Fight for Blood (Blood Origins Book 2)

by Tiffany Heiser

  ever had at home. I dug in quickly, realizing suddenly how very

  hungry I was. I hadn’t eaten anything since the plane.

  “Would you like some coffee?” Giorgia asked.

  “Please.”

  “Henry?”

  The butler left the room and returned moments later with a

  carafe. He poured me a piping hot cup. I lifted it to my lips and

  sipped. It was wonderful.

  “Now then,” Giorgia said, settling back into her seat. Her

  dress was pleated and lemon yellow, and it seemed to settle around

  her like flower petals. “We have a very busy day ahead,” she went

  on. “The men are off touring the city today—that’s also tradition,

  and it will be part of our day too.”

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  “Why didn’t we just go together?” Cecile asked.

  Immediately, she looked mortified. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be

  rude—” “Not at all,” Giorgia assured her. “This is your home, Cecile, and I want you to feel free to speak up and ask questions here. You

  mustn’t be intimidated just because of our station.”

  Cecile nodded hesitantly. I was fairly sure it was going to

  take a lot more than a basic don’t be intimidated to bring either one of us fully out of our shells here, but it was a nice sentiment.

  “The answer to your question,” Giorgia said, “is that this

  tradition dates back centuries, back to a time when it was considered inappropriate for courting men and women to spend any time

  together unchaperoned. It became commonplace for the king to take

  young gentlemen out to introduce them to their responsibilities as

  ascending ruler, while the queen would introduce young ladies. This

  was true whether it was a man or a woman marrying into the family.

  Of course, we all know that you and Cryder have been spending

  plenty of time together in the States,” she laughed. “But we do like to keep our traditions here in La Oscurità.”

  “That makes sense,” I agreed, even though I wished I could

  have spent the day with Cryder. This was my first full day in Rome,

  after all, and my first day as part of the vampire world. Having him at my side would have been more than just comforting; it would

  have been a lot of fun.

  But at least I was allowed to be with Cecile. “What will we

  be doing today?” I asked Giorgia, taking another sip of my coffee.

  “After you’re done eating, Rena,” Giorgia said, “we’ll begin

  the day with a tour of La Oscurità. You’ll have a chance to see all

  the most important and ancient buildings in the city, of course, but we’ll be looking at some of the more modern structures too.”

  “There are modern buildings in La Oscurità?” Cecile asked.

  Giorgia laughed kindly. “But of course. Surely, you’ve

  noticed that there are modern elements to the palace itself? This city has only grown over the past century.”

  “How could it have grown?” I asked. “If new people can’t

  ever move here—”

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  “But they can,” Giorgia said, looking just as surprised as I

  felt. “New people move to La Oscurità all the time. The two of you,

  for example.”

  “But we’re a special case, aren’t we?” I was confused.

  “Cryder said there were wards around the city—”

  “The protective enchantments only keep humans out,”

  Giorgia said.

  Feeling slightly embarrassed, I put it together. “New

  vampires.”

  “La Oscurità is one of the safest and most welcoming places

  on earth for vampires,” Giorgia said. “There are other communities

  here and there, in other countries. But when someone is new to the

  vampire world, we always hope they’ll find their way here. It’s a

  good place to adjust to the new life.”

  The idea of an influx of newly created vampires made me

  anxious. Older vampires, like the royal family, had adjusted to this life and were settled into their ways. But weren’t the newer ones

  more likely to be wild? More likely to be like Bristol had been?

  I checked myself. Cecile was a new vampire and she wasn’t

  a murderous animal. I was allowing my fear to rule me. I forced

  myself to try to accept the idea of new vampires as something good,

  an addition to our community as opposed to a threat.

  “Will we get to meet any of them?” Cecile asked. She clearly

  wasn’t having the same apprehensive reaction to the idea of new

  vampires that I’d had. If anything, she looked excited. I couldn’t

  really blame her, either—these were her people, after all. Of course, she would want to meet them and learn more about them.

  Giorgia nodded. “As we move around the city, we’ll be

  greeting the citizens,” she said. “We always try to make sure we get plenty of face time with the people. The last thing we want is to

  become distant rulers, lording over them from afar and never

  connecting with their needs or problems. And of course, everyone

  will want to meet Rena.” She smiled at me.

  My nerves escalated. “They’re going to want to meet me?”

  “But of course. You’re about to become their new queen,

  after all.”

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  “Am I supposed to say something to them?” Last night’s

  audience with the people of La Oscurità had been stressful enough,

  and I’d only had to stand there and look decent for that one.

  “You don’t have to have a speech prepared,” Giorgia assured

  me. “They might want to converse with you a little. They’ll want to

  know your background, what you’re like, what brings you here.

