Sacrifice Me: The Complete Season One

by Sarra Cannon

“Do you know where we are?” I stepped forward as far as my chains would let me go.

  She shook her head.

  “Do you know how long I've been here?”

  She glanced up toward the ceiling. “About day, I think,” she said. “You've been sleeping. I thought maybe you were dead there for a while.”

  I nodded. “Me, too,” I said with a laugh. “I'm Franki, by the way.”

  “I'm Annabelle,” she said.

  “How old are you Annabelle? If you don't mind me asking.”

  “Eight,” she said. “Or at least I think I turned eight already. I tried to keep track of the days, but it's hard because there isn't any light.”

  My heart ached for this girl. Had she really been in here so long she wasn't even sure if she'd had a birthday? “You've been in here a while?” I asked.

  She nodded, her eyes going shiny with tears.

  “All alone?”

  She nodded again. “My mum used to be in the cell next to me, but the guards took her away a few days ago,” she said. She swiped at her face and sniffed. “I don't think she's coming back.”

  I swallowed back tears of my own.

  The Devil truly is a monster.

  I clenched my teeth and pulled hard against the chains. I was going to make him pay for this. I was going to find a way out of this cell, and I was going to make him suffer.

  I threw all my weight against the chains, not caring that the shackles were cutting into my skin. I ignored the pain and fought as hard as I could. I pulled and clawed at the ancient handcuffs, begging my hands to slip through.

  But it was no use.

  My head fell against the stone as I struggled to catch my breath. I was trapped. Powerless. Dead on arrival.

  In the distance, a door creaked open. I froze and listened.

  Across from me, Annabelle slipped back into the shadows.

  Shoes clicked against the stones as someone walked through the dungeon toward my cell. I pressed my back against the wall. My knees trembled and nearly buckled beneath me.

  I told myself not to be afraid, but who was I kidding? Impending death by ritual was one of those occasions where I think you're allowed to be scared. I was lucky I hadn't peed my pants.

  But as the footsteps drew closer, I straightened my shoulders, determined not to let them see how frightened I really was.

  If this was the end of my life, I wanted to face it with strength.

  And, if possible, I wanted to end as many of theirs as I could before I died.

  Starting with the woman who'd just stepped in front of the iron bars of my cell.

  Revenge

  I had never felt such hatred in my life.

  The spark of power at my core roared to life, its flames licking at the surface of my skin. For a moment, I wondered if I might be burned alive by my own rage.

  My mother smiled at me through the bars of my cell. “You have no idea how long I've waited to see you locked up inside this cage, little bird,” she said. “Three long years I've been planning for this moment. I can hardly believe the time has finally come.”

  My veins strained against my skin, the magic inside of me begging to be let loose.

  “Why?” I asked through gritted teeth.

  “Revenge,” she said. “For every day of my life I sacrificed for you.”

  I flinched. What kind of woman could want revenge from her own child? “I never did anything to you,” I said.

  “You were born,” she said. “Isn't that enough?”

  I clenched my fists tighter. “Isn't that partially your fault?” I asked. “Since you were the one who gave birth to me?”

  She moved closer, placing a hand on the bars. “I keep forgetting you don't know the truth.”

  My heart went cold. “What are you talking about?”

  “I was not the one who gave birth to you, Franki,” she said, laughter in her voice. As if breaking my heart was a thing of joy. “You were born in the crow village to a young woman named Mary Kathryn. She held you. She nursed you. And then, like some cruel joke, the Mother Crow snatched you from her arms and handed you to me, a rebellious loser who had disobeyed the rules one too many times. You were my punishment for all the sins of my childhood.”

  My mouth fell open and a strangled cry escaped my throat.

  “I honestly thought you'd be happy to hear the news,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Where is she now?” I asked. “Is she still alive?”

  She walked down the length of the cell, her hand trailing along each bar. “Yes. In fact, I think you've seen her,” she said.

  I stopped breathing for a moment. “What?”

  “At Venom that first night,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “The Devil had finally located Solomon's stone and we were preparing to kidnap you and bring you here, but your real mother intervened at the last minute. I don't know how she even knew you were in danger, but I guess she'd been keeping an eye on us both. Her little stunt put a temporary halt to our plans, especially when Rend asked you to come work for him.”

  I stared ahead in a daze. “She's the one who sent me those flowers,” I whispered.

  “Yes, sending you right into the arms of the one vampire she thought could keep you safe,” she said. “Little bird was actually her name for you. She called you that the moment you were born.'

  Tears welled up in my eyes. How long had she been watching me? How many times had I been in the same room with her and not even known it?

  “God knows she would never be strong enough to protect you on her own. Poor Mary Kathryn. Her pregnancy with you was extremely difficult. It practically killed her, growing such an evil seed in her belly. She used to be the Mother Crow's golden child, destined for great things. She was showered with love and attention, groomed for an important role in the family. But she chose the wrong mate.”

  I closed my eyes, a single tear escaping down my cheek. “Solomon.”

