“You have some real self-control issues.”

“Glad you finally noticed,” he muttered.

“But how do you live with yourself? I mean, you used to be human. How can you just drink that every day and not be crushed by guilt?”

His jaw twitched. “What makes you think that I don’t feel guilt?”

I didn’t reply. I guessed he was just doing what he had to do to survive. If I’d been in his position, I probably would have done the same.

I shifted in my seat, wanting to lead the conversation elsewhere. I could see I’d made him uncomfortable.

“Before when you were answering my questions about vampires, you mentioned that you can’t go in the sun. What would happen if you did?”

“We would wither away eventually,” he replied. “We can stand it for only so long.”

“What about half-bloods? Can they tolerate the sun?”

“I don’t know how well, but I’m sure better than vampires.”

I was about to ask another question when someone disturbed us by knocking on the front door.

Joseph got up and left the kitchen while I continued eating my breakfast.

As the door opened, Jeramiah spoke. “I’ve just come from checking on the half-blood you created. She’s doing well. You released just the right amount of venom.”

“Good,” Joseph replied.

“A couple of things. First, there will be another party upstairs tonight. I know you said you weren’t interested, but now that you have a, uh, companion, perhaps you’ll reconsider? Anyway, think about it. Secondly,” he continued, “our next hunt probably won’t be for a couple of weeks. But I’ve been thinking that since you’ve been putting effort into learning to control yourself around humans, we could go on a small hunt, just a few of us. We can always do with a few extra humans and it would be good practice for you. What do you think?”

“I like the idea,” Joseph said, without a moment’s hesitation.

“No witches would come with us, since it’s last minute and they usually only agree to come on the main hunts… This means we’re at risk from the hunters as soon as we step outside the boundary, but there will only be a few of us and if we move fast, we should be all right.”

“I’m willing to take the risk,” Joseph replied. “When were you thinking to go?”

“Tonight after the party.”

Joseph paused this time for a few seconds, then said, “Sure.”

“Good,” Jeramiah replied. “If I don’t see you aboveground tonight, I’ll stop by your door later on to pick you up—along with your half-blood, of course. The party should wind down around 2am. So let’s say 3am.”

“We’ll be ready.”

Then the door closed.

I’d forgotten all about my food by now. I’d even forgotten to swallow what was already in my mouth.

My jaw hung open as Joseph returned to the room. He looked at me.

He didn’t bother recounting the conversation. He knew that I heard everything.

We had less than twenty-four hours.

I shot to my feet and looked at him desperately. “We have to find a way to get my sister and Hassan out of the boundary.”

A frown formed on his face. Then he sat down in a chair opposite me and rubbed his temple, deep in thought.

How are we going to do this? How can we bring them on a hunt with us? Joseph and I might be able to figure out how to escape once we were outside the boundary, but how would I save my sister and Hassan?

Yes, we’d know the exact location of the place to give to the police, but how would they break in? There was an impenetrable boundary protecting The Oasis. If we didn’t find a way to get them out, my sister would be stuck here forever. Or until they decided to murder her for her blood.

I slumped back into a chair, burying my head in my hands as I tried to think of how we could possibly get out of this situation.

A wave of relief rushed through me when Joseph looked up ten minutes later and said:

“I think I have an idea.”

Chapter 17: Ben

It was possibly the most harebrained scheme I had ever thought of, but I didn’t see what other option we had.

After I explained it to River, her face filled with doubt, but she apparently didn’t have any better ideas, so she agreed.

We had some hours until the party tonight, so in the meantime we discussed how we were going to pull off the idea. We talked in hushed voices, practically mouthing, about all the things that could go wrong, and how we could avoid disaster.

Once River and I could hear sounds of people gathering upstairs for the evening’s revelry, I took her into the kitchen. Grabbing the container of pickles from the fridge, I emptied the remaining pickles into a bin, then washed and dried the container.

I sat River down opposite me at the table and placed the container in the center between us. Then she held out her wrist for me. Extending my claw, I slit through her skin, deep enough so that blood began to flow into the container. Once I was sure that I had enough, I wrapped her wound up in tissue, then made her drink my blood. Her body did have its own natural healing capabilities, but they weren’t as fast as those of a vampire, and it was best that she healed before we headed upstairs.

After her wound closed up, River went to change. She managed to find a long red gown in one of the bedrooms, while I just wore a loose shirt and cotton pants.

Then we left the apartment and headed upstairs. I slid an arm around her waist as we approached the crowd. There were tables to our left, lined with half-bloods serving up blood and liquor, and there was also a self-serve snack area containing regular food to our right.