Chapter 15
The smell of disinfectant dominated the air and the narrow tube of fluorescent light gave the small space a feel of hospital. But the glass walls that divided the space from the other ‘cages’ in the octagone-shaped hall made the large room seem more like a cross between a Zoo and a laboratory -- which was exactly what this was.
Tina averted her eyes from the ceiling, turned over on the mattress, which she had pushed against the wall, and touched the plastic, transparent barrier that separated her from Damon. She gazed at the motionless body lying on the bare mattress in the middle of the cage. She wanted to touch him, she wanted to feel his heartbeat under her fingers and she needed to make sure that he was still alive.
She had come to her senses a while ago, Muriel's persistent voice echoing in her head drew her back from the depths of sleep. Her body hurt, her stiff limbs refused to obey her completely and she could not only see, but also feel light burns all over her body. They stung and itched, but at least it seemed that they had healed. She also noticed a puncture at the crook of her right elbow -- they could have at least rolled down her sleeve, but she guessed that they -- it was probably Angelica -- didn't feel the need to cover the fact that they had taken blood from her.
She tried to tell all that to Muriel, but between the pain and dizziness, she couldn't concentrate enough to give Muriel more than a few unconnected words, but at least those helped to hush Muriel's frantic tone and lessened the string of questions.
She shifted her head backward and looked at the cage to the left of the one across from her where a person groaning and crying like an animal slammed his body against the wall, repeatedly, the blood smearing across the glass. That didn’t help her concentration either. If she could only do something about that.
At first she sympathized with the creature, and wondered why nobody was trying to calm it and then noticed -- half of the inmates were out of it like Damon, the other half either paced, curled trembling in the corner or -- she bit her lip and pulled the thin, brown blanket up to her neck -- munched on their wrists, arms, legs or shoulders. And as horrible as it was as the time passed by, she could understand it. Her mouth felt dry, something twisted her insides, urging her... urging her to... She wanted that foul tasting concoction that Uriel gave her every morning. No, she needed it, badly; just the thought of it made her mouth water.
She put her finger into her mouth and nibbled on it, her gaze on Damon again. Please, please, just move, shift so I will know you are alive. Please. Her teeth broke the skin and a copper taste filled her mouth. So good. Her tongue lapped at the crimson liquid before she started to suck on the wound.
She moved closer to the glass until she had her nose pressed against it. Wake up! Wake up! She would have yelled, but she doubted that in the noise coming from other cages it would have any result. So she just lay there, cold, alone even with Muriel’s voice that here and there said something encouraging -- or at least he tried, talking about how they would get her and Damon out. But if they could, they would already have done it, wouldn‘t they?
Her eyes started to water and with an angry swipe she rubbed them. She had another soul in inside her, and a voice inside her head, but why was it that she was in the end left on her own? Why? She wanted somebody to embrace her, to say, everything was going to be fine. But there was no one.
She closed her eyes. She had thought... She had thought that being with the Dumes would change that, that they cared enough for Trinity that she would be able to wiggle her way into their circle as a part of their family. However, she lay on a bare mattress now, trapped in this cold, sterile cage, alone -- and even though it wasn’t the Dumes’ fault, she knew it wasn’t, but they had said that they would protect her and being here felt like betrayal of that promise.
She almost dozed off, but a knock against the glass made her eyelids flutter open.
Red eyes and a stranger’s face stared at her. But she knew who hid under those unfamiliar features and relief washed over her. Damon. She pulled herself up on her knees, the blanket slid down.
Damon, squatting down with his arms dangling between his knees, leaned closer, his forehead touched the barricade with a soft thud. He flashed his fangs in a small, tired smile. “How are you?”
“Thirsty, dizzy and cold. And I really want my morning shake.” Tina’s voice was coarse as if she hadn’t used it in a long time. “And what’s with you? You look horrible.”
“I feel horrible, too.”
She noticed Damon’s rolled up, torn sleeve and puncture mark. “They took your blood too.” Her gaze found Damon’s. “Now they are going to find out who you are,” she whispered so quietly that even she could barely hear it.
“The only thing they will find out is that I’m Lord Blackdart’s Ishaaas.”
What was he talking about? Tina frowned, but she didn’t say it out loud, not when she there were cameras on the ceiling of the hall, one before each cage. If she remembered correctly, Ishaaas didn’t have as much power as Beliya, but were turned by purebreds, too, right? She lay down on the mattresses and curled into a ball. “They are going to find out. You can’t hide the taste of your blood.”
“Oh, but I can.” Damon lay down on the floor, too, his face so close that his breath made a fog on the glass as he spoke in a quiet voice. “I could replace it. It takes some time before my body assimilates a new blood and makes it its own.”
