by Irina Argo
Khay smirked. “Interesting proposition. How much?”
“Everything I have. Half a million dollars.”
Khay began to laugh. “Half a million. Now that’s a lot of money.” He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Do you have even the slightest idea how much an Amiti bloodstock is worth?”
Arianna didn’t respond; she was back to praying that this was a nightmare and she was soon going to wake up, safe in her own bed. Somewhere.
“Well,” said Khay. “Let me give you the benefit of a little education. An average Amiti bloodstock sells for five to ten million dollars. But you’d start at a lot more than that. The price for you would be the highest price ever paid.”
“Since I’m that expensive, maybe I deserve better treatment than this.” Just don’t show your fears, continue negotiation, it’s the best tactic, she tried to encourage herself. Why had her father only taught her how to identify vampires, not what to do if they caught her? He’d thought he’d be alive until she became immortal; he’d be able to protect her. She felt a new wave of grief over losing him.
“Sure you do.” Khay stepped back, held his hands in the air and making strange whirling motions. Out of each palm a bright ray of brilliant white light beamed and then twirled into spirals, mirroring the movements of his hands. Arianna had never seen anything like it before.
He seemed to sense her astonishment, grinned again. “Do you know what that is?”
She shook her head.
“A light lasso. An Amiti weapon, by the way. This light is made of white flame. All Amiti have white flame, but it’s dormant, buried deep inside you. It comes out when you kill your blood-bonds—which is another thing you people do.” Wait, what’s the first thing I’ve done? “And then some especially powerful Amiti, assassins, have learned to develop it. They’re the only other ones. Oh—and me. I got this”—he wiggled his fingers, sending the beams dancing more furiously—“from my blood-bond.
“Wanna see how it works? No? Too bad.” A brief, mockingly exaggerated frowny face, then the grin was back. “I’m going to show you anyway.”
He flipped his hands, directing the rays at Arianna. They slammed into her flesh with a sickening slice and her body convulsed with the pain. The light lasso moved away, then hit her again, spiraling around her this time. Arianna screamed; she felt like she was being burned with molten lead.
“Stop it, stop it, stop it ...”
Her body twisted with raw, bloody pain, but she knew there wasn’t even a scratch on the surface of her skin.
“Pretty effective, isn’t it?” Khay grinned. “I got it from my blood-bond—who was killed by your people. You destroyed her body and sent me her head. I vowed to spend the rest of my life avenging her. Every Amiti is my enemy.”
“I didn’t kill anybody. If your blood-bond was killed, I’m sorry, but I had nothing to do with it,” she wailed. She understood now: this guy was crazy, out of his mind with grief, and he saw every Amiti as responsible.
“Oh yes—you had everything to do with it,” he spat out. “If you are not stopped, you will sanction the death of hundreds of other innocent blood-bonds. You’re the Amiti Queen and there is no price high enough that you can pay for your crime. I hate you. Monster!” She saw the light swirling around her brighten just as a renewed surge of agony pulsed through her.
Even through the pain, Arianna was totally shocked by the vehemence of his hatred. She opened her mouth to say something him, but right then Khay projected another beam of light from his palm. It burned through the rope around her wrists, sending Arianna tumbling to the ground at his feet.
Khay grabbed her long hair and flung her sprawling along the stones, forcing all the air from her lungs. The next second, he was on top of her, crushing her against the cave rocks with his body. She raised her head and bit down on his shoulder. Her fingernails had become claws. She tore savagely into the flesh on his sides and back, ripping his flesh apart anywhere she could reach.
But it didn’t stop him, only added to his fury. He punched her viciously in the chest and before she could recover the breath expelled from her lungs, his hands were wrapped around her neck. When he reared back to look down at her, he looked utterly maniacal, exactly how she’d have pictured a murderer caught in the act, and she felt his erection press against her pubic bone. A spasm of horror rolled through her. Her vision was already dimming, blurring.
“Hathor!” she screamed. But there was no air for the scream to travel on. Still, she did it again, with her mind, her lips: “Hathor!”
