The comments on my previous post confirmed my suspicions, which terrified me. Vampires? I’d considered it, but it was impossible. They didn’t exist. They couldn’t exist. But … that was the only explanation. I could barely sleep, but one awesome commentor helped me relax with some techniques. I couldn’t change what happened, so I should ground myself and be calm and hope for the best. Then I can focus on my task so I could finally go home.
But once I was asleep, all bets were off as nightmares ruled, leaving me helpless as Mika, Cassiopeia, and Desmod leaned over me, fangs gleaming.
A voice called my name, startling me awake, and I jerked upright on the bed, the covers clutched tight as my heart rioted.
“Sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you!” Desmod said, leaning back. “How are you feeling?”
“Stay away from me!” I yelled, scooting away until my back hit the wall.
He tilted his head in confusion. “Are you okay?”
“You’re vampires!”
“So?”
I blinked in shock, not expecting that response. “You admit it?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, it was only a matter of time before you figured it out. Especially after what happened yesterday.”
I gulped, my tense breaths rapid. “Are y-you going to drink my blood?”
He wrinkled his nose. “No. Human blood isn’t really that good. We’ve got a much better variety here in our sphere. Soib blood is the best. They’re like … bears, I guess. But with scales instead of fur. I guess they qualify as reptiles, but I’m no biologist.”
I ignored his attempt at diverting the topic as I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “So you don’t go to our sphere to feast on humans?”
“No. I mean, personally, I don’t go there at all, I’m not old enough. But those of us that are only go there to recruit.”
“Recruit?”
“Yeah, to turn humans, because we can’t make babies. The only way to get more vampires is to convince humans to join us. Quite a few of us also take jobs in the human police force, gives us more power to persuade.”
“Persuade? You mean like what Cassiopeia does?”
“Not really, only a few vampires have that ability. The rest of us have to use charm and charisma. No force though, we don’t want resentful recruits!” He looked at his hands. “I wonder sometimes if I’ll develop that persuasive gift when I’m old enough, though I don’t think I’ll be comfortable using it.”
“How old are you?”
“Hmm, Let’s see.” He looked up in thought. “Mika recruited me almost two years ago, when I was sixteen. So, I’ve existed for almost eighteen years, am stuck at sixteen years, but am almost two in vampire years.”
I struggled to take in all this baffling information. “But … isn’t Mika your adoptive dad?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, that’s kind of how it works. The one who turns you becomes your parent. I’m Mika’s only ‘kid’ and he never wants to do it ever again. Mika has a lot of ‘sisters’ and ‘brothers’ though, since Cassiopeia has recruited thousands.”
“How … how do you turn someone?”
“A bite. We don’t suck, though, we inject our DNA.”
I held the covers tighter. “Am I g-going to be turned?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Do you want to be?”
I shook my head rapidly, my eyes wide.
He smiled. “Then no. You have a choice, we’re not monsters.”
“That’s not what I saw yesterday.”
His smile vanished. “What, the battle against the Reddige Pack? They’re the most vicious werewolf pack ever! What did you expect?”
I stared at him in shock. “Werewolves?”
“Yup.”
“They exist?”
“They do. So do merfolk, sirens, and goblins. There used to be fairies too, but they’re extinct now. Wiped out by the werewolves around fifty years ago.”
My eyes grew twice their size. “Those are all real?”
He smiled. “Yup!”
“What about witches? Or … or centaurs? Or dragons?”
“Dragons are real, we have many. But they aren’t as big as the movies and books make them seem. Centaurs aren’t real, and witches are human.”
I did a double take. “What?”
He chuckled. “I’m talking real witches, not flying broomstick ones. Witches are human born with the ability to read mother nature and make the most of her resources.”
My mouth hung open as I took in all of these unexpected revelations.
“They’re amazing at potions and stuff,” Desmod continued. “I heard we used to deal with them back then, before the war.”
“Why is there a war?”
“Okay, so …” He lifted a hip to sit on the desk. “I’m not super into the politics of it all, but I know that before fifty years ago, everyone lived in peace on Zevea until—”
“Zevea?” I asked in confusion.
“Our sphere.”
“So, like our sphere being called Earth?”
