Chapter 15

I woke with a jolt, my hands slamming down on the arm chairs, and pulling myself up, gasping as I did. My eyes target in on the phantom seated in front of me, staring at me with his hands clasped and against his mouth. He looked as if he were testing something and murmurs, 'Interesting.'

I look around and see that all the windows in the plane are shuttered. The sun must have risen. My sense of time was distorted and I look at him snarling, 'You almost killed me!'

His hands move to his lap as he says slowly, 'The temptation after last night's unpleasant experience was strong.'

My insides go cold as I look him up and down. He had changed into new clothes, the smell of blood in the cabin of the plane faint, a mix of his and my own, but also the smell of fresh soap. How long had i been at the cusp of death? Glancing around, I ask, 'Where are we going?'

But he doesn't answer this, but instead replies, 'I think it is time you answered a few of my questions Nina.'

My insides go cold yet again, feeling tendrils of regret at not running away at the airport when I might have had a chance. I wasn't ready for this but knew it was inevitable. Whatever he had gleaned the night before was about to come back to bite me. Slowly, he tilts his head and asks with narrowing eyes, 'How can you go for almost two months without food?'

Was this what he gleaned last night. I felt myself sigh internally even as I let myself stiffen, saying, 'I don't know. I simply can.'

He stares at me for a time, but I could tell he was contemplating my answer. Lying would be impossible with a Pureblood, so I knew not to try, but I would omit certain details. Then he says, 'C rank vampire can not hibernate like their cousins in the A rank and myself a Pureblood. So that isn't a possibility. When I saw you in that warehouse, you had been tortured, from the burns and missing fingers I could tell as much. The wounds weren't new, though a few were. You should have died weeks previously or at least have changed into a ghoul, so why didn't you?'

I shake my head again and murmur, 'I wish I knew. The longest I've ever gone without food is almost three weeks.'

Nick seemed surprised by this and leans back in his seat. He drums his finger for a moment on his chair, contemplating my answer before saying, 'Most C rank vampire can barely go a week without blood and they can't consume human food.'

This makes me jerk as I look over at him. His blue eyes seemed to pierce right through me. His power was still a heavy blanket on me, but I wouldn't let him into my mind, allowing only static to be his answer.

Shrugging I answer, 'Thus is something I've always been able to do since my awakening as a vampire.'

He nods, taking this for face value, as he continues to tap his chair. It was a moment before he continues, 'It doesn't explain why the Phantasma is so keen on you. You are nothing special.'

This smarted but I keep my mouth closed as he continues on, 'You can go without consumption of blood for an extended time, something that a few vampire can do, though regrettably I can not.'

This surprised me. Most Purebloods could go at most two weeks without feeding, something most other vampires did as well. The only way to go longer is to go into their hybernative state. So that made me question what I was capable of. How long could I truly go without blood? Somehow this gave me hope that I could go without. But I sweep that away as I continue to listen to Nick's reasoning, being careful not to interrupt.

'This isn't anything new to most vampire. The Phantasma must want you for something else though I have yet to figure what it is. That leaves me with this question, why do you not have a blood song?'

It was rhetorical, so I just stare back. He does as well before continuing, 'Blood songs can't be hidden, it is the song of your history from your birth as a vampire to your death. So for you to not have one... That is unheard of. It would be useful to figure how you are able to do so, but even that seems too trivial for a group such as the Silent Phantasma. So that leaves me with only one question, you are what you say you are or are you a member of the group?'

I jerk at this in surprise. His eyes had flashed that hunters look once more, but simply out of anger. I could feel the pressure in the cabin rise with his power. The pheremones were sharp and overpowering as I gasp out, 'No! I'm not.'

'Really? I find it interesting how they were able to find you so soon after being in my home.'

'Why would I allow them to torture me for weeks on end?!'

'Loyalty.'

The power inside the cabin made it hard to breath, my skin breaking out in a cold sweat. Why wasn't the human being effected like myself? Was he in an airtight room away from this? I gasp, trying to center myself.

He continues, 'My clan is being decimated, as are the others, by this group and if I find out that you are a member and not just a possible genetic wonder they wish to exploit, then you will face a worse situation then when I found you.'

His final words sounded like a demon spoke them and his power increased to the point I felt physcially ill. Suddenly all the power and pheremones that were flooding the cabin was gone and I let out a long gasp. He was no longer looking at me, but behind me. Slowly I catch my breath and look behind me to the captain of the ship. He nods and says a little nervously, 'Our course is set in. We will be making one stop to refuel and from there to our destination. Is... Is everything alright back here?'

Nick nods and says quietly, 'All is well. Though do call our next stop and have blood provided. It seems that someone forgot.'

The captain blanches for a moment, then nods and leaves. Had Nick simply pulled back on his power for this human? It's true, such strong pheremones would have knocked him out, if not killed him, so it was for the best. Slowly I turn back and look at Nick who was again staring at me with hard eyes. He had more questions, but seemed to be holding back as I say softly, 'I understand your worries, but I can promise you I didn't even know about this group called the Silent Phantasma until you spoke of them. They killed people dear to me to get ahold of me and I fear they have tried to in the past as well.'

This seemed to peak his interest as I felt the powerful blanket that was his strength settle on me again. I could tell he was probing, but my mind was locked from it. We sat there in silence, each asking with our eyes until finally I relented and said, 'Many years ago when I was still young my mentor saved my life from them.'

'Furlow Marta.'

I nod as I continue, 'I had gone against his words that night, trying to find a new source of blood, as our previous had died and Furlow wasn't exactly the most charming. So I had left...'

