It was only half a day later that I had awoken, my whole body sore. Kate had told me about Pilu’s visit and his request to come see him. Apparently, he also made it once again clear that we were expected to work on the field during the coming days. I didn’t mind, that gave me something to do, something to focus on that wasn’t Kate’s lips on my wrist or the feeling of her smile against my lips. My heart thundered in my chest, and once again, I redirected my attention at Pilu’s visit and our upcoming days in this strange city. 

Kate’s thumb massaged the place on my wrist - something she had been doing ever since I woke up - where two puncture wounds should’ve been. There was nothing there now, only the lasting feeling of her lips against my skin and a distant chill that went down my spine. I watched the absent movements of her fingers.

“I’m sorry,” she said for the umpteenth time. 

I groaned and pulled my wrist back. The blanket fell off my barely covered body. A shiver made me pull it back up. And perhaps a bit of self-respect. My shirt was thrown to the side, ready to get my blood rinsed from it. My stomach turned at the sight, and I had to look away, back at Kate, who was nervously tinkering with a loose thread of the gray shirt Kalatum had given her.

"Don't go out there today. You should recover. I can still use the excuse. It is perfectly believable to have a heat stroke after our walk yesterday. No one would question it." 

She had been protesting this for the past hour, and it still annoyed me just as much. I understood why, of course. My body was still weak and tired, Kate might not have killed me, but she had still taken a lot of my blood volume. It was just, what was I going to do here by myself? This town gave me the creeps, and Kate felt a lot safer to be around.

"Kate, shut up!"

"Let me just -"

"No!" I ordered with a volume louder than before. "Stop treating me like some fragile damsel in distress."

She tensed, even backed away a little bit.

"That's not-", she shook her head. "I just … I want to make up for what I did. You almost died." Her voice shook, and fear and regret were shining in her eyes. 

"And I said that I am fine. You are who you are."

The truth of my words was like a slap to the vampire's face. She physically withdrew, pushed herself up, and a tense frown appeared.

"Right, vicious vampire. Got it." 

Then she left. Her feet were just as quietly as always. The only difference was the missing hop in between her steps.

Shit. I could only cringe at my own stupidity. Wrong words, Sky. Wrong words!

"That's not what I meant," I breathed out, but Kate was already gone, and I didn't have the energy to go after her, which only proved her point.

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid! With a thud, I fell backward onto the bed with a groan. A quake of dizziness crashed over me, making me shut my eyes and hold on to whatever was nearest. With a shaky breath, I exhaled until my world stopped spinning. Perhaps I should take Kate's advice and stay in today. I hated that she was right. Right about this and right about how I wasn't going to be able to push her off me once her teeth pierced my skin. If my survival had depended on me pushing her off me, I would've been dead ten times over - and probably asked for it every single time.

I was to blame for Kate almost killing me. Not her. At least not entirely. I shouldn't have lost myself to all those sensations. Actually, I shouldn’t have proposed the stupid idea in the first place. Mixed feelings crashed into me and made everything spiral once more. The weirdest thing was that I didn’t dislike it, and I had trouble keeping the sensation of her lips on mine out of my head.

Sensations they were. Another shiver shot down my spine, making me moan.

If I hadn’t been lost to all those memories and feelings, I would’ve questioned why she was able to stop herself mid-feeding. And I would’ve heard someone arrive. But I didn’t.

"Knock, knock." A burly man called from outside, surprising me. With a velocity that surprised me for my current state, I sat up and pulled the blanket up to my bare shoulders.

His square head appeared a moment later. He had a nice smile hidden behind a rough beard, and his deep brown eyes shone with kindness.

"Hello. My name is Kai," he introduced himself. "I heard someone had a bit too much sun yesterday." He smiled again. His eyes stay fixed on mine. I wasn’t sure if I preferred it or not. At least, this way, he wouldn’t see the bloody shirt hidden behind Kate’s stuff. "Best is to drink enough now and hydrate your body. I brought you some beverages to help."

He pulled a linen bag with bottles of colorful liquids from behind him.

"Depending on what you feel, I have the right tea with me."

Very conscious about my state of undress, I pulled the blanket higher, with my fingers clenched around the prickly sides. But I had nothing to worry about, Kai stayed outside, with only his head popped in.

I thanked him, but he didn't leave. It made me look up at the broad shouldered man. Only now, I noticed how different he looked from the Ahr a Donn, with their colorless everything. He wore a dark blue long sleeved shirt, an orange sleeveless jacket with an endless amount of pockets on top. His trained legs were visible in his dark shorts, and on his feet, he wore heavy travel boots. This man was no Speaker of Death in the slightest. He was a traveler. 

