happened to him?” I asked.

“He tempted fate. Got drunk out of his mind one night, ended up leaving our base and wandering around outside in the desert… You see, our witches have secured this place from the hunters. But the protective boundary only stretches so far around The Oasis. This vampire was foolish enough to step outside of it. Hunters are notorious for having people positioned around this area. Our coven has annoyed them too many times for them to give us an easy ride anymore. So let that be a lesson to you. Don’t go more than five miles from this place if you want to avoid being burned from the inside by a hunter’s bullet.”

“Thanks for the tip,” I said grimly.

We arrived outside the door to the apartment. It wasn’t locked, so Jeramiah pushed it right open. He switched on the lights to reveal an apartment very much like his own. He took me on a short tour, showing me the master bedroom, two smaller bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large kitchen, a sitting room, servant quarters right at the back, and to my surprise a sauna—at least, it looked like a sauna.

He noticed my confusion as I looked at the wooden room.

“Yes, this is what it looks like. A sauna. Just a basic courtesy for the half-bloods living among us. Since they are not fully vampires and only display partial symptoms, being cold all the time can become uncomfortable. Saunas help to ease some of the discomfort.”

“I see. Well, I won’t need any half-bloods in my quarters,” I said.

Jeramiah gave me an odd look, holding my gaze for a moment, before shrugging. “As you wish… I’ll leave you now. Have a good rest.”

I saw him to the door and closed it as he left. I leaned back against the wall, taking in the atmosphere of the apartment. There was a subtle aroma of sandalwood in the air—incense perhaps. I walked into the master bedroom. One entire wall was taken up by the mural of an exotic-looking beach. I smiled bitterly. It reminded me of my mother’s Sun Room. How far away I am from there now…

I headed into the en suite bathroom, turning on the golden taps and relishing the cool water. I raised my head and stared at myself in the mirror. My eyes weren’t pitch black as they had been, but they were still a much darker shade of green than usual. Hopefully, if I was able to abstain from killing, they would return to their usual lighter color.

Jeramiah was right about me looking like I needed rest. Still, I had no desire to even try sleeping. I stripped out of my soiled clothes and stepped into the shower. The water gushed down onto my back, soothing me like a massage. I still couldn’t get over the facilities of this place. How lush it felt. I never would’ve dreamed in a million years that we were in the middle of the desert. They certainly wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without the witches. I wondered how they had gotten them on their side to begin with and how many were here altogether. I had only seen one so far—Amaya.

I reached for one of the soft white towels hanging on the rack and dried myself. Wrapping the towel around my waist, I headed back into the bedroom. Opening one of the cupboards, I found a pile of clean cotton pants and shirts. I pulled one of each off the shelf and dressed, then sat down on the bed directly opposite the mural. I stared at it, my vision unfocused.

I just have to keep my head down and wait this out. At least I won’t cause any more harm to anyone while staying here.

Chapter 19: Ben

I passed the next several hours lying on my back, staring up at the ceiling.

I replayed everything that had happened since I had left The Shade over and over in my mind, trying to make sense of my behavior—why I couldn’t have just transformed like every other vampire in The Shade.

It was a relief that at least I was able to think straight. Those hours I had spent in the submarine, submerged in darkness, had been one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. It had been like being on a trip I’d feared I would never come down from.

It had been a while now since I had killed someone. I could only assume that my theory was correct—blood in itself didn’t bring about that extreme reaction in me. It was the actual killing, giving into my urge to claim life. To consume. To devour.

I wondered what was going on in The Shade now, whether Rose had returned, and what was happening with the black witches. Whatever the island was going through, I knew that my parents and my people were better off without me. I would only be adding risk to an already treacherous situation.

I still didn’t know exactly what Jeramiah wanted me for. He had said that I would be useful in half-turning humans. I would have to explain to him that the only way I could half-turn a human was if he or she was sick. There was no way I would agree to touch a healthy one. I didn’t trust myself to not kill the human in an instant.

Yet I wasn’t sure that half-turning humans was truly why Jeramiah had shown interest in me. Michael, Jeramiah’s comrade whom I’d met back in Chile when I’d first come across them, had said that if they needed newly turned vampires to create half-bloods, they could just create a new vampire themselves. Besides, I wouldn’t be newly turned for long. A fair amount of time had already passed.

But whatever Jeramiah’s true intentions were, there was no point in reading too much into them now. I just had to watch my back and keep to myself as much as possible. Hopefully I would feel in a fit state to return to The Shade sooner rather than later.