This had, without doubt, been the longest and hardest day of my life as queen. And there were still another twenty-six children in the Black Cells.
“He’s gone limp, Ara,” Arthur called, snapping my mind back to the cold, empty room—nothing but a steel bed with iron cuffs and a stone-faced guard in each corner. “Time to use your hands.”
I’d trained myself to switch off in those few seconds it took the flesh to turn, but as the day progressed, snapping back out of it again was getting hard. I placed my hands weakly on the tiny, fragile bones of the boy’s chest, and held my breath, giving a very low, very gentle shock to his heart.
His spine curved, his body springing up in a jolt from the table. But the monitor didn’t start. His legs laid loose, weak and flaccid, and as the shock flooded his tummy, his bowels and bladder emptied on the table.
“Again?”
“Again,” Arthur said.
I closed my eyes, drawing every ounce of emotional strength I had, and pictured this boy as a happy child—running through the fields of Lamia with other little children just like him. I imagined his smile, how the gap in his front teeth would eventually close as his adult teeth came through, and pictured his hair—how blond it would be without decades of dirt and blood caking it to his scalp. His eyes were black as opals when he’d looked at me earlier, and I took a quiet moment of pleasure, like a mom imagining her own child’s features before it’s born, thinking about what colour his eyes might be when he woke up. That was the one thing I always looked forward to. I didn’t want to hurt this little boy again, but I knew this one moment of pain would bring the walls of eternal suffering down, and give him a chance to finally live. And with that hope, I reapplied the same amount of shock, sending a little prayer out with it.
“Got it,” Arthur said before my eyes even opened.
I drew my hands away and looked back at the monitor. “That’s a nice steady beat.”
“It is.” He handed me a towel to wipe my hands and face. “And I think you’re done for the day.”
“But we’ve only done four.”
“And it’s been a tough four,” he said, fussing about the boy’s thin, waif-like body to make him more comfortable. “Emily, get some clean sheets, please.”
Em nodded and left the room, closing the first door securely before opening the second. These rooms had originally been for observation, but proved greater use now as Resuscitation Rooms until the new clinic was open. All the comforts of cushy beds and shelves with books and teddies had been stripped away, and the nakedness of the room seemed amplified by the white fluorescent light overhead.
I looked down at the tiny little boy, no older than about eight, and cupped my hand firmly over his leg, feeling the pulse and flow of human life under his skin. It warmed with each breath he took, sending a different kind of life back into him—the colour restoring in the minutes it took for Emily to come back in with a pile of sheets and a clean gown.
“Go get some dinner, Ara,” she said. “It’s past nine o’clock. We’ll pick up again tomorrow.”
“But—”
“Amara,” Arthur said sternly. “You worked all day yesterday and the day before, and I highly doubt you slept last night—”
“I—”
“I can tell from looking at you,” he added. “Go to bed. Fourteen reversals in two days is plenty. That’s not even counting the adults you turned for the media demonstration. Rome wasn't built in a day, girl.”
“Okay,” I said, sounding like an annoyed teen, hunching over like one as well. “Fine.”
“Good.” He looked up and smiled. “David will have me stoned if I let you run yourself into the ground.”
“Doubt he’d care much.”
“He’d care more than he’d let on,” Emily said, holding a stern gaze against my guarded, uncertain one.
“Point made.” I put both hands up. “I’m going. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night, Ara,” Em called.
“Night.”
I walked back through the institute via the nursery, just to check on the sleeping little humans there, but the sound in the room as I opened the door was completely different to what I was used to. Human children, for a start, weren't nocturnal. They slept peacefully, breathing deep, their little hearts beating, the smell of their blood and the heat of the fireplace warming the room. It was homely and calm in a way the Damned never had been.
We’d originally equipped this room as a nursery and playroom for about ten children, but of the ten beds lining one side, with a window between each two, only eight were occupied right now. And one of them was a cot, sitting angled into the corner by two windows, a night nanny rocking quietly in the chair beside it. I offered her a smile and walked around to each bed, kissing the sweet sleeping children and stroking their hair, wishing them the loveliest dreams a child could have, then left through the front door, pulling it securely closed behind me.
“Majesty,” the night guard greeted, bowing his head.
“Clive.” I returned the bow. “Look after my babies for me, okay?”
He smiled, looking up quickly when Katy stepped into the glow of the security light.
“Katy. Hi.”
“Hi. How’d it go today?” she asked.
“Great. Our newest little humans are all settled in the hospital wing—except for one.”
“You did lock the security door, right?” she asked, pale-faced.
“Do you have a mirror?”
“Um, no. What for?”
“I just wanted to see if I looked as stupid as you think I am.”
Katy laughed. “Sorry. I’d have asked that question of anyone. If the newly-reversed children get close to the others, they may be likely to attack out of habit.”
“I know.” I laid a reassuring hand to her arm. “But it’s fine. Everything’s locked. And Em and Arthur are still in there anyway.”
“I thought you said you were done for the day?”
“We had a hard time with the last boy from the Black Cells. Arthur thought it best not to leave him in the nurses’ care just yet.”
“Okay.” Katy stepped past me. “Are they moving him to the children’s ward tonight?”
“I think they’ll keep him in observation for the first few hours.”
“That’s probably a good idea. The staff are having a hard time with a few of the really damaged kids. We either need David to hurry back and erase their memories, or we need more staff.”
“I’ll bring it up at tomorrow’s council meeting. But, on the bright side, the first batch of kids are doing well—the ones from the Damned cells.”