"My apologies, I don't want to intrude," he began, while he dropped the bag of beverages next to the folded door. "My name is Kai, but I already said that, didn't I?" He ruffled his wild black hair. "I go by the title of gatekeeper."

"Gatekeeper?" I asked.

"The gate to Death Valley is what I guard. As well as all its secrets." He pulled a small bottle of pink out of the bag and threw it at me. "Drink up! It’ll help."

I held the curvaceous bottle in my hand, my eyes filled with distrust. "What is it?"

"It helps with blood loss," he explained in that soft voice of his. "And hangovers."

My eyes squinted at the mystery man. How did he know this? Kate wouldn’t have said anything, would she? 

"Drink up, put on a shirt and let's go for a walk. I'll be waiting outside," he said, and without waiting for a response, he closed the fabricated door. At least he gave me some privacy, because choice was clearly not in the cards.

Once I put on a gray shirt, one left behind by Kalatum, Brianna's father, I debated whether to drink Kai's pink potion or not. In the end, my curiosity won, and I knocked it back. It tasted sour, like lemons. It filled my veins and heated them up before it cooled my body down again to its regular temperature. My body buzzed with new energy. I instantly liked Kai a lot more now.

My heart sped up, and moving became less demanding. It felt like my pupils opened up for the first time in days, making it almost painful to look outside where the sun shone bright.

I loved this drink! 

With a re-energized body, I made my way outside, where Kai stood, his hands on his back. He looked down his long nose to the town. Now that morning had come, it looked less overwhelming than the previous night. The skeletons that held up the houses weren’t as scary, and the streets weren’t as structured as I had thought. Tech Duinn looked more like a randomly placed tent settlement than a true city. 

“Feeling better?” 

I grinned. His lips curled up under his beard in response.

“Come on, let’s go have a drink. There is much to talk about.” Kai waved his hand in the northern direction of the town.

His heavy footsteps fell in a slow rhythm behind me. His hand hovered over my shoulder, yet never fully touched, each time he directed me towards our destination. It was nice to get my boundaries respected. I appreciated his distance.

“What was in the drink?”

“Just some tea.”

“Tea? A herbal infusion does not heal someone this quickly.”

“Specialty of the house.” He winked before he pointed to the left. “To your left.”

Even though my curiosity still burned in me, I had a feeling he wasn’t going to tell me. So instead, I asked: “Where are we going exactly?”

The corner of his lips curled up before he nodded with his chin at one of the tents. The corners of the door frame were made of skulls. Vines grew through them, keeping the whole thing together. 

“And this is?” I wondered out loud.

“The Cracked Rib.”

“The Cracked Rib?” I looked around but saw no one else on the dusty road, just as abandoned as last night.

“The finest food and drinks in these parts of the Lands.”

He guided me inside, again with his hand hovering over my shoulder. 

Inside, it was quiet. There weren’t any tables like the cafe’s in Holt. Instead, there was an open space with multiple little fires. Around the fires, colorless cushions lay scattered.

Kai guided me to one of the small fires in the back, where the shadows stretched furthest.

“Take a seat, I’ll get you some of the good stuff.”

I did as I was told and sat down on one of the cushions. My eyes traveled to the only other pair of people present. Two women, as gray as every person in this godforsaken place, were speaking quietly. A man, the age of my mother, stood behind a bar made of crushed bone and clay. His piercing gray eyes made my hair stand on end, and I was glad he averted them rather quickly. 

His hands flew over the countertop, reaching for finely crushed black dust. He worked so fast that it was hard to follow his every move. In the end, all that really got my attention was the black liquid that seeped through the papery filter into a small glass. A new kind of scent filled the little cafe, making my mouth water. 

Kai joined me around the little fire, contained by a metal holder. A water jar stood on the side, whether it was to drink or for safety wasn’t entirely clear, but I guess it could work for both.

“A delight imported from the Dry Lands,” he smiled before he offered me the black liquid.

The nutty scent was even stronger now that it was right under my nose. My tongue ran along my lips, and I had to swallow. 

“What is it?” I wondered aloud.

“Coffee. Brewed from beans on the south border.”

No longer able to sit and stare, I brought the glass to my lips.

“Careful! It’s still hot.”

Too late, my friend. The hot liquid burned my upper lip, which made me pull back. I hissed.

“It’s just beans?” I asked as to distract myself from the throbbing pain.

“Beans and hot water, but you can put some sugar in, if you’d like.”