Everything that happened next felt like a dream where time was suspended. The darkening cave suddenly appeared crystal-clear, but filled with dark, bloody smoke. She knew Khay’s hands were still on her, but she couldn’t feel them. She knew, more than saw, an orb of brilliant light, yellow-gold like the sun, forming in her solar plexus. Pulling its energy up to her hands, she blasted it at Khay; he flew off of her and smashed into the opposite wall. She shot another blast, hitting him right between his eyes. He gasped loudly, like he’d been the one being strangled, and tumbled down.
Frozen, Arianna stared at her trembling hands. OK, that was totally awesome. But it hadn’t fixed her situation, just bought her some time. Unless she could kill him? Think ... She shook her head and took some deep breaths, trying to bring herself back into the present. The chances of killing a vampire with this—this power—were probably slim, and she didn’t even know what it was, how it worked. She sprang to her feet and shot to the cave’s entrance, then stopped abruptly, squinting in the sudden brightness.
Now what? She couldn’t just run into the jungle, stark naked, without the slightest idea where she was. And what had happened to Simone? She couldn’t abandon her sister. She tried to reach out through the blood-bond, but got nothing. The bond was too new—and she was too new, and her ability to concentrate was shot.
Hearing a rustle, Arianna held her breath, stepping back and flattening herself against the rock wall of the cave. She glanced outside to see four figures emerge from the jungle just a few yards from the cave’s mouth. Two males simultaneously leaped at Arianna.
Eat shit, losers! You have no idea who you’re dealing with! She reached again for the golden energy—and came up empty.
It was one of the last straws, she’d think later on. She just froze, her mind seized up like a useless, cramping muscle on a memory of the time she’d left her headlights on before a college exam and gone to start her car, only to hear a tiny click instead of the engine roaring to life—
She was being hurled through the air, slamming into a tree trunk with a vicious thud that knocked the wind out of her and seemed to force her eyes out of their sockets. Her skull had cracked against the tree and now was buzzing. Or ... humming. Dazed, she slid to the ground.
Someone grabbed her by the hair and started banging her head against the base of the tree. “You worthless bitch!”
Barely conscious, Arianna knew, as if it was happening to someone else, that she was going to die. That was the other last straw. She gave in to the blows, waiting for the one that would kill her.
“Sef, stop it!” Arianna heard a female’s voice reach her from far, far away. “You’ll kill her, you idiot!”
The blows stopped, but Arianna felt nothing, absorbed by merciful darkness.
Chapter 12
Arianna was having the nightmare again. She saw herself in a dank, windowless cell, chained to a bed and covered with a grey sheet. Silent, ghostly figures inserted a catheter into her vein to collect her blood. She watched in horror as it ran through the plastic tubing and into a glass container, her strength draining along with it. The only difference was the pulsating pain at the back of her head—
Her nightmare had become a reality.
Every nerve in Arianna’s body came to life; her mind screamed in rebellion. This can’t be happening! She thrashed in her restraints, panicking, but she was totally immobilized.
“Stop
moving! You’ll only loosen it and I’ll have to insert it again.” An attractive, dark-haired female bent over her, checking the catheter. Arianna raised her head, saw her blood flowing through the plastic semi-transparent tubing, a glass jar filling with her blood at the other end. They were stealing her blood.
“Take it out right now!” Arianna was trying to scream at her, but she only managed a hoarse whisper.
“Be still!” the female ordered. “You have no authority here, my dear.”
Arianna continued jerking her body, hoping the catheter would work its way out. Blood lost this way—any way other than directly from their veins, in a blood-bond—was devastating for Amiti. Their powers drained out with the blood. And her power was the only reason she was still alive right now.
The female slapped her hard. “Stop being so stubborn! It will only make it worse for you. I told you not to move!”
“Need some help, Elora?” Arianna heard a male’s voice, felt heavy hands, one on her chest and one on her belly, pressing her into the bed.
The pressure was so strong that it kept her from breathing. She was suffocating. The male eased his weight up a bit, letting her gulp in a breath. “You see, there is nothing you can do here. Better lay still; I really don’t want to hurt you.”
