by Brandon Witt
“Of course I will go with you.” She wanted to ask him why. It was no secret that Gwala loved being at sea, both during the night and much of the day, and that he wanted to be there alone. A part of her briefly wondered if she’d done something that offended him. She quickly rejected the thought. She knew him well enough to know that if she’d done something wrong, the consequence would be violent and public.
“Thank you, my dear. Tonight is a special night.”
Fifteen
SONIA LIU
The warm night breeze lifted Sonia’s long black hair, the speed of the yacht causing it to whip about her face. Lifting her arms, she reached back, twisting it into a loose knot at the base of her neck.
She felt Gwala’s gaze on her, and she turned her attention from the lights along the coast. “I cannot imagine an instance in which your beauty is lessened. Your hair is beyond compare.”
Message received. Shoving away her spike of anger before it could be seen, she loosened the knot, her hair once again free to thrash about as the boat cut through the waves. As soon as she destroyed her nemesis, she would chop her hair off before she met the sun. Maybe tie it with a scarlet ribbon and leave it on Gwala’s throne as a parting gift.
The Vampire King had already turned his gaze to the water, seeming to search beneath the ocean’s surface. “In all my years, I have seen humankind concoct many things that have made an unending life ever more glorious. I believe the best thing they have done has been their invention of boats.” He let a girlish chuckle escape. “Of course, even in my human life, there were boats, but when you compare them with this”—he looked over, spreading his arms, encompassing the breadth of the yacht—“they hardly deserve to be called the same thing.”
Sonia didn’t reply—no reason to. If Gwala needed her to speak, he would make it clear. Right now, it was his own voice he needed to hear proclaiming his greatness.
“This piece of art was designed by Fincantieri. Even with all the power my new warlock possesses, it is nothing compared to the magic that humans wielded to create this beauty.” His eyes traveled along the seamless curves of the ship.
The stainless-steel boat was beautiful but looked more like a narrow spacecraft than it did a ship.
They continued to fly through the water, going back and forth between traveling farther out to sea, then coming in closer to the coast once more. All the while, Gwala scanned the ocean, rarely looking up at the coastline or the sky.
He finally looked away from the water, his face moist with spray. “I’ve decided something.” Another twittering chortle. “In honesty, I decided the moment I saw you. You know how it is. Time is meaningless to a vampire. I suppose I should have told you that night, but I wanted the choice to be yours. Give you time to know what it means for me to make such a request. I did not mean to wait this long, but as I said, time has no meaning anyway.” Something from the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he jerked his head back down, scanning the water.
Sonia thought she knew what he was going to demand. She was surprised she hadn’t thought of it until now. It made sense. He’d all but claimed her that first night, and he was constantly confusing her with Menos’s memory. A memory that lingered over thousands of years. A memory that perhaps seemed like only yesterday to Gwala. The sensation of time hadn’t changed yet for Sonia, save for the shift of only being in the moonlight. She tried to conjure some sort of feeling. Surely even vampires felt some emotion when something so momentous happened. She felt nothing. Maybe something was wrong with her. Maybe her sire had done something wrong.
Gwala’s brow was furrowed when he looked back at her. He was definitely searching for something in the water and not finding it. “My dear Sonia, you are to be my queen. I have reigned in solitude too long. You have reminded me what companionship feels like.”
He reached out, his young fingers gathering her hair from the wind and stroking it. As his hand lowered down its length, he watched in fascination as the breeze caught the strands and began to thrash them around Sonia’s face. “So different from Menos, yet there is so much of her in you. I believe she has returned to me in a different form.” His gaze wondered off into the distance, unfocused over Sonia’s shoulder, lost in a world so many centuries ago.
His hands continued to stroke her hair and face as he considered the past. Queen. Exactly what she’d expected. And like she’d known, it was no more of a request than when the redheaded vampire had savaged her. Different method, same result. Her life, her body wasn’t her own.
Queen. Sonia actually had to refrain from letting her lips curve into a smile. This time, it was on her terms. She would allow Gwala to choose the events of her life, whether they be making her queen, mating her, or feeding from her. For now. This was her choice. She had no delusions that she was more powerful than Gwala or that she could kill him, but this was her choice. There would be a day, when the time was right, when events lined up, that she would have her freedom. Freedom to kill her sire, freedom to leave Gwala and his impotent adoration. She would play her part until it suited her, no more. For a second time she had to curb the grin from forming. Apparently she could feel something.
“Have I told you that Menos was the reason I am king?” His eyes refocused on her suddenly.
Sonia started to shake her head and reply, but it wasn’t needed. It still wasn’t her voice Gwala needed to hear.
“She was the first vampire I told. The first vampire I changed.” His proud expression told her he was ready for her adoration.
Sonia tried, she really did. Maybe she truly had been made wrong. The closest thing she could come up with was curiosity. “Menos was the first human you changed into a vampire?”
He made a face. “Of course not. In all my years, I have yet to see a human that I felt the desire to give immortality. I dare say, even if I had seen you or Menos as a human, I would not have seen the qualities that I admire in you as a vampire.” He shrugged, sluffing off their shortcomings. He drew his face closer to hers, eyes narrowed. “No, not changed from human to vampire. The true change.”
