Fight for Blood (Blood Origins Book 2)

by Tiffany Heiser

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  chance I could run away now?

  My fingertips came away dry.

  I didn’t understand. I probed my skin again, but I could find

  no trace of the wound. Yet I knew—I knew—she had been drinking my blood.

  It’s the serum! The serum they’d given me for the trials had been designed to help me access my vampire side. Of course. I

  couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized it sooner. Some of the substance

  must still be present in my body, and it was accelerating my healing.

  Thank God.

  I looked up at Moira. She stared back at me. Something had

  changed. There was fear in her eyes now.

  I had scared her.

  She wrapped her hands around the piece of wood I’d stuck

  her with and pulled it slowly from her body, crying out in rage and

  pain as she did so. She threw it to one side, and it clattered to the floor, staining the stone with her blood.

  I slid forward, off the throne and onto my feet. I felt my lip

  curl away from my teeth, baring them. I felt myself sink into a

  crouch. I did none of it deliberately. I didn’t even think about it. My body was acting on instinct.

  I didn’t even realize, until I saw Moira fall into a crouch that

  mirrored my own, that these were the actions of a vampire.

  I waited for her to spring, but she didn’t. She seemed

  frightened, hesitant. She had misjudged my strength and my

  abilities, and she knew it now.

  Of course, I had no idea where the boundary of my strength

  lay. But I wasn’t going to let her see that.

  “Guards!” she shrieked suddenly, the cry echoing through

  the acoustically resonant throne room. “Guards!”

  Two guards were at my side in an instant. They were huge,

  hulking men, towering over me, and I knew instinctively that I had

  no chance of fighting them off. Not both of them. It wouldn’t matter how much of the serum remained in my blood. I couldn’t possibly

  take them.

  One of them grabbed my arm, and I knew right away that I’d

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  been correct in my assessment. His grip was like a vice.

  “Yes, My Lady?” said the second guard.

  “Take her down to the cellar with the others,” Moira said.

  Her voice was a volatile hiss. “I thought I could use her. I thought she might help me. But you can’t trust anyone besides yourself. I

  should have known. Put her in a cell until I have further need of

  her.” “Yes, My Lady,” the first guard said.

  They dragged me from the throne room. I would have

  walked under my own power—I had no desire to stay with Moira,

  and she had mentioned locking me up with the others, which had to be a good thing. But the guards seemed to enjoy manhandling me.

  They pulled me along so quickly that I couldn’t get my feet

  underneath me, even when we reached the stairs that led down into

  the cellar I had never visited before.

  Could there really be jail cells below the palace? Even

  knowing that that was where I was being taken, it was hard to

  believe that such a thing could be part of Cryder’s home. What need

  would he have ever had to lock anybody up? I couldn’t picture it. He was too kind, too caring. Cryder would never have used these cells.

  We reached the bottom of the stairs and rounded a corner,

  and I saw them.

  “Cryder!” I shrieked. I couldn’t help myself. I thought my

  heart might explode with relief at the sight of him. He’s alive. He’s okay. Oh, God.

  He looked up at the sound of my voice, and in a flash, he was

  at the front of his cell, reaching through the bars. I grabbed his hand and pulled myself close to him, feeling as if I was being pulled to

  shore after having almost drowned. “Rena,” he breathed, reaching

  out to stroke my cheek. “Thank God you’re all right. We had no idea

  what had happened to you. I was so worried.”

  “So was I.” To my horror, I was crying. The shock of it all

  had caught up to me, and now I clung to him desperately. “I’m so

  glad you’re okay—”

  I looked past him. Samuele sat slumped against the wall, his

  usual regal bearing gone. He has always been pale, but now he

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  looked as white as bone. “He’s the one, isn’t he?” I breathed. “Your father. She fed on him.”

  “You know?” Cryder asked. He glanced back over his

  shoulder. Drake, who was kneeling beside Samuele, looked up and

  nodded darkly.

  “That’s enough,” one of the guards holding me barked.

  “Lock her up.”

  I cried out as they ripped me away from Cryder. “For God’s

  sake!” he yelled, shaking the bars of his cell. “Put her in with me!

  What difference does it make to you? She’s human! She’s not going

  to do anything.”

  The guards ignored him and led me to a second cell. I could

  see Cecile inside, curled up in a ball with her head resting on her

  knees. Giorgia sat beside her, an arm wrapped around her shoulders,

  watching the proceedings with a cold gaze. In that moment, I

  realized how dangerous it would be to have Giorgia as an enemy,

  and I did not envy my guards. When this was all over, she wasn’t

  going to be forgiving.

  Assuming we could find a way out of this, that was.

  The guards unlocked the cell and pushed me inside. I

  stumbled and fell to my knees, but that was fine. I wanted to be on

  the same level as Giorgia and Cecile anyway. I crawled over and sat

  beside my best friend.

