“While a good theory, my beauty, no. We are not two separate species. There has been no evolution. That is the one drawback to vampirism. We do not change. We do not evolve. Although, I suppose that is also our strength.”
Sonia waited, surprised she actuallywasexperiencing a modicum of curiosity. Suddenly she realized he was waiting on her, expecting her to take more of a part than normal. “If it isn’t evolution, what is the difference between us?”
Gwala smiled and looked over toward the center of the ship. “Christopher!”
A skinny vampire exited a door that Sonia assumed was the control center of the boat. He made his way toward the couple, his twiglike legs surprisingly nimble and swift. It was taking Sonia a while, even submerged in the Vampire Cathedral, to not expect vampires to move how their human-looking bodies suggested they would.
Christopher bowed deeply to Gwala and then offered another bow to Sonia. He was the first to bow to her. Maybe he’d heard the conversation with his enhanced hearing, or maybe he was just covering his bases.
The gesture went unobserved by Gwala. “I trust Charity can steer the yacht without your assistance?”
“Yes, master.”
“Very well. You keep watch, while she continues to pilot the ship. The queen and I are going to speak in private.”
Christopher bowed low once more.
Gwala looked over his shoulder, addressing the frail vampire, as he took Sonia by the elbow and maneuvered her across the surface of the ship. “If you are successful, I may let you have a taste.”
Sonia missed the expression of unadulterated hope that crossed the vampire’s face. Turning away from the king and his newly appointed queen, Christopher took their abandoned spot at the bow.
Sonia was definitely experiencing curiosity. So much so that some of her constant turmoil was alleviated, or at least suppressed for the time being. Though she waited for him to speak, she didn’t take in any of their lavish surroundings as they entered a large room and took their places on a white leather sofa. The space looked like the penthouse of a New York high-rise. All modern, open design. Lots of wood, metal, glass, and leather. Three-fourths of the walls were solid windows, the lights of the shoreline twinkling on the port side. The starboard showed nothing but sea and stars.
When Sonia addressed him, she wasn’t even trying to offer flattery. Truth be told, it took effort to keep her voice steady and not betray too much interest. “If the divergence that enables you and the other Royals to walk in the sun is not evolution, what is the difference?”
Though she half expected him to make her guess, he settled back against the firm cushions. Part of her curiosity diminished at his storytelling mode. The only thing Gwala seemed to enjoy more than young flesh was talking about himself. While his first words confirmed her fear that he wasn’t going to say anything more useful than his typical self-indulgent drivel, he soon was weaving a tale that didn’t require Sonia to fake emotion as she leaned forward, her elbows supporting her weight on her knees, long black hair falling around her.
“I was the only sun-walker for over a thousand years. I will be honest, as I told Menos, the discovery was pure chance. One that saved my life. I’d been a vampire for three centuries. I enjoyed the perks of immortality and strength, but life wasn’t much better at that point in our history than it was for humans. It was just a normal night’s hunt that changed everything. It was a night much like this. I’d been in the sea, swimming on the currents. As was typical, I hated returning to the vampires’ horrid little cave to hide during the daylight hours. I’d procrastinated and was in danger of being caught out in the sun. It was then I heard her voice, if you can call it a voice. A sound I’d never heard before. She’d crashed up on the rock and sustained some sort of injury. Like her voice, her blood smelled as nothing I’d experienced. It was this glistening angel that changed not only my fate, but that of the entire vampire species.”
“You keep saying she. Who was she?”
Gwala smiled at her genuine enthusiasm for his tale. “A mermaid.”
Sonia flinched, dissolving the entrancing spell he’d been weaving. “A mermaid?” She broke his gaze and looked out the window, searching the stars reflected over the surface of the lulling waves. She nearly asked him if he was kidding but stopped herself. In their two months together, she’d never heard him even hint at the ability of humor. If Gwala said mermaid, he meant mermaid. “I didn’t know mermaids actually existed.”
“Were you aware of vampires before you became one, my dear?”
Sonia shook her head.
He nodded. “Exactly. Not even other supernatural species believe in mermaids. Not any longer. Which is how it should be. Not even other vampires, for that matter. Only Royals. Even the vampires within the Cathedral do not speak of mermaids—save for Christopher and Charity, who hunt for them. The penalty for a Royal who speaks of mermaids to a non-Royal vampire is death. The same will be true for you, my queen. You must not mention their existence to any of the lower vampires within the Cathedral.”
Like she ever said anything to any of the vampires. “But I’m not a Royal.”
“You will be before the night is over. If Christopher is successful, you will be before we even return to the Cathedral.”
Sonia glanced over Gwala’s shoulder, where she could see the slender vampire leaning far out over the bow, stretching to see into the water’s depth as best he could. Her eyes grew wide as she turned back to Gwala, the pieces starting to fall into place. “We’re searching for a mermaid right now?”
The king smiled a smile that crinkled his eyes and exposed his long fangs. “We’re hunting for a mermaid right now.”
Sonia looked over at Christopher once more before returning to Gwala. “So, drinking from mermaids makes vampires impervious to sunlight?”
Gwala nodded once more. “Yes, almost. I assumed, like you, that it was the act of drinking from a mer that enabled me to walk in the sun.” He closed his eyes and sank farther into the back cushions of the sofa, once again lost to the past. “It was many years before I allowed any other vampires to know that I could be out during the day. Even when I let it be known, I did not tell them anything about the existence of mermaids, much less the secret their blood carried.
“It wasn’t until I met Menos. So like you. So exquisite, so brilliant. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, nearly as beautiful as the mermaid child that gave her life to me. When I was certain that Menos loved me and would stay by my side, I shared my secret with her.”
Sonia was willing to bet that Gwala had held out the secret of his ability to be in the sun as payment for Menos’s commitment to stay with him.
“We searched for years to find more mers. I sought during the day, both of us at night. Again, it was by luck that we found a mer. We found several, actually. A whole school of them. We’d swum from the shore to a small outcropping of rocks. While we were there, it was Menos who saw them near the surface. She pointed them out, and without waiting dove into the water.” A low, lustful laugh escaped. “She had the mermaid half drained before I or any of the other mers even realized she’d caught one. To our surprise, the mers turned out to be a rather violent bunch. Several of them flew at Menos, stabbing her with spears and slashing at her with knives and their hands. She lost so much blood that it was nearly impossible to see her under the water to pull her away from the monsters. Luckily, the mers weren’t any more familiar with vampires than we were with mermaids and didn’t know that stabbing a vampire wouldn’t do much harm. They swam away, dragging the nearly drained mermaid with them. Menos and I waited until we were sure they were gone, then swam back to shore and found some humans for her to eat and help heal her wounds.” Eyes still shut tightly, Gwala’s face darkened. “It was the next morning I nearly lost her. All was going as we hoped. Menos wept as the sun rose, having not seen it in hundreds of years. Before an hour passed, she began to scream in agony, and her skin began to blacken. I was barely able to dig her a resting place in the sand in time.”
