A Vial of Life (A Shade of Vampire, #21)

“We aren’t certain,” I replied. “But if I had to take a wild guess, I would say at least a dozen.”


“A dozen,” Cyrus said thoughtfully, more to himself than to anyone else. “I wonder if more outcasts joined her…”

He ran his hands along the barrier before he cleared his throat and addressed his jinn companions in a low voice. “We’re strong enough to break through this together.” He turned to Jeriad. “I suggest that the rest of you stand back. Far back.”

Derek’s hand slid into mine as we all moved backward with the dragons, while the jinn moved forward and lined up against the barrier. They adopted the same stance as Cyrus—shoulders squared, palms resting against the invisible wall.

A moment later, there was a searing flash of light, so bright that I feared for Derek’s human eyes. I reached instinctively for his neck and tugged him to face the opposite direction.

Once the light had faded, Derek and I, along with Rose, Caleb, Aiden and the other vampires, faced The Oasis. The boundary had been broken and now we could see what had been hidden beyond its walls. My eyes fixed on the camel stable before roaming the ground in search of the trap door. We soon spotted it. Approaching it, we discovered that it was locked.

The jinn emitted another painful flash of light and the trap door popped open obediently.

The sound of scurrying came from beneath us, footsteps echoing across marble floors, in the vampires’ atrium. I could only assume they had already detected our intrusion. Cyrus was about to descend toward the lower levels when Derek spoke up.

“Wait,” he said. “A coven of vampires live in this upper atrium and it’s not necessary to cause harm to them. The jinn are the ones who hold the boy in question—my son—as a prisoner. These vampires are mere puppets. I would also request that you leave all humans alone.”

I understood the motive behind Derek’s words. Of course, he wasn’t the harsh ruler he’d been when I met him, and he didn’t want to cause unnecessary bloodshed. But he also knew that Lucas’ son, Jeramiah, lived here. Derek regretted the hateful relationship he’d had with his brother, and he didn’t want to make an enemy out of Jeramiah, who, at least so far, didn’t appear to have played much of a role in Ben’s troubles. If anything, Jeramiah himself was under the control of the jinn.

“We have no interest in the vampires,” Cyrus said. “Nor much in the humans… Just tell us where to find the Nasiris.”

“Beneath this atrium lies a prison filled with humans,” Derek replied. “Beneath that is where the Nasiris reside.”

The jinn glided down the stairs that led from the desert to the top level of the atrium, whose walls were made of glass, giving us a view of the many levels below. Dark figures streaked across the verandas—vampires, carrying weapons, and all moving in our direction.

One of them looked upward—a young woman with thick blonde hair—and the moment she laid eyes on the jinn a scream escaped her lips.

“Enemy jinn!” She began yelling to her companions and pointing up toward the jinn standing and watching behind the glass. “Retreat!”

More vampires stopped in their tracks and gazed up at us, their faces filling with fear and dread. They scattered in all directions as they hurried toward doors and locked themselves inside apartments. All of these vampires were clearly well accustomed to the might of the jinn.

Even as the jinn flattened the doors leading down to the prison, neither Derek and I nor any of our other companions knew exactly how to reach the Nasiris’ home. Although we had been here before, we had been transported by the jinn’s magic—not by foot—so we’d never come to know of its exact location. Ben, however, had described the entrance to us briefly—deep in the network of cells, in a small storage room, hidden behind a cabinet. We described these details to Cyrus, and strangely, now that we were down here it was almost as though he didn’t need them. He began leading us all forward with a surprisingly strong sense of direction. As we moved, I couldn’t help but notice with a shudder the looks of hunger on the jinn’s faces as they eyed the humans we passed by.

The jinn’s speed picked up and the rest of us had to run to follow. After what felt like half an hour, Cyrus drew us all to a halt outside a narrow door. He pushed it open to reveal a small storage room. The jinni raised a hand for silence and sniffed the air.

Then he nodded. “This is the room your son spoke of. I can feel their closeness.”

There wasn’t enough room for all of us to step inside at once, so Cyrus and three other jinn moved in first. They shoved the cupboard to one side. Sure enough, behind it was the secret door Ben had spoken of. Cyrus forced it open.