Page 68 of The Vanishing
“Why has your uncle done this?” he asks. “Why has he stolen these creatures and forced them to exist in such… wretchedness? Do they not know that their lives are unnatural? Are they blind to their environment?”
The detective scoffs. “Funny. You scolded me yesterday about judging people who live in poverty.”
“No.” Haruka shakes his head. “This is different. These vampires are unknowingly enslaved. These purebreds are—”
“Brainwashed.”
The three of them look at Ladislao. He goes on. “They don’t know any better. My tio has trained them to think that this is how a purebred should be living. With nothing. Only drinking blood. Only mating and reproducing. He allows them to know languages and math and science. Some trade skills for building and construction. They’re smart about these kinds of things, which is weird… but that’s it! He tells them that the outside world is evil, and that they would be miserable if they tried to leave.”
“And they believe him?” Haruka asks. “What about the ones whom he originally took in the Vanishing? They would know better—that the outside world has much more to offer than this.”
“I don’t know everything, dark prince, but—”
“Do notcall me that.”
Ladislao tilts his head, blinking. “But it suits you?” Nino snickers as Ladislao continues. “Like I said, I don’t know the whole story, but I met a very old purebred after they made me move down to the cave. Isaac. He was the first British purebred I ever met—”
“There are British purebreds down there?” The detective is leaning with her palms wrapped around the ornate wooden molding of the seat back, her eyes wide.
“No, amiga. He died last week, and he was the only one here. He and his wife came in the original Vanishing. They volunteered to come here! Can you believe it?
“He said at the time, there were terrible clan wars across England, and many of the vampires were doing drastic things to survive and preserve their bloodlines. He said he didn’t like the direction that his people were going in—some of the choices they were making. So he chose Lajos. He said his mate died in child labor here many years ago, and that he has always wanted to leave but couldn’t. My tio wouldn’t let him go. I told him, ‘Isaac, you are thelastBritish purebred on the planet!’ He said I was wrong. He said, ‘You can’t see my people, but they’re there.’ He told me they were hidden in plain sight… Honestly, that creeped me out and I didn’t sleep for two nights after he said that… down there in that freezing cave.”
Ladislao shivers his body in a dramatic gesture. “Like a ghost story… Are the British purebreds ghosts?”
Haruka sits back against the dusty seat, folding his arms. Nino can feel the wheels of his mind turning over and dissecting the information Ladislao has given him. Nino turns, meeting Ladislao’s aqua-tinged eyes. “So… some of the vampires down there want to leave?”
He shrugs underneath his blanket. “Maybe? I think they’re scared. And some believe my tio’s claim that the outside world is so terrible. You met his minions in the cave—the diehards. They will protect this place until my tio returns, even if he never does. But we should ask if anyone wants to leave. I think it would be nice to offer?”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Detective Cuevas says. “Haruka mentioned that some might not want to leave, and after hearing this, well… we shouldn’t force anyone to do anything drastic. Maybe we can ask now, then try again in a few months? Find a way to keep an eye on them?”
Ladislao lifts his eyebrow toward the detective in a pointed look. “Meu amor, our minds are already connected. It means when our bodies join, it will be explosive!”
“It’s been a while since you’ve gotten laid, hasn’t it?” the detective asks.
“Oh God,so long.” Ladislao rubs his bony hands against his face, stressed. “It’s painful.”
“I still do not understandwhy,” Haruka says, his gaze focused on the low coffee table. “The extent to which he has gone to hide this poorly maintained place, why—”
“Offspring, my prince,” Ladislao says. “He wanted to make more purebreds. This whole setup… The main goal is to increase the number of purebreds in the world. And he has—not without casualties, of course. Isaac told me at the beginning, there were about five hundred purebreds here. Now, there are over one thousand.”
“Athousandof them are stuck down there?” the detective exclaims.
“Yes, I counted a little, but got tired and stopped around there.” Ladislao nods. “Some are so weak, it’s hard to sense them—they can’t even regenerate well. And you know, in our culture, purebred babies are becoming more and more rare, which means the race is slowly dying out.
“My tio hated that, and seeing purebreds mixing with lower-ranked vampires, or even purebreds creating weak bonds with other purebreds, to the point where they can’t even reproduce because their energies are so out of whack. So he made this place to do population control and to study how to make stronger vampire bonds. That’s what he fought with my father about. They couldn’t see eye to eye.”
“Huh, I guess your nerdy sex book would be the perfect thing to help him with that?” the detective chides. “I wonder where it is… He wouldn’t tell us, of course. But it must be here, somewhere?”
“We all know this about our culture, and that the lack of purebred children is a genuine problem… but to go to these lengths.” Haruka exhales a breath, his dark brows drawn together. The frustration Nino feels inside of his mate is stirring his own heart. Confusion, disgust, sadness, and quietly, tucked somewhere very, very deep, there’s something else. Something Nino is capable of noticing because he’s seen Haruka interact with Sora’s twins. Because Asao exposed something about him and gave Nino a small glimpse into his past.
Haruka abruptly looks up, his wine eyes concerned. “What is it? Why are you—”
“Nothing.” Nino shakes his head, his heart in his throat.
“Ahhcrap, someone’s coming, someone’s coming!” When Marcus yells from the kitchen, Nino realizes he senses multiple energies approaching from deep beneath the surface. He and Haruka stand and move toward the kitchen, walking swiftly with their long legs. The detective follows and Ladislao shouts from behind.
“I said don’t worry! It’s okay, they won’t hurt you. They’re too weak.”