  “Yes. She had no idea who he was, of course. It was her duty to get pregnant and Mary Kathryn was merely doing as she was told,” she said. “Back then, the Mother Crow sent all the girls out of the village when they turned eighteen. They were instructed to find a strong man, get pregnant, and return home. The Mother Crow didn't want men living in our village, so it was the easiest way to continue the family line.”

  I shook my head, disgusted. It sounded barbaric. Girls who had never once been allowed to leave the safety and confinement of their small village were sent out at eighteen to find a man and get pregnant? Never allowed to love or have a normal family life with a husband and children?

  “Don't look so horrified. We all grew up knowing it was our duty,” she said. “We also knew that if you gave birth to a boy, he was immediately offered up to the Mother Crow to be used as a blood sacrifice. If you gave birth to a baby girl, she would take her place in the family.”

  Her voice grew sad and she looked down at the floor of the dungeon.

  “My first and only child was a boy,” she said. “I still remember the moment he was taken from my arms. He was so chubby and pink and lovely.”

  There was more tenderness in her voice for that lost child than I had ever heard from her the entire time she'd raised me as her own. I couldn't imagine the horror of having your child taken like that, but my sympathy for what she'd been through was tainted by the fact that she'd been planning the details of my death for the past three years.

  “I begged the Mother Crow for another chance to have a child of my own. A daughter to raise.” She laughed and wiped away a tear. “Instead, she gave me you. A baby whose very existence was cursed from the moment of conception.”

  I swallowed back words of hatred.

  “I resented you from the moment you were first placed in my arms,” she said. “The Mother Crow cast a spell binding me to you until your eighteenth birthday when you would come of age. The spell ruined my womb, making sure I would never have another child that might distract me from my duty of taking care of you.”


  “Why did she send me away?” I asked. “I don't understand.”

  “Because your life put every crow in that village at risk,” she said. “When she first found out Mary Kathryn was pregnant with Solomon's baby, she had to make sure he would never come after you. She hunted him down and bound his spirit in a stone. But she knew others would eventually come looking for you. She was willing to risk my life, but not her own.”

  “You were the one who told the Devil about me,” I said.

  “I was supposed to hide you and make sure you never used your magic and could never be tracked,” she said. “I did such a good job, not even the Mother Crow could find you. She trusted me to return you to the crows when you turned eighteen, but I wasn't about to hand such a powerful asset over to the monster who had murdered my son and destroyed my youth.”

  “Instead, you found another monster.” Bile rose in my throat.

  My false mother turned to me, a triumphant smile spreading across her treacherous mouth.

  “Instead, I became a monster,” she said. “And through your death, I will finally gain enough power to take my revenge on the crows, once and for all.”

  Nothing Here But Nightmares

  New footsteps sounded on the stone. I counted each foot-fall until the edge of a boot came into view, followed by the rest of the weaselly servant I knew as Fallon.

  He put one hand on my mother's shoulder and smiled. His white skin looked in the dim lighting.

  “Someone’s awake,” he said. “The Devil will be pleased. He’s very close to finishing his preparations for the ritual and he needs for you to be wide awake when he pierces your heart and bleeds you dry.”

  I swallowed back any signs of fear and met his stare. “Fallon. It’s so nice to see you again,” I said. “You look so much more at home in a creepy dungeon. It matches your pasty coloring.”

  “I see the sleep spell hasn’t slowed your tongue,” he said. He raised a thin eyebrow at me. “I would have liked to be the one silencing it for you.”

  “You aren’t worthy of my death,” I said. “You know as well as I do that if I’d had time to fully learn to use my powers, neither one of us would be standing here right now.”

  “Perhaps,” he said. “But that’s something we’ll never know, will we?”

  I raised an eyebrow right back at him. “Time will tell.”

  He laughed. The empty sound echoed through the dungeons, and for the first time, I heard the movement of others in nearby cells.

  “Who else is down here with us?” I asked, wondering what the girl across from me, and the others locked down here, had done to deserve such torture.

  Fallon shrugged and glanced down the corridor. “Other witches. Ones less powerful than yourself. Or rather, witches who have a less significant heritage.”

  “Are they a part of this ritual, too? Or is it just me who has that honor today?”

  “We have prisoners of all kinds,” Fallon said. “Some are witches we wish to punish. We drain them of their blood until they are almost dead. We make them cry for mercy and beg to die. Then we let them live. We let their blood replenish so that in a few months, we can drain them all over again,” he said. A wicked smile lit his entire face as he spoke. “Others are here only as meals. None have the rare privilege of being held for ritual sacrifice such as yourself, but they may yet be of use to the Devil today. When he awakens Solomon’s power from the stone, he might find Solomon’s thirst after twenty years of solitude is quite strong. If his new host is to survive, she will need blood to sustain her.”

  My stomach twisted. His new host?

  I closed my eyes, understanding how this all fit together. My mother—I had no other name for her despite the lie of calling her that—had traded information for ultimate power.

  “In fact, you may know some of the witches we've reserved as snacks for after the ritual,” she said. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go upstairs and get ready as well.”

  She turned and disappeared from view, her heels clicking on the stone.

  I jerked my head toward Fallon, panic seizing my chest.

  “Who was she talking about?” My voice hitched on the words even though I’d sworn not to show any signs of weakness or fear.