Sonia hesitated, uncertain if she should question or just wait.
“Can it be? Is it really possible that my brilliant Sonia has not figured out the secret? Even more shocking, unaware that there is a secret to uncover?”
For a moment, Sonia thought she was on dangerous ground, that he’d found a flaw. She braced to throw herself overboard. She would not die on his terms. Before she made any motion she would regret, Sonia realized there was pleasure in his expression. Of course, he was enjoying feeling superior.
“Have you not been aware that the Royals walk in the light, where the rest of the lowly vampires hide from the power of sun?”
“Yes, master, I have noticed there are two breeds of vampire.” She barely kept the sarcasm out of her voice. Like she could have missed that tiny difference, especially since she was stuck in the night. Regardless, it was always best to stroke Gwala’s ego whenever possible. “I have known that I am not equal to the more evolved vampires, such as yourself.”
He smiled and nodded approvingly. “Is that what you’ve attributed the difference to? That we’ve evolved into two separate species? Evolution. Interesting theory. You are as intelligent as you are beautiful.”
That wasn’t exactly what she’d meant. Evolved, yes. Two separate species, no. Sonia had assumed the sensitivity to sun lessened over the centuries until it held no more danger. “Yes, my king. We were not all created with your superior genetics.” At first, Sonia had been afraid such obvious flattery would backfire, but it always seemed to be accepted greedily.
“While a good theory, my beauty, no. We are not two separate species. There has been no evolution. That is the one drawback to vampirism. We do not change. We do not evolve. Although, I suppose that is also our strength.”
Sonia waited, surprised she actually was experiencing a modicum of curiosity. Suddenly she realized he was waiting on her, expecting her to take more of a
part than normal. “If it isn’t evolution, what is the difference between us?”
Gwala smiled and looked over toward the center of the ship. “Christopher!”
A skinny vampire exited a door that Sonia assumed was the control center of the boat. He made his way toward the couple, his twiglike legs surprisingly nimble and swift. It was taking Sonia a while, even submerged in the Vampire Cathedral, to not expect vampires to move how their human-looking bodies suggested they would.
Christopher bowed deeply to Gwala and then offered another bow to Sonia. He was the first to bow to her. Maybe he’d heard the conversation with his enhanced hearing, or maybe he was just covering his bases.
The gesture went unobserved by Gwala. “I trust Charity can steer the yacht without your assistance?”
“Yes, master.”
“Very well. You keep watch, while she continues to pilot the ship. The queen and I are going to speak in private.”
Christopher bowed low once more.
Gwala looked over his shoulder, addressing the frail vampire, as he took Sonia by the elbow and maneuvered her across the surface of the ship. “If you are successful, I may let you have a taste.”
Sonia missed the expression of unadulterated hope that crossed the vampire’s face. Turning away from the king and his newly appointed queen, Christopher took their abandoned spot at the bow.
Sonia was definitely experiencing curiosity. So much so that some of her constant turmoil was alleviated, or at least suppressed for the time being. Though she waited for him to speak, she didn’t take in any of their lavish surroundings as they entered a large room and took their places on a white leather sofa. The space looked like the penthouse of a New York high-rise. All modern, open design. Lots of wood, metal, glass, and leather. Three-fourths of the walls were solid windows, the lights of the shoreline twinkling on the port side. The starboard showed nothing but sea and stars.
When Sonia addressed him, she wasn’t even trying to offer flattery. Truth be told, it took effort to keep her voice steady and not betray too much interest. “If the divergence that enables you and the other Royals to walk in the sun is not evolution, what is the difference?”
Though she half expected him to make her guess, he settled back against the firm cushions. Part of her curiosity diminished at his storytelling mode. The only thing Gwala seemed to enjoy more than young flesh was talking about himself. While his first words confirmed her fear that he wasn’t going to say anything more useful than his typical self-indulgent drivel, he soon was weaving a tale that didn’t require Sonia to fake emotion as she leaned forward, her elbows supporting her weight on her knees, long black hair falling around her.
“I was the only sun-walker for over a thousand years. I will be honest, as I told Menos, the discovery was pure chance. One that saved my life. I’d been a vampire for three centuries. I enjoyed the perks of immortality and strength, but life wasn’t much better at that point in our history than it was for humans. It was just a normal night’s hunt that changed everything. It was a night much like this. I’d been in the sea, swimming on the currents. As was typical, I hated returning to the vampires’ horrid little cave to hide during the daylight hours. I’d procrastinated and was in danger of being caught out in the sun. It was then I heard her voice, if you can call it a voice. A sound I’d never heard before. She’d crashed up on the rock and sustained some sort of injury. Like her voice, her blood smelled as nothing I’d experienced. It was this glistening angel that changed not only my fate, but that of the entire vampire species.”
“You keep saying she. Who was she?”
Gwala smiled at her genuine enthusiasm for his tale. “A mermaid.”
