A Shade of Vampire 10: A Spell of Time (14 page)

“What are you—?”

He removed the leaves from his mouth—now crushed to a mushy pulp—and approached me slowly. He swallowed hard as he stood next to me. He lifted my shirt and placed the pulp against my wound.

“Hold it there,” he said.

As soon as I held it in place he stepped away, turning his back on me once again.

“It will speed up the clotting,” he said.

“Oh, thanks,” I said, staring down at the gooey pulp. “And what about you?” I looked back at him, noticing that he was making no attempt to stem his own bleeding shoulder.

“It doesn’t matter if I bleed.”

“It matters to me,” I muttered.

He ignored me. Silence fell between us. He paced up and down in front of me, like a panther protecting its territory. I assumed he was waiting for my blood to stop flowing.

My assumption was correct. A few minutes later, he looked at me again.

“Check the wound.”

I peeled back the pulp. The blood had clotted, just as Caleb had predicted.

“It’s okay now.”

“Then we need to keep moving.” He closed the distance between us and bent down in front of me. “Climb back on.”

I wrapped my legs around his waist. He stood up and began rushing through the trees again. Still holding the mushy pulp, I reached for his shoulder and placed the plant against it. I looked at his face for a reaction. His jaw twitched, but otherwise he didn’t acknowledge my gesture.

I held the pulp there as he raced forward until the blood had stopped flowing freely and began to thicken. Then I threw the pulp away.

I replaced my arm around his shoulder.

“So you still have no idea where we are? Are we even on Earth?”

“Yes, we’re in the human realm.”

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t know,” he breathed.

I decided to ask no more questions of him. At least for now. He seemed to be as clueless as me as to our whereabouts, and he needed to concentrate on getting us out of this jungle before day broke. And the sun drained him of all energy.

We passed the next few hours in silence. We didn’t stop again. I supposed that was a good thing. The speed at which Caleb was running prevented mosquitoes and other nasty-looking insects from landing on me. I felt their high-pitched buzzing in my ears several times as we ran through particularly thick clouds of them, but thanks to Caleb’s swiftness, none were able to land on me.

I didn’t know how I did it, but as I rested my head against Caleb’s back, listening to his heavy breathing, feeling the strength of his body so close against mine, exhaustion took over me and I drifted off.

S
trong hands shaking
my shoulders brought me awake with a start. I sat bolt upright, bewildered as to where I was or how I was looking up into Caleb’s face. It took a few seconds for the memories to return.

I was lying on the ground, Caleb leaning over me, artificial light casting shadows over his sweaty face. Sounds of civilization surrounded me, just a few meters away. We were in a cluster of bushes, and just a few meters away street lamps lined a concrete road. A little further than that was a market.

I looked up at the sky. The sun was about to break above the horizon.

“Where—?”

“We’ve reached a town,” he whispered.

“Oh… Oh, thank God.” I attempted to stand. He pulled me back down.

“I need you to wait here,” he said. “Can you do that?”

“For how long?”

“Ten, fifteen minutes. Stay in the shadows of the trees. Make sure you’re not seen. All right?”

“O-okay.”

I crept further into one of the bushes and peeked through a gap in the leaves to watch Caleb run out onto the road and head in the direction of the market. I stood waiting behind the bush with bated breath, trying to make sense of where on earth we could be. Footsteps sounded on the concrete road a few feet away.

The voices of two men filled my ears. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but at least it sounded like a human language.
We’re definitely on Earth, like Caleb said. But where?
I supposed I’d have to wait for Caleb to return.

Although I didn’t have a watch, it felt like Caleb had kept his promise to return within fifteen minutes. He crept behind the bushes and dropped down next to me. He had a bulging plastic bag in his hand. He removed the contents one by one, placing some items on my lap, some on his own.

“How did you—?”

“Some early visitors to the market,” was all the explanation he offered.

“So you pickpocketed them,” I muttered. He nodded. I guessed it wasn’t difficult for vampires to pickpocket, given their superhuman speed and agility.

