Turning back the way I'd come, I circled the pool of water, keeping in the relative safety of the trees, not wanting to cross the exposed grassland any time soon. Dark mounds out in the field made my gut churn. How many girls had already fallen? I made a mental note to check the profiles as soon as I could find somewhere to hole up for a while. Following a narrow stream, I managed to loop around the grassland through a wooded area, making up some of the time I'd lost.
It wasn't long before I grew utterly desperate for heat, my bones feeling like they were encased in ice.
After another agonising mile, the crackle and pop of a fire caught my ear. I turned, zombie-like in the direction of the noise, quickening my pace despite my stiff legs. Perhaps I was imagining it. After all, I'd been envisioning flames with every step for the last hour. But no, there it was; the golden glow of heat radiating between the tree trunks.
I stumbled toward it, the hem of my dress dragging through the muck. I hesitated as I approached, moving behind a wide oak before glancing around it. The fire warmed my cheeks, like it was breathing life back into my body. It was unashamedly large and surrounded by ten of the girls, evidently having banded together to light it. I spotted Thames amongst them, facing away from the fire with her stake in her hand. Five others were doing the same, whilst the rest huddled close to the flames. They were working together, protecting each other. Did I have a hope in hell of gaining their allegiance too?
The numbness of my body urged me to try.
I stepped out of the shadows, the flames dancing over my white, sodden dress. The girls stiffened at my movement, then immediately relaxed.
“Keep walking. This fire's not for you,” Rosaleen said in her celtic tones, her red locks as bright as the flames behind her.
“Why not?” I half shouted. I was utterly desperate and even if all I could do was stand there and waste time whilst I basked in the glow of the fire, I was damn well going to do it.
“This is a treaty. And you're not part of it,” she answered.
“Well how does one become a part of it?” I said through my teeth, stepping forward, glaring at her. “Isn't being chucked into this game enough without turning on each other, too?”
Rosaleen glanced at the others. “We don't have any weak links.”
“She's not a weak link,” Thames spoke up, turning to me with a cat's smile. “Selena killed a spectator.”
I almost went to correct her, but kept my lip buttoned at the last second. I had to play the killer again. Nodding, I tried my best to look fierce.
Rosaleen was evidently the leader of this little alliance because everyone was looking to her for approval. Everyone but Thames who was gesturing for me to join her without a care in the world.
Rosaleen clucked her tongue. “Did you really do that?”
I nodded. “The Helsings give the winners to the highest bidder. To spend a night with them.”
Rosaleen's upper lip curled backwards. “I thought that was just a lie you told to get the approval of the crowd.”
“They do that on Trayford Island too,” another girl spoke and relief skittered through me. Her face paled and her naturally olive skin dulled. My heart twisted at her expression; evidently she hadn't been as lucky as me.
Rosaleen dropped her arm so her stake hung at her hip. “Alright, you're in. But you do as I say or you get left behind. We're only as strong as the group, so you let us down and you're out.”
I'd warmed up marginally whilst standing before the fire and my ankles chose that moment to unleash hell on me. I hobbled forward, praying to god Rosaleen wasn't going to turn me away the second she realised I was injured.
Instead of sending me packing, however, Rosaleen pointed at Eesha who hurried over, taking out her water bottle which was filled with blackish-blue blood.
“How-?” I started but Eesha cut me off.
“We took one of them down. They're not the only ones who can hunt.” She grinned, passing me the bottle and I put it to my lips, trying not to inhale the vile scent as I took a sip. The dull, cold sludge slid down my throat and I fought the urge to retch.
Thanking her, I sighed as the pain receded in my legs, dropping down onto a log before the fire and finally soaking in the full strength of its heat.
Gazing around at the girls, I figured this game was different in more ways than one. Many of them had been through this before, some several times. They knew what they were doing. And teaming up with these particular girls seemed like the luckiest thing that had happened to me in a long time.
Thames dropped down beside me and another girl with a short afro stood up and took her place.
