Taste of Torment by Suzanne Wright Read Free Book Online Page B

often abbreviated to ‘The Call’.” When both Jared and I shook our heads, Antonio explained. “As you know, vampires are immune to illnesses. But like with many species, vampirism has a natural killer designed to keep the population down. Throughout human history, there have always been diseases or viruses that have done much damage to their race. When cures are found for those viruses, others later develop. Some theorise that their purpose is to keep the human population under control, which makes sense. It is the natural way of things, and the same happens for vampires. If it did not, we would outnumber our prey and quickly die out. The Call is not an illness, more like a preternatural poison that travels like a bug. And it is a killer.”
    “There is only an outbreak every few centuries,” began Luther. “It seems that it occurs whenever nature feels that the population of vampires needs a ‘tweak’. It is a perfectly natural cycle, and this cycle helps maintain a balance in the population. But it does not do so cleanly. The Call works by stopping the vampire from being able to digest anything. Not blood, not food – nothing. As such, the vampire will regurgitate anything it tries to consume and slowly starve to death. A vampire can only survive starvation for four weeks.”
    Jared rubbed at his nape. I could actually feel the crick in his neck. “How does the poison spread?”
    Luther took a brief pause before answering with sympathy, “It can only taint its victim by travelling through saliva or blood to open flesh.” In other words, a bite would do the trick.
    Jared’s eyes fell closed and then he was pacing in front of me. “Shit.”
    Antonio nodded. “Yes…darn.”
    An ache suddenly struck my chest; I wasn’t sure whether it was mine, Jared’s, or a combination of both our pain. If Antonio was right, then Evan, Max, and Stuart were now ‘tainted’. “Does this mean it’s possible that Ava’s brother isn’t tainted? He was clawed at badly, but not bitten.” Currently, all the injured were in the infirmary.
    “If he has not been bitten, he is not tainted. Unless, of course, they somehow exchanged blood.” I was pretty sure that the latter hadn’t happened, so Antonio’s news would certainly calm Ava down. The girl was a nervous wreck at the moment, worried she would lose her brother – much like my mate was.
    Jared halted. “Okay, so how do we stop it? How do we remove the taint from Evan, Max, and Stuart?”
    “You can’t.” Antonio looked utterly distraught.
    “Nothing can stop The Reaper’s Call.” Luther’s voice was sensitivity itself. “As the name suggests, death comes for them. Eventually, it will stop spreading through the vampire population and remain dormant for another few centuries.”
    Everything Jared was feeling – all the panic, the anger, and the helplessness – hit me so hard that I almost lost my balance. He was vigorously shaking his head, pacing again. “No. No. My brother is not going to die, and neither is Stuart or Max.” I could sense that he felt he’d failed them all.
    Stop tormenting yourself, I told him. It wasn’t your fault.
    He ignored me. “There has to be a way to help them.” Pausing in his pacing again, he took a deep breath to steady himself. “If it spreads through bodily fluids, then it’s almost like a human virus, right? If we follow that logic, then surely there’s an ‘antivirus’. There has to be some kind of counteragent.”
    “If there is, I’ve never heard of it,” said Luther.
    “Where did it first originate?”
    Luther shrugged. “I have no idea.”
    “Okay, so who do we talk to? You must know someone who’s studied this.”
    “No one dares get close enough to a tainted vampire to study it.”
    A string of curses flew out of Jared’s mouth.
    Aching for Jared, I turned to Antonio. “What now?”
    “We need to contain Evan, Stuart, and Max. Although the symptoms may not show for a few days, it is still