  “Cecile?” I asked. “Are you okay? She didn’t hurt you, did

  she?” Cecile shook her head but didn’t speak.

  “She’s all right,” Giorgia said quietly. “I think she might be

  in shock. She’s never seen an attack like this before.”

  I felt horrible. Poor Cecile. She had never asked to be a part

  of this life. By rights, she shouldn’t even be here. She should be

  home with her mother, or off enjoying her first steps into the adult world—the human adult world. She was a vampire because of her involvement with me, and now those doors were forever closed to

  her. I wrapped my arms around my friend.

  “What about Samuele?” I asked Giorgia. “Is he going to be

  okay?”

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  “Yes,” she said. “He’s already stronger than he was an hour

  ago. Moira took a lot of blood, and he has some recuperating to do,

  but he’ll heal.”

  I couldn’t imagine how she must be feeling. If it had been

  Cryder who Moira had hurt, I would have been out of my mind. And

  for Giorgia’s own sister to be the perpetrator of all this violence...I was amazed that she was keeping it together as well as she was.

  Pay attention, I told myself. This is what a queen does.

  “What about you?” Giorgia asked. “We’ve been so worried

  about you, Rena. It’s your position she wants, after all. We had no

  idea what she would do to you.”

  “I let her take some of my blood,” I admitted. “Is that going

  to cause a problem? I thought it wouldn’t make things much worse,

  since she’d clearly already been drinking royal blood.”

  “You let her?” Giorgia asked
.

  “She said I had to pick someone for her to drink from,” I

  explained. “I couldn’t let her choose one of you.”

  “Oh, Rena…” Giorgia reached around Cecile and pushed my

  hair back from my neck to reveal my throat, and I could tell she was looking for the bite mark, checking to see how badly I was

  wounded.

  “I’m all right,” I said. “She only had me for a few seconds,

  and then...well, I don’t know what happened. The throne broke in

  my hand and I stabbed her with a piece of wood. She backed off.

  She looked kind of freaked out, and then she sent me down here.”

  Giorgia frowned. “Those thrones shouldn’t break,” she said.

  “Only a full vampire would be strong enough to break them.”

  “Well, I think I’ve got some of the trial serum in my system

  still,” I said. “My trial ended early, and I’ve been feeling weird since I came out of it. Kind of ragey and stronger than usual. And then,

  my bite healed up as soon as Moira was off me. It was right here.” I pressed two fingers against the spot. “And now it’s just gone.”

  Giorgia gasped.

  “What’s going on?” Cryder called anxiously from the next

  cell. “Rena, did I hear you say she bit you?”

  “She did, but I’m all right,” I assured him. “It’s the serum

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  from the trials. It’s got me healing up quickly. I think it really

  freaked her out, actually.”

  Giorgia shook her head. “It isn’t the serum,” she said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “The serum wouldn’t last this long. You’ve been gone for

  hours, Rena. It’s out of your system now.”

  “I don’t understand, then,” I said. “Why am I healing

  quickly? Why do I feel so...heightened? It can’t just be adrenaline.”

  “It’s not,” she said quietly. “It’s the trials themselves. You

  passed, Rena. You’re coming into your full power as vampire and as

  queen. That’s what you’re feeling. It isn’t the serum. It’s your true nature manifesting.” She gave me a small smile. “You’re one of us

  now, for better or worse.”

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  Chapter Fifteen

  One of us now. For better or worse.

  For better or worse.

  I hadn’t known what I would feel the day I became a

  vampire, fully and completely. I had known this was coming, of

  course, but I had never known exactly what to expect from it. It had always seemed so distant, almost hypothetical. It had seemed like

  something that would happen to someone else, someone who existed

  so far in the future that she would no longer really be me.

  I had thought of it in the same way as I had thought of things

  like growing old. I’d known, in my human life, that old age lay

  ahead, but it wasn’t connected to who I was in the present.

  But that had been foolish. I had known that my vampire life

  wasn’t far away, off in some distant future I could hardly

  contemplate. It was just around the corner, waiting to catch up with me. I should have been better prepared.

  My mind reeled now at Giorgia’s words. You’re one of us

  now, for better or worse.

  What did that mean?

  “Why would it be worse?” I asked her, my voice trembling.

  “I thought this was a good thing. What’s worse about it?”

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  I realized, suddenly and with a stab of confusion, that

  Giorgia was backing away from me. She moved slowly, cautiously,

  and it was clear that she was trying not to alarm me.

  She was also positioning herself between me and Cecile.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, feeling suddenly anxious.

  Giorgia inhaled. “There’s a ceremony,” she said quietly. “It

  was our plan, always, for you to awake from the trials with Cryder

  by your side. He should have been right there with you when you

  first came into your power. It never should have happened this

  way.” “I don’t understand what you mean,” I said, frightened.