He tilted his head left and right a few times, squinting in thought. “Hmmm, no, not exactly. Technically, we’re on Earth too. But we named our sphere because we’re aware of it. We named yours too. It’s called Kabic.”
I grimaced. “Kabic?”
He chuckled and held his hands up. “Hey, I didn’t name it. I honestly don’t know who did. So, as I was saying, everyone lived in peace on Zevea until the folk leaders met up and decided to only allow vampires to cross over to Kabic, so they can recruit to maintain their population if one of them decided to pack it in and pass on.”
“Wait, you guys can do that?” I asked in surprise. “Aren’t you immortal?”
He shrugged. “I mean, yeah, we don’t age or die naturally, but we can be killed. Once we’re sick of existing, we just ask someone to stake us, cut our head off, or burn us.”
I winced. “Oh, right, yeah. Sunlight, silver, garl— … no, wait.” I frowned. “You guys didn’t mind the sun yesterday.”
He let out an airy chuckle. “Yeah, you can thank Cassiopeia’s grandfather for those vampire stereotypes. If you’d have called him a monster, he’d have been thrilled. He’s the reason that sphere-crossing rule was made.”
I gulped. “What … what did he do?”
“He loved scaring the shit out of humans and drinking their blood. Sometimes he even befriended them before betraying them. He hated the taste but loved the fear and the stories they’d make warning others about him. He hunted at night because it was easier to scare them. We see perfectly in the dark, humans can’t.
“He terrorized humans for centuries and the stories about him got passed down through generations, and they ended up exaggerating his eccentricities like finding silver tacky, garlic gross-smelling, and church bells annoying.” He paused in thought. “He was staked in the heart by a mob and then burned seventy-five years ago, so, hey, humans got some things right! His death brought his atrocities to Zevea’s attention and the leaders decided to make Kabic accessible by appointment only.”
“But how? How can they control it?”
“With a hsysh made with fairywork.”
“What?”
“Fairywork can only be done by fairies, it’s very delicate and technical and magical. At that meeting, one of the fairy leaders offered to build a hsysh that can allow them to close and open the barrier between spheres. The leaders agreed, and soon vampires had to go through them to get approved to cross.
“The vampires hated that extra step, but they understood it. On the other hand, the werewolves hated how vampires were the only ones allowed to cross, so they started complaining that there was too much inbreeding in their packs and they needed fresh blood to remain powerful.
“All the folk leaders got together and agreed to let them cross to recruit too, which would have been okay except that the Reddige Pack went overboard and recruited too many. Other packs started doing the same, and the vampires sensed something was up so they started recruiting a lot too. Now the other folk began getting nervous because there was obviously some sort of battle for dominance over Zevea.
“The leaders tried to set new rules, but the werewolves took over the meeting, killed them all, destroyed the hsysh, and declared war on anyone who dared stop their rise to power. The vampires challenged them, the merfolk challenged them both, the other folk picked sides, and the rest is history.”
“What side did the others pick?” I asked with nervous enthrallment.
“The goblins and fairies joined us, the sirens joined the werewolves, and the merfolk were on their own.” He let out a sullen sigh. “Vampires didn’t get much time with the fairies, though. The werewolves teamed up and massacred them all within a few days. All because the fairies refused to build a hsysh for them, so the they wiped them out so they wouldn’t build it for anyone.”
“Oh no,” I whispered, covering my mouth as sorrow weighed my heart. “That’s horrible. Why did they destroy the first hsysh if they wanted one so bad?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve heard that they saw it a symbol of oppression before they realized they could be the oppressors. Although I’m sad fairies are extinct, I respect them for refusing to build it. Or else this war would have ended quickly and we’d all be buried in the werewolves’ trophy sites.”
What are trophy sites?”
“It’s a bit barbaric, but it’s how war is done here. Each faction has a trophy site where we display the enemies we kill. The werewolves bury theirs and stick a spike through them to mark them, we bury ours each beneath a red wyso stone, the merfolk tether theirs to the ocean floor and tie an air-filled bladder to them so it floats on the water surface, and so on. It’s like a warning, sort of. Our site is pretty big, but the Reddige Pack’s is the biggest. They’re heartless. I’m just glad we didn’t end up buried there yesterday.”