“Did you...?” Tina whispered.
“Just before I came here.”
How could he? With some sort of transplant or something? And where did he get all that blood? Tina sighed. She should really bother with more important things, like how to get out of here.
“Do you have any news?”
She assumed that he meant news from the Dumes. She shook her head.
“But you did inform them of the situation?”
“I can’t... I can’t concentrate long enough.” With the heel of her hand she rubbed her temple. It turned out that even the telepathy link she had worked so hard to establish with Muriel was useless when she needed it the most. She was so useless.
“I see.”
How can he be so calm? With a fingertip she touched the barrier just above where Damon’s red eyes were. “Why are your eyes red?”
“I’m thirsty.”
Screams pierced the air.
She turned toward the noise.
The person who had previously soiled the transparent wall with blood started to disintegrate: the skin in thin strips and bits of meat started to fall down on the floor, changing into a grey fog. The screaming stopped.
Chills ran up Tina's spine as she watched the fog twirl up in the air and start to thicken, until only the skeleton remained. It collapsed down. The bones rattled against the white floor then bouncing once, twice, before they shattered into dust.
The silence pressed down over Tina, suffocating her, and as she gazed around, she could see the rest of the prisoners huddling in the corners of their cages. “What's going on?”
“It seems that we just witnessed the birth of a Shadow.”
Tina’s eyes widened and she crumpled the blanket into her fist. “Will... that happen to us too?”
“I don’t think so, not yet anyway.” Damon examined his puncture wound. “I don’t feel any foreign substance in my body.” He closed his eyes, a short hiss escaping him. “Just lack of my own. They took at least a litre of blood, and right now I don’t have any means to replace it.”
“Maybe they will bring some, or maybe somebody will come and when you get us out, you can feed on him.” Tina didn't really believe that they would be able to force their way out. She nibbled on her finger again, her gaze on the dark fog, which looked more like liquid now. It reminded Tina of Boo goo, a sort of liquid putty that children loved to throw around at Halloween.
The black thing slid over the barrier that separated it from its neighbour, looking as if it were trying to find cracks to pass through.
“I doubt that somebody will come and even if they did, not all blood is good for me, especially not Mamael’s or Damned's Aradmas'. Their blood is too greasy, too thick and it doesn't quench my thirst, but makes it even worse.” Damon pulled himself into a sitting position, his side leaned against the wall and his elbow on his bent knee.
The black putty touched the ground and in the narrow space between the barrier and floor forced its way into the neighbouring cage.
A small tremble shook Tina as she watched how the thing crawled across the floor toward the man, who frozen like a mouse before the snake stood on the other side of the cage. “What is it going to do?”
The man slid down, he lifted his hands as a shield before his head, his whole body shaking.
“Feed on it, what else?”
Tina covered her face and watched what was going on through the spaces between her fingers. She grimaced when first goo's tentacle touched the man and a short cry of agony vibrated through the hall. “This isn’t happening. No, this isn’t happening. I’m just having a bad dream and I’m going to wake up any moment now.” She couldn’t watch anymore; she shut her eyes, but opened them wide in the next second. “What if it manages to reach us?”
“It won’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Look at those walls.”
Tina lifted herself to her knees and followed Damon’s pointed finger. She noticed the current sparking inside of the walls one cage to the left and two cages to the right from the one in which the Shadow climbed up the man’s body.
“It seems that Angelica made sure that she doesn’t lose too many of her test subjects.”
Tina glanced at Damon, who leaned his chin on his elbow and stared across the hall at that nauseous and horrible sight. It bothered her that he looked calm and collected as if what was happening at the other side of the hall wasn’t something out of the ordinary.
“I got a few reports about her work, but I never expected to cross paths with something like her Shadows. They remind me of the Black Death, the gas that leaked out of Abbas's body when Trinity cut off his head. Did she ever tell you about that? It was quite poisonous and it took more than six centuries to get completely rid of it.”
“Black Death? That's black plague, isn't it? And it came from Abbas's head? How could that be possible?” Tina lifted her hand, palm facing Damon and her voice low. “No, on the second thought, I don't want to know. And how could Trinity tell me that? She was dead at that time. And you shouldn’t be mentioning her. There are cameras here, remember?”
“Who ever is on the other side is probably more concerned with that thing there than with us and even if Angelica finds out, so what?”
