Chapter 13
Tina pushed the stop button on the treadmill’s display, adjusted her stride and waited until the conveyor belt stopped before she stepped down from it. She had been running and building her strength since Uriel had started giving her fencing lessons. Even when they were cruising around with that large truck she still had to run every day, with Uriel beside her making sure that she wasn’t slacking off. She had disliked exercise back then, she had actually whined about having to do it when they didn’t have to, but now she had become fond if it, even though running on the treadmill wasn’t as good as running through the forest paths, with the wind rushing past her.
Haniel, who sat on one of three Sarniikzis standing in the Dumes’ basement, threw her a towel.
Tina caught the towel and wiped her face and neck. “So?”
“So?” Haniel jumped down from the Sarniikzi.
“You have been here for more than ten minutes waiting for me to finish; you probably want something. So what is it?” Tina hung the towel around her neck and went toward the stairs.
“You know, yesterday, at the lab, when Uriel said that stuff about you having a choice, what did he mean?”
“Why don’t you ask him?” She climbed the stairs.
“I did. He blew me off. And he rarely does that -- what’s going on?” Haniel followed close behind her.
She stopped in front of the door, which led to the ground floor, her hand on the doorknob. Haniel was Uriel’s brother, a third of the Dumes; telling him shouldn’t cause any problems. “Do you promise not to tell anybody?”
“I can’t keep secrets from Muriel.”
“Besides Muriel.” Tina turned around.
Haniel nodded. “I promise.”
“Uriel is close to finding a way to remove Damon’s blood from my system and to make me human again.”
“Make you a Mamael again?” Haniel started at her, his brows drawn together. “Why would he even want to do that?”
“To give me a choice, he says.”
“A choice about what? You don’t need... You are ours now. I’m not giving you up.” Haniel lifted his chin and crossed his arms.
Her lips curved into a smile; it was good to be so wanted. She rested her hand on Haniel’s shoulders. “It’s not only about being a Bloodeater, but also about being Damon’s Beloved.” A crease appeared between her eyebrows. “There’s a lot going on with Damon. He’s grieving and... he resents having me for his Beloved.” If she were not Damon’s Beloved, life would become easier for her; maybe she should take Uriel’s offer, but she could only do that after the whole Damon situation was resolved.
“Don’t change back just because Damon is a jerk. I would hate to lose you just because of that.”
“Even if I do, Uriel said that I could become Bloodeater again; he could make me his Beliya.”
“That would work.” Haniel nodded. “Or you could become mine or Muriel’s.”
“Yeah, I could, but I was thinking... I would probably lose my time-distortion ability.” And she would heavily mourn the loss of that.
Haniel shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps.”
“I told Uriel that I would think about it, but only after we free Damon. Now, is there anything else that you wanted or am I allowed to take a shower?”
“What are you doing later?”
“Huh?”
“Do you want to go and hang out with me? You could come help me in the lab or we could find Muriel and annoy him with our presence.”
Tina opened the door and went through it. “Aren’t Muriel and his animal friends helping Nat find the spy and keeping an eye on Macele and her men?” She looked over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes at Haniel. “And why are you even inviting me? Don’t you have work to do?”
“I do, but my favourite girl always takes precedence.” Haniel rushed past her, waving. “Go take a shower, I’ll wait for you in the living room.”
She glared at his back. “Uriel asked you not to leave me alone, didn’t he?”
“Hurry up.”
She shook her head, not knowing whether she should be annoyed or honoured that Uriel took such care of her. She went to her room, took a quick shower and then pulled on jeans and a simple T-shirt and put on flats before she rushed into the living room.
She threw herself on the couch beside Haniel and pulled the phone he was playing with out of his hands. She looked at the display, turned off whatever game he had been playing and stuffed the phone into the back pocket of her jeans. “Now.” She poked Haniel, who stared at her with a raised brow, in his chest. “Tell me what Uriel ordered you to do.”
“Nothing.”
“Yeah, right. Tell me --”
“Nothing. He just asked me if I could keep you busy so that you wouldn’t start to sulk.”
Tina leaned back. “He didn’t say that.”
“Not in those words.” Haniel stood up. “So what do you want to do?”
She could insist that Haniel leave her alone, but she actually appreciated Uriel’s care and Haniel’s effort, not that she would tell them that. So what did she want to do? She was not going back into the building that housed the Shadow, that was for sure; but she hadn’t seen Muriel, except in passing, since Nat had asked for his help three days ago and it would be good to see him. “Would Muriel mind if we came? And what is he doing, exactly?”
