The Trade by Leigh Walker

Author:Leigh Walker [WALKER, Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CMG Publishing, LLC

16

The Needs Of The Many

My jaw went slack again. “I’m sorry, but what did you just say? My blood is poison?”

“Like I started to explain before—your blood has several useful properties. It can kill vampires, at least some of them, if it’s ingested in large quantities and can also act as a vanishment. Vampires are good at such tricks, but your blood makes it easy to protect you. If the kingdom had a patent system, I would be the first in line.” He chuckled until he saw the look on my face then stopped. “I’m joking, of course.”

“Can you explain what you mean—about vanishments, not to mention poisoning your parents? I’ve no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Vanishments are devices that vampires use to trick humans and, less successfully, other vampires. For instance, we’ve used them on the villagers for a hundred years. That’s why they think we’re deities, and they’re happy to give up their loveliest young maidens to us. That’s also why they haven’t noticed that my family hasn’t aged in a century.”

“Explain how it works,” I said. “And also what the heck it has to do with my blood.”

“Our kind uses vanishments often. It’s to maintain the secrecy of our race’s existence,” Dominic said. “For example, say a villager witnessed one of our soldiers draining someone. We would use a vanishment on them so they would forget the event. We hypnotize them with our gaze, then our brain emits a signal to theirs. It’s a bit like a curse, I suppose. Or perhaps a bleaching.”

“Bleaching?”

“A brain bleaching, if you will. You might’ve noticed the citizens aren’t the brightest bulbs. That’s because they’ve all seen more than they should, so over the course of years, we’ve had to erase them a bit, I’m afraid.”

His matter-of-fact tone had me reeling.

The prince cleared his throat. “Back to our example. The next time the villager sees the guard in question, his or her mind repels the actual memory and replaces it with a bright, happy one. Like the guard helping to carry a small child—something positive.”

“So you bleach the humans’ brains and replace the ugly truth with happy fake memories.” I stared at the prince. “And they trust you and worship you like gods. They dress their daughters up to give them to you as presents.”

“That’s right.” He looked defensive. “Vanishment isn’t the worst thing, you know. It doesn’t hurt them so much as make them a bit…gappy.”

“Gappy.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “And does my blood do this? Does it ‘bleach’ people, like your brainwaves do?”

“It’s actually much more elegant than that.” The prince smiled, warming to the topic. “Your blood, when administered in small doses to vampires or humans, makes your memory invisible. I have no idea how it works. But once someone ingests your blood, it’s like they have amnesia specific to you. When you come back through, it’s as though they’ve never met you before. So although you’ve visited the kingdom many times, no one—not my parents, not the guards, not the villagers—can remember you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.