Half Blood Rising novel Chapter 14

I must have passed out for a good few minutes, because when I came around, I was lying on a large table, seeing gleaming yellow eyes that definitely didn’t belong to someone who’d come to my rescue. My entire body was stiff, and dull pain was spreading everywhere. Even my throat felt like I’d swallowed razorblades, but it was probably from dehydration. I sensed magic slowly drifting around me.

“Fae are common, silly creatures who think they are better than us. I don’t want to touch that unworthy piece of scum.” A male voice reached me, but whoever was speaking was mumbling, so I could barely understand him. On top of everything, he had a strange accent.

Memories floated inside my mind as I sat up, and the warlock appeared in front of me, then I realised that the scary eyes I’d seen belonged to him.

“What the—”

I couldn’t even finish my question, because then I realised he had fangs. I was wrong… I’d been so wrong—he wasn’t a warlock at all, but another vampire. He lunged for me before I could even anticipate what he was trying to do, sinking his disgusting fangs into my neck.

It was all too much, the agonising pain paralysed me, and as he started drinking my blood, I became lost. Nothing else mattered; my limbs went numb instantly, as I drifted into a state of oblivion. I’d been weakened earlier, and now I had no strength left within me to fight him.

At least the craving for blood was slowly fading, but then I heard a whisper. I didn’t want to listen when it told me I couldn’t just give up. This vampire was draining my inner essence.

I didn’t want to listen to the annoying voice inside my head. I just needed that vampire to keep drinking from me, to take all my energy so I didn’t have to worry about anything else. Then the whisper became louder and louder, and I realised I had to keep fighting, that I couldn’t just give up.

An image of Ramona and Lachlan rolled through my mind. They seemed happy and I didn’t care anymore. Sometime later, I roared out in anger and kicked my oppressor between his legs, not even knowing where this added strength had come from. Everything was slowly coming back to me. He instantly pulled away, screaming and cursing.

Straight after, he struck me in the face, throwing a knock-out punch. I was done after that—done and dusted.

* * *

As I awoke the second time, I was immersed in darkness, in even more pain, and inside something that resembled a cage. My head was banging, and there was dried blood all over my neck. The wound was fresh. It stung, and I should have healed by now, so that meant I was still charmed.

“How long have I been gone?” A strong female voice startled me from out of nowhere.

I struggled but managed to pick myself up off the dirty floor. The vampires used some sort of old charm to break me down, and then one of them fed on me. I could hardly move, everything hurt.

“Where are you?” I asked, trying to locate the voice. “I can’t see you.” I was still disoriented, trying to figure out why I’d missed the fact the warlock was a vampire, and why he’d drunk my blood. My inner energy rose slowly, but something seemed to be blocking it. Who I’d thought was a warlock, (now a vampire like I’d never seen before), had spellbound me and it had complicated things.

“To the right, I’m also in a cage,” the voice added, and then to my right, I saw a flickering light. The vampires must have given her a lamp. I rolled my eyes, thinking that this was ridiculous. She was obviously Dorothy—the daughter of the councillor.

My mind was working backwards, while I was trying to remember all the events of the previous evening. That ancient vampire had hypnotised me. Even he’d insinuated I was half-vampire and half-fae. Maybe he was right. Nothing made much sense to me anymore, but now I was stuck here, and no one from the team knew I’d been caught.

“Right, I can see you now,” I said. “How are you doing?”

I closed my eyes, trying to breathe in, blocking out the pain and my own frustrating voice. I was healing slowly, but the internal charm was blocking most of my abilities. It was going to take longer than I’d anticipated to feel more like myself. The ancient vampire had lured me here, and now I realised he’d been talking about me when he’d mentioned a ransom. Ramona must have made some sort of deal with them.

“I’m all right, don’t worry about me,” she answered. “They’ve been treating me better than expected.” She seemed fine, and all the research Karina had done on her was accurate. Her energy was still powerful and rich. Every supernatural had an aura, and most often, I could read them well. Dorothy’s aura was intense and colourful. She must have been right; the vampires hadn’t harmed her at all. To them, she was valuable.

“Good, because you’ll be getting out of here soon enough. The ancient vamps want me instead of you,” I told her, finally catching up with my thoughts.

I had to heal quickly—time was running out. I must have been knocked out for several hours. I suspected no one from my team even cared I was missing. Who knew what the ancient vampires wanted to do with me next? It turned out I’d become someone’s experiment, an experiment that was meant to fail. And afterwards, I’d been tossed on the streets to die … but, I’d survived, and only ended up with no recollection of who I was. At some point, someone was going to pay. I wanted revenge.

She came closer to the cage and grabbed the metal bars, staring at me. The dim light exposed her beautiful face. She had several fresh-looking scars sweeping down the side of her cheeks. Well, she’d probably lied about not being harmed. The ancient dude was probably torturing her, too.

“What? You’re wrong. They won’t just swap me. Leonidius wants to gain influence over the admission board, and now because he has me, he’s gained leverage over my father,” she said, sounding angry. “You need to get out of here, you must be valuable to them, too. If you escape, then you can pass a message to my father and the council.”

I was confused. She didn’t seem to be happy about the fact she would be leaving this place in one piece. No one apart from the ancient vampires cared about some rogue girl who might have been created illegally. Dorothy was much more important, and I still wanted to get her out of here alive, even if it meant I had to sacrifice myself in the process.

“A few weeks ago, I accidentally overheard a conversation with a few mages, and how they were upset about the admission selection into the Elite,” I said, trying to figure out if her kidnapping had something to do with the meeting in the basement of the pub. “They wanted to help someone get in, someone who wasn’t supposed to be there.”