Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
But I didn’t.
“I only tried to find a solution to what she wanted,” I tell him. “To what we both wanted.”
We’re sitting on top of a stack of crates in the middle of the ship, repairing fishing nets for Sedge. Even though Larimar and Maren are blood-drinkers now, they still like to eat both human food and Syren food, and fish are a happy medium. Sometimes, the sisters will jump off the ship together and find the fish themselves, but we’ve been sailing at a fast clip today, and if we can drag these nets behind us, we might catch enough so that Sedge can cook up a feast.
“Yes, but what solutions are as simple as granting one immortality,” he says. “You couldn’t have known that it would work.”
“I didn’t,” I tell him. “But you did.”
“I merely had a hypothesis,” he says with a sniff. “The risk was still yours to carry.”
I sigh. Figures that even though Larimar talked to Abe privately about her wishes, he still pretends he wasn’t involved at all, as if he wasn’t the one who used the knife on Maren. But the doctor likes to get his sticky little fingers in everything.
I decide to run with it. “I figured that they’re monsters too. They know how to control that side of themselves that humans don’t. That I never could. The perfect candidate for turning one into a Vampyre that can keep its sanity.”
“Speaking of,” he says, lowering his voice. “You’re going to have to test the beast eventually.”
I stiffen at that. For some time, Abe has had the notion of trying to let the monster out on purpose, but we both know it doesn’t seem to work that way. Heightened emotions are what brought the beast out in front of Larimar that time, but that was beyond my control. At any rate, I think I’ve learned how to control the way I feel about her. I don’t let it scare me anymore.
I’m no longer running away from the fact that I’m in love with her.
When it comes to love, she’s the predator and I’m the prey, and this time, I’ve willingly let myself be caught.
Sometimes, it’s good to submit.
To an extent, in any regard. I certainly submitted in those chains the other week, but that was a onetime thing. She’s the one in chains going forward.
“Too risky,” I tell him.
“What’s risky is the fact that you can’t control it, and it might resurface when you least expect it. If you could bring the monster out, perhaps in a controlled environment, then you’ll always have it under your power. You’ll have nothing to fear.” He pauses. “And neither will she.”
The doctor is right about that. Even with Larimar being a Vampyre, even with her Syren ability to fight back, I can tell she’s still worried about a reappearance from the beast. I traumatized her back at that church. I hurt her, tried to kill her. That’s a hard thing to get over, no matter how changed I may seem, no matter how powerful she might feel.
“At the very least, she’s immortal now,” he goes on, picking up on what I’m thinking, “so even if things did go sideways, chances are she’d be alright. Besides, you have the Brethren of the Blood here to keep you in line.”
I try to concentrate on the net. “I’ll think about it.”
“Well, you best be thinking about it before we hit Cape Colony and the Dutch East Indies,” he says. “Once we go into port, we all have to be on our best behavior.”
“And I do say it’s not a moment too soon,” I comment with a sigh. The humans in the hold are dying. There is no chance they will make it to land and survive if they’re let go. They will die on this ship, despite Maren’s best intentions. They’ll probably die soon—Ramsay suggested we shoot them and put them out of their misery. Says it’s the humane way of dealing with livestock, and I suppose he’s right about that.
But with the humans gone, that means us blood-drinkers will run out of food. There’s a chance we might be able to find another ship, but Maren has her qualms about us killing everyone we come across. It’s easy for her to say since she can survive off food if things get tough. Same goes for Larimar. Neither of them seem to need blood the same way that we do, though that doesn’t mean they don’t crave it the same.
But we can’t keep this cycle forever. We’ll need to feed from humans eventually.
We go back to working on the nets, falling into comfortable silence. At least we can keep pulling in fish, and though it won’t nourish everyone, it at least tempers the hunger for now.
It’s been a couple of hours now, the sun high in the sky, a bright blue cloudless day in the South Atlantic, where fair weather is hard to come by, when Maren starts running down the deck. She and Larimar have been at the bow this whole time, talking or gossiping or trading Vampyre growing pains. They both have a near-death experience they can share.