Sonia flinched, dissolving the entrancing spell he’d been weaving. “A mermaid?” She broke his gaze and looked out the window, searching the stars reflected over the surface of the lulling waves. She nearly asked him if he was kidding but stopped herself. In their two months together, she’d never heard him even hint at the ability of humor. If Gwala said mermaid, he meant mermaid. “I didn’t know mermaids actually existed.”
“Were you aware of vampires before you became one, my dear?”
Sonia shook her head.
He nodded. “Exactly. Not even other supernatural species believe in mermaids. Not any longer. Which is how it should be. Not even other vampires, for that matter. Only Royals. Even the vampires within the Cathedral do not speak of mermaids—save for Christopher and Charity, who hunt for them. The penalty for a Royal who speaks of mermaids to a non-Royal vampire is death. The same will be true for you, my queen. You must not mention their existence to any of the lower vampires within the Cathedral.”
Like she ever said anything to any of the vampires. “But I’m not a Royal.”
“You will be before the night is over. If Christopher is successful, you will be before we even return to the Cathedral.”
Sonia glanced over Gwala’s shoulder, where she could see the slender vampire leaning far out over the bow, stretching to see into the water’s depth as best he could. Her eyes grew wide as she turned back to Gwala, the pieces starting to fall into place. “We’re searching for a mermaid right now?”
The king smiled a smile that crinkled his eyes and exposed his long fangs. “We’re hunting for a mermaid right now.”
Sonia looked over at Christopher once more before returning to Gwala. “So, drinking from mermaids makes vampires impervious to sunlight?”
Gwala nodded once more. “Yes, almost. I assumed, like you, that it was the act of drinking from a mer that enabled me to walk in the sun.” He closed his eyes and sank farther into the back cushions of the sofa, once again lost to the past. “It was many years before I allowed any other vampires to know that I could be out during the day. Even when I let it be known, I did not tell them anything about the existence of mermaids, much less the secret their blood carried.
“It wasn’t until I met Menos. So like you. So exquisite, so brilliant. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, nearly as beautiful as the mermaid child that gave her life to me. When I was certain that Menos loved me and would stay by my side, I shared my secret with her.”
Sonia was willing to bet that Gwala had held out the secret of his ability to be in the sun as payment for Menos’s commitment to stay with him.
“We searched for years to find more mers. I sought during the day, both of us at night. Again, it was by luck that we found a mer. We found several, actually. A whole school of them. We’d swum from the shore to a small outcropping of rocks. While we were there, it was Menos who saw them near the surface. She pointed them out, and without waiting dove into the water.” A low, lustful laugh escaped. “She had the mermaid half drained before I or any of the other mers even realized she’d caught one. To our surprise, the mers turned out to be a rather violent bunch. Several of them flew at Menos, stabbing her with spears and slashing at her with knives and their hands. She lost so much blood that it was nearly impossible to see her under the water to pull her away from the monsters. Luckily, the mers weren’t any more familiar with vampires than we were with mermaids and didn’t know that stabbing a vampire wouldn’t do much harm. They swam away, dragging the nearly drained mermaid with them. Menos and I waited until we were sure they were gone, then swam back to shore and found some humans for her to eat and help heal her wounds.” Eyes still shut tightly, Gwala’s face darkened. “It was the next morning I nearly lost her. All was going as we hoped. Menos wept as the sun rose, having not seen it in hundreds of years. Before an hour passed, she began to scream in agony, and her skin began to blacken. I was barely able to dig her a resting place in the sand in time.”
At this, Gwala opened his eyes and sat up, staring at Sonia. “Can you tell me why it didn’t work for Menos as it did for me?”
She was accustomed to Gwala constantly testing her, often quizzing her on things she had no possible way of knowing. At first, Sonia feared his wrath if she got a solution wrong, but soon realized that,
while he enjoyed her intelligence, he enjoyed his superiority over her even more. She considered for a moment, but the answer seemed obvious. She searched further, thinking that the solution had to be more elusive. With a shrug, she offered her first thought. “You said the mermaid you drank gave her life for you. Menos only drank part of her capture. I would assume a vampire must drink all of a mermaid, drink her life blood, for the process to fully take effect.” She bit at one of her perfect, ironlike fingernails. “Although I can’t fathom why it would be so.”
Gwala laughed again. “Ah, my brilliant beauty! Menos would love you. Actually, she’d probably eat you, but nonetheless. You have arrived at the same solution we did. It was many more years before we got another chance, but eventually it came, and after Menos drank the final drop of the merman’s blood, she was able to be in the sun. Same as me.”
“There are mermen as well as mermaids?” She withdrew the inquiry before Gwala could reply. “Of course there are. How would there be any species without both sexes? I just hadn’t heard of mermen. Either way, I don’t understand how drinking a mer until they are dead is what enables a vampire to be in the sun. If you drank a child and Menos drank most of an adult mermaid, you should have nearly the same amount of blood.”
Gwala shrugged, unconcerned. “Many have wondered that same thing. Menos even had one of our warlocks attempt to come up with an answer through experimentation. However, we were wasting too many mers, so I put a stop to that. There is magic in this world. This is obviously one of those circumstances.”
