This village had security, a generator, a library stocked with books at the price of one human life a month. Would I pay that price for such comforts?
No.
But would I pay it to protect someone I loved.
The answer there was more ambivalent. I wanted to hate these people, but they were victims of circumstance just like me, and someone—this Chaos Order—had come along and convinced them that sacrifice was the only way. No surprise there. Many a cult had sprung up after the existence of the supernatural had been revealed. Too many charlatans, but since the fabric of our world had been disrupted, the crazy had gone up ten notches. Part of me couldn’t help but wonder if this cult had somehow stumbled across a real way to protect humanity from the monsters by allying with a monster. God, it made my head hurt.
Tobias stumbled into my back and then grabbed hold of me to steady us both.
Rat guy laughed. He’d pushed Tobias into me on purpose.
Dickhead.
Derek slid an apologetic look in my direction but looked away quickly when I locked eyes with him. No way was I gonna make this easy on him. He was going to sacrifice us. He needed to be made to feel shit about it.
We walked through the library, right down the center, past the stacks and desks and lamps and out the front door into the night. Icy air slapped my cheeks, and my skin broke out in goosebumps. We usually ran to keep warm, but it didn’t look like we would be running anywhere that night.
Derek had said they were one hundred strong, but he’d miscalculated because the crowd of people outside the library was easily double that number. Kids, teenagers, babies—young and old—they looked normal. They didn’t look like bloodthirsty, immoral beings ready to slaughter their fellow man. I caught a little old woman’s eye. She was tiny with white hair tied back and secured at the nape of her neck. Her pale blue eyes reminded me of my mother’s. Surely she couldn’t condone this? I offered her a smile, and her lips cracked in a grin.
She raised her fist in the air. “Kill ‘em for sanctuary!”
I blinked in horror.
“Kill ‘em for peace!” the man beside her cried.
What the hell?
“Kill ‘em and appease!” someone else shouted.
“We’re so screwed,” Tobias said.
The crowd parted and three men appeared. They varied in size, one tall, one short and stocky, and the third slender and wiry, but they had two things in common: the ping-pong ball-sized brand that decorated their forehead and their jet-black eyes. They were draped in crimson cloaks with billowing arms. They looked like fucked-up monks.
The slender one stepped forward. His gaze raked us up and down. He began to speak, and his voice reverberated strangely. His comrades echoed his words, their mouths moving silently.
“A sacrifice accepted, a double boon to appease. A sacrifice for peace.” He snapped his mouth closed, his black eyes glinting, alien in the gloom. He nodded curtly, turned, and walked back through the crowd. His companions followed, and the crowd closed behind them.
Derek sighed. “Looks like you’ve been chosen.”
“What? You mean we weren’t chosen before?”
He cleared his throat and looked away.
Rat boy chuckled. “Nah, Derek’s daughter, Emily, was, so imagine his relief when you two show up like two fluffy lambs to the barbecue.”
“Shut up, Gary,” Derek said.
The large mob at the foot of the library steps was getting fidgety.
Gary jeered. “Ooh, getting testy, old man. Seriously, did you think being the only doctor in the village made your family untouchable?”
Derek turned on him, eyes flashing. “Emily is the only family I have, and I’m not losing her. Not for anything.”
“Come on, what’s the holdup!” a young lad called out. I quirked a brow at him, and he had the grace to look sheepish.
Sheepish wasn’t gonna save my butt. I needed to think. There had to be a way out of here. Giving up meant being swallowed by the black pit that was rapidly opening in my belly, and that was not an option.
Rat boy leapt down the steps and turned to survey us, hands on hips. “Come on then, we ain’t got all night.”
There was a weak cheer from the crowd, and then Derek was pushing us through it with the barrel of his gun.
I didn’t want to look at them, but I couldn’t help it. Elation, fear, guilt, and more than one blank, shuttered expression met mine. How many times had they witnessed this before they’d become desensitized, before they’d taught themselves to accept, and in some cases, even enjoy it?
We were through the back of the crowd and onto the dark street beyond quicker than I’d have liked. I still had to formulate a plan, which was hard to do with no information on where they were taking us to die or what method they were intending to use to execute us.
“Where are you taking us?” Tobias asked, stealing my next words.
“To the river. That’s where it’ll come, and that’s where we’re gonna leave you,” rat boy said.
“Shut up, Gary!” Derek said.
I felt the prod of the gun in the small of my back and grit my teeth.
“Why?” Gary said. “No harm in giving them the gory details, right?”
“They’ll be experiencing it firsthand soon enough, so let’s just leave it,” Derek said.
He sounded really uncomfortable, and hope flared in my chest again. If I could only convince him there was a better way. That he could help us, come with us, save his daughter that way… maybe we had a chance. That wasn’t gonna happen with rat boy on the case, though. I glared at the back of the rodent lookalike’s head—dirty brown hair, matted and filthy, stared back at me.
Gary glanced over his shoulder at me as if he’d felt my regard and winked.
Fucker.