“He is examining the mind of every Aradma on the estate, he’s halfway through and the animals are on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary, or so he said the last time his voice appeared in my head. He dropped by to complain how tired he is, and how tedious and monotonous the whole thing is. That’s why he will probably welcome our interruption.” Haniel stretched out his hand. “Now give me my phone.”
She rose and gave him back the phone.
They left the house. Under the afternoon sun Haniel put on his sunglasses while she just put on a white cotton newsboy cap she had picked up from the cabinet on her way out. They got into the Haniel’s cart and drove between the trees and houses, past the main building toward the back of the estate.
Haniel stopped before a small cottage. They got off the cart, but when they tried to go into the house one of the Numuns who stood inside the door stopped them and even though Haniel knew her, the white-haired girl refused to grant them entrance.
“I don’t know what the fuss is,” Haniel whined.
“Your brother is resting right now and we don’t want to disturb him,” the girl said.
“I thought we would surprise him, but I guess that’s out of the question now.”
Tina pushed her hands into her pockets and swayed on the balls of her feet, while she scrutinized the girl’s oval face with doll-like features and pale skin. Why were all the Numuns so breathtakingly beautiful? Her gaze zoomed onto Haniel. “What are you going to do?”
“Call him.”
“Phones don’t work here,” the girl said.
“Don’t disturb him while he sleeps.”
“He won’t answer if he’s sleeping. And I’m not going to use my phone.” Haniel turned his back to them, closed the short distance that separated him from the cart and sunk down on the cart’s seat.
The girl looked past Tina at Haniel then moved a step back inside the house and shut the door in Tina’s face.
Tina rolled her eyes before she joined Haniel. “What are you doing?”
He waved her off and turned away from her.
“Hey, don’t ignore me, I hate that.”
“What do you want?” A voice -- Muriel’s voice spoke from behind Tina.
She looked over Haniel at Muriel. “What? How?”
“Haniel called me. He said that it’s urgent.”
Tina’s gaze darted between the two of them. How did he do that?
“And it is.” Haniel grabbed Muriel’s wrist and pulled him onto the seat beside him. “You need some amusement. All work and no play means that Muriel will be grouchy all day.”
“I’m already grouchy.” Muriel wiggled his hand from Haniel’s hold. “I don’t have time for your nonsense.”
“Hey, hey. You just appeared out of nowhere.” Tina stepped around the cart to where Muriel sat. ”How did you do that?”
“The space distortion.”
“But it only works if you can see where you want to be.” Tina towered above Muriel.
“Yes, and he did see where he wanted to be, through my eyes,” Haniel explained.
“Through your eyes,” Tina repeated. Through his eyes? “That is possible?” Her eyes widened. “That’s possible!” That was great. They could use this. They could so use this. She could already see them celebrating Damon’s freedom.
“If you can see through other people’s eyes like I can see through Haniel’s and if you are as good at the space distortion as I am,” Muriel said.
If you are as good? She sighed and hung her head. But she wasn’t good at it. The hope that had just awakened and all the bright images crashed down to the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces. She struggled with ten steps of distance, she was a far cry from being good at space distortion. There was no way she could -- she bit her lip.
“What’s going on with you?” Haniel’s voice intruded into her pondering.
“I just got this great idea of how we could use space distortion with Damon.” Her voice didn’t hold even a tenth of the enthusiasm she had felt not a second ago. “First, because I can see through his eyes, I would appear at his side and then I would transport both of us back.”
“But you are not good at it; you can hardly even transport yourself, let alone two people,” Muriel said.
“And didn’t you say that lately you only appear inside Damon’s head?”
“Yes, yes, I know. That’s why...” She rubbed her temples. “It’s a great idea. Really great. If I could pull it off.”
Muriel patted her arm. “I’m sure you can make it work if you work harder at it.”
“Even if she somehow becomes better, there’s still the problem with the location. She can’t see through his eyes anymore. And how could she transport them back? She would have to be able to see where she’s going, and even you, who have the strongest mental abilities among Bloodeaters, are only able to connect with me, and we share a soul. ”
“Haniel, stop being so negative. Saying it won’t work is like giving up before we even try.”
“But look at the obstacles and odds.”
