Chapter 08
Tina steered the Honda Civic into the fast lane and pressed on the gas. She caught up with Haniel on the motorbike and she honked and grinned at him as she passed him.
“Watch out for that car.” Uriel, who sat in the passenger seat, pointed out the whitish vehicle; its tail lights could be seen in the twilight some distance away.
“Look how far away it is.”
“It’s going to overtake that truck.”
“Yes, probably, but I would have noticed that, you know. This is not the first time I’ve driven on the highway,” Tina said. “You don’t have to be so nervous. I’m not going to wreck the car.”
“You are not used to such high speeds.”
“This is not that fast.” And it wasn’t, not by Bloodeater standards. She was still in fourth gear, which was equal to fifth in a normal car, and there were still four more to go, but she doubted that she would ever move past sixth.
“You are going over twice the speed limit.”
Yes, she was, but the car handled so well that she hadn’t even felt it. “German highways don’t have a speed limit.” Which of course Uriel knew perfectly well. “If you are so worried, why did you propose that I should drive?”
“At that time I thought it was a good idea.”
Tina shook her head. Something flashed in the rear-view mirror; somebody flashed their headlights. She looked into mirror and saw Haniel approaching from the left side. He came parallel with the car and saluted her with two fingers before he sped up and quickly become a dot.
She pressed on the gas and was about to change gears, determined not to let Haniel get the upper hand, when Uriel’s hand covered hers on the gearshift.
“Take the next exit.”
“What?” She looked up at the board that announced the interchange. “But that would take us to Switzerland and we are going to France.” She glanced at Uriel. “And we agreed to make the next stop at the German-French border?”
“I have some small business that I have to take care of.”
“And you intend to let everybody wait for us?”
“Yes.”
She wanted to say something about it, but she doubted that it would have any effect. Uriel was hiding something, he’d had his own agenda since they came to Germany; actually, she had a feeling that his agenda was the reason they had ended up in Damon’s house with Irene and Tristian. She slowed down and changed lanes; she ended up right behind the white Polo, whose taillights suddenly flared red.
“Watch out.”
“What is he doing?” Tina pressed on the brake. “There’s nobody in front of him. Why is he slowing down?”
“Who knows?” Uriel said.
Before the Honda’s hood would have slammed into the rear of the Polo, the blackness opened before them. They drove through it before finding themselves on the road again in the next moment.
“You could have at least warned me.” Tina blinked and adjusted her grip on the wheel. She always felt slightly dizzy for a few seconds after she experienced space disfiguration. It was good that she was already used to it. She looked at the rear-view mirror, at the Polo’s headlights some distance behind her. “I didn’t know you could use it like this. How can you do that?”
“I concentrate on the location where I want to be and imagine that I’m there.”
“It’s so easy? For all the Bloodeaters?” She had never really inquired about their abilities. Maybe she should. She was being too passive and going with the flow, not questioning things. She should really put some effort into learning about the marvels around her, despite sometimes feeling that if she dwelled too much on what was happening to her, her head would explode.
“Mostly. The mind is a very powerful thing.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
“It is. Even for Mamaels and they only use 3% of their brain.”
“And you use more?” Tina asked.
“Of course.”
“You do? How much?”
“Around 40% when we are born and then it grows, one percent per century.”
“What about me? And the turned? Do we still use only 3%?” Tina shifted into a higher gear.
“If you did, you wouldn’t be able to slow down time.”
“Does that mean that I could use that space thing, too?”
“Maybe, I don’t know. We could try to teach you.”
Tina nodded. It would be great if she could have another ability, maybe then she could at least be of more help to them. And she could also use it to pay Haniel back for all the times he had sneaked up behind her and scared her.
The ride continued in silence until Uriel turned on the radio and the soft sound of music drifted in the air.
They crossed the German-Swiss border and even though Uriel wanted to take the wheel, Tina managed to persuade him to let her drive until they reached their destination. She had always liked driving.
He soon directed them off the highway and then guided them through the labyrinth of streets among the tall buildings and skyscrapers.
“Did you have that dream again?” Uriel spoke up as they turned into less populated part of the town.
Yes, she had, twice now. She had again found herself in the thick liquid, but without Damon in sight. She had called for him and swum around until she woke up, and he had never answered her calls. “You gave me those pills.”