I shuddered, hugging myself. “Me too.”
“Today should be better, we’ll be going into merfolk territory. The trophy site of the Buslle Pod. I hope you don’t get seasick!” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a protein bar. “But first, you need to eat. I got you another bar since you didn’t seem to like eggs.
“Where’s this site?” I asked, not reaching for the bar. “Antarctica?”
He chuckled. “No, this one thankfully overlaps the Pacific Ocean. So we can look for Cassiopeia’s brother on your sphere.”
My tension decreased slightly. “Oh, that’s one good thing, at least. I wasn’t looking forward to getting ambushed again.”
He winced. “Me neither. Werewolves are pure rage, but merfolk are clever as well as strong. I actually wish I knew them before the war started, they seem pretty cool. I’m even learning mertongue.” He waved the protein bar in front of me. “You don’t want this?”
I hesitated before I took it from him. “You’re learning what?”
“Mertongue. Their language. They all speak it, but with varying dialects. It’s pretty hard to speak, but I understand it okay. Saying hello/goodbye is the easiest. Just pretend you’re a snake clearing its throat. Hsssegh!”
I twisted my mouth in disgust. “That … sounds gross. Do each of you have your own language? Was Mika speaking to you in vamptongue yesterday?”
He laughed. “We don’t call it that, but yes. One of them. Vampires have a few different languages. The werewolves and us speak a lot of human languages too, because of how often we recruit. The sirens also speak a few human languages after they began crossing over with the werewolves. They love messing around with sailors.”
“I’ve heard of them, they have hypnotic singing that makes sailors crash or jump. But … wait.” I furrowed my brow in confusion. “How are they different from merfolk?”
“I don’t know how humans messed this up, but sirens are a mash between a lady and a bird, not a fish.”
We both turned to the door when Mika showed up. “Good afternoon. Are we ready?”
I blinked in shock. “Afternoon?”
“Yes. Are you ready?”
They both looked at me, and I looked down in anxious resignation. “Do I have a choice?”
“No. Desmod, leave her so she can get dressed. We leave in ten minutes.”
Desmod nodded at me with a smile and walked out, and I sighed when the door clicked shut. I didn’t want to do this, but I was compelled to. That stupid promise Cassiopeia made me give. I got dressed, finished my protein bar, and sat on the bed, pressing on my knuckles as I waited for Desmod to return.
“Ready?” he asked after knocking.
“Yeah,” I called out as I stood up.
He unlocked the door and gestured outside. “After you!”
Sighing, I didn’t resist as my body stepped out and walked beside him as we made our way to the garage.
“Yesterday, when you touched me, you … what did you do?” I asked, turning to him. “Did you make me sleep? Or make time speed up?”
“We can make humans sort of enter a trance. Makes them easier to transport through places we don’t want them to see, or if we’re talking about stuff we don’t want them to hear. I mean, it’s better than using sedatives, isn’t it?”
I cringed in discomfort. “So, I’m just staring into space while you guys carry me around and stuff?”
“Um, well, sort of,” he said awkwardly. “In the car, you just sat there, but when I brought you back here, I had to carry you, yeah.”
“I don’t like that,” I said, frowning at him as I crossed my arms. “I didn’t consent.”
“I know. I’m sorry. But we have to do it. There’s stuff you shouldn’t know about.” He cleared his throat. “Do you give me permission to do that to you today? I promise I don’t do anything weird or disrespectful. We’re not like that.”
I shot him an incredulous glare. “Not like that? Your dad and his thugs kidnapped me, tied me up, and interrogated me!”
He winced. “I know, but in Mika’s defense, he didn’t know who you were. He thought you were in cahoots with the packs or something. Like I said, this is war. But I promise they didn’t do anything to you when you were out. We don’t abuse for fun or out of anger.”
I didn’t drop my frown. “If there’s no other option, fine. But if there’s no reason to do it, I don’t want you to do it.”
“Of course!”
We entered the garage, and I noticed Mika and his team were in regular outfits today, no bulky armor or helmets in sight. I eyed the trunk of the car and wondered if there were weapons in there, just in case.
