Somehow, he had to decide to abandon me.

I had to make things so difficult and uncomfortable for this spirit that he chose to do so of his own accord.

I racked my brain as to what I could possibly do to bring this about. Each time, the idea I came back to was… Starvation. It was the only logical thing I could think of. The reason he had bonded with me to begin with was to use me for blood. If I didn’t give him what he wanted, what reason would he have to stay within me? I had no idea whether it would work, but at this point, I’d crossed the brink of desperation. There was nothing else on the table, and no hope of any other idea coming soon, so I had no choice but to attempt it.

Brushing the golden snake band around my wrist, I summoned Nuriya to me once again. There was a look of relief and trepidation on her face.

“What have you decided?” she asked.

“I need you to take me far away from any humans, preferably still somewhere underground, and lock me up. You will leave me, and if I summon you and ask you to give me human blood, you’re not to give it to me.”

She hesitated. “For how long will you stay away?”

I gritted my teeth. As long as it takes. “I don’t know,” I replied.

“Have you thought about the effect starving yourself might have on you?”

I nodded, even though I hadn’t been able to think about it. I wasn’t sure what effect starvation had on vampires… But now it seemed I had no choice but to find out.

“Well, I’m not comfortable about my child going hungry,” Nuriya said, “but if you really want to try this… I know somewhere I can take you. It’s in the desert, many miles away from here. A little hideout I created underground for myself—I still go there every now and then when I want time alone.”

“Perfect,” I said.

“Do you want to leave now?”

“Yes. Now.”

A few moments later, I found myself standing with Nuriya in a spacious room tiled with black marble. There was a deep red rug in the center, a bed in one corner, and a sitting area with shelves filled with books of some kind. There was also a desk and chair, and even a small dining table for two.

“The bathroom is through there,” she said, pointing to a door behind me.

I breathed in, pleased by what I sensed. It seemed that we were very far away from any humans—I couldn’t detect even the slightest trace of human blood, unlike in the jinn’s atrium where the prison was situated just above it.

“This will do fine,” I said.

“There are some books over there, some of them in English,” she said. “But I’m not sure what else you’ll do to entertain yourself all day.”

As the hunger pangs in my stomach intensified, the very last thing on my mind was entertaining myself. I just needed to survive.

Nuriya kissed the top of my head. “Goodbye, Benjamin.”

“Remember,” I said, looking at her sternly, “no blood—no matter how much I beg.”

She appeared reluctant, and something told me that she might even disobey my request and come to spy on me to check that I was still holding up. That I didn’t mind so much, as long as she didn’t do anything to jeopardize my fast.

Humans could survive for weeks without food; I was about to find out how long a vampire could live without blood. But one thing I did know was that I had to push myself to the very edge—perhaps even past it—if I stood any chance of getting rid of this Elder. That was why I couldn’t afford to be interrupted. I had to try to weaken him again after all the blood I’d fed him since I’d turned into a vampire. I had to try to make him feel a sense of hopelessness—that I might never drink blood again, and would prefer to starve myself to death rather than keep nourishing him.

Nuriya disappeared, and I found myself standing alone in the center of that large room. It felt like I was in possession of a deadly virus. I just had to contain myself. Keep myself away from everyone. And try to stamp it out before I could infect the rest of the world with it.

I walked over to the bookshelf and pulled down an armful of the English titles that I saw stacked there before taking a seat in an armchair. They were novels mostly—old classics. I wasn’t sure where Nuriya had gotten these from—I was surprised that she even read human literature. But whatever the case, I was glad to have books for company.

I looked over the books, wondering which to start with. My eyes fell on Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. A fitting title. I ended up choosing something else and spent the next few hours reading—or at least, what felt like the next few hours. There was no clock in this place, which I was thankful for. Keeping track of time would only make the experience more agonizing.

If this ended up being successful, and the Elder did decide to leave me, I didn’t know how I would be certain of it without a glass of animal blood to try… I’d never experienced what it was like to be a normal, non-possessed vampire. But I suspected that I would feel the difference in my bones.

But I couldn’t allow myself to get my hopes up too much. So I tried to shut down my mind and immerse myself in the book in my lap.

As time drew on, however, my concentration dimmed, the hunger in my stomach beginning to roar too loudly for me to keep ignoring. It had been less than two days since I’d last tasted blood. I hadn’t even been fasting long. I’d never had reason to starve myself before, but I was sure that humans didn’t feel this much discomfort when fasting from food. It seemed that vampires abstaining from blood was far more painful.