By the time he was finished, I was holding in my lap a ripe papaya, a liter of water, a toothbrush, toothpaste and a stiff cotton night gown. On his lap was a clear plastic bag filled with fresh fish, a black wallet and another black plastic bag.

He began tearing into the fish, draining all the blood and throwing the rest of it into the bushes. He must have been hungry. I attacked my bottle of water with similar urgency, swallowing half a liter in less than a minute. Then I turned to the papaya.

I wasn’t sure how to open it without making a mess of it. I looked at Caleb.

“Could you?”

He extended a claw and sliced the fruit into quarters. I began chewing into the sweet flesh hungrily and I had finished the whole thing in a few minutes. I eyed the toothbrush and the night gown.

“Now what?” I asked once he’d finished his fish blood.

He stood up and brushed himself down. Opening the wallet, he pulled out a wad of cash and began counting it.

I stared at the currency. “We’re in—”

“Brazil. On the borders of a city called Manaus.”

Brazil.
Well, at least that explained the rainforest. The opening of the gate was in the heart of the Amazon.

Caleb’s eyes roamed my body.

“Put that dress on over your clothes,” he said.

I stared down at my clothes. He had a point. I looked like I’d just walked off the set of a slasher movie. I pulled the dress over my head and did my best to tie back my hair so it didn’t look quite so alarming.

I looked at Caleb. He hardly looked presentable. Shirtless, his chest was covered in bloodstains and grime from rushing through the jungle for hours. His hair was a tangled mess and his pants were ripped too. He was in just as bad a state as me.

“And what about you?”

He reached for the unopened black plastic bag and pulled out a pair of shorts and a crisp black shirt. He walked to a cluster of trees nearby and disappeared behind them. When he returned, he was fully dressed in the new clothes.

“All right,” he said. “Let’s go.” He gripped my arm and pulled me forward.

“Wait.” I tugged on him, pulling him back. “Bend down.”

He raised a brow but did as I’d requested. His head now level with my chest, I ran my fingers through his thick dark hair, attempting to tame it, picking out pieces of leaves and branches. I almost screamed as a small red spider scurried across my finger, burying itself closer to Caleb’s scalp. I picked up a stick from the ground and, fishing through his hair to find the creature again, I managed to brush it away.

“Caleb,” I whispered, my insides churning, “can you check my hair for spiders?”

He stood up and pulled my head toward him, his strong fingers tugging roughly on my long hair as he sifted through it.

“No spiders. Okay? We need to go.”

“Okay,” I said in relief.

I slipped my hand in his and, picking up the toothbrush and toothpaste, we left the tree-lined enclosure and walked onto the main road. I was glad that the dress was long enough to cover my feet because I wore no shoes.

Caleb led me directly across the quiet road and headed into the market area. We walked along a line of buildings until we reached a tall one with a sign above a double-doored entrance.

Hostel Amazonas.

Caleb wrapped an arm round my waist and held me close as we ascended the steps and entered into the lobby. There was a small reception desk in one corner where an elderly woman sat reading a paper. She looked up at us through her spectacles as we arrived at the desk.

Caleb picked up a leaflet from the counter and paged through it. He looked up at the woman.

“A private room, please.”

“Sala privada? Para dois?”
the woman asked, holding up two fingers.

Caleb nodded and placed a few notes down on the counter.

She took the cash and counted it. “
Uma noite
,” she muttered. She handed us a key and pointed to the number engraved on it. “
Vinte
.”

Caleb took it from her and pulled me away from the reception desk, up the staircase in the center of the room. We walked up two flights of stairs and found Room 20.

He opened the door and locked it immediately after we’d entered. I found myself standing in a narrow room. It looked much like a basic motel room—a small double bed, a faded chair, an old telephone and an ensuite bathroom. It was basic, but looked clean enough. Most of all, I was thankful to see mosquito nets fixed to the window and also over the bed.

The door clicked as Caleb locked it. He walked about the room, drawing the curtains shut and plunging the room into darkness. He reached for the switch on the wall and flicked on the fluorescent lighting. Then he finally turned to face me. We stood in silence, just staring at each other. It was the first time since our reunion that we’d had time to just look at each other, undistracted by danger. And now it felt awkward. I broke eye contact with him and walked toward the bathroom.