We entered, with me sandwiched between Desmod and Hawk again. I couldn’t believe I was voluntarily sitting in a car with vampires. Well, not voluntarily, thanks to Cassiopeia. Desmod held out his hand, and I sighed as I put mine in it. A blink later, we were at a pier, and Desmod smiled as he opened the door and nodded for me to exit.
Shaking off my lingering tension, I stepped out into the salty, humid night, and I stared in surprise at the black yacht bobbing a few feet away. Mika was already on board, and I winced as Callan grabbed my arm and dragged me up the ramp.
“Hey, she’s cooperating!” Desmod said, running after us.
“We don’t have time,” Mika said.
“There’s no war here! We can take all the time in the world!”
“You may not have serious responsibilities, but I do.”
Desmod scowled but didn’t reply as we boarded the yacht. I sat on one of the cushioned benches on the deck, and a few minutes later, we were off. I didn’t say anything as I watched the shore fade into the distance, the glowmains of dead sea life bobbing on the surface of the inky ocean.
“Where are we, exactly?” I asked, turning to Desmod sitting across from me.
“The Pacific Ocean,” he replied.
“I know, but where?” I pointed. “That there, where we parked. What country is it?”
“Fiji.”
“Fiji?”
He nodded. “Have you ever been?”
“No.”
“One of our newest recruits is from there. She says it’s gorgeous.”
Mika walked over, and he said something to Desmod in their language. Desmod sighed and leaned forward, holding his hand out to me, and I blinked in surprise before I turned and frowned at Mika.
“Seriously? I don’t want to be in a trance right now!”
“We have business to discuss,” Mika said.
“Why can’t you leave me up here and go discuss it inside? It’s not like I’m going to escape by jumping into freezing water in the middle of the night and swimming a billion miles to shore.”
Desmod chuckled, but Mika didn’t as he said, “If you don’t want Desmod to do it, I can get Callan up here.”
Now I was the one scowling at Mika as I took Desmod’s hand. A blink later, I was in the same place, but now Desmod was sitting beside me and Mika across from me.
“Do you see any glows?” Mika asked.
I turned to face the water, and I squinted as I tried to differentiate between the plethora of floating glowmains.
“I see so many. A lot of fish and stuff, but I can’t make out anything human-shaped. Is this the right location?”
“Yes. It seems they’ve tethered the bodies at such a depth, you may not be able to pick up their glows.”
“If you knew that, why’d you drag me here?”
Mika nodded to the left, and my mouth fell open as his goons brought over scuba diving gear.
“Are you kidding me right now?” I asked, turning to Mika in disbelief. “I only see glowmains in air! Even if I dove down there, it’d be useless!”
“That is why we have this.” Mika nodded at Callan, who held up a hose connected to a tank. “You’ll take it with you and spray bubbles over the area as you swim. The glows should appear in the air inside.”
I blinked at him, then I turned to Desmod, hoping one of them would tell me this was all a joke. Mika remained stone-faced, and Desmod shrugged and gave me an apologetic smile.
“Do you realize how long that’ll take?” I asked.
“We have ten hours allotted to the search,” Mika replied.
“Ten hours!” I exclaimed. “You seriously want me down there for ten hours spraying bubbles around and attracting sharks and who knows what else? I’m not doing it … alone.”
I grimaced. Damn promise!
“You won’t be alone,” Mika said. “My team will accompany you and protect you.”
“No, I meant this is a crazy idea! There has to be another way! Why can’t we use your car? It’s a sub, isn’t it? Attach the bubble hose to it and I’ll look out the window and let you know what I see.”
“That’s … actually a good idea,” Desmod said, turning to Mika. “Why didn’t we think of that?”
“Because it—”
Mika didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence before an enormous wave crashed down on us. I gasped as the cold water clung to my skin, squeezing not only my lungs but my body as I fell on my back. I shook my head, taking a deep, shuddering breath once I could, and my heart dropped when I realized that wasn’t water squeezing me.
It was tentacles.