Despairing, Arianna reached for her newly discovered power. She called on that heat within her, visualizing a radiant ball of yellow-gold energy—but found only darkness. There was nothing there.
Frigidity overtook her; her limbs grew numb and her eyelids dropped, creating a curtain of red mist. The mist was expanding, getting darker and darker, sucking the life out of her and spinning her into an abyss that reeked of vomit and rotten flesh. She sank to the bottom, lying there in a state of existence without life and without death ...
“She’s awake.” It was the female’s voice. Arianna opened her eyes but could distinguish only shadows. Gradually they came into focus. The dark-haired female was sitting on the edge of her bed; Khay stood at the foot of the bed with two other vampires, a male and a blond female, she recognized from outside the cave.
The catheter was removed from her arm and she was covered with a blanket. Khay came to the head of the bed and scrutinized her face. “She looks fine.”
He moved aside a lock of hair that had fallen across her forehead. Arianna jerked her head away, trying to avoid his touch, but Khay continued shifting stray strands of her hair, obviously enjoying her aversion.
“So, you activated the Gift of Ra. That was a surprise. I didn’t expect that you would do it so quickly. Thank Sekhmet you didn’t know how to use it properly. Otherwise your blow would have been deadly.”
He fixed another lock behind Arianna’s ear and smirked. “But we’re sucking it right out of you. No blood; no power! Just like that.” He snapped his fingers. “You Amiti are so predictable.”
Arianna closed her eyes, hiding her despair. Her birthright, the power of the Amiti Queen that she had just received from Hathor Herself, was being brutally repressed. It was still hers, but she wouldn’t be able to access it as long as they continued draining her blood. Without her powers, she had not even the slightest hope of escape. But there was one power that nobody could ever inhibit in Amiti, no matter what, even if they had one foot in the grave: the blood-bond. She could get Khay to blood-bond with her and then use the connection to kill him.
“What are you going to do to me?”
“I told you, you belong to our pride and you’ll serve as a bloodstock.”
“What a waste.” Arianna forced herself to stare at him with disdain in her eyes. “Are you denying yourself the Gift of Ra? It will give you the power to challenge the King and kill him. Don’t you want to be King?”
Vampires were ambitious, always seeking power over others and fighting for superior positions in their society. Seizing on that idea, Arianna pressed her point. “As Queen of the Amiti, I offer you the blood-bond. I will forgive your transgressions against me and make you strong enough to overthrow King Tor. He is my enemy, and I want him dead.”
Agree, Khay. Agree. You know you want it. Take my vein, Khay. She hoped that the appeal of her offer would overpower Khay’s sense of logic. Take my vein, bastard, and you’ll belong to me.
Khay grinned. “You’re right: I do want you as my blood-bond. But it will be on my terms. I’d have to be stupid to trust you. First, I’ll ensure that you’ll never kill me. Then, I’ll teach you to be totally obedient to me. Elora, take care of her.”
He turned around and strode to the door, everyone but Elora following him.
Elora moved to Arianna’s bed, pulled a knife out of a sheath at her waist, and cut her bindings.
“Now, my dear, you can do whatever you feel you need to. The toilet is in that corner.”
With everyone but Elora gone, the adrenaline drained from Arianna and a surge of nausea took its place. Ignoring the fact that she was still naked, she rolled off the bed and got to her feet—and immediately collapsed. With no strength left in her body, she couldn’t stand; she could only crawl. So Arianna crawled.
She reached the toilet just before the first retch overtook her. But it was just dry heaves. There was nothing in her stomach; she hadn’t eaten since she and Simone had left the demons. It occurred to her that she had no clue how long it had been since then. Where was Simone now? What had happened, was happening to her? She braced her arms on both sides of the toilet to support her upper body, then flipped her hair aside and looked around.
Seeing a small showerhead attached to the wall in the corner, she crawled to it, reached up to crank on the water, and propped herself against the wall while the water cascaded over her aching body. She stayed there until the water turned cold, then struggled up to shuffle back toward her bed, holding onto the wall for balance.
