by Eva Muñoz
The idea of eating pus-riddled flesh caused bile to rise up my throat. I swallowed. That was just beyond gross.
“In an unprecedented move, the Traditionalists and Reformists gathered to find a solution,” he continued. “Some suggested rounding up as many healthy humans as possible and breeding them like livestock. A solution that was considered for a while, but it meant feeding the humans, and that was difficult to do when our own people were starving. And to wait for humans to breed was unbearable.”
“Then what?”
“Bickering began.” A muscle on his cheek twitched. “Soon reports of Inshari turning into cannibals reached the palace. The Serfs who were living at the edge of the city received flesh rations last.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Hunger brings out the animal in anyone.”
I shuddered.
“The Excelsior at the time—”
“Why don’t you say ‘Hail Excelsior’?” I interrupted.
“We don’t acknowledge exiled rulers.”
“Why was he exiled?”
“That’s unimportant.” He took a sip from his own goblet, his skin looking paler than usual. “You have to understand that because of the bubonic plague, flesh was forbidden. And we worked tirelessly to find a substitute.”
I popped a cube into my mouth. “Yusha.”
“Correct.” He regarded the cubes with a certain wretchedness I couldn’t quite understand.
“This experiment… where does it all fit in?” I asked. “Your family’s in danger because you did this to me, right?”
“How’d you know about that?”
“The afternoon I was supposed to stay in my room, I went back to the throne room. Darius and Troyan were talking about the Traditionalists getting their way, and that your experiment endangers everyone. What is this all about, Gaige? Why did you need me?”
Gaige sighed. “Have you ever tried being a vegetarian?”
“How does that—”
“Just answer the question.”
I shook my head.
“Ever deprived yourself of anything?”
“You mean you want to eat humans again?”
Gaige pinched a cube of yusha between his thumb and index finger and examined it like a precious stone. “Our society is dying, Camron.”
“Dying? How can a long-lived creature be dying?”
“The average lifespan of Inshari is three thousand years. That’s sixty in human years. One human year is fifty in Inshari. Now, I know that this is a long time to live, and why would I be worried about our race dying?” His brows knotted. “We are sick.” He handed the cube he held to me. “And this is what’s making us sick.”
I frowned. “The yusha?”
“We try to mimic the nutrients found in human tissue. Apparently, the chemicals we ingest are killing us. It took me five hundred years to notice. There is a rapid degeneration that is caused by the yusha and the other genetically engineered fruits and vegetables. And pig’s flesh is more like junk food to us, which isn’t healthy either. We’re becoming what the real definition of a vampire is. Corpses that feed to stay alive.”
“Your father….” I suddenly found myself unable to swallow. “Darius… I saw him,” I whispered.
“What?” Gaige squeezed my hand. “What did you see?”
“When I snuck back to the throne room, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because when I left him, he looked so healthy. Not ten minutes later, he looked desiccated. His skin was all wrinkly and dry.” I shook my head in disbelief. “Then he took a deep breath and was normal again.”
Gaige let go of my hand. “What you saw is the middle stages of the disease.” He rolled up his sleeve and showed me his arm.
I stared at the smooth skin slowly dry out and then wrinkle. “Gaige?”
He took a deep breath and the skin became smooth again. He rolled down his sleeve. “Since my father is older, it takes him a while to heal from the ravages of the disease.”
“Why don’t you stop eating the yusha, then?” Panic entered my voice.
“That would mean we’d have to….”
“Eat humans. Who knows about this? Troyan? Zaire?”
“I haven’t told anyone. Nobody even knows what this experiment is really about, and I’m running out of time. I can’t contain the disease with the booster shots anymore.”
I felt my eyes grow wide. “You mean to tell me you’ve been trying to cure what the yusha is doing with synthesized blood?”
“Not cure. Slow down.”
“Then why am I here? Why did you turn me into one of you?” I looked at the half-empty bowl. My stomach twisted. “Damn it, you fed me those!”
“Calm down.” Gaige raised his hands. “It takes years of consuming yusha to feel its effects. What I’m trying to do is to find a way to—”
“Turn humans into Inshari,” I interjected.
“The opposite.”
“You want to turn into humans?”
Gaige tossed another cube into his mouth as if he hadn’t just told me it was killing him. “If I can turn our population into humans, then we wouldn’t need to consume humans anymore. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
I sipped from the goblet and let the water cool my dry throat. “Why experiment on a human first? Can’t you use an Inshari?”
“It’s easier to manipulate a human’s physiology.”
“I don’t know if I should be insulted for all humankind right now.”
“Also, there’s the healing to consider. A high metabolic rate is another. I need a formula that’s already perfectly calibrated to Inshari physiology for it to work.”
“How do you know when you’re there?”
“I’m not there yet.” He gave me a pointed look.
“Then how are you keeping all of this a secret? I’m sure there have been deaths already. How do you explain the bodies?” I asked, not knowing whether I should be impressed or disturbed.
He shrugged. “I infected some Serfs with a new strain of the bubonic plague that mimics the degeneration caused by the yusha. It’s less lethal and one that a booster shot of our blood could easily eradicate. I’ve been experimenting with it since the 1940s.”