  “Some of your friends from the club,” he said, lifting a finger for each one he counted off. “Misty. Shay. And what was the other one’s name? Something that reminds me of a flower. Lilac? Oh, I can’t remember.”

  My heart stopped beating for a moment.

  “Lyla?” I whispered her name.

  “Ah, yes, that’s the one,” he said. “Tricky little bitch, really. She has this nasty ability to control minds. It took a few of our senior vampires to catch her, but she’ll make a wonderful meal when the time comes.”

  He pulled a ring of keys from his pocket and held them up, but I could barely see through the angry tears that welled up in my eyes.

  Not Lyla. Not after all she had done for me.

  Rend had said she was safe. Marco had taken her to safety somewhere on the west coast. How had the Devil’s lackeys gotten their hands on her?

  Fallon went through the dozens of keys on the looped keyring, finally selecting a rusted bronze key from the mix. He inserted it into a slot on the outside of the cell and the door popped open.

  If I hadn’t been chained to the wall, I would have murdered him. I would have clawed at his eyes until he screamed for mercy.

  But I could only take a couple steps toward him before my chains pulled me back.

  He laughed. “I can feel your anger in the air around us,” he said. “It’s lovely, really. To me, the best part of killing is watching the faces of their loved ones as the light slips from the eyes. The rage and helplessness. The pure sorrow. It’s the most delicious thing in the world. I’m glad to see we chose a few people you’ll be sad to miss. It makes today a lot more fun for me.”

  “You’re vile,” I said.

  He cocked his head toward me. “A compliment? I wasn’t expecting such kindness.”

  “That wasn’t a compliment,” I said, knowing he was just toying with me and that I was playing right into his hands. “You disgust me.”

  “I am who I am,” he said. “Being true to your own nature is the only thing that matters in this world or the next. If you had learned that sooner, you might not be here in chains. You might have been standing at the Devil’s side.”

  “Never,” I said. “Don’t even pretend to think that just because you knew my father it means you understand my true nature.”

  He shrugged and walked toward me. “You still have so much to learn about the darkness inside you,” he said. “And so little time. Mere hours and your light will go out forever.”

  I drew in a breath. Hours. I still wanted years. Decades.

  I wanted a lifetime.

  Fallon moved toward me, stopping just outside of my reach.

  “What happens now?” I asked.

  “Now I take you to the preparation room,” he said. He didn’t explain further, but I didn’t like the sound of it.

  Getting out of these chains sounded nice, though.

  I held them up for him and waited.

  He shook his head. “Don’t get any grand ideas about escaping,” he said. “Your magic is completely useless in the dungeons. Only vampires can cast down here.”

  I pressed my lips together. Annabelle had already told me as much, but hearing it confirmed by Fallon made it feel more real.

  It made sense. If they were using these dungeons to hold witches against their will, they would need some kind of assurance that those witches wouldn’t be able to use their magic to go free or fight back.

  Fallon looked at my outstretched hands. “When I remove these chains, I expect you to come without a fight,” he said. “As much as I would enjoy finding ways to punish you, the Devil wouldn’t appreciate it if I harmed you before the ritual. He needs you to be mostly intact.”

  He waved his hand over the shackles and th
ey fell from my wrists, clanging to the ground.

  I smiled. “You shouldn’t have told me that.”

  I lifted a knee to his crotch, putting all my strength behind it.

  Fallon doubled over, and I quickly reached into his pocket for the keys to the cell. I scrambled through the open door and slammed it shut. With trembling hands, I searched for the rusted bronze key he’d used to open it. Before I could find it, Fallon shifted to smoke and moved through the bars like a ghost. His bony hands wrapped around my throat and squeezed.

  Damn. I'd forgotten demons could do that little trick.

  “I warned you not to struggle,” he said, the musical quality of his voice replaced with a grating shrillness.

  I couldn’t breathe. I gripped the keys as tightly as I could and swung them back toward his face. The pointed end of one of the keys sank into his flesh and he released me, screaming.

  The sound echoed through the dungeon and the witches nearby began to clang against their bars.

  I turned around to face him, keys lifted between us. “Don’t come near me again,” I threatened.

  Fallon held a hand over the gash in his face. No blood poured from the wound, but I was sure I had injured him at least a little. Maybe vampires didn’t bleed.

  I wish I knew more about how to kill him. I wanted to gouge his eyes out with my bare hands, but the way he’d shifted to smoke so quickly, I doubted I’d have the chance.

  He lowered his hand. The skin beneath it was torn and black, but not bloodied. Within seconds, it healed itself completely, becoming the familiar flawless white skin he’d had before.

  But his eyes had changed. Instead of black, they glowed a faint red. His fangs came out, protruding past his lips in a snarl.

  “You won’t get away with that again,” he said.

  “You can’t hurt me, remember?” I said. “Not without making the Devil angry. And I’m sure you’d rather deal with me than with him.”

  He narrowed his red eyes at me, anger boiling inside them. “I am looking forward to watching you die.”

  He turned his head to the side and nodded. “Take her to the preparation chamber,” he said.