  Things of that nature. And they’ll like to see that you’re interested in them and their lives. Everyone wants to feel important. If they see

  that their new queen is someone who wants to listen to them, they’ll be happy.”

  That didn’t sound so bad. It seemed like I might be able to do

  more listening than talking. And I had to admit, I was curious about La Oscurità and its people. It would be interesting to hear what they had to say about the city and about their lives here.

  And, of course, there was Cecile to think of. She was

  practically bouncing up and down in her chair at the thought of

  meeting more vampires and learning about how they lived.

  It occurred to me that we knew very little about authentic

  vampire life. We’d been close with Cryder and Drake for a while

  now, but they had been living in our world. Now the tables had turned. What would we discover when we went out into the city and

  met the vampires up close?

  Giorgia was still laying out the day for us. “While we’re out,

  we’ll stop for lunch,” she said.

  “Lunch?” I blinked. “There aren’t any humans in this city.

  What are we going to have for lunch?”

  She hesitated. “I believe you’ve been drinking blood? Given

  by Cryder?”

  “Yeah, but not, like, exclusively. Are you saying we’re

  having a liquid lunch?”

  She gave another of her high, tinkling laughs. “A liquid

  lunch! I like that. You’re a laugh, Rena! Yes, I suppose that’s what I’m saying. Now that you’re here and you’re transitioning into life

  with us, it’s important for you to begin your dietary transitio
n too.”

  That didn’t sound so great. I’d had Cryder’s blood cocktails,

  yes, but only when I was at home alone with no one to judge my

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  reaction to them. The idea of drinking blood while out on the

  town—and having all my new subjects watching me while I did it—

  was fairly horrifying.

  “We’ll be back here in time for dinner,” Giorgia assured me.

  “And dinner will include human food. We know your body still

  needs that.”

  Well, that was something.

  “And before we sit down to dinner,” Giorgia went on, “we’ll

  have a discussion of the trials.”

  “The trials.” I felt as if I’d missed a step going down.

  “Cryder told you about them, I’m sure?”

  “He didn’t give me any details.” My heart was pounding.

  The only thing I knew for sure was that it was going to be painful,

  whatever it was. I didn’t feel at all ready to face that.

  But it looked as if there was no putting it off. We were going

  to talk about it tonight. In a way, it was a relief—finally I would

  know what I was facing.

  But in another way, it wasn’t a relief at all. I would have to

  acknowledge what lay ahead, no matter how horrifying it might be. I

  would have to go in with my eyes wide open.

  I was completely out of my depth here.

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  Chapter Six

  Cecile and I were sent to change our clothes before our tour of La

  Oscurità. The wardrobe change surprised me—it had been so

  important for us to dress formally; I had assumed we would need our

  dresses for more than just breakfast with Cryder’s mother. But

  Cecile seemed to take it in stride.

  “Of course, we’re not going to tour the town in our

  formalwear,” she laughed, pulling on a pair of comfortable jeans.

  “We need clothes we can walk in, even if you are the queen to be.”

  “So, you think it’s fine if I just wear pants and a sweater?”

  “Totally. Go for it.”

  “I don’t know what I’d do without you,” I admitted, pulling

  my most comfortable hoodie over my head.

  “Luckily, you’re never going to have to find out,” Cecile

  said. “Everything that’s happened in the last few months has been

  pretty weird, but one of my favorite parts of it all is the fact that our lives are stuck together forever.”

  “They always were!” I protested. “You’re like a sister to me,

  Cecile. Nothing was ever going to come between the two of us.”

  “Okay, that’s true,” Cecile said. “But you know what I mean.

  Sisters grow apart sometimes, or they move to different parts of the world. But you and I are always going to be together, because of this whole vampire thing.”

  I loved how casual she could be about it. This whole vampire

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  thing. To me it was a huge, monumental, overwhelming turn of events that constantly threatened to send me reeling. But Cecile

  seemed to view it as just the next phase in her life. Some girls go to college after high school, other girls are bitten by vampires and fly off to Rome to join the royal family of the undead.

  We met up with Giorgia in the foyer. She was dressed down

  too, although not as much as we were. I didn’t know if I could have

  processed the sight of Giorgia in jeans and a hoodie. She smiled

  when she saw us and extended an arm toward the door. “Our

  carriage awaits.”

  Are we really taking a carriage? I followed her outside

  expecting to see a horse drawn vehicle in the driveway. Instead, our conveyance turned out to be a limousine. Cecile squealed happily

  and clapped her hands, then ran over and climbed into the back.

  I followed her in, and Giorgia joined us. There was a small

  refrigerator in the back of the limo, and as we pulled away Giorgia

  reached in and pulled out three opaque bottles. “Drinks,” she said.