I looked away, scanning our surroundings. Dark buildings shuttered and enveloped in shadows, a line of neat awnings that lined up almost as if the business owners had collaborated before purchasing the structures. We were in the retail part of the village, and we were headed northeast. We cut down an alley and onto a residential street. Some of the houses had light in the windows, flickering and cheery; candles, no doubt, which meant that the whole village wasn’t powered by the generator that kept the library alight. Maybe the library was the center of their operations—a meeting place for the town. What did it matter, though? If I didn’t figure out a way to get Derek alone, then we were goners regardless.
We cut down a side street that led toward an expanse of green—a park or recreational area of some kind. Up ahead was a line of trees.
Gary picked up the pace and Derek shoved us with the barrel of the gun, forcing us to match it.
We entered the wooded area and were instantly drowned in shadow. The foliage was so thick that even the supernatural moonlight was unable to penetrate it. A minute or maybe two later of walking, or stumbling, to be more accurate, and we finally approached our destination.
The sound of running water drifted to my ear.
We were approaching the river.
Shit.
The skin on the back of my neck prickled just as the bridge came into view—a pretty, cobbled arc that stretched from one bank of the dark river to the next.
Gary stopped by the bridge and turned to face us. “Since it’s your daughter’s skin that’s being saved, you can do the honors,” he said to Derek.
My heart leapt; did that mean that rat boy would leave us alone with Derek? I wanted so badly to turn and check Derek’s expression, but I forced my neck muscles into rigidity and waited as he rounded us, coming to stand before us. His expression was guarded, and the hope flickered and died.
Gary smirked. “You know something, mate, I’m glad Emily was spared. Another couple of months and she’ll be breeding age.” He slid a sly look Derek’s way. “I got my name down on the list. You never know, I could be givin’ you granbabies.”
Derek’s jaw tightened, and his eyes grew hard. The changes were s
ubtle, but I’d been trained to notice nuances—not that it took a genius to figure out that Derek did not like Gary.
“Come on!” Derek waved the gun at us, sweeping it toward the bridge.
Tobias went first. He made to step up onto the bridge, but Derek halted him with a thick arm. “No. Round the side. Down the bank and under.”
Tobias glanced at me.
“Hey!” Gary called out. “You got to tie them up first, and … ya know …”
Gary moved forward and roughly grabbed Tobias’s arms, pinned them behind his back, and expertly tied them together. The knot looked secure, and the little bird of hope in my chest crapped itself.
I was next, but where Gary had been quick with Tobias, he took his time with me. His fingers lingered on my skin, his breath hot on my ear. Gross, and totally unnecessary, but it worked to my advantage. I pushed into him a little, distracting him from his precision knot while flexing my wrists and forcing a little room between them while he tied.
He finished the knot, pulled me against him, and pressed the side of his face up against mine. “Knew you wanted it.” I felt a sharp sting in my thigh as he ground his crotch into my back to illustrate the point.
“Stop fucking around!” Derek said.
He strode forward, grabbed my elbow, and pulled me away from Gary before propelling me down the bank. I stumbled but managed to keep my balance, landing ankle-deep in the water that crept up the sides of the muddy bank. Tobias joined me a moment later.
“Get under it!” Derek called.
“What if we don’t?” Tobias called up to him.
Derek’s jaw flexed. “Then I’ll have to shoot you.”
“We’re no good as a sacrifice if we’re already dead,” Tobias pointed out.
Gary stepped forward, peering down at us. “Just shoot the bloke; only one sacrifice is needed anyway.” His eyes lit up. “Or … you can shoot the girl in the leg or something, and then we can have at her. No one needs to know.”
Derek’s temper snapped. He turned on Gary, shoving him back out of sight. “You’re fucking sick! And if you think you’re getting anywhere near my daughter, you got another think coming.”
“Not your choice, mate. It’s all up to the Chaos Order.”
“Just get out of here!”
Gary’s laughter was followed by the crunch of bracken as he retreated.
Derek glanced back down at us. He didn’t need to tell us twice. We had no leverage here. We were at their mercy. I moved toward the gaping, dark wound that was the underside of the bridge, keeping close to the brick so as not to get my boots too wet. Pausing just before slipping into the darkness, I locked eyes with Derek one last time and injected my final plea into that look. A look that said, this is wrong, and you know it.
“You saved your daughter today, but you won’t be able to save her forever.” My voice came out sure and strong. “Gary will have her, or she’ll be chosen again, or maybe he’ll have her and then she’ll be chosen. You aren’t safe here, not truly, but if you come with us, if you help us, then—”
“What the fuck you still doing there?” Gary’s voice drifted down to us.
Derek’s eyes widened in panic. “I’m coming!” With one last look he retreated, and we were alone.
The underside of the bridge was black as pitch. It smelled of mildew mingled with that sharp, fresh smell of nature. We were hovering at the entrance, still bathed in a little moonlight, but my senses were going into overdrive regardless, firing warnings that all pointed to one action—run!
“We need to get the fuck out of here.” Tobias tested his ropes.
I did the same. The small amount of wiggle room my distraction had afforded me enabled me to slip free after a couple of minutes. Now, to help Tobias. I took a step toward him just as he let out a yelp and hit the ground. He lay there, eyes wide with shock.
