A Soldier of Shadows
Page 29

I took her straight to the bathroom. She bent over the seat and vomited some more, then washed her mouth out and downed gulps of water. I handed her a towel, which she wet and wiped her face with.
She still didn’t look recovered.
“I need to take a shower.”
“Okay,” I said, backing out of the bathroom and heading to the room next door—my bedroom. I kept the door open so that she’d easily find me after she’d finished.
She entered the room about ten minutes later, wrapped in a bathrobe. Even now, she didn’t look quite right. I led her to the kitchen and pointed to a bowl of fruit that had been set on the table.
“Dig into some of that,” I said. “It will help take any aftertaste away.”
She chose a ripe papaya, cut it in half, and began eating its flesh with a spoon.
I placed a glass of water next to her. She looked at me gratefully before downing the whole thing in a few gulps.
After she had finished the whole fruit, she slumped back in her chair. Although she was calmer, she still had a look of horror on her face.
“I can’t believe I actually swallowed… some human.” She shuddered. “God.”
I looked at her grimly. “Welcome to my world.”
She looked at me with newfound understanding in her eyes. She nodded, gulping, before changing the subject. “I guess now we know what Jeramiah must’ve been grinding.”
“Yes,” I said. “I suspect that’s why they feed the humans so well. It’s not to make their blood rich for the vampires. It’s to make their bones strong and healthy.”
“All that calcium in the camel milk,” River muttered.
Our conversation trailed off. I sat with her in the kitchen until she showed signs of recovery. After ten minutes, she stood up.
“Okay,” she said. “I need to get dressed. Is there anything I can change into in this apartment? My old clothes are disgusting by now.”
We returned to my bedroom and I pulled open the tall closet. This was the first time that I’d looked inside, so I didn’t know if there would be anything suitable. But, surprisingly, alongside men’s clothing were shelves of women’s clothing. River picked out the most comfortable-looking thing she could see—a light cotton dress—and I left the room while she changed.
Now that she had recovered, as much as I loathed to see Aisha again after the misery she had just caused River, thanks to Nuriya delegating my wishes to her, I had no choice.
Once we left the apartment, we didn’t have to travel far before I spotted her. Apparently the jinn had finished lunch by now and were leaving the dining hall. I sped up, reaching Aisha before she could turn down a staircase.
“We need to talk,” I said.
She turned around, and as her eyes fell to River, there was an infuriating smirk on her face. Then her expression turned to mock apology.
“Listen,” she said to River, “I’m sorry. You’re half vampire. I didn’t know that you’d have such a reaction to tasting a bit of human…”
“I have another wish that you need to grant,” I said, not wanting her to rub the traumatic experience in for River even more. “And this one carries a lot more weight than what I’ve asked of you so far. I suspect that you’re going to have to take me to Nuriya to have it fulfilled.”
“What is it?” she asked, planting her hands on her hips.
“I need you to get rid of the bloodlust I have for humans.”
“Why do you want to do that?”
“Can you do it or not?” I asked, unwilling to indulge her in even a single unnecessary question.
“Well, what do you mean exactly? You want to become a human? I can’t see how else you would stop craving human blood. As a vampire, it’s just ingrained in your nature to want it.”
“I want you to make me a human, and then I want to turn into a half-blood. But just so you are aware,” I continued, “I already tried to turn back into a human. I don’t know if you know of the cure to vampirism that was discovered eighteen years ago. It involves consuming the blood of an immune and then being exposed to the sun for several hours. I took that same cure that had worked for countless vampires before me, but it failed to turn me back.”
Aisha looked a little lost. “I… I don’t have experience with this kind of thing. Something like this… you’re asking me to permanently alter your very identity…” She paused. “I’m going to have to talk to my aunt about this.”
As I suspected…
My eyes shot toward the entrance of the dining hall. It was my good luck that Nuriya was exiting just as we stood here. Aisha called to her and beckoned her over.
Nuriya first looked at River. The queen had a genuine look of apology and regret on her face. “I am very sorry for what happened,” she said, clasping her hands around River’s shoulders. “How are you feeling?”
River nodded stiffly.
Then I repeated what I wanted to the queen. After I’d finished explaining, she didn’t respond for several moments. She just remained quiet, eyeing me closely.
“Benjamin,” she said finally. “There is a lot we jinn can do—we can work magic and miracles, and we can influence the mind unlike almost any other creature that exists—but what you are asking is for us to alter the very fabric of your being.”
“‘Fabric of my being’? What are you talking about?” I asked, alarm and frustration taking hold of me. I’d just sold myself to these creatures with the belief that they could solve any problem I had. “I was born a human. If anything, that is the fabric of my being. That is my true identity.”