  “You’re scaring me, Giorgia.”

  “As a new vampire...you need the blood of your mate,” she

  said. “The blood completes the process, brings you fully into our

  world. The blood would allow you to ascend the throne.”

  And Cryder was locked in another cell, away from me. I

  couldn’t get to his blood. “So, I won’t be able to be queen?” I asked.

  It was a blow, but at the same time, it didn’t explain why Giorgia

  was acting so cagey. Did she think I was going to fly into a rage and start attacking people because I couldn’t be queen?

  Could I blame her if she did think that? That was what her

  sister was currently in the process of doing.

  But it isn’t the same. I’m not like Moira.

  “It’s not just that,” Giorgia said. “It’s…” she hesitated.

  “Giorgia. Tell me what’s going on.” I was surprised at

  myself, speaking to the queen so bluntly, but she didn’t seem to

  notice my lack of decorum. She was like a cornered animal, so much

  so that I actually looked over my shoulder to see if perhaps we were being stalked by someone who might mean her harm.

  “If you don’t get his blood, you won’t turn out right,” she

  said, her voice a breathy whisper. “You’ll be wrong. Damaged.”

  Was it my imagination, or did I hear a buzzing sound in my

  head? “What do you mean?” I implored her again. “When you say

  damaged, what does that mean?”

  “She means you’ll be like me,” a voice said.

  I knew who was speaking. I didn’t need to look. But it was

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  as if Moira’s voice had placed a hook inside me somehow, jerking

  me around to face her, throwing me off balance. I physically

  stumbled as I turned, and she laughed. It was a high, cold, menacing laugh that made me feel as if my insides had turned to ice.

  I reached for the righteous anger I had felt before, the desire

  that had fueled me to escape when she’d had me cornered on the

  throne, but I couldn’t find it. My body seemed to be paralyzed.

  “Like you?” I whispered.

  I hated to ask her for anything. I hated turning to her for

  answers. But Giorgia seemed afraid to explain herself, or even to

  look at me. Moira, for all her horror, was not afraid of me now, and I knew that she was the only one I could rely on to give me the

  information I so badly needed.

  “There are others like me, you know,” Moira said. “Other

  rogues. You don’t see us around here because we’re outcast from

  society, because the ruling class—my dear sister and her bleeding-

  heart little husband over here—they’ve decided we’re not fit to live among their kind.”

  “You’re not fit to live among us.” I thought that was Drake.

  The sharp, grating tone was familiar. I wished I could see him. “You deserve to be cast out.”

  “Really?” Moira cooed. “Are you sure? And is that what

  you’ll say to sweet little Rena when she becomes one of us?” She

  was suddenly right in front of the bars of my cage, leering in at me as if she was a bratty child and I was a zoo animal. “Did you hear

  him, little human?” she asked. “Remember those words
. Remember

  what he said when you’re thrown out of their society, when you go

  rogue and become just like me. Your friend here, all the people you

  love and trust, they think it’s no more than what you deserve.”

  I was shaking. “I’m not human,” I told her. “I’m vampire

  now. And I’ll never be like you”

  “Oh really? You won’t?” she laughed. “You heard my dear

  sister. You have to drink of the blood of your mate in order to

  complete your transformation into one of them. Fail to do so and you’ll be stuck in limbo. You’ll be partially turned. That’s where

  rogues come from.”

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  “Cryder?” I asked, trying hard not to sound like I was going

  to cry. It was a struggle. I didn’t think I’d ever been that close to tears, while still managing to hold back, in my entire life.

  “It’s okay, Rena,” Cryder said. “It’s all right. This was

  always the plan. I was always going to give you blood to help you

  complete the transformation. You and I are soulmates, and all we

  need is to bind ourselves to each other. Once we do, your

  transformation will be complete, and you won’t have anything else

  to worry about. You’ll ascend the throne, just like we talked about, and we’ll put all this behind us.”

  His words were meant to be reassuring, I knew, but they

  weren’t. I had never felt less reassured. Because in that moment, Cryder didn’t sound like Cryder at all. He didn’t sound like the

  person who had helped me find safety when Bristol had been

  hunting me. He didn’t sound like the one who had told me his family

  would accept me, and that I didn’t have anything to worry about.

  Cryder had always been able to make me feel safe. But now

  his words weren’t helping. He was locked in another cage, and he

  might as well have been miles away from me. His voice sounded as

  shaky as mine. I knew he was watching his father bleed. I knew he

  was terrified.

  And then Moira bared her teeth at me. “Sounds nice, doesn’t

  it?” she said. “He shares himself with you, and you live happily ever after. Except—oh, silly me—I put you two in separate cages!” She

  laughed. “What on earth was I thinking? I can’t imagine.”

  And she gave a little shrug, as if to say that the matter was of

  no consequence.

  It was more than I could take.

  The anger I had felt before came roaring back, but this time