“Won't the fire draw the Vs here?” I muttered.
“Yep,” Thames said brightly.
“Weak Vampires do not hunt together,” another voice replied in a thick accent. I spotted Yelysalveta – or Veta as she'd asked me to call her - across the fire, the green ends of her dark hair seeming to glow under the light. “They not intelligent like fed Vs.”
“So you're picking them off?” I asked in alarm, unsure if I wanted to stay much longer.
Thames threw her head back, laughing. When she finished, she slashed her stake through the air. “Cut the Vampires down, one by one. Then what fun is it for them?” She pointed up to the sky as if to indicate the men watching us.
A feeling stirred in my stomach, spreading like a golden light inside me. The last time I'd felt it had been with Varick. Suddenly, I smiled. These girls weren't playing along. They were defying the Helsings, just like I promised Cass I'd do. It wasn't much, but it was a start.
“Got one,” Eesha hissed. “My left.”
I stood, turning to watch as the girls on the inner ring crept to Eesha's side, stakes drawn. Two of them held a cloak between their hands as they concealed themselves behind a tree.
A hush fell over the group and I clamped my stake tighter in my palm, straining to hear anything beyond the spitting fire. And yes, somewhere off to Eesha's left between the trees was a snarling, growling sound growing closer.
My stomach knotted as I waited for it to appear.
Was this a good idea?
Eesha bent her knees, looking like a cat about to pounce. Then, ever-so-slowly, she cut her palm with the tip of her stake.
I gasped as a blur of movement shot between the bows, so fast I only saw the impact of the V's attack, taking Eesha to the ground. The two girls with the cloak moved forward, wrapping it around the V's head. Three more girls moved to help them, taking hold of the cloak and yanking backwards so the V was dragged up. Eesha acted swift and deadly, piercing the heart of the Vampire with her stake, letting out a shriek of effort.
Black blood poured down her arm and the V jerked once in death.
The girls set to work draining its blood into bottles in rehearsed movements. My throat constricted in disgust. I turned away, sinking back onto the log, my heart racing like mad. What the girls were doing was brave, clever, and entirely admirable. And yet...watching them take that V down had left me reeling.
What if that was Varick? a voice whispered in my head. Tears pricked the back of my eyes and I blinked rapidly to clear them. I was losing my mind. How could I pity the Vs? I knew what they were capable of. But I also knew what they could be when they were fed...
This was all the Helsings' doing. It wasn't really the Vampires' fault. And yet voicing that opinion would have certainly gotten me kicked out of the group faster than lightning.
I shut my eyes, trying to focus on calming my restless heart. Silently, I prayed that if Varick was out there somewhere, he would stay far away from us.
“Seen this?” Thames plopped into the seat beside me again, wiping black blood from her hands with a rag of material ripped from her cream dress.
I turned to see what she was showing me. In her hand was her tablet and on it was a list of five tactics we could implement to improve our ranking.
Kill a Vampire
Respond warmly to messages from the spectators
Use wit and cunning to get ahead in the game
Demonstrate your survival skills
Thames tapped her finger on the fifth item and my heart jolted as I read it.
5. Kill other contestants when necessary
“And when is that necessary exactly?” I spat, guessing the spectators would figure out what I was talking about.
Thames tucked the tablet away, yawning broadly. “Guess we'll find that out.”
I was half tempted to move away from her.
“Oh, Lena, don't be scared of little old me.” Her expression was smiling but her eyes were full of hellfire. Christ, I didn't know how to trust her when she looked at me like that.
“Don't call me Lena,” I muttered. “My stepfather used to call me that.”
“Jesus, are you getting sentimental on me? Please don't cry on my dress, I had to do some unspeakable things to make those Helsings give me a new one.”
I let out a humourless laugh. “Not sentimental. He's the reason I went to prison.”
“What was he, your pimp or something?” There was no mirth in her voice this time.
