Hermessi no longer have the power to use them, so whatever is in them is harmless.”
“That aside, I’m not sure I asked, but why don’t you use Earth’s pink water to take you straight to Trexus-2?” Rose said, occasionally looking back at the shuttle.
I shook my head. “Not a good idea. We’ve already discussed this among ourselves, actually. We want to make our presence seen and heard from the very beginning with a new civilization. We can’t just show up there out of the blue. I mean, we could, but it would just scare the crap out of them.”
“Or worse, trigger a violent defensive reaction,” Tristan agreed. “If we go in via a more traditional route, they’ll have time to see us, to understand where we come from, in a way… to understand we’re foreigners.”
Derek nodded. “From there, we’ll have to rely on diplomacy in order to investigate and find the source of the day-walking protein. We’re assuming that the civilization on Trexus-2 represents the original carrier.”
“So you’ll definitely need to handle them with kid gloves,” Mom concluded, giving me another concerned look.
“We’ll be fine, mom,” I said.
Personally, I was itching to get on that shuttle already. My brother had packed a tablet and a couple of notebooks, just in case the tech failed. He was eager to take notes and draw sketches of the people there—to understand what they were like and what we shared in common as species.
In that sense, the two of us were incredibly alike. We were both adventurers, always open to see new places, to discover new worlds, especially in the Earthly Dimension. I was the Indiana Jones-type, though, while my brother was more of an observer.
But we all had the same objective in this small team, and the same respect toward blood—the very life force that kept us alive and strong. It was with this in mind that we were embarking on this voyage, aiming to convince the people of Trexus-2 to give it to us. The correct approach was crucial here, because we weren’t yet sure how much blood we’d need for Amal and Amane to develop a day-walking cure.
Much like GASP had done with our grandmother’s blood to revert vampires to humans, chances were we’d need enough to cover a few generations—or even a steady supply. The witches had found a way to duplicate our grandmother’s blood, ensuring that the vampire cure would never run out. We weren’t yet sure whether the witches could do the same with these strangers’ blood—a different species could entail a different method of duplicating the protein we needed. Either way, we wanted to make sure we’d never run low on it, so that no vampire would ever have to suffer in the sunlight again.
Nethissis
Despite what I’d told Lumi, I was nervous about this trip. Not because I had something in particular to fear, especially after what we’d been through, but because I had yet to fully recover from the Hermessi incident. I was still on edge most of the time, though I’d learned to keep my reactions in check.
Nightmares of Shills had been haunting me. Sometimes Titans and Hermibugs would join the mix, forcing me to wake up drenched in a cold sweat, my muscles crippled with sheer terror. The Hermibugs, in particular, made me squirm—swarms of poisonous insects created by the Hermessi through the pink waters just to come after us. Sometimes I worried that the Hermessi might make a comeback. That Brendel’s friends might find another loophole in the laws of the universe. The thought alone was enough to make me shiver.
I wasn’t scared of what we’d find on Trexus-2. I was scared of my ability to keep it together, even though I knew I was nowhere near the possibility of having some sort of breakdown. I’d spoken to Kailani about it, and she’d brought up the concept of post-traumatic stress disorder, which was something that mostly humans had dealt with, often after fighting in wars. Technically speaking, it did seem like an accurate assessment of my state—and not just mine.
Our entire Death crew was still reeling from everything we’d done and dealt with.
But this mission was important to Derek and Sofia, not to mention all the other vampires. It was also a good opportunity for me to dig into something, to keep my mind busy. To heal from what I’d endured. Being a servant of the Word, I’d found comfort in my craft. Even though the entity didn’t communicate with us directly, I