“You what?”
“I infected—”
I waved away his words. “You already said that. But why?”
“Oh.” Eagerness oozed out of him. “That’s so I could issue a public warning and periodically inject everyone with the synthesized blood. This way no one questions the biyearly inoculation.”
I had to admit, Gaige’s plan was ingenious. Create a diversion by releasing a disease that the Inshari were afraid of to distract them from the real disease killing them, then give them a shot that would not only kill the distraction, but also keep them alive long enough for Gaige to find a real solution. Huh. And I thought I’d been kidding with the whole mad scientist label.
Then what Zaire said in passing while at the market jogged my memory. “What about the miscarriages, Gaige? How are you explaining those away?”
“Camron, I’m sorry,” he said. “If I don’t conduct these tests on you, I wouldn’t be able to calibrate the formula. And if I don’t calibrate the formula in time….”
“You all die,” I answered in a daze.
“Or the Traditionalists get their way and we’ll start consuming people again. It’s the death of our race versus the subjugation of yours. That, and it might take a month or even another five hundred years for the effects of the yusha to reverse. I have no way of knowing.”
The responsibility on my shoulders seemed more real than ever. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the enormity of the task ahead of us. If I didn’t help Gaige, I might as well sign everyone’s death warrants. I certainly didn’t want to condemn the human race to a life of being livestock to the Inshari.
I inhaled and a thought hit me. “Gaige, why don’t you smell?”
He let out a nervous laugh. “What do you mean?”
&nbs
p; “Exactly what I asked.” I looked him in the eye. “The Inshari I’ve met have a distinct scent.” I moved closer and took a whiff. “You don’t smell like anything.”
“All Inshari have a unique scent signature.” He paused, clasping his hands together to hide the shaking. “When we are dying, we slowly lose that scent.”
“Oh, Gaige.” I leaned closer to him. “Can’t you do anything? Stop eating the yusha?”
He shook his head. “I need to monitor the degeneration process.”
“You’re not taking the shots?”
“Camron,” he said, then sighed.
“Gaige!” I stood and towered over him. “Why are you doing this? What happens if you die? Who will save your people?”
“Camron!” He pulled me down. “Will you keep quiet? I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” I said. “That’s why you’re paler than the others. This is insane!”
“I’m young, so my healing capabilities can still handle the disease.” He tried to smile but failed. “I would love to debate my health with you longer, but as I said, we don’t have the luxury of time. Now, I think we should start the second round of tests. Shall we?”
Chapter Sixteen: Confrontation
FOR THE rest of the day, I endured all of Gaige’s tests. His recent revelations about the disease ravaging the Inshari population forced thoughts of my mother to the forefront of my mind. I wished someone like Gaige had worked hard enough to save her.
Gaige’s dedication strengthened my resolve to help him. Not once did I see the vulnerability he had shown when I discovered he hadn’t been taking the shots. He kept going, only taking a deep breath now and again, which told me he had been healing himself. I didn’t complain; however, I did have questions like: Is this safe? I won’t drown? I can walk through that? I won’t get electrocuted? I won’t fall? Questions normal people asked when faced with potentially life-threatening tasks.
By the end of the day, I still had energy to spare. The booster shot he had given me earlier kept me energized and strong. Gaige’s assistants, all bound by the Silence in the effort to keep his experiments confidential, gave me encouraging smiles. They sometimes cheered me on.
“Can I go someplace where I can breathe? Please, Gaige? I’m feeling closed in,” I said when I finished the last of his tests.
His eyes shined with mischief. “I have a place. This way,” he said.
After two left turns and a right, Gaige opened doors to a garden bursting to the seams with color. Roses and lilies and orchids grew everywhere, alongside exotic plants I didn’t recognize. A fluorescent green moss covering the roots gave the purple-leafed willow a phosphorescent glow. On the bark of a maple clung electric azure orchids and climbing red ivy with yellow thorns.
“You have a garden,” I said in awe.
“Yup.” He popped the p.
I stepped out, the crisp blades of grass crunching beneath my shoes, and moved to the small pond. Gaige mumbled something about having results to correlate and that he would pick me up in a couple of hours before he left. I turned in a tight circle. I had done my part in his experiment. Unless he needed something else, I saw myself as officially off the clock for the day.
I spotted a bright pink lily floating on an orange pad near the edge of the pond. I dropped to my knees and reached for it. Its texture was like a cat’s tongue. Sitting on my haunches, I took my first deep breath of the day.
Tension knotted my shoulders and every other muscle ached. I was happy I was able to help the Inshari in some way. A sense of purpose filled me, playing a role in what might be a cure for this fascinating vampire race.
The sound of light steps, clinking chains, and a rustling skirt came from behind me and interrupted my thoughts. I stood up and dusted off my tracksuit pants.
“You,” said a soft feminine voice I recognized.
“Hello, Beatrix.” I faced her. I kept my muscles tense and my stance wide in case she decided to pounce. With Beatrix, a fight didn’t seem farfetched.