“I need a shower,” I muttered.

I locked myself in the small bathroom and undressed. I placed my torn clothes in the bin in the corner of the room and stepped into the shower.

There was no hot water but it wasn’t needed. I was glad to have the cold water spilling down my back after the heat of the jungle. I half expected to find another leech on me but, thankfully, I didn’t. I stared at the floor of the shower, amazed at how much dirt was flowing off me.

I soaped myself from top to bottom and washed my hair with the cheap shampoo that had been left on a ledge. I stepped out, dried myself and changed back into the night dress. I wrapped my hair in the small towel, forming a turban, and, after procrastinating a minute longer, stepped back out into the room.

Caleb sat in a chair in the corner of the room, staring down at the leaflet he’d taken from reception. I approached slowly, and soon realized that he was looking at a map. He stood up as I approached and left me alone in the room to take a shower himself. I waited in silence for him, listening to the running water, looking at the map while I waited.

When he finally opened the door, wearing his shorts, his chest bare again, his hair dripping wet, he stopped in the center of the room and looked down at me seriously.

There were so many questions bombarding my mind. I wasn’t sure he was ready for them. Hell, I wasn’t sure
I
was ready.

“What now?” I asked.

“We stay in this room for a few hours. Get some rest. And then we move on again. This is one of the nearest towns to that gate. It’s not safe to stay here.”

“But go where?”

“You need to return to The Shade.”

I bit my lip.

“Caleb, what were you doing there, on that strange island? And why did you save me again?” He walked over to the window, his back turned to me. “I thought you weren’t willing to risk putting anything else on the line for me… for us?”

His back heaved, his muscles rippling beneath his skin.

“I wasn’t.”

“Then?”

He paused. Then cleared his throat. “We don’t have much time here. We should be using it for rest rather than talk.”

“You can’t keep me in the dark any longer. I can’t sleep until I know what’s going on.”

He threw me a glance, eyeing my bare arms.

“Get under the mosquito net first.”

I climbed onto the bed and tucked in the net all around me. I sat cross-legged in the center of the mattress looking at him as he resumed his seat in the chair.

“Firstly, I don’t know what that warlock, Rhys, wanted with you. Secondly, I was there because I was paying a visit to that island with Annora.”

“What is that island? Why did Rhys take me there, of all places?”

He hesitated. His lips parted then closed.

“It’s best you don’t know what lies on that island. Just know that it’s not pretty. I don’t know what they had planned for you or why he stole you away.”

“What will happen now? Will Rhys come after us?”

“Oh, yes. You can count on it. That’s why we can’t stay here for more than a few hours.”

“What will he do to you, if he—if they—find out you’ve betrayed them? And what will you do now?”

Caleb wet his lower lip, his Adam’s apple moving as he swallowed. “There’s nothing I can do.”

I’d seen enough of the witches to know that Caleb wouldn’t be spared for such a betrayal.

“Why did you do this for me?” I pressed.

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “It was probably another mistake.”

“Yet you did it still, with barely a moment’s hesitation.”

“I did,” he said, staring blankly at the opposite wall.

I thought back to the night Mona had burst into our apartment, claiming that she had a sense that my parents were under a spell. I’d found it strange at the time. But now suspicion was beginning to enter my mind. “Caleb, did you warn Mona about my parents?”

His silence was all the answer I needed.

I couldn’t restrain myself. I untucked the mosquito next and ran over to him, kneeling down and taking his hands in mine.

“Caleb, you can come back with me. I know Mona will vouch for you. And you returning me a second time… it simply can’t be a coincidence. With both myself and Mona standing up for you, there’s no way my parents can refuse. They’ll just be too relieved to see me again. Why don’t you come with me?”

Her refused to look me in the eye.

“If you don’t,” I said, my voice shaking, “you’ll die. You have no choice. Even if you manage to escape Rhys, you only have seven days. Come to The Shade and Mona will be able to rid you of the bond. You can live with us.”