The Vanishing by Karla Nikole

Thirty

“Você é tão bonito como… like a demon prince and an angel.”

Nino bumps Haruka’s shoulder beside him. See? He says whatever he wants.

They’re sitting in a shadowy tearoom just off the kitchen. There are two antique-style couches, a small bistro table covered in a dusty tablecloth and heavy velvet curtains hanging from a tall window. Detective Cuevas is hovering behind Nino and Haruka as they face Ladislao on the opposite couch. Marcus is in the kitchen, keeping watch for any movement even though Ladislao has assured them that, quote, “maybe nobody will come.”

Wrapped in a gray emergency blanket from the detective’s backpack, Ladislao stands from the faded velvet couch. He bows deep from his waist, the gesture emphasized by his long, dirty toffee-brown hair cascading forward. “It is my sincere honor to meet you, my beloved prince. Thank you for rescuing me—”

“Sente-se, por favor,” Haruka assures him, his palm lifted. “Não seja tão formal.”

Ladislao blinks up from his bow, his eyes bright. “You speak my native tongue? Ahh, incredible. I understand your devotion now, honeycomb. I would follow this sexy, ancient-blooded creature into the fires of hell… these ruby-red eyes and dark hair…”

When Haruka lifts his fingers to the bridge of his nose, Nino senses that it’s time to get down to business. “What happened? Why were you down there? When I was here, everyone was still living in that village.”

Ladislao plops back down onto the couch. A small puff of dust swirls out in a cloud, hovering around his hips. “Correct. After my tio wasn’t around for about two days, some kind of emergency plan went into action and everyone was moved underground. The one-eared guy has been a nervous mess trying to manage everyone. I think he’s terrified of the responsibility.”

“Your tio is in prison in New York,” Detective Cuevas says from behind them. Nino turns, and her arms are folded, her chin lifted in contest.

“Good.” Ladislao focuses on the detective. “That’s where he should be. You’re pretty.”

Detective Cuevas starts. “Is that important right now?”

“For me it is.” Ladislao bites his lip. “Delicious and soft, full-figured female—are you second-gen?”

The detective unfolds her arms and shifts her footing, her face upset but flushed in bright red. “I—Excuse me, but can you focus?”

“I can’t.” Ladislao shrugs. “You are definitely second-gen. Every second-gen vampire I meet is a little grumpy like this—because you are the middle children of the aristocracy, no?”

Gasping, the detective draws back, her face fixed for a rant, but Haruka cuts her off.

“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 not call 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 the last British 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 understand why,” 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.”

“A thousand of 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.

“Ahh crap, 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.”

Marcus is backed away from the door and standing at the far end of the kitchen, his eyes wide. Haruka steps inside first, and Nino stands beside him. They wait in silence, feeling the approach of timid purebred energies. Three… four… and a half? Nino is about to flare his aura out, but Ladislao steps up and slaps his hand against his shoulder, making Nino jump.

“Ei, relaxa—you don’t need to do that, amigo.” He grins, then walks toward the door. He opens it and waits. Soon, he lifts his hands in a warm gesture. “Ebaaa, you decided! I hopedyou would. Come, come—meet my friends. Honeycomb and his dark prince.”

Ladislao steps aside. A small female vampire with wild, curly black hair emerges from the darkness. She’s holding hands with another female that has tawny-brown skin and very straight black hair, heavy and thick. The latter is holding hands with a third vampire. A very small one—no older than five. Her pale eyes are darting all around in wonder as the female with straight hair picks her up and sets the child against her hip.

Nino recognizes the one with curly hair. It’s Kahla, the female who touched his aura and brought blood into the room during his captivity. The next vampire to emerge from the darkness is a male with sandy-brown hair and a scabbed scar across his forehead. He’s holding hands with a blonde female, but unlike the first couple to emerge, their essences are not bonded.

Beaming, Ladislao turns to Nino and Haruka. “See! Some will want to leave this place. Let’s go back down and ask, just to make sure? My tio’s minions are weaklings. Maybe they won’t fight you again now that they’ve seen it’s useless.”

Haru, is that okay with you? Nino eyes his mate, waiting. When Haruka meets his gaze, he offers a warm smile.

Of course.