I shook my head. Somehow, I doubted this strange smelling concoction would be better with sugar in it. Sugar was a delicatesse for humans and a spice not even heard of in Hunter villages. The lack thereof was also not something I mourned. 

For a minute or two, I kept myself entertained by blowing on the black liquid. 

“Why did you bring me here?” 

Kai stared in his copper cup, which was filled with a greenish liquid that smelled too sharp for my liking, as if the mysteries of the world were written in the herbal infusion.

“Every moon cycle, I travel through Death Valley, to the old monk palaces on top of the Rift Mountain. It has the most beautiful view, first the calm waters of the Lake of Hope and in the far distance the neverending desert of the Dry Lands.”

With my lips only an inch away from my cup, I looked at the man with confusion.

“In the monastery, there is a book - The Book of Knowledge.” Kai looked up from his cup, lifted his broad shoulders, and went back to his story. “You can read it only during the shifting of moon cycles. The book decides what it shows you. This time, the book told me about a darkness that is coming. A darkness like we have only seen once. History called that previous darkness the Shibaura War. You must have heard of it too, yes?”

I nodded. Immediately, I was thrown back to the wolven dinner, of ‘story time’ and about the origin of the vampire race and the wolven packs. About the terrible monsters that almost killed the human race. The reason why Vampires exist, and indirectly why Vampire Hunters exist. I heard that name yesterday from Kate. And I had heard about that part of history in Holt as well, from the historian woman. Not for the first time did I wonder why we, Hunters, hadn’t learned about that.

“It will destroy, it will kill, and the Shibaura War will be nothing compared to it.”

Chills ran down my spine, and I squeezed my hot cup tighter, hoping for the warmth of my drink to chase away the cold that was taking over the room. It couldn’t be a good sign that more than one person was expecting for darkness to rise soon. First the human’s in Holt, then Heather and Jason and Kate, then Brianna, then two days ago the Twin Mountains, and now Kai and the Book of Knowledge. My heart skipped for a second and climbed up to my throat, where it beated relentlessly.

“With the book’s knowledge, perhaps we stand a chance. It must be fate that you have arrived here only days after my return. The book spoke about you, about your life and how your father was murdered.”

“Murdered?” I interrupted him. My heart stuttered, and the cold from before grabbed me by the throat, and instantly, I felt short of breath. “He died during a mission,” I managed to squeeze out. 

 Kai looked unapologetic. He didn't say anything for a while before his calm voice went on. “The book never lies. It sees truths, not the stories that have been told. All I know that it was no vampire that was the cause of his death.”

My sweat felt like icicles moving down my skin. Rapid breathing and a thudding heart made the southern beverage smell wrong, and with shaking hands, I put the cup down on the floor. My mother always had her suspicions about the incident. She never muttered a word about it, as it was seen as high treason to question the Council, but I saw the way her face tensed around other Hunters. I had seen her hit things in the house after a particularly difficult day. I knew that she was setting up something in the shadows, she had told me right before I had to flee Helfarch. 

“Who?”

“A man-”

“What did the man look like?” My hatred grew with each piece of information.

Kai shook his head. “The book doesn’t show these things for revenge, Sky. It shows crucial knowledge so that I, Keeper of Gates, can watch over the doors to the Otherworld.” He sighed. “The doors will soon be overwhelmed by dying souls. So much so, that the balance of the worlds will tip forever. You and the princess are central to this.”

“What do you mean? The princess and I?” My heart sped up.

“You are both important pieces in what is unfolding right now. How, I do not know, but if the Book showed me the two of you, it can not be otherwise.”

Kai looked so serious, but didn’t say anything. The tension kept building until I couldn’t take it anymore. A bubble of laughter left my chest and it kept going.

“I am no one. I am an outcast, someone without a family, without a home. I am not even in control of myself half of the time. You’re wrong.” Nerves turned the laughter into frustration. “Your book is wrong!”

In frustration, I took back my cup of coffee. With two drinks, the cup was empty. I grunted. I wanted more coffee and less of the ‘This is your destiny’-talk.

“The book is never wrong, Sky,” he said calmly.

“It must be broken then. Because I am no one, and even though I can definitely see Kate become the hero that you speak of, I’m just a below average Hunter that they experimented on, which fucked me up by the way. A broken person can’t be a hero!” 

With heavy steps, I marched towards the counter, put my cup down a tad too hard, considered asking for a coffee to go, then decided that it would take too long to make which gave Kai too much opportunity to pick the conversation back up. So, I turned around and walked out of ‘The Cracked Rib’.