  “We’ll need our energy today.”

  “What are they?” I asked, accepting the one she handed to

  me. “You can’t smell it?” Cecile asked.

  I twisted the cap off my drink and inhaled. It was bitter and

  rusty, yet somehow appealing at the same time. “I don’t know what

  this is.” “It’s blood,” Cecile said gently. “You need to get used to incorporating this into your diet, Rena. I know Cryder started giving you blood before you left the United States, isn’t that right?”

  “Yes,” I admitted. “But I thought that was just to cure the

  illness I was suffering from at the time.”

  “You’re transitioning,” she said. “You’re taking on more and

  more of the characteristics of a vampire. Part of that means drinking blood. Your body needs this for sustenance.”

  Cecile took a long swig from her own bottle. “Have I got a

  blood mustache?” she asked me.

  She did. “You’re something else,” I told her, and took a slow

  and careful sip from my own bottle.

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  To my surprise, the drink actually tasted good. Intellectually,

  I knew there was something wrong about it—it wasn’t as if it tasted

  sweet. But I liked it, nonetheless. It was like my body knew that this was something I needed and was encouraging me to drink it.

  I must be farther along in my transition to full vampire than I

  thought, I realized. I found the blood gross and creepy when Cryder gave it to me. Now, I actually sort of like it. That idea freaked me out, but I knew I needed to try to be more like Cecile. I needed to

  embrace what was happening to me, the new life I’d been invited

  into. We spent the day touring La Oscurità, stopping frequently to

  get out of the car and say hello to a passersby. I was constantly

  amazed by how excited everyone seemed to be to meet me. I was

  awkward the first couple of times someone came up to introduce

  themselves, but then I got into the swing of it and even began to

  enjoy the process. I met people who had been living in La Oscurità

  for centuries, and a few newcomers as well. Some of the newer

  vampires acted as happy and intrigued by their new lives as Cecile

  did, but others seemed more like me—wary and uncertain.

  Giorgia showed us all the beautiful architecture of La

  Oscurità as well. “All of these buildings have been here since Rome

  itself was built,” she said, gesturing around the beautiful piazza at the center of town. “We update them from time to time, make sure

  they remain functional, but the appearance of this piazza hasn’t

  changed in all that time.”

  “Wow.” I was impressed. “Humans don’t do that. So much

  of Rome itself has aged and fallen to ruin.”

  “Humans don’t understand the passage of time the way we

  do,” Giorgia said. “The human lifespan is so short, much shorter

  than the lifespan of most buildings. Often, it simply doesn’t occur to them to preserve or update a structure until it’s too late. Of course, I believe you face this issue less often in America,” she said, issuing one of her high, tinkling laughs. “All your buildings are so new!”

  It’s not something I’ve ever thought about before, but she’s

  right. Everything in America is relatively new, relatively young.

  And now I’ve left that lif
e behind and come to a land that’s tied

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  directly to ancient history.

  Pretty fitting, considering.

  As the day drew to a close, we returned to the palace and

  went back to our suite for the third wardrobe change of the day, this time into casual cocktail dresses. We joined Giorgia in the parlor. I half hoped to see Cryder and Drake waiting there for us too—I was

  surprised by how much I missed Cryder, even after only a few hours

  apart—but there was no sign of them. Damn.

  Giorgia indicated two seats by the fire, and Cecile and I took

  them. “I’ve sent down to the kitchen for some hot tea,” she told me.

  “I thought you might like something a little more familiar to you

  than blood while we discuss what’s next for you,” she said.

  “Oh. Yeah. I mean, yes, thank you,” I stammered. The trials.

  She was talking about the trials. I had been dreading this. As much

  as I hated not knowing what was coming, there was comfort in it

  too. While the trials remained unspecified, it was easy to pretend

  they weren’t really going to happen.

  “You’re nervous,” Giorgia observed.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Of course, I was nervous. Cryder had said the

  trials would be painful. I didn’t want to suffer.

  Giorgia nodded. “I wish I could tell you that there was

  nothing to worry about, but the truth is that the trials are difficult.

  Not just anybody can make it through. The purpose of these

  exercises is to elevate future rulers above the rest of the vampire

  population, and as such, you must have something special in order to get through.”

  “So, you went through these trials?” Cecile asked.

  “I did,” Giorgia said. “So did every ruler ever to preside over

  La Oscurità.”

  “How many trials are there?” I asked, dreading the answer.

  “There are three,” Giorgia said, and for a moment I felt a

  sense of relief. Only three? I had imagined a long process stretching out for weeks, maybe even months. I had imagined my entire life

  being taken over by this torturous testing. It seemed as though, one way or another, it might at least be over quickly.

  “The trials are designed to test you in three fundamental

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