by Simone Sinna
“No!” Lena jumped up. “I don’t believe you!”
“I’m sorry, Lena,” said Angel. “I always thought your mother should have told you. But she thought by marrying a ghost and giving you three-quarters ghost blood that would be good enough. She always hated her own half-blood status.”
“I am a ghost,” said Lena, in her anger the transformation starting to happen.
Angel raised her hand and clasped it onto Lena. “Not now,” she ordered. “There is more.” She turned to Zachary, and the force of her glare was enough to have him pull Lena to him, though he was clearly taken back by this news.
“The poison had an antidote,” Angel continued. “It may or may not be true, but Adam led me to believe he brought only just enough for his family members. Part of the deal was they would move north where the hot weather would help their immunity, and in return for the poison that would wipe out the were-devils by producing a facial tumor, Adam introduced another similar poison here in the north, to rid the vampires of a breakaway group.”
“But,” said Gabriella suddenly, “Lena, Zachary, Wilson, and I weren’t born then.”
“I know,” said Angel. “So you were never given the antidote. I have no idea if the immunity reliably passes from mother to child, but if it does not, this would explain the second generation issue. But even if it does…Adam only gave me enough antidote for one child.”
“And you gave it to your child, not my mother!” Lena cried out.
“No!” Angel was clearly tormented. Gabriella had never seen her so torn by emotion. “I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I knew already that Rose could transform and Lily could not, but both had the same amount of ghost blood in them. So”—she sighed—“I gave them half each.”
Gabriella wondered at the choice and what she would have done. Her anger turned toward her uncle. How could he give his own sister such a choice, when both girls were his nieces? It made a lot of sense of the decades of tensions, however, and why they had seen so little of the extended family.
“Zelda, Kate’s mother, gave me a spell to help protect them, but I came north to be sure,” Angel continued. “But if they had already less immunity then their daughters would fare even worse.”
“But Adam would have given his wife Marianne the antidote,” said Zachary suddenly.
“True,” said Angel. “There may be two poisons. The were-devil curse, and the other that Adam wiped out the vampires here in Queensland with. We know we were immune to that, but there is a theory it has changed, and so we are perhaps no longer immune. We know it has changed because it is now killing humans. The vampires said it was for two generations only and there was no love lost between the vampires and us, I assure you.”
“The Hendra,” whispered Lena.
“Yes,” said Angel. She walked over to Lena and leant down in front of her, hand on her knee. “Child,” she said gently. “You are sick. I can feel it.”
Gabriella let out a cry. “No!”
“I am not a physician nor a scientist,” Angel said. “But my guess is that it is one of these two poisons.” She took Lena’s arm and pushed back her long sleeve. Everyone stared. There was a long, red claw mark, but around it the arm was festering, swollen, and blistering. “You were in the laboratory where the virus was when you went to the Tremains. It would only have taken the smallest amount on your skin, and then when the were-devil attacked you…”
Lena had tears rolling down her face. “The antibiotics don’t work,” she whispered.
“That was them,” snarled Zachary, looking at Mac.
“It wasn’t,” said Gabriella quickly. “Only their kind. You bit their sister, and she’s dying.”
Feeling Mitch and Mac stiffen, Gabriella realized this hadn’t been a good time to bring this up. But her grandmother’s words startled them all.
“No, she is not.” Angel stood up and looked at the were-devil brothers. “I spoke to Kate yesterday.”
“Our Kate?” asked Mitch, bewildered.
“Kate is neutral,” said Angel. “So she is mine, too. She tells me that there is a woman in Tasmania who has been able to help Tilman Tremain. She thinks they will be able to cure Melody.”
“Becc,” said Mac. “She was in love with the Tremain boys.”
“Yes,” Angel agreed.
“So they can cure Lena, too?” asked Gabriella.
Angel took both her granddaughters’ hands in hers, clearly happy for Gabriella but seeming more reserved about Lena. “I hope so, I sincerely hope so.”
Gabriella kissed her grandmother’s cheeks and hugged Lena. “Maybe,” she said. “It’s going to take both your granddaughters to finally put the curse to rest.”
She went to stand with her men.
“We’ll take her to Tasmania,” she said, realizing with delight that she had read this thought in both of their minds. With Mitch and Mac with her, she dared to believe that finally the curse had been laid to rest and the viruses—both if there were two—would be halted from affecting either group. The prophecy talked of instincts. Love denied a half century or more earlier would now be neutralized with Becc’s love enabling the discovery of the cure, and Gabriella’s love of both her were-devil men and her cousin meant she would be able to access the cure for Lena. They would leave the next day, together.
* * * *
Tarrabah, Present Day
It wasn’t as easy as Gabriella had hoped. Lena had been reluctant to leave and Zac even more reluctant to let her anywhere near Mac and Mitch.