But when she turned back, Elora wasn’t alone. Khay had returned and was stretched out on her bed, legs crossed, hands clasped behind his head. “From now on, this is your reality, physically and mentally. So start getting used to it.”
She slid down the wall and sat on the floor. “Your entertainment will be pretty short-term. I won’t survive long; I’m not immortal yet. If you want to keep me alive, you need to take better care of me, and right now I’m hungry.”
“Of course.” Khay appeared next to her, picked her up and carried her back to the bed.
“Here is some nourishment.” He pointed at the side table with a tray of food, then reached over and removed the lid from a wooden bowl. The room filled with the aromatic scent of feijoada, a Brazilian stew made of meat and beans. Arianna and Simone had eaten it with the demons. Arianna’s stomach lurched with hunger—and with longing for her sister and the sense of safety she’d felt in what now seemed like another era. Pushing away the longing, she stretched her hand to take the bowl.
Khay caught her wrist mid-reach. “Kiss me first.”
Arianna stared at him incredulously. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” She tried to make her voice sound strong and firm, but it was shaking. “You abused me and drained me of my blood, and now you expect me to kiss you?” He was trying to tame her like an animal, trying to break her will.
“You have to earn your food. Otherwise ...” Khay tossed his head toward the open window.
Arianna got the hint: I disobey, the food goes out of the window. “Fine.”
Khay picked her up and set her on his lap. “Good girl.” He nuzzled her ear.
Here goes nothing. She threw her hands around his neck and placed her mouth on Khay’s. His lips parted. His hand was on the back of her head, holding her steady; his other hand smoothed possessively down Arianna’s back and squeezed her buttocks.
For a moment, Arianna pretended to enjoy it, moaning and arching her back. Then she caught his lower lip between her teeth and with all her strength and hatred, she bit down on his lip as hard as she could.
Khay howled and shoved her to the floor as though she was a deadly snake.
“Bitch!” he shouted, covering his mouth, blood streaming between his fingers and running down his wrists and arms. “Bitch!”
He kicked her in the stomach and she retched with pain—but her soul was singing.
“Okay, you asked for it.” Khay seized the steaming bowl of feijoada and hurled it out the window. He lifted Arianna by her armpits and brought her face level with his. Her legs dangled loosely; she tried to kick him, but she couldn’t make contact.
“You’re not learning, are you?” He spit blood into her face and dumped her on the bed.
“Elora, get her ready for the ritual.”
Chapter 13
After Khay stomped out of the room, Elora sat on the chair next to Arianna’s bed. “Listen to me, Arianna. The sooner you accept what is now your life, the better it will be for you.”
Arianna turned her back on her.
“Stupid girl. We’ll be easier on you if you let go of your stubbornness. Look at it this way: we actually give your worthless life a purpose: the sustenance of our pride. Think how fulfilling it will be to nourish the pride with your blood. Amiti blood is the most powerful of all immortals’; all it will take is draining you once a week to feed all five of us. And when we’re well fed, we don’t need to hunt and kill humans. Do you see now how important your mission is? It’s beautiful, really.”
Arianna wheeled around and just stared at Elora, appalled. “You have got to be kidding me.”
After a long pause, Elora sighed. “Well, my dear, I know you are a smart girl. I’ll leave you with your thoughts for a while. I need to change for the ritual. I’ll be back shortly.”
Arianna tracked Elora with her eyes until Elora disappeared behind the door. Then she leaned back on her pillow. If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought that Elora wasn’t just being spiteful, that she’d actually believed what she was saying. But, really, no one could really believe that, could they? But what if she did? What if all vampires had this, this distorted mentality? And if they did, was it hard-wired into their brains? Did it come from some essential, inherent part of them, making the idea of keeping bloodstock totally compatible with the way they saw the world? Or was it that they’d had to invent and keep reinforcing that belief in order to live with themselves, knowing that they were imprisoning Amiti like livestock?