I stopped before saying during the daylight while Furlow had been reading his favored novels, and continue, 'While he was distracted and went looking for a source. It didn't take long to find a morgue director that was familiar with our kind and I had settled a deal. He found me generous and not as vicious in said dealings. So I left with a sense of accomplishment and pride at my first attempt in this form of business. However, I wanted to walk the town as it had been some time since I had and it was thrilling to be among the masses once again. However I realized after some time I needed to return, the sense of dawn coming.'

I had changed the details as night had already fallen at this point of the creature following me. So I have every reason to believe it was a vampire.

'As I did, I realized I was being followed, hunted really by what, at the time, I thought was another vampire. I ran for the warehouse that Furlow and I called home and found him spitting mad. He had sensed the hunter following me and I have never seen him so pale. He grabbed me and dragged me through the warehouse, telling me I had to run. For some reason I believe he knew of whom was following me. There was a steely determination about him when he threw me out the back door towards the ships about to set sail. So I did as he told me, I had no reason to question his judgement as he had already saved me so many times before.'

I stop there, remembering the haunting shadows of my past. The smell of acred pheremones I hadn't smelt since then, or the screams of Furlow urging me to run faster and survive. Or that moment looking back to see the shadowy figure seemingly swallow up my mentor, my teacher, my friend, and the only true father figure I'd ever known.

'I made it to the ship, and the creature following me was stopped long enough for the ship to sail.'

'Can you describe the person you saw?' Nick asks softly, as if easing it out of me.

I shake my head and whisper, 'It wasn't like a person, or if it was, it was shadowed by some ability. All I could see was a figure of a person, black swirling mist around it, and a smell that I have never smelt before.'

'What was the smell?'

'Like the smell of a wetted fire, and death, and... something poisonous.'

Silence filled the cabin as I remember back, feeling the tendrils of black smoke racing towards me. My bare feet launching from the docks edge as something in me snapped at glancing to see Furlow's crumpled body on the floor, and feeling the winds whip around me as I flew for the first time, leaving the black mist grasping at nothing. I had landed on the boat about ten seconds after, looking back and seeing the shadow standing at the edge of the dock. I remember worrying that the creature could fly, but it didn't, simply stared as I sailed from the London harbors to the newly established United States of America.

Slowly I return to the present and look up to see Nick has a faraway look on his own face. But he comes into sharp focus when he realizes I'm staring. I say, 'I am alone in this world, I have been so for almost two hundred years. I will not pretend to know what is going on in the vampiric world. What I know I have gleaned from those who I have made friends with who are part of your world. What I have learned from you in the last day is disturbing. Humanity can not know about us because I know what they have done in the past.'

Nick nods, having most likely lived through that era, or at least his parentage had. I was unsure of his history, as all I knew was the names of the leaders of the Five Great Clans. Nick had to be older than I, since he was my maker. When humanity had learned of our existence it had led to deadly conflict, which the Phantoms had finally won, turning the legecy into nothing more than fairy tales for humanity. It had been bloody and left many Phantoms killed.

Slowly I continue, 'I don't want to be a part of this conflict, but it seems that I have become so centered. So I have questions of my own that need to be answered. Just like you I'm wondering how they knew where your castle was and if they followed us to your home through me.'

'Did they inject you at any time?'

Remembering the torture made me shutter, but I finally shake my head. And ask, 'Is it possible they knew of your castle before hand? It's not exactly subtle.'

He smirks at that and murmurs, 'It is possible. However it leaves the question as to how they knew we were there. The rotation of my stays in my mansions are only known by my closest of companions. All who died last night.'

There was an edge in his voice at those final words and I shiver a little, feeling the goose flesh and whisper, 'I'm sorry Nick.'

He waves his hand dismissively and says in a monotone, 'You have no reason to say such words unless you have direct causation.'

We simply stare for a moment and then I nod and continue, 'Another thing I want to know is, who had the gaul to turn so many vampire into ghouls. It would take time and for others, human or vampire alike not to notice.'

Nick nods, murmuring as he rubs his temples, 'So it seems. So many to have gone missing without the notice of the 'Night Hunters' is also worrying.'

Suddenly the strangeness of this situation settles on me. Here I am, sitting opposite a royal Pureblood vampire , talking about the possible extinction of our species as if we are talking about the weather. It struck me. How had this even happened? How long had I been followed? Was it chance that Nick and I had met? What were the odds? I nod, my mind returning from the novelty of this situation to his words as I whisper, ''Night Hunters' have always been a strange group, though I have had little dealings with them.'

In fact, I had had none. I knew they were a fearsome bunch, second sons of the royal family given the task of bringing to heel wayward phantoms or even changing history itself by suppressing memories in whole groups of humans, or even killing royals on a quest for conquest of their neighbors. They were not to be messed with. New vampires, freshly bitten were often taken in by this group to become 'Night Hunters' or were culled off. The rate of vampires in the world had to remain small, lest humanity find out and so far it hadn't in the last thousand years. However that could change, and maybe already was without our knowing.

Nick nods, saying, 'It isn't like them to let this slide unless large numbers of humans have died. Then they might have missed it.'

It was true what he said and sobering. If the death rate an people had gone up, or even missing people it was a sign of this. But that wasn't what concerned me, it was that they were somehow being controlled. My mind continued to go back to seeing the mass of ghoul coming from the mansion, stopping, their heads snapping to the left, and then as if a flock, moving towards the forest. The only thing big enough for them all to do so would be an army of waiting Phantom. But there hadn't been, so it left the question of someone controlling this group, like a hive mind.

'I must speak to the 'Night Hunters' as soon as we land.

This made me squirm inside. I was a C rank, lowest, bitten, and in the mind of even the lowest ranked 'Night Hunter', garbage.