“My grandfather will cure her,” Zac had said with a good deal more confidence than Gabriella felt. “Or at least he’ll know what to do.”
In the end they had agreed that Lena would go first to see Adam and then come to Tasmania if she was still sick. Mac and Mitch after speaking with their sister didn’t want to wait to return and convinced Gabriella to go with them.
“This Tilman Tremain is a distant cousin,” Mac told her. “Same great-great-grandfathers.”
The Mortimers it seemed had as long a memory for their heritage as her family did.
“We’re not as sure as your grandmother,” Mitch added. “Tilman is a bit mad.”
“And his lab was destroyed.”
By my cousin. Gabriella knew Lena was not malicious, but she figured neither of them was going to be greeted with open arms by the were-devil clan. But she wanted to be there to support her men if the news wasn’t as good as they hoped.
Tasmania, as promised, was cold. But spring was in the air, and when they arrived at the airport, the sun made a half-hearted attempt to shine. They had flown into Launceston in the north of the island rather than Hobart, because it was closer to Tarrabah, where Melody was. Tilman and his sons, Jesse and Jarrod, as well as the girl, Becc, that Angel had referred to, were staying with Mortimer seniors. Launceston was looking on the edge of bursting out of its winter confines, green tinges on the trees and the locals wearing shorts and T-shirts even if the temperature didn’t justify it.
Gabriella liked Becc immediately. Jesse and Jarrod were too moody and introverted for her tastes, but Becc with her honey-blonde hair had an open pleasant face and was clearly very much in love with the Tremain men. She hugged Gabriella.
“Tilman has given Melody her two doses but so far nothing.” Becc was clearly upset and trying not to show it. “Tilman’s blood count had changed by this time.”
“But,” said Mac. “You got to him before he was showing symptoms.”
Gabriella squeezed his hand. Both Mac and Mitch had barely spoken since seeing Melody, who judging from family photos had never been particularly overweight, but now was little more than skin and bones. She had Mitch and Mac’s eyes, but in her elfin face they looked enormous. Her fiancé—a human who had only just found out the more unusual aspects of Melody and her family in the last weeks—was looking shell-shocked but never left Melody’s side.
“I’m afraid I know nothing about science,” Gabriella confessed to Becc. The two of
them were taking a walk along the river behind the Mortimers’ house. The path snaked through dense undergrowth, the sun filtering through surrounding gum trees so they could just make it out.
“I know more about vet science than humans,” said Becc. “It seems I have immunity to the virus that causes the devil’s curse.” She smiled when she saw Gabriella’s frown, adding, “It’s a long story.”
“So you aren’t part were-devil?”
Becc laughed. “With this hair and eyes? Hardly.”
Gabriella tried to make sense of this. “So you have a human type immunity?”
“I guess,” said Becc. “Though it killed my mother.”
An idea started to form, and for the first time Gabriella wished she’d paid more attention in science classes. She stopped. “I need to see Tilman.”
Tilman, a tall, gaunt, and serious man with mostly gray hair listened to Gabriella in silence. She was speaking so fast it was clear that neither Mac and Mitch understood a word she’d said. But then they had studied at best sport’s science, not infectious diseases.
Tilman rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He’d been a little remote, and Gabriella was pretty sure it was because of her ghost blood. She felt, under the circumstances, it was understandable, and if she wanted him to help Lena, she needed to help him overcome the aversion.
“You say your grandmother thinks there are two viruses? And that your mother got a half dose of the vaccine as a child?”
“Yes,” said Gabriella.
“How old?”
Gabriella did a quick calculation. “She would have been about three I guess.”
Tilman smiled. “And you say that your grandmother was worried that wasn’t enough?”
Gabriella nodded.
“Well, luckily your great-uncle wasn’t a physician,” said Tilman. “Children have a much smaller body weight so would never need a full adult dose.”
Angel would be relieved.
“And three years old would be the perfect if not optimal time to ensure that immunity was life long and potentially transferred to her children.”
“So could my blood help then?” Gabriella asked.
Tilman rubbed his chin again. “I haven’t been able to test the theory that ghosts’ blood is different,” he said. “So your blood would be very helpful for that. Becc’s ultimately was a human response, and we know from my response that were-devils can tolerate and respond to human blood immune elements, but ghost? I don’t know.”
Gabriella started to roll up her sleeve.
Tilman had reconstructed his university lab in the Mortimer’s garage. He worked late into the night, the family all waiting impatiently. No one said it, but they knew Melody didn’t have much longer.
Just before midnight, Tilman emerged with Jesse, looking excited.
“There is an attachment on your SMB!” he announced.
Gabriella looked at him blankly and then at Mac and Mitch. They were as mystified as her.