I wrinkled my nose. “No, he was...” What was he? My abuser? Tormentor? Those words were too impersonal. He'd been the ruler of my small world. The demon who'd kept me prisoner.
His words inched into my mind, a memory I'd nearly blocked out entirely. “So long as you're under this roof, little Lena, you belong to me.”
“Oh,” Thames sighed, cottoning on from whatever emotion was written into my features. “You killed him?”
I nodded once, setting my jaw. For all that had happened, I still couldn't find it in me to regret my choices. If I was cursed to live in hell in payment for killing the man who had hurt me more deeply than anyone ever had, then so be it. I wasn't afraid of the future, it was returning to my past I feared. The memories would probably never stop haunting me. But in a twisted way, I'd still rather be here, facing new enemies than still facing him.
Thames turned her wrist over, pointing to a row of neat scars lined up on her forearm. “Each one of these is a member of my family.”
I nodded slowly, counting five in total.
“I cut myself after I killed them, to remember why I did it.” She took my arm, aiming her stake onto the pale skin beneath my wrist. “Want one?”
I jerked away, recoiling from her. I had so many questions to ask and yet I feared offending Thames. Because for whatever reason, she'd taken a liking to me. And that worked in my favour for the game, even my strange spectator ally, Typhon, had encouraged me to befriend her. I couldn't fight back my curiosity, however, so I asked, “What were the reasons?”
Thames tilted her head and her dreadlocks slid over one shoulder. She was pretty in a way; her features were almost masculine in their strength and yet her eyes were as blue as Bachelor's Button, her lashes thick and long, contradicting every hard line of her face. “I'll tell you one...” She hovered her finger over the scars, picking one as if singing eenie-minie-mo in her head. She pressed down on the third one in. “Jeffrey.” She inhaled slowly, inclining her head left and right, a smile tugging up one corner of her mouth. “Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Jeffrey...” She tutted, her eyes flashing up to meet mine. “My half brother. Older by eight years and my sole care-giver when I turned ten. Before that I was passed from foster home to foster home; I never stayed in any of them more than a year.” She let out one of her small, crazed giggle. “Alright, maybe I was a bit of a difficult kid. But who wouldn't be when life was about as stable as a one-legged donkey?”
I nodded, biting my lip as a pang of pity darted through me. “And your brother? What was he like?”
She sucked her lower lip for a moment. “He was...fine. I mean, he didn't hit me or anything if that's what you're thinking. His girlfriend was the real problem: Channel. Always off her head on something, used to smack me around in front of her friends. And Jeffrey just stood by, let it happen. You can imagine the kind of dump they lived in, too. The place stank of piss and drugs and they'd have me clean up the beer bottles, syringes and ash trays dumped all over the place.”
I let out a noise of disgust and Thames pursed her lips before continuing.
“That's not why I killed him though – not just 'cause he had about as much backbone as a worm when it came to his girlfriend. It was a year or so later. I'd just turned eleven and Channel was having a party with a bunch of scumbag drug addicts. I wanted to stay in my room, but she kept encouraging me to hang out with her and her friends. I knew something was up because she was actually being nice to me. Then she gave me this pill: I can still see it, this tiny white disc in the palm of my hand. She said it would let me go wherever I wanted. And I stupidly believed her. I wanted out of that house so much that I swallowed it.”
“What was it?” I said in alarm, disgusted.
She shrugged, her eyes dimming to two dark marbles. “All I know is I woke up in hospital with my stomach hurting like hell. Jeffrey was there and the police too. And he backed up Channel's story that I'd stolen the drug from one of her friends and swallowed it.” She slid her finger across the scar that marked his death. “I never forgot about that. How some people can sell out their own blood so easily.”
“V!” Rosaleen called and the girls moved into action again, half of them surrounding her.
“Another here.” Veta squared her broad shoulders toward another oncoming Vampire. The first V was snapping and snarling as it arrived, its torso bare and bloody with burn marks.