I began hyperventilating as I looked up. A creature was standing beside me, face like an angler fish, spiny arms holding a trident, and six tentacles where its legs should be, four of which were wrapped around me. My wide eyes scanned the rest of the yacht, and my heart dropped even further when I saw Mika, Desmod, and every thug held prisoner by their own tentacled creature. Were these the merfolk?
Mika yelled something out in a garbled hiss, and the creature holding him forced him into a kneeling position, pinning his arms back. Mika’s goons struggled and yelled in their language, but Mika didn’t even flinch as he held his head up, his expression stern and devoid of fear. How was he not terrified?
A creature approached him, this one not burdened by a prisoner as it rolled upright on its tentacles, and Mika looked into its round blue eyes and spoke in more garbled hissing.
“H-He’s saying we aren’t armed,” Desmod said in a shaky whisper.
I turned to Desmod bound beside me, distress and awe clashing behind his wide eyes.
The creature spoke, and Desmod translated. “Sh-She’s asking why we’re here.”
Mika replied, and Desmod said, “He’s asking the s-same thing.”
The creature holding me now spoke, and I blanched when the interrogator turned to me.
“Wh-what now?” I whispered to Desmod.
“Th-They know you’re human,” he said, his distress growing as his voice cracked.
The interrogator approached me, and I gulped as I looked into her piercing blue eyes. I’d always hated how angler fish looked, with their large jaws, long, translucent teeth, and strange glowing protrusions, and now a large, spiny one with a torso, arms, and tentacles was staring me down with its emotionless expression.
“You are human,” she hissed.
Fear paralyzed my tongue, my heart rattling between my ribs.
“Do you know you are in the company of vampires?” she asked.
All I could do was nod.
She pointed her trident at me. “So you are a recruit.”
I shook my head in a panic, the tip of the trident inches from my rabid heart, and Mika and Desmod both yelled out something in a garbled hiss. The interrogator paused, ignoring Mika as she turned to Desmod and hissed back. Desmod replied, and I let out a quivering breath when she withdrew her trident and turned back to Mika.
“Th-Thank you,” I whispered to Desmod once I found my voice.
“Don’t thank me yet,” he replied, watching them talk with anxious eyes.
“Wh-what are they saying now?”
Desmod hesitated before he said, “Sh-She asked Mika if what I said was true, Mika said yes, and … um, she said my mertongue needed work.”
“Wh-What did you tell them?”
“That you can see the dead glow.”
“What!”
The interrogator turned back to me. “Why are you here?”
I looked at Mika in alarm, not sure what to answer, and he calmly nodded. Taking that as a sign to tell the truth, I took a deep breath and replied.
“I … I’m helping them find Cassiopeia’s brother, Perseus.”
“How?”
“I c-can see the hovering, glowing shadows of the dead. Even across spheres.”
“How?”
“I … I don’t know. I w-was born that way.”
“Why are you helping them?”
“Cassiopeia … sh-she wants to give her only brother a proper burial back home.”
I flinched as all the creatures began making popping sounds in their throats.
“Why are you helping them?” the interrogator asked.
“Oh. Um, I … I promised.”
The creature turned back to Mika, and I screamed when she whipped the trident towards him.
“No, stop!” I cried, drowned out by the yells of Desmod and Mika’s team.
Mika didn’t flinch, the trident pressed against his chest, but he was looking at me in surprise. So was the interrogator. At least, it seemed like surprise. The merfolks’ faces were disconcertingly ridgid.
“No?” she asked.
“He … he saved my life,” I said, feeling uncomfortable as everyone stared at me.
“Because you are needed. He won’t do the same once you’ve depleted your usefulness.”
“I know, I’m not stupid. B-But a life for a life. We’re even.”
“I kill him now, you will be free of your promise.”
“H-He didn’t make me promise, Cassiopeia did. She just w-wants her brother. If you have his body, can … can you please give him to us?”
Those unblinking blue eyes bore straight through me, and I couldn’t help but look away, second guessing every decision I’d made. I only looked back when I heard garbled hissing, the creature and Mika talking once again.
“She’s s-saying you’re a strange human,” Desmod translated. “Mika is asking why they attacked … She’s saying the w-werewolves knew they’d been occupying human waters and have been dumping poison into the oceans … Mika is saying they’re both in the wrong since Kabic is for recruitment, not war.”