“But you didn’t take them.”
“How do you know that?” She scrutinised his face for a second before she focused on the road. Had he gone through her things?
“Muriel told me that you were crying in your sleep again.”
The little traitor. Not that she could resent him too much. Muriel wasn’t able to lie and if he had told Uriel about her reactions in her sleep, it was because he was worried about her, not because he had something against her, she knew that much. She sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“For not taking your pills, even though you went to the trouble of making them for me.”
“I made them for you because you looked like you needed them.”
“I actually did.”
“But not anymore?”
Before, Damon was a living corpse, while now… she could talk to him, if he would let her close, and she wanted to get close, she wanted to be there for him, she wanted to help him through his loss. She chuckled to herself. How stupid; how could she help him, when she couldn’t even do anything for the Dumes? No, it was worse. She actually avoided talking about their pain with them. But lately she had made an effort and... they were different; they didn’t need somebody like Damon did and their loss seemed more subtle and shallow; it didn’t tear them apart as it did Damon.
“Tina.” Uriel put his hand on her shoulder.
She glanced at him.
“I don’t know what is happening to you in those dreams since you don’t tell us everything, but you have to know, that if you need anything, anything at all, I’m here for you.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” Uriel withdrew his hand, his brows furrowed. “Sometimes I wonder.”
“No, I do. We are family, right?” She gave him a smile. “Sometimes I just forget about that, you know, since I have been on my own and well… I’m used of dealing with stuff on my own.”
“I’m not talking about that.”
“You aren’t?” What? So he didn’t think of them as family? But that time, he had made her feel like a part of them. And she thought… her fingers squeezed the steering wheel and her knuckles turned white. “We aren’t a family?”
“Turn right,” he ordered her. “And park in there.” He pointed at the parking spot beside a long two-story house.
She parked and turned off the engine, refusing to look at him.
“Of course, we are a family.” Uriel put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it.
Her hands still on the wheel, she looked at him, even though she didn’t want to. She could feel that there was something more beyond those words. She knew that he had never seen her as Trinity, he had told her that before; he was always truthful and straightforward to the point of being rude, so why was he hesitating now? Why didn’t he just spit it out? “But?”
He combed through his hair before he spoke up, “I don’t look at you as I would a relative.”
She knew that. “Yeah, and?”
A small groan escaped Uriel before he shook his head and chuckled. “I don’t know if you really are so clueless or are you just pretending to be.”
“Clueless about what?”
Uriel shook his head again. “Never mind.”
“No, tell me.”
He disappeared and appeared beside the car door. He opened it and offered her his hand. “Come on.”
She took it and let him to pull her out. “Tell me.”
He closed the car door.
“Tell me.”
His fingers caught her wrist; they brushed past her palm and laced with hers. “Unfortunately, you don’t want to know.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Let’s go inside.” He pulled her toward the house.
She pouted. “Don’t ignore me. I hate when you do that.”
“Stop fussing.” His hand released hers, he slid it over her arms and with his hand on her shoulder he pulled her closer against his side.
He never did that. Tina stiffened and frowned, feeling slightly uncomfortable. She peeked sideways at Uriel and her frown deepened when she saw a sad smile playing on Uriel’s lips. She covered the hand that rested on her shoulder. “Uriel, are you okay?”
He looked down on her. “Of course.”
But he would say that in any case, because Uriel was always okay, even when he wasn’t, or at least that was what Haniel said. She sighed. “Where are we going? What’s that house?”
“It’s the Lost medical research centre.”
A medical research centre? But the house looked more like an apartment building than anything else. “What are we doing here? You said that only Angelica’s lab has equipment suitable for Shadows.”
“I’m not here to do experiments,” Uriel said.
“No, then why are we here?”
“Not now.”
“When then?” Despite Uriel’s silence, she continued with her questioning until they climbed up the four stairs that separated them from the double doors, which Uriel opened for her. They stepped into a small hall with a receptionist, who enquired about their business.
Uriel told him who he was and that Irene Payens had made arrangements for him. After the man used the phone, two men came and accompanied them into the building.
Uriel still refused to tell her anything and with his hand firmly holding hers, he didn’t give her any other choice but to follow him.