I ran forward with Thames, lifting my stake, my heart lodged in my throat.
Veta met with it first as the V collided with her, taking her to the ground. She hissed through her teeth as the V sank its fangs into her neck, but commendably didn't scream.
Thames started dragging it off of her. I shot a glance over my shoulder, finding the rest of the group grappling with another Vampire on the other side of the fire.
Thames bashed into me as she fought to aim her stake at the V's chest. I caught myself, holding onto her arm to stop myself from falling.
“Here, strike here!” I snapped, pushing Thames aside and slamming my stake into the back of the V's neck.
It screeched and writhed whilst Veta fought it away from her neck. Silver droplets sprinkled over Veta as Thames and I yanked the V aside so it fell onto the dirt, still. The light of the fire caught in the mess of liquid silver as it ran across the ground in tiny rivers.
I pressed a hand to my heart as I urged it to settle.
“Hamno,” Veta muttered in her language, gaining her feet, her ebony dress stained with silver and blood.
“What the hell?” Thames gestured to the liquid.
“They have a capsule in their heads, like ours,” I explained, a little breathless. The other girls were listening now, having dealt with the other Vampire.
“Good to know,” Eesha said, panting from her fight against the V.
Thames was looking at me like I'd just handed her a bag of gold. I avoided her bright, admiring gaze and, instead focused on rubbing my arms to wear away the goosebumps.
“Right, let's get out the map and plan our journey to the safe zone,” Rosaleen said in an authoritative tone that made everyone fall silent. There was something about her that easily commanded power.
As a hush fell, I gazed into the trees. The wind rushed over my skin and my hair whipped around me. The hairs on the back of my neck crept up and I was suddenly hyper aware of being watched.
“I think we should leave now,” I said in a whisper, glancing between the boughs.
“Someone scared?” Rosaleen mocked and a couple of the others laughed. “Weak Vs aren't clever enough to keep quiet when they move. We always hear them coming.”
I ignored her, turning left and right. Something was out there, watching us. I could sense it. And that didn't add up with the way the other Vs were behaving.
“There's one out there,” I hissed, shifting the stake in my palm to get a better grip. “Maybe the Vs are figuri
ng out what we're doing.”
A few more laughs went up and Rosaleen dropped casually onto a log, taking out her tablet. “There's only weak Vs in the first round. We saw them out in the field. I thought you played before?”
I nodded vaguely, more focused on the flood of adrenaline pounding through my veins.
My fingers flexed instinctively as I considered my position. My dress was mostly dry and the cuts on my legs were healed. My gut rarely let me down so I knew it was time to move.
I gazed into the dark wood and the urge to run seeped into my muscles.
I backed up toward the opposite side of the camp. “All the same, I think I'm going to get moving.”
“You leave and you're out of the group,” Rosaleen said simply, her eyes never straying from the tablet in her hand.
Thames's eyes were on me, something curious in them.
Death was hovering close by, I'd felt it before, and I'd learnt too many times not to ignore it.
“Right, I'm with you,” Thames said easily, moving toward me. But before she reached my side, death arrived.
Blood, fire, hell.
A blur of movement was ripping through the group, tearing throats out with a slash of claws.
I let out a scream, rooted to the spot by shock.
Rosaleen charged at the Vampire who was moving like the wind. The V was hunched over one of his victims, about to drink when Rosaleen slammed a stake into its side. The Vampire wheeled around and in a horrible, wrenching moment of clarity, I recognised him.
Long, matted hair. His beautiful features were contorted into a beastly snarl. The stake in his side made him roar out with pain. His hand whipped through the air, smashing into Rosaleen's chest. She flew backwards and I cried out as she crashed into the fire, impaled on a upright log.
I clapped my hands to my mouth, forcing my legs to move, to help Rosaleen. Thames dragged me back as Rosaleen flailed, the smell of burning flesh assaulting my senses.
V Games: Fresh From The Grave (The Vampire Games Book 2) Page 17