The creatures made those strange popping sounds again.
“Um, they’re laughing,” Desmod said, uneasy. “That’s not a good sign. Now sh-she’s saying the werewolves have already occupied many human areas and we should do the same if w-we want any chance at winning the war … Mika is thanking her for her advice … and they’re l-laughing again … and now she—”
Desmod gasped, and so did I as the interrogator thudded her trident against the deck and the others released us. I scrambled up to my feet, adjusting my shirt while Desmod slid in front of me, his arms wide in a protective stance. Mika stood up and straightened his suit, his confident posture intimidating despite being dwarfed by the height of his interrogator.
“We don’t have Perseus,” the interrogator said in English, despite her facing Mika. “But we believe the sirens do. Search the trophy site of the Ca’ii Flock.”
“Why are you telling us this?” Mika asked.
“So you can let the poor human go home and live a few years in peace before our war bleeds into Kabic.”
All the creatures made popping sounds as they dove back into the ocean, and all my tension vanished as my legs buckled and I collapsed on deck, shivering. Desmod knelt beside me, his arms coming around for a hug, and I pushed him away, tears streaming down my face.
“Don’t touch me,” I whispered, hugging myself.
“Okay, sure, sorry,” Desmod said, backing away. “Hey, Callan! Get me a blanket!”
Callan threw one at us, and Desmod draped it around my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head, gripping the blanket tight as the creature’s words rattled in my mind. The prospect of a supernatural war on our sphere occupied my every thought …
… until Mika began stripping. I watched in baffled surprise as he took everything off except his underwear, threw his clothes overboard, and turned to his men.
“I’m going to take a shower,” he said, his stoic expression failing to hide the repulsion in his eyes. “Men, clean up.”
“For a germaphobe, he can sure keep it together long enough,” Desmod said, chuckling as he tried to lighten the mood.
“Will there really be a war here?” I asked, my voice cracking.
“We won’t let it happen.”
“You guys didn’t even know the merfolk and werewolves were here!”
“We did, and we’re here too. I told you many of us are in the police force. What better way to keep an eye on everything?”
“Oh, right …”
“Would you like something to eat?” he asked, handing me a protein bar.
“Do you just carry those around all the time?”
“No, only for you,” he said, smiling. “We don’t eat.”
“I don’t want that. I want …” My stomach growled. “I want a burger. With lettuce, onions, pickles, cheese, and mustard, no tomatoes, so Cassiopeia doesn’t make me eat something I hate. And waffle fries. And an orange soda.”
He chuckled. “That sounds good! We can get you that.” He sat back with a sigh. “Man, I miss the days when I could eat. It’s not the same now, I only have a taste for blood, everything else is gross.”
“Did Mika tell you about the war when he recruited you?”
“No, but even if he did, I’d have accepted.”
“Why?”
“Because I was homeless and dying of pneumonia. He offered me a life full of excitement. And I don’t regret it.” His face lit up. “I can’t believe we just got to meet merfolk. And not any, but members of the Buslle Pod! Never thought I’d meet one and come out alive. I told you they’re not as brutal as the packs!”
“They’re still terrifying,” I said, shuddering.
“Yeah, they do look scary if you’re not used to them, but they’re level-headed, and very smart. If I wasn’t betting on us winning, I’d bet on them.”
“Did they say the truth? About where Cassiopeia’s brother is?”
“I hope so.” He frowned. “Unless they’re hoping we battle with the sirens and kill each other off. Sirens are nasty pieces of work, especially the Ca’ii Flock. We’ll have to find a way to check out their trophy site without getting hurt.”
“Can’t we do it from my sphere?”
“I think we can, Mika will know for sure.”
Speaking of the devil, Mika’s voice flowed from inside, and Desmod sighed and held out his hand. I rolled my eyes and took it, and a blink later, I was back in my room. I didn’t even resist when Cassiopeia eased my stress and minimized my trauma, and I ate my burger with famished eagerness before I showered and hopped into bed.
As before, reading my old posts brought back my emotions, and after I called my parents and friends, once again censored by a promise I was “convinced” to make, I typed everything out, the future’s vague fate roiling in my mind.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
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