A part of me now almost wished that she had dropped me into the crowd of Bloodless after all. At least I wouldn’t be alone. I’d be with the Mansons, no matter how horrific it would be.

Maybe Braithe, Frederick, Colin, Arletta and I could even make our way back to Cruor in our monster forms and be united with Hans again. I guessed that Cruor was where Hans must have still been, because I hadn’t spotted him here. At least Frederick, Braithe and Colin were still among the crowd, and Arletta would soon join them. It was a lance through my heart to see the brothers’ faces, once so handsome, just like their older brother, now deformed into these abominations.

I shook myself.

Stop thinking with such finality. There’s got to be some kind of cure, even if it only makes them half the people they were before. There’s just got to be.

I was shaken from my thoughts as the Bloodless began snarling and leaping up toward me and Aisha, who had started floating toward one of the ship’s masts. The jinni’s hold on me was gut-wrenchingly loose, and I was terrified that she was going to change her mind and drop me down into the crowd after all. Especially when a strong gust of wind swept up, adding to the precariousness as it rocked me from side to side.

“So what has your little mind come up with regarding how to get rid of these things?” Aisha asked me.

It was a struggle to even find my voice, still aggrieved by what Aisha had done to Arletta. I still wanted to be silent, left to my own thoughts, but being dangled over a ship of ravenous bloodsuckers had a way of making one find one’s voice in even the most difficult of situations.

“They can’t be killed like normal vampires,” I stammered, clearing my parched throat and trying to steady my voice. “I watched one get stabbed before, right through the chest. The weapon pierced his heart, but he didn’t die. I don’t know how to kill these things.” Or even if they can be killed.

There was a span of silence as the jinni surveyed the deck. “Curious,” she muttered to herself. “Well, I would like to witness this for myself. You’ll try it again, and if it doesn’t work, you can always try severing the head—”

“Wait… Me? I can’t do this all by myself. That’s why I said that we need to work together.”

“I meant what I said,” Aisha replied, an infuriating smile spreading across her face. She gazed down on me with spiteful contentedness. “You’re going to be our guinea pig. And you’re going to keep experimenting until we find a way to kill them. So if you want to save time, and not lose your life in the process, I really suggest that you think long and hard what the best way is to go about this.” Her attention snapped back to the ship. “So,” she continued briskly, “we need to find you something sharp…”

Oh, God. Is she really going to drop me back down there all alone again? My stomach twisted itself into knots as she began to descend on the deck. I expected her to continue lowering with me, but she leveled us out—frighteningly close enough to the Bloodless’ claws, but not quite low enough for them to gain a grasp on me and yank me from the jinni’s careless grip. Thankfully, these monsters couldn’t leap as high as regular vampires. I looked toward where Aisha was heading—the front of the ship. I realized now that she had spotted the barrel that we kept there—filled with weapons. Daggers, swords, spears, even a few guns. She moved faster as the Bloodless followed beneath us. Arriving at the barrel, she dumped me unceremoniously on the deck.

“So, Julie,” the jinni said in a soft, sweet voice—a voice that was entirely at odds with her malicious countenance. “You wanted to honor Benjamin’s memory and fight for the greater good of the supernatural realm. Now you’ve got your chance. Have at it.”

My hands trembled as I whirled to face the wave of Bloodless surging toward me. It took all that I had to resist the urge to throw myself back into the ocean. That would do no good. Aisha would merely catch me again and bring me right back to the deck—and, possibly, this would irritate her enough to not even allow me to arm myself. So instead, I did the only thing that I could.

I rushed to the barrel and picked up the nearest two weapons to me—a sword in one hand, a rifle in the other.

Drawing the blade from its sheath, I scanned the Bloodless closest to the front of the crowd to make sure none of them were Mansons. Then I raised both weapons in front of me and began firing the rifle. The bullets had little to no effect. If anything, it only agitated them further and made them speed up. Even when I shot one straight through the head, or in the eye, they continued running regardless. By the time they reached within six feet of me, I had urinated on myself.

Discarding the rifle while cursing it for its uselessness, I grabbed hold of one of the ropes hanging from a mast behind me and managed to elevate myself just in time before one of them could grab my ankles. I climbed as high as I possibly could, perching right at the top of the mast, and gazed down at the Bloodless following me up. At least from this vantage point, I could see them coming and could better angle my sword at them. That, and Aisha could more easily come to my rescue if things got really bad. I had to pray that she would do this for me and not leave me to my fate.

As the first of the Bloodless reached me, I scanned his terrifying face to check once again that he wasn’t one of the Mansons. Seeing that he wasn’t, I hit him with my sword, plunging it deep into his chest, even though I had already witnessed such a method not doing a thing. Aisha had seemed to doubt me when I’d told her though, so this was mainly to demonstrate to her that I’d been telling the truth. I dared glance upward for a split second, to catch sight of her hovering several feet above me in the air, watching intently.