“Tobias, what the—” My muscles trembled and then my knees buckled, forcing me to join Tobias in the mud. “What the hell?” I slapped my thigh and felt nothing.
“They drugged us!” Tobias said.
“No, we would have kn-oh!” The sting in my thigh when Gary was getting letchy. Urgh, that tosser! “Okay, they drugged us.”
“We are so screwed!”
“Seriously, Tobias, get a new line.”
“Don’t get pissy with me!” His voice quivered, betraying just how frightened he was. “We are fucked. This is it. There is no getting out of this, shit, shit, shit!”
Tobias had always been the wuss of the two of us. The one scared of spiders and creepy crawlies and, when we were kids, the dark. I was used to being the protector, but as we’d grown, I’d had to learn to do it subtly so as not to bruise his ego, so as not to grate away at the soft center that made him who he was. He was kind and compassionate and gallant, and I’d done my best not to allow him to see how these traits would not keep him alive in this fucked up world. How sometimes walking away was the only way to survive. I’d taken on the strays Danny and Aida because of Tobias, and we’d lost precious days and supplies because I’d gone against my better judgment. But I hadn’t rubbed that in his face. Not once. But right now was not the time to worry about ego bashing. We were in the shit, and if we were gonna climb out then we needed to keep a level head … Both of us.
I took a deep breath and exhaled. “Stop being a fucking pussy! Snap out of it! Dammit, Tobias, you’re such a wuss sometimes!”
Tobias went deadly silent, and I waited, heart pounding, for him to pull it together. Being a bitch sucked. Pointing out that he was scared, making him feel small for being human, made me feel sick, but getting him angry was the only way to get him to focus when he got like this.
“We need to get out from under this bridge.” His tone was tight, and he didn’t wait for my reaction. He rolled onto his front and began to drag himself across the ground.
We were less than a meter away from the entrance—not too far if your legs were working, miles if you had to pull your dead bottom half along using mud for traction. We were almost there, almost in the moonlight, when the world went still and held its breath. It was as if everything with a heartbeat had run for cover, leaving us standing on a precipice poised to fall, waiting for that tiny nudge. Every hair on my body sprang up to attention, my scalp prickled as if it was going for some kind of world record, and my gut twisted.
Tobias sped up, his breath coming in pants of horror. He felt it too. It was real. It was behind us. Not on the bank but in the water, something ancient, something evil.
It was coming.
Chapter Four
Its intent, its hunger was a weight on my back, making it difficult to move.
“Fuck! Oh, man. Oh, man …” Tobias whimpered and stopped moving.
My body was trembling, my eyes stinging with tears of frustration. Dread was a dead weight in my chest wanting to crawl up and out of my mouth and be born as a scream. I wouldn’t allow that, no way. If I was going down, I’d do it fighting. My hands searched for something, anything to defend myself with, and as if on a prayer, my fingers scraped across something hard and jagged.
A rock.
Pulling it free of the sucking mud, fingers tight around it, I began to move again.
Tobias remained stationary, his body shaking with violent sobs.
“Tobias, move!” I shoved him hard.
“Can’t … can’t.”
There was no time to help him, because it was here, rising above me, its aura a menacing pressure that filled the void under the bridge, caressed every inch of me with an alien desire that filled my head with a dark echo.
This is what you want. This is who you are. This is where you belong. No more pain, no more running, no more fear. Eternity is yours. Peace is yours. Accept me. Praise me. Want me.
The dread melted, replaced by warm euphoria. Yes … This was what I wanted, what I needed. There was no use in fighting. It was coming for me, and I’d go willingly with it.
The thick silence was broken by the
delicate ripple of water.
Tobias’s sobs had subsided. We were at peace. Ready for the fight to end.
“You’re a fighter, Eva. It’s in your blood. It’s who you are. You don’t give up. You fight till the end. You fight, and you don’t let them take you down …” Dad’s words reverberated in my skull, pushing back the alien euphoria and leeching the numbness out of my thoughts.
Fighter … I was a fighter. Time to move. Don’t listen to it, just move.
Tobias was abreast of me now. “Come on!” I yanked at his clothes. “Come on, we need to move, or we die.”
It was here, under the surface. Any minute now, it would rear its head. The urge to look back and see its face was so strong it took every fiber of my willpower to resist it. Tobias was unresponsive, too far gone under the creature’s control. A sob caught in my throat. No way could I haul him out, not without the use of my legs, and if I wasted any more time, I’d die along with him.
Survive at all costs, Dad had said. At all costs.
“Tobias, please move.” A sob tore at my throat.
Oh, God. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t leave him behind. But my body had other ideas. It made the decision for me, acting on instinct by grabbing at the ground and pulling me toward the light.
“Hey! Oh, my God! Jerry, hurry!”
I looked up to see two figures sliding down the bank toward me—a young girl with a pixie haircut and a lad not much older than me with blond hair and dark eyes. They rushed toward me, grabbed me beneath the armpits, and hauled me out from under the bridge fully into the moonlight. The lad went back for Tobias.
“Chew!” She shoved something against my lips. “Come on, it’s an antidote, quick!”
For the Blood: For the Blood Book 1 Page 3
