“What, what does that mean?” demanded Jared.
“It means that this was not a case of them starving due to having been trapped there,” said Antonio, worry etched into every line of his face. “And it perfectly answers Sam’s question.”
Jared sighed with impatience. “Antonio, you’re losing me here.”
“Have you ever heard of ‘The Reaper’s Call’? It is often abbreviated to ‘The Call’.” When both Jared and I shook our heads, Antonio explained. “As you know, vampires are immune to illnesses. But like with many species, vampirism has a natural killer designed to keep the population down. Throughout human history, there have always been diseases or viruses that have done much damage to their race. When cures are found for those viruses, others later develop. Some theorise that their purpose is to keep the human population under control, which makes sense. It is the natural way of things, and the same happens for vampires. If it did not, we would outnumber our prey and quickly die out. The Call is not an illness, more like a preternatural poison that travels like a bug. And it is a killer.”
“There is only an outbreak every few centuries,” began Luther. “It seems that it occurs whenever nature feels that the population of vampires needs a ‘tweak’. It is a perfectly natural cycle, and this cycle helps maintain a balance in the population. But it does not do so cleanly. The Call works by stopping the vampire from being able to digest anything. Not blood, not food – nothing. As such, the vampire will regurgitate anything it tries to consume and slowly starve to death. A vampire can only survive starvation for four weeks.”
Jared rubbed at his nape. I could actually feel the crick in his neck. “How does the poison spread?”
Luther took a brief pause before answering with sympathy, “It can only taint its victim by travelling through saliva or blood to open flesh.” In other words, a bite would do the trick.
Jared’s eyes fell closed and then he was pacing in front of me. “Shit.”
Antonio nodded. “Yes…darn.”
An ache suddenly struck my chest; I wasn’t sure whether it was mine, Jared’s, or a combination of both our pain. If Antonio was right, then Evan, Max, and Stuart were now ‘tainted’. “Does this mean it’s possible that Ava’s brother isn’t tainted? He was clawed at badly, but not bitten.” Currently, all the injured were in the infirmary.
“If he has not been bitten, he is not tainted. Unless, of course, they somehow exchanged blood.” I was pretty sure that the latter hadn’t happened, so Antonio’s news would certainly calm Ava down. The girl was a nervous wreck at the moment, worried she would lose her brother – much like my mate was.
Jared halted. “Okay, so how do we stop it? How do we remove the taint from Evan, Max, and Stuart?”
“You can’t.” Antonio looked utterly distraught.
“Nothing can stop The Reaper’s Call.” Luther’s voice was sensitivity itself. “As the name suggests, death comes for them. Eventually, it will stop spreading through the vampire population and remain dormant for another few centuries.”
Everything Jared was feeling – all the panic, the anger, and the helplessness – hit me so hard that I almost lost my balance. He was vigorously shaking his head, pacing again. “No. No. My brother is not going to die, and neither is Stuart or Max.” I could sense that he felt he’d failed them all.
Stop tormenting yourself, I told him. It wasn’t your fault.
He ignored me. “There has to be a way to help them.” Pausing in his pacing again, he took a deep breath to steady himself. “If it spreads through bodily fluids, then it’s almost like a human virus, right? If we follow that logic, then surely there’s an ‘antivirus’. There has to be some kind of counteragent.”
“If there is, I’ve never heard of it,” said Luther.
“Where did it first originate?”
Luther shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“Okay, so who do we talk to? You must know someone who’s studied this.”
“No one dares get close enough to a tainted vampire to study it.”
A string of curses flew out of Jared’s mouth.
Aching for Jared, I turned to Antonio. “What now?”
“We need to contain Evan, Stuart, and Max. Although the symptoms may not show for a few days, it is still important to isolate them. It would be safe for them to be contained together as opposed to separately, since they will not attempt to feed from each other. Tainted blood will not appeal to them on any level.”
We’ll help them somehow, Jared. Again, he ignored me. But I had the feeling that he was simply too trapped by his own panic to focus on anything else.
“We can’t afford to allow this to spread any further.” Antonio’s gaze danced from Jared to me as he asked, “Are you positive that none of the others were bitten?”
I nodded. “Positive.” Jared gave him a nod as well.
Luther’s brow creased as if something suddenly occurred to him. “Did you see Quentin Foy down in the tunnels?”
“No. But I’m not sure I’d have recognised him anyway.” Not when they had all been more like skeletons.
“I have to wonder if Quentin sealed them in there, leaving them to die.”
“Why would he do that?” Jared asked.
“Maybe he couldn’t find it within himself to destroy them. You know that you would find it difficult to kill any vampires from The Hollow, no matter if they were tainted.”
After a short silence, Antonio rose from the bench. “I need to hold a teleconference and alert the High Masters. They need to be aware of the outbreak so they can take precautions with their vampires.”
Before he and Luther could walk away, Jared held a hand up to stay them. “Wait, what about Quentin? I mean, if we find out from him when The Call first became an issue in his nest, could we find some way of understanding it better, of fighting it?”
Antonio sighed heavily. “I would like to say yes, but this is something that has been around for a very long time, Jared, and nothing has ever been able to stop it. If there was some way of fighting it, I would imagine that someone would have discovered it by now.”
“But not if the only response to the outbreak that vampires have ever made is to kill anyone who became tainted and then hide away, right?”
“Maybe,” was all Antonio said, but there was no hope in his voice. “I must get things in motion now.” Antonio and Luther hurried away with the guards and dogs, leaving Jared and I alone.
I went to Jared and slid my arms around his waist. He was trembling with fury and hurting so badly, and I felt so helpless. Oh sure I was worried about Evan as well, and the thought of him dying was too much to bear. Similarly, knowing that Stuart and Max were tainted was intensifying the ache still in my chest. But considering that one of the victims was Jared’s twin brother, this whole thing had to be a million times worse for him than it was for me.
“I’m not dropping this.”
I kissed his throat. “Neither am I.”
“We basically have four weeks to find a way to help them. That’s the longest they’ll last.”
I nodded, but I had no clue whatsoever where to start. Apparently, neither did Jared because rather than coming up with some sort of game plan, he just buried his face in the crook of my neck and inhaled deeply. I spoke into his ear. “Come on, let’s go home. We’ll talk about it there.”
He teleported us to the living area of our apartment, but instead of releasing me, he tightened his hold, still vibrating with anger. I soothingly smoothed my hands up and down his back while dabbing kisses on his neck. Bringing his forehead to rest against mine, he rubbed a thumb over my bottom lip. His irises were glowing red, but there wasn’t just rage there now. There was also heat and desperation. I knew that look, my body knew that look, and it sent a shiver of need down my spine.