“SMB is the immune marker,” Becc whispered to them. “It was higher in my blood than Tilman’s and seems to be what the body needs to get the white cells to respond to the infection and then to recognise the cancer cells as being alien.”
“What does the attachment mean?” Mac asked.
“I can’t be sure,” Tilman replied. “But given Gabriella is ghost and the virus was designed to harm us not them, I’d lay bets that it is what ensures the immune response gets triggered early.”
“What’s the next step then?” Melody’s mother’s voice was tremulous.
“I give it to Melody as soon as I’ve separated it.”
“How long?” this was Melody’s voice. She was standing in the doorway in her night attire, holding Curt, her fiancé, for support.
“Now,” said Jarrod, coming in the back door. He held up a tube, and as they injected it into Melody, Gabriella was holding a hand of each of her men as everyone in the room silently prayed.
No one slept well, Melody least of all. They took it in turns to do shifts with her, wiping the sweat off her as she writhed in the bed, feverish and riddled with bad dreams, crying out as it seemed the disease or perhaps the attempted cure, fought for dominance.
She seemed worse the next morning, and her blood had shown no changes.
“I can’t bear the thought of losing her,” said her mother, and Mac and Mitch clearly felt just the same, though they were attempting to be stoic and a support for both their parents.
She can’t die Gabriella wanted to scream. Surely, surely her own love for the Mortimer boys had had a deeper meaning and that this was it. Her blood mixed with the were-devils, righting the wrongs of the past. Surely there hadn’t been a mistake. Fate could be so cruel to have meant it to be Lena as her grandmother had always believed.
Gabriella slept restlessly the next night, but when she did, a woman in white haunted her dreams, a woman very like her grandmother but much younger and sweet, girlish in a way she couldn’t ever imagine Angel having been. When she woke, she at first couldn’t remember the details, and then it flooded her. The woman had said, “Thank you.” Gabriella slipped out of bed, leaving her two men asleep, and tiptoed to Melody’s room. Curt was asleep, head at an awkward angle, in the chair.
She stood in the doorway, hesitating when the eiderdown stirred and Melody sat up, eyes locking.
“She said sorry to me,” Melody said simply.
Gabriella stared and wondered how she knew Melody had dreamt of the same woman.
“How do you feel?” Gabriella whispered.
Melody sat very still and then smiled slowly. “Absolutely sensational. What’s for breakfast? I’m starving.”
* * * *
Hobart, Present Day
Kate felt it first in the wind. The slightest of movements, a brush across her face that spoke of other times and places. But it was so faint it left no imprint, no hint at the deeper meaning as it vanished.
But later that night, as she was stoking the fire, still needed even though it was spring, she saw the sign in the flames and stared into the coal for a few moments. There was a shift, the second in the last week.
“The curse,” her mother had told her, “was a result of a love denied, and a child left. To rid themselves of the curse the were-devils must learn about the power of love.”
“And love will be enough?” a much younger Kate had asked.
Her mother had taken her stones and read them time and time again. The answer was always the same. The solution to the were-devils’ curse turned up seven stones, four of the black-and-yellow devil stones and three opaque ghost stones.
Now, over a half century later Kate asked the same question, and stared at the stones before her. Two black-and-yellow stones for the Tremain brothers and two for the Mortimer brothers. One ghost stone for Becc whose blood would rid the were-devils of the curse and one for Gabriella. But there was still one ghost stone, and over this Kate’s hands lingered, knowing that it was the power of the final stone that was critical. In her hand it burned and glowered, still un-played. She returned it back to the pile in front of her, wondering.
The flames in the fireplace flickered, and in the coals Kate saw the possibilities and wondered if she would be the one to see the end.
THE END
WWW.SIMONESINNA.COM
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Tasmanian devil or Sarcophilus harrisii (Tarrab[ah] or Poirinnah by the Indigenous people) is the largest surviving carnivorous marsupial, only found in Tasmania, the island state of Australia. It is currently being ravaged by a devastating disease, the contagious devil facial tumor, and is now an endangered species.
The Ghost Bat or False Vampire is almost white in color, found in the far north of Queensland, a northern state of Australia. It is a large, carnivorous bat thought once to feed on blood. It is listed as a threatened species because of mining taking over its rocky habitat. It has never been found in Tasmania to my knowledge.
The Hendra virus is a fatal virus that can b
e transmitted from bats to horses and humans.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Simone Sinna is a pseudonym. Since walking over 1,600 miles on the Camino de Santiago in 2011, the author has worked half-time as a writer, or at least when she isn’t walking (this year was the Coast to Coast in England) or traveling. Her husband is also an author, and they spend long weekends in the country together writing. She is currently writing a mainstream love story set on the Camino, as well as the final of the four Were-Devils books.
For all titles by Simone Sinna, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/simone-sinna
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Author's Note
About the Author