“Haniel!”
“He is right.” Tina put her hand on Muriel’s shoulder.
“But that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. You have to believe in yourself and in your abilities, don’t give up.”
“I’m not giving up.” The idea was good, if she could make it work, but she doubted that she could, especially if she took Haniel’s words into consideration. There was no way she could transfer them back. “Haniel has a point, but that just means that we will have to work something out.” She gave Muriel a smile. “I’m in this too deep to give up. Actually, even if I wanted to give up, I doubt that I could.”
“Maybe it can work.” Haniel rubbed his chin, staring into the distance. “If you managed to transfer Muriel with you, it could work, since Muriel is the one who can bring you back to where I am, and he also doesn’t have problems with transporting more people at once.
“Yes, that could work. That really could work.” Tina’s face lit up. “I’ll practise more, with Uriel and you two, when you have time. And next time I see Damon” -- soon she hoped -- “I’ll see what can be done about seeing the location.”
“Good.” Muriel nodded. “And since we are already together, we could start your practice right now.”
#
“I don’t see anything.” Tina readjusted her grip on the small, but powerful binoculars. With her legs dangling high above the ground, she pressed her abdomen more tightly against the thick branch of the yew tree, which she, Muriel and Haniel used to spy on Macele over the estate wall, and onto whose branch she had managed to transfer herself. “Which is not surprising, since it’s still a little after noon. Why are we even here?”
“Because Muriel likes places like this,” Haniel, who sat on the branch above her, said. “If he isn’t relaxing in the grass with his furry friends, he’s up in the treetops hanging with his feathered friends.” He grinned up at Muriel.
“I like heights.” Muriel disappeared from the branch on which he sat and appeared beside Tina. “You two don’t have to be here with me.”
“Look, look, there’s something going on.” Haniel, looking through the binoculars, pointed in the direction where Macele had set her camp among the trees under the protection of shields and masking nets, as if that would have kept her presence hidden from the Dumes or the Damned.
Tina imitated Haniel and lifted the binoculars. Rolling the button on the metal tube between the two slim scopes she enlarged the zoom until she could clearly see singular leaves on the masking net. “Where?”
“Left of the container.”
Tina’s gaze passed the large container Macele used as her temporary residence and landed on the group of men fighting. Actually no, they weren’t fighting, they were -- “What are they doing?”
“They are trying to subdue somebody; it looks like one of them got out of control.” Haniel dropped the binoculars and they bumped against his chest and pulled their lanyard taut, before Haniel looked at Muriel. “You know something, don’t you? That’s why you brought us here.”
“Not exactly know, just assume.”
“Yeah, right,” Haniel said.
“So what’s going on?” Tina glanced at them before her eyes again stared through the lenses. “It looks like there’s something wrong with that man. He’s quite violent and they’re having trouble holding him down. And his body is -- is that white smoke coming from him?”
“He was bitten,” Muriel said.
“By a Deadeater?” Haniel inquired and when Muriel nodded, he asked, “How do you know?”
“You heard that I have been through more than half of Prva’s Aradmas?” Muriel waited until Haniel and Tina confirmed, before he continued, “I found more than six Deadeaters among them, four of them quite wild. They had obviously been bitten by the spy, but none of them could tell me anything, they don’t have any memory of the attack whatsoever.” He released a heavy sigh. “The Deadeater we are looking for has quite a thirst, but it’s sane enough that it doesn’t attack people randomly. That probably means that it had to have been turned by Petsha personally.”
“But that doesn’t explain why that man was turned into a Deadeater,” Tina said.
“Macele’s men had been snooping around. Every time that I went into the town I felt their shadow behind my back, and the others, too. Some Aradmas complained that men of Lost clan approached them, hoping to bribe them into helping them get into the estate.” Haniel lifted his binoculars and looked through them. “That man probably approached the wrong Aradma.”
“That man did approach the wrong Aradma,” Muriel said. “Nat had set cameras around the estate and he is also monitoring Macele and her men closely; we saw that man being bitten and then being turned. He’s probably still disoriented and since he’s walking in the sunlight, he probably isn’t even aware of his transformation.”
Haniel chuckled. “Nat and Uriel probably appreciate the additional strain Macele is putting on the Deadeater with her prowling in the town and around the estate, but there’s no way they would have allowed Macele to prowl around without supervision.”