“Yes, they are. But I’m still anxious for them. I wish
I
could erase their minds.”
“Well, David will be home soon. And I was hoping to start on a new batch of Lost kids tomorrow. I’m eager to turn the seven babies we have left.”
“We don’t have the facilities to care for seven babies at once, your Majesty.”
“Like I said, I’ll see to hiring more staff, and—”
“I think you should slow down.” She held up a hand, palm facing me and my eagerness. “There are still, at minimum, twenty Lost Children in the Black Cells, and then there’s the sixteen or so Damned in the village, and you’ve got half the adult population filing applications, too. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
I laughed. “That’s exactly what Arthur just said.”
“And he’s right. Go home. Get some sleep.”
“Okay.”
“See you at six tomorrow for some human rehabilitation exercises?”
“Yep. Bright and early.”
“Oh, and Chef put dinner away for you, okay.”
“Excellent. Thanks.” I grinned, walking backward for a second.
Katy waved and disappeared into the nursery.
“Ara?” Quaid said, stepping like a ninja out of the darkness. His skin blended almost perfectly with the night, his teeth the only thing marking his position.
“What’s up?”
“For you,” he said, and started at a run toward me, holding his phone out. “The king.”
“Oh.” I grabbed it, quickly patting my pockets for my own phone, wondering why he hadn't called mine. “Hi, David.”
“Hey,” he said, and he sounded kinda happy.
“How’s things going there?”
“Great, actually. I’ve been trying to call for a few hours. Where’s your phone?”
“In my pocket. It doesn't seem to work too well anymore. No one can ever get through.”
“Okay, we’ll get that seen to. So…” he said leadingly. “How are you doing?”
“Great. We’ve reversed four children today—”
“Only four?”
“Yeah. It’s normally a quick process, really, you know—once I finish, I put Em in charge of after care and move on to the next. But the Lost have needed many hands just to make it hard work. There is no easy with them.”
“So it’ll be a slow process then?”
“Very slow. And I’m so—” I let out a bit of a jagged breath, trying not to cry. “I’m just really tired.”
“I imagine you would be. Are you eating well?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Need to keep up your strength. You’re growing a little being of your own right now.”
“Argh. I wish I could forget. My feet are aching right now and she’s been assaulting my insides all day.”
“Assaulting? Is that because of the electricity you’re using? I’ve been worried how that might affect her, you know, since—”
“No. Arthur says it’s fine—that babies just do that at this stage.”
“Right,” he said quietly. “And … how are
you
, I mean, I … when we drove away, I wondered if we probably should’ve stayed a few more days, maybe even weeks—”
“Why?”
“I just … we shouldn't have left you so soon after the funeral.”
“I’m okay. Mike’s here.”
“I know. But, I don’t know, maybe I should’ve left Jason there.”
“You need him to settle Pepper.”
“But you need him, too.”
“David. I’m fine.” I grabbed my own phone from my pocket when it rang, smiling when I saw the caller ID. “I gotta go.”
“Okay. But you’re sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Call me tomorrow and let me know what’s happening with Pepper.”
“Okay. Bye.”
“Bye.”
“Hello,” I said into my phone, passing Quaid’s back to him.
“David got a black eye,” Jason said, before anything else.
“What?”
“Serious. We went into Pepper’s cell today and she completely freaked.” He laughed. “She went right for him. Took six guards to restrain her, and she hit him square in the face. His nose actually burst and blood went all over the place.”
“Oh my God.” I covered my mouth, looking at Quaid to see if he’d heard that. He didn’t. “Is he okay?”
“Course he is. He’s a vampire.”
“Right.” I whacked my own stupid head. “Duh.”
Jase laughed. “Anyway, after the first session of mind erasure, she was, what the supervising psychologist said, calmer than she’d ever been. Should have seen it, Ar. The entire Institute went nuts, excuse the pun. All the staff came running in to see what was the big deal, and when they realised I could do what I could do, I was dragged from one room to the next, erasing the minds of every patient the staff had favourited since they'd been there. I’m exhausted,” he said with laugh.
“Wow, so obviously no one knew you could do this before now?”
“Nope. Never told a soul.”
“And clearly with good reason.” I shook my head, imagining the excitement around the asylum today. “But, at least it’s been put to good use now—your talent.”
“Yeah, but it’s got me more popularity than I can handle. They want me to stay on—be a resident doctor here.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I said no, though. I’ll take care of a few patients and maybe come back every few months for follow-ups, but I don’t wanna work in this field.”
“Fair enough. Well, I mean, you already have a job here, right?”
“That, I do. Oh, by the way,” he said, stopping then to chew something crunchy. “David got a call from the IVRS.”
“The what?”
“The Institute of Vampire Research and Science.”
“Oh. That’s right. And?”
“Apparently word got round after that article in the Lilithian Times,” he said, mouth full of whatever he was crunching. “They want us to put on another show—just for them.”
“Oh, so they take it seriously now?”
“It seems they do. But they also said they’re interested in working with us if this proves to be true. David told them we don’t operate under the king—Drake, that is. I’m not sure if you knew this but the IVRS is greatly controlled by the old system and most of them are still faithful to the old king. They said it wouldn't be an issue and, if need be, they would switch their allegiance to the Lilithian throne.”
“Really? Just like that?” I snapped my fingers.
“This power of yours could stand to make them a lot of money.”
“How so?”
“Think of the attention it’d get from the human realm if they could immortalise their troops for the purpose of war and then turn them back before anyone was the wiser.”