“They could use recorders. And how can you say, so what? We went through so much trouble so that Angelica wouldn’t learn about me and you, and you are even using that disguise spell, so why would you want to destroy all our hard work?”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Damon’s red eyes narrowed at Tina. “As you could see with your own eyes, us being in this places means that you will end up as a Shadow or as their food. The only thing that will get you out of this situation is disclosure of your identity.” His features softened. “And I, as personal Ishaaas of Lord Blackdart on a quest to bring back the wayward reincarnation of his Beloved, can turn out to be very valuable in negotiations.”
Tina nibbled at her finger and frowned when something broke the skin. She ran her tongue over her teeth. Her canine had a sharp tip. When had those appeared? She sucked on the wound for a few seconds while she dared to peek at that nauseating thing. Could she really become like that thing? -- Hey, wait a minute, Damon only talked...Why was he talking only about her change, about her becoming those things’ food? “You are only talking about exposing my identity, what about yours?”
“Well, they will learn of my position as Ishaaas --”
“Only your position as Ishaaas... That's unfair. If you hadn't come, I wouldn't even be in this situation, and I'm the one you are going to use to save yourself.” Tina curled, wrapped her arms around her legs and pressed her face against her knees. “I would be still with the Dumes, frolicking around their house. I liked that house. And I wouldn't be aware of how those things are made. Or how they feed. So unfair.”
“Tina.”
Tina refused to answered Damon's call. She was so sick of him, of the situation that seemed to get worse every time she crossed paths with him. She felt as if her body was in a constant cramp. She was always on the lookout, always drowning, never able to relax and to float up above the surface to take a deep breath.
“Stop being immature and trust me a little.”
“Why should I? You kidnapped me and changed me into something weird.” -- Actually that was her fault, not that she would admit that to Damon -- “And then when I was in the middle of accepting the changes in me -- I was doing pretty okay, you know -- you forced your way in and ruined everything.”
“You misunderstood me, and stop feeling sorry for yourself.”
“I understood you just fine.” Tina tensed her jaw. “And I'm entitled to wail in misery. If I want to roll on the floor and cry, that’s my business not yours.” The traitor.
“Listen to me, I don't intend to trade you for myself. I wouldn't do that, not after I had to go through so much trouble to finally get my hands on you.”
Tina peeked at Damon. “You wouldn't? Then what? What else is there to trade?”
“Abbas's head.” Damon ran his fingers through his hair. “I hate to let it go, but I guess it can’t be helped.”
“It’s just a head. Who would want that monstrosity?”
“I see you haven't being paying attention at all. Not only is Abbas's head a great tool to enhance your own powers or somebody else’s” -- he gave her a meaningful gaze -- “as you experienced firsthand, but it also contains a deadly gas with which Angelica would love to 'purify' the whole world population; that's why she would do anything to get it in her hands.” He furrowed his brows, his fingers absently combing through his black hair. “But, actually, we can't afford to trade with Angelica, we need for Prva to learn about you and snatch us away from here.”
“Purify? What do you mean, purify?” Tina pulled herself up. “That plague... the disease doesn’t choose who to kill.”
“Abbas’s Black Death doesn’t have any effect on Bloodeater purebreds, it mainly kills people with weak blood. Well, the purebreds can get infected through blood, but that rarely happens.” Damon again ruffled his hair. “Trinity didn’t know Angelica’s real intentions with Abbas, actually nobody knew, but after Trinity’s death, when I hunted the Fallen, I found out that Angelica’s main purpose was -- no, still is -- to cleanse the world with the help of Abbas’s poison.”
Cleanse the world with the help of Abbas’s poison, Tina repeated to herself, her eyes scrutinising Damon’s face. She nibbled on her chewed finger again. It sounded preposterous, but Damon’s serious face told her that he believed that to be truth. What did that mean for her? That if Angelica got the head, she would get sick or something. With her free hand she rubbed her forehead. Bloodeaters, Aradmas, The Damned, Deadeaters, the threat of epidemic -- could somebody give her a break? She so wasn’t ready for any of that, but here she was, in the middle of it. No wonder that she had a killer headache.
“Not that Prva believes me, and unfortunately I can’t bring her a Fallen to confirm my claims, since I made Angelica the last of their kind.”
“But what would Angelica gain with that?”
“I’m not exactly sure. My guess is that this is the best way to exterminate all the Bloodeaters. No Mamaels -- no food. And a war would probably break out for the remaining healthy humans. ”
That made sense, sort of. Tina she pressed her fingers against her temples as if that would hush the pain that pulsed in her head. “So, how do you plan to inform Prva?”
“Through you, what else?” Damon smirked. “You will have to grit your teeth, no matter how much pain you’re in and how weak you are, and contact Muriel. I need to give him some instruction.”