“Uriel,” Tina hissed in a low voice as she dug her heels into the grey linoleum. “I’m not going anywhere if you don’t tell me what we are doing here.”
Uriel stopped. “You are going to give blood and they are going to do some research on it and purify it.”
So that was the reason they were here. “Umm… why?”
He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed before he spoke up, “You have to promise me that you won’t tell anybody, especially not Irene and Tristian.”
She nodded. “I promise.”
He whispered, “I have been trying to find a way to safely remove Damon’s blood from your body, for some time now, and now the only thing I need is a synthetic version of your purified blood.”
#
Tina sat with tucked legs on the yellow couch in the Dumes’ old living room, in the house that looked the same as when they had left it. She gazed through the window at the garden bathed in the moonlight, where Muriel sat in the grass -- she smiled -- greeting his furry friends, probably.
“What are you doing here in the dark?” Haniel, who walked into the living room and turned on the light.
“Nothing.”
“You have been awfully quiet since we came here. What’s going on?” He plopped on the couch beside her. “Does it have something to do with your detour?”
“Yes and no.” Tina leaned sideways against the back of the couch. “Has Uriel told you where we stopped?”
“Yes, at the Lost’s medical research centre. I heard only the heads of the family and the leader of the Lost’s Beliya have access to it. Irene had to use that blackmail material that you so willingly helped her to get.” Haniel smiled.
“I don’t find this funny.” Tina crossed her arms. “But it makes sense now that Uriel didn’t react more strongly to Irene using us.”
“Irene only used you, not us,” Haniel said.
“Whatever.” Tina stood up.
“Come on.” Haniel grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it. “Don’t be so moody.”
Tina fell back onto the couch. “I’m not moody. I’m just… I don’t understand what Irene is doing here.” And why Uriel would be making a potion to remove Damon’s blood from her body. Damon’s blood was what gave her strength and what kept her from being a human being again. Even though at first she would have given anything to have become human again, after everything she had gone through, she had now gladly said goodbye to normal life, to be able to stay with the Dumes. And Damon. Yes, and Damon. She had told Uriel that, but he told her that she deserved a choice. What choice?
“She is going to help Uriel with the Shadow and Nat wanted to talk to her.”
“Where is Uriel, anyway? Is he still in the lab?”
“Yes, I think he is going to test Muriel’s theory.”
“What theory?”
“That Shadows feed through the respiratory organs.”
“Respiratory organs?” Tina raised her brows.
“Yes, Muriel noticed that when the Shadow attacked that time in Damon’s house, it went for a nose or mouth. Uriel is now trying to find Angelica’s records from the part of the lab in which she held Shadows, you know, in the place where she locked up you and Damon. It’s that or we will have to use somebody to test that theory.”
“So what if they feed that way? Knowing that doesn’t help us.” Tina sank back into the couch.
“Of course, it does. If that’s true, I can make some kind of mask that can prevent them from reaching the nose and mouth, and then they can’t harm us.”
“They can burn the skin, you know.”
“Yeah, but with our quick healing that’s just a temporary thing.”
“You sound enthusiastic.”
“That’s because I am.” Haniel flashed a lopsided grin. “And I thought of this really cool design; it would make us look like science fiction warriors.”
“Space warriors, huh? Like the ones in your games?” The ones she liked to watch him play, because he lost himself in them with such passion. It always made her smile.
“Yeah, wouldn’t it be cool?”
“Maybe we could try some fabric on the Shadows and find one that they can’t burn through, or make one.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Haniel nodded. “And Gillian could sew us clothes from it -- she’s good at sewing; when she was Nat’s Aradma, she made the first three Numuns some awesome clothes.”
To have clothes as protection from Shadows -- they couldn’t have that before, because they didn’t know what kind of material was impenetrable to them, but now that they had one in the captivity, they could find out.
“Oh, and I almost forgot. When I took Irene to Nat, I met Gillian; she said to ask you if you would like to keep her company.”
There was nothing for her to do anyway, and maybe a change of company would be good for her. She and Gillian weren’t exactly friends, but they got along well, especially after she and Nathanael had lived with them for a time, when Nathanael had reclaimed Gillian as his Aradma and feared Prva’s disapproval. “Hmm, okay.”