Tina didn’t even register what Haniel said. “That’s horrible. That means that despite all the precautions that Deadeater is still at large and you are not any closer to finding his identity.”
“Actually we know who it is, we just have to prove it,” Muriel said.
“You know who it is? Why don’t you grab him then? And why do you even need to prove anything? This is Prva’s estate, nobody is even going to blink an eye.”
“They intend to follow him around, hoping that it will bring them to Petsha; that’s how Uriel would do it, right Muriel?”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t care how many Aradmas it changes into Deadeaters? Are Aradmas’ lives really worth that little? What if it sinks its teeth into a Master? Would you take action then?”
“We are trying to keep the number of victims to a minimum; that’s why Nat introduced the safety regulation,” Muriel said. “Aradmas and Masters who are not abiding by them are fair game and Uriel and Nat are willing to sacrifice them to find Petsha. And that has nothing to do with Aradmas’ and Masters’ status.”
“What if that Deadeater or its turned attack Gillian or me, would I still be fair game? Would they be willing to sacrifice us, too?”
“Gillian follows the new rules to the letter. Nat made sure to explain how important that is. And you, you never left the house alone at night even before Angelica’s demise and even if you did try, Muriel has eyes on you.”
“Eyes on me?” A crease appeared on Tina’s forehead.
Haniel pointed above.
Tina’s eyes followed the direction of Haniel’s finger and above, among the leaves, noticed a small, brown bird with a white belly, who motionlessly stared at her. “A sparrow?”
“Yes,” Muriel said.
“You are spying on me?”
“Not exactly spying. She only follows you when you are out of the house.”
“You are overprotective.” Tina grabbed the branch above her and pulled herself up, feeling slightly dizzy as she glanced at the ground. She closed her eyes and imagined herself down there. She pictured the short grass around the bare patch of earth where the tree’s root pushed up the soil. And she imagined she stood there, both feet planted firmly on the ground. A subtle tingle crawled over the skin of her limbs, but when she opened her eyes she was still high in the tree top.
“You have to let go of the tree,” Muriel said.
“I can’t. I’ll fall.”
“I’ll catch you if you do.”
She took a big breath and closed her eyes again. She repeated picturing the ground under the tree and this time she slowly loosened her grip around the branch. Her body started to sway while the same tingles as before brushed over her skin.
“Your feet are firmly on the ground. You can feel the grass tickling your feet.”
“My feet are firmly on the ground,” she repeated. “And I can feel the grass tickling my feet.” And she did, she could actually feel the tickling brush against her ankle. She opened her eyes and stumbled over the root that peeked out and her head hit a solid chest. A strong arm steadied her and embraced her. She looked up at eyes that softly gazed at her under black bangs before his eyes hardened and became their regular semi-glare. Uriel? What was he doing here? And what was with that almost yearning gaze in his eyes?
Uriel pulled her to his side and looked up at Muriel and Haniel. “Get down.”
“What’s up?” Haniel appeared before Uriel, Muriel right beside him.
“Somebody has incapacitated the security system.”
“Now? But it’s still daylight,” Haniel said.
“You could have told us through our link, you didn’t have to come here personally,” Muriel commented.
“Who? Petsha? Macele? The Elders?” Haniel asked.
“I don’t know. Whoever it was probably wants us to think that it’s a system malfunction, that's why they did it during daylight. Haniel, you should help Anael in restoring the shields. This has to be done before nightfall.”
Haniel nodded and he was already off, when Uriel addressed Muriel, “Nat asked for your help, if you would call the animals if they have something new to report.”
“Okay,” Muriel said. “As soon as I escort Tina to the house.”
“No need, I will take her there.” Uriel glanced in Tina’s direction, giving her a quick smile accompanied by the same soft look as before.
What was with that? Tina tilted her head, her gaze lost in the distance, missing Muriel shimmering as he disappeared.
Uriel’s hand slid to her back and he gently pushed her forward. “Come on.”
He couldn’t... no, that was impossible. She shook her head before she peeked at his profile. Or was that the way he had always looked at her, but she hadn’t noticed? She frowned. But that would mean that all that touching lately had a meaning behind it? “Uriel?”
“Don’t worry, Tina. This might turn out to be a false alarm, but we need to take precautions anyway.”
She nodded like he had answered her unspoken questions, because on second thought, she couldn’t exactly blurt out, ‘Uriel, are you in love with me?’