She raised a hand to her mouth, shocked. “You’re really here.”
My lips twisted into a scowl. “Don’t even try faking it. I know you recognized me when I came to your class.”
“Well, I hadn’t seen you since, so I couldn’t be sure.”
Her calm, almost friendly tone surprised me. I thought she’d hunted me down to make good on her threat to kill me. Embarrassment puffed my cheeks.
“About what I said in class—”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she cut me off. “No one pays attention to the hysterical outburst of a new student. It did fuel some rumors, though.”
Dread chilled my skin, like a gust of winter wind. “What rumors?”
“Oh, it’s not uncommon for those of the upper classes to make pets of those coming from lesser stations. Troyan mentioned something about you being a silk merchant’s son from the north?” She tsked. “I know the truth, of course. Just can’t say anything about it.”
I suppressed the need to exhale in relief. I didn’t know whether to be glad or insulted. Glad because the rumors of a human in the colony hadn’t resulted from my inability to keep my mouth shut. Insulted because the Inshari thought I was Zaire’s pet.
“Wait,” Beatrix said. She sniffed the air and her eyes grew wide. “You’re different.”
I scratched my eyebrow with my thumb. “I’m getting that a lot lately.”
“You look different.” She circled me, a shark in the water. “You smell different.”
“Like what?” I stifled the urge to recoil from her nearness.
“Vanilla.” She stopped in front of me. “What do I smell like to you?”
I inhaled. “Lilac.”
She clapped her hands. “Very good. What happened to you? You don’t seem human anymore. At least, you don’t smell like one, that’s for sure.”
Her smile shocked me. It looked genuine and actually warm. “Where did the girl who threatened to kill me go?”
She laughed—a tinkling sound that reminded me of sleigh bells.
“Did I say something funny?”
“I’m sorry about that,” she said after she regained her composure.
“You’re….” I couldn’t form the rest of the sentence, too dumbfounded to think.
“I’m sorry,” she finished for me.
I thought about the night we first met and something occurred to me. “If Inshari are fast, why did you slow your pace when you were running after me? You could have caught up in a second.”
She blushed. “Oh, I wanted you to feel hunted, that’s all. I thought you were out to get Troyan. I’m his fiancée, you see. And I feel a little protective about my claim to him.”
“Zaire told me.” I paused. “About the engagement, I mean.”
She wrinkled her nose. “What are you doing hanging out with that disgrace anyway? Nothing good will come of it.”
“Right.” My gaze fell to the grass, and I kicked at an imaginary pebble. “You seem like you’re in a good mood—”
“You see it?” She twirled in a circle with a beaming smile on her face. “I thought Troyan had been ignoring me of late, but I was wrong. He spoke to me before he entered Assembly today. We made plans for this evening. I was so wrong to doubt his loyalty. When I asked him about you, he shrugged.”
Ugly jealousy replaced my earlier unease.
Beatrix giggled. “He wants to spend his free time with me now. I should have known he wouldn’t want anything to do with someone like you.”
“Have you bitten him?” The question came out before I could censor it.
She stopped midtwirl and regarded me with suspicion. “How do you know about that?”
“Since you said you’re his fiancée, I just wondered if you’ve already forged a connection with him.”
Where the hell was I going with this? Why was I baiting her? Her words annoyed me so much that I was seeing red. I wanted to wipe that self-satisfied smirk off her pretty face.
&nb
sp; “I’m going to repeat myself one more time.” Heat entered her words. “How do you know about that?”
Casually, I said, “Oh, maybe because I bit him.”
Beatrix’s features contorted into pure rage. She let out a blood-curdling snarl and charged me. I matched her snarl and lunged. I grabbed her wrists and pulled her into a head-butt. She staggered back. She rubbed her forehead and stared at the grass as if puzzling over what had happened.
“How dare you bite him!” she said.
“Jealous?” I taunted.
She cartwheeled and landed a solid blow with her heel on my shoulder. My bones rattled. I seized her arm and took her with me as I whirled in a circle several times. I let go and Beatrix collided with the willow tree.
Adrenaline coursed through my veins like wildfire. “Is that all you’ve got?”
No sooner had my words left my mouth than Beatrix’s fist buried itself into my gut. I doubled over and groaned. She clutched the sides of my head and rammed her knee into my face, breaking my nose. I grunted and spat out the blood that flooded my mouth. I lifted my fists to defend against any more blows.
Beatrix admired her handiwork. “How does that feel?”
I wiped away the rest of the blood on my lips and chin with the back of my hand, nose already healed.
Beatrix took hold of my arm and yanked hard, throwing me over her shoulder like a judo master. All the air exploded out of my lungs when I landed. Uncontrollable coughs racked my body. Every breath burned. Tears blurred my vision.
I rolled onto all fours and wobbled to my feet. Somewhere, Beatrix laughed. But before I could orient myself, she came at me and shoved me forward until I slammed into the maple tree. Hand-shaped leaves rained around us. What little air I had in my lungs puffed out again. She sneered with satisfaction, which made her face look like a cat’s when it hissed—all teeth and wrinkled nose.
