family. I was going to marry Cryder. I was going to be a queen.
Maybe that’s the trial.
Maybe I can’t take my place as queen until I put my past
behind me.
The arms closed around me. I was being held in a way that
was both familiar and long forgotten—braced against someone’s
hip, as if I were a very small child. Which, I supposed, I was, in this memory. My body kicked and screamed, aching to get down,
wanting to run to my father, who I could see spread out on the road.
My mother was nowhere.
I beat my fists against my rescuer, but he or she only held on
tighter. I thought I was sobbing—
I was rising through the mists.
I was back in the bedroom where the trials had begun.
I lay in my bed, in a tangle of wires, trying to understand.
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My heart was racing. The mask that had been covering my face
hung askew, half on and half off.
I waited for Giorgia to speak, to tell me whether or not I’d
passed, but nothing happened.
I looked around.
She wasn’t in the room.
I turned my gaze to the window that led to the adjoining
room—and froze.
There was no sign of my friends. The only thing I saw was a
bloody handprint on the glass.
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Chapter Eleven
I didn’t know what to think.
I wasn’t even capable of thought. All I could manage was to
hang on to consciousness as the waves of horror crashed over me.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to wake up from
the third trial and see Giorgia’s face. Cryder was supposed to come in and hug me. Cecile was supposed to suggest a party.
Not this.
Was it possible the trial was still going on? Could this be part
of it? That didn’t make sense, though. The trial was supposed to
make me confront the trauma of my past, not some random
traumatic incident that had never happened to me before. This
wasn’t something in my past. As much as I wanted to believe that I
was still unconscious, that this was still part of a controlled
experiment, I knew it wasn’t true. I was awake. This was real.
God, I couldn’t stop staring at that bloody handprint. Whose
hand had it been?
Cecile’s? If anything had happened to my best friend, it
would be my fault. I had been born into this world. She would never
be a part of it if it hadn’t been for me.
Or had the hand belonged to Cryder? Cryder, the love of my
life, who had risked everything to come to America and find me, to
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save me from Bristol? Had he been harmed now, because of me?
I didn’t think I could live with it if he had.
And what if it had been Drake or Samuele? I didn’t want
either of them to come to harm either. They had been nothing but
kind and welcoming to me as I struggled to integrate myself into
their world. The last thing I wanted was for them to be hurt.
And where was Giorgia?
I didn’t think she would have left me willingly. Not while I
was going through that dangerous trial. She wouldn’t want me to
wake up alone.
Was it possible I had gone insane?
It was my greatest fear. I had been terrified, going into the
third trial, that it would be enough to break me. That when I woke
up from whatever I faced down there, I would have lost my mind.
Was it possible that had happened after all? Maybe Giorgia was
here. Maybe all of them were, and I was just hallucinating the
terrible sights around me.
But I didn’t feel insane.
Did crazy people feel like they were crazy? I had no idea, of
course. All I knew was that my mind seemed to be working the same
way it always had. I felt like I was thinking logically. My thoughts were swirling and panicky, and I couldn’t seem to get myself fully
under control, but there was an underpinning of logic there all the
same. I would have to work on the assumption that whatever was
going on here was actually happening, that the things I was seeing
were real. Until I received some evidence to the contrary, that was
all I could do.
I sat up carefully and detached the wires that plugged me
into the machines around my bed. I was a bit fearful, doing so—
what if these wires, these machines, were keeping me alive
somehow? But that didn’t feel true either. I felt as though my body
was working at full capacity. It was just the fear and the paranoia
that were holding me back.
Once I had completely unplugged myself, I struggled to my
feet. I felt a little lightheaded, but otherwise alright, which surprised 80
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me. I knew I had been given drugs as part of the trials. I supposed
they had all worn off already.
Still, I would have to proceed with caution. I had no idea
what to expect.
I made my way out of the room where the trials had taken
place and next door into the observation room. It was empty, as it
had appeared. I had to admit, I was slightly relieved by that fact.
There were blood stains here and there, and that nauseated me—but
at least there were no bodies. That was what I had been most
worried about. I had been terrified that I would open the door and
see Cryder’s lifeless corpse looking back at me.
I couldn’t allow myself to become complacent, though, just
because he wasn’t lying dead in this room. There was the blood to
think about.
He could have been moved.
A wave of dizziness overcame me, and I longed to sit down
and put my head between my knees. Who could possibly have
overpowered Cryder and Drake and Samuele? And Cecile.. she wasn’t an experienced fighter or anything, but she was an extra
number. And all four of them were gone. What on earth was I going
to do if I did manage to catch up with them? If someone had
attacked them and gotten the better of them, what chance did I have
all by myself?
I had to try. I couldn’t just sit back and wait for whoever it
was to come back here and find me too. I couldn’t allow my friends,
my new family, to fall victim to…
To whatever had happened.
I had to go after them. It was just that simple.
I didn’t know where to begin, though, and that wasn’t simple
at all. For lack of any other ideas, I decided to go back to the main part of the castle. It seemed the most obvious place to start. It was the only way out of this little medical area, and once I was there,
perhaps I’d be able to pick up some kind of clue that would give me
an idea of what to do next.
I didn’t like to think about what form that clue was likely to
take. More bloodstains? Torn clothing? Or maybe I actually would
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find their bodies this time. That would be horrific.
God, I thought. Please let them be okay. Wherever they are, please don’t let them be dead.
I made my way along the corridor that led from the little
medical room to the main palace. As
I progressed down the hall, I
imagined I could hear voices. They sounded like they were yelling.
What could be going on? A fight of some kind? Were they raising
an alarm?
But voices meant living people. Somewhere at the end of this tunnel, someone was still alive. And if I could just get to them, I
knew I would be able to get some answers. That was all I needed.
Answers.
It’s not all you need. What if the answer is everyone you love is dead ? What then, Rena?
No. I wouldn’t allow myself to think it. They weren’t dead.
They couldn’t be. Not after everything we had all been through
together. We were tied to each other, and as long as I was alive, they must be too.
What could have happened? I didn’t understand it. This city
was supposed to be such a safe place. Only vampires could reside
here. What reason would vampires have to attack each other?
Then I thought of Bristol, of the fight I’d seen between him
and Cryder back home, and my blood chilled. Of course, vampires
fought each other, and their fights were violent and terrible. I tried not to imagine horrible things being done to Cryder. I kept my mind
tightly focused on the path I needed to take and on what I would do
when I reached the palace proper.
I paused along the way and listened to the voices, struggling
to make out the words. I couldn’t seem to do it. I had no idea what
was being said. The only thing I knew for certain was that the
speakers were unfamiliar to me. They were male voices, but they
didn’t belong to Cryder. I would have recognized him anywhere.
Samuele had a deep, booming voice that couldn’t possibly be
missed. And Drake rasped when he spoke.
No, it was none of them.
And there were no women speaking at all. Which meant no
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Giorgia, and no Cecile.
Of course, it was possible they were just keeping quiet. That
was nothing to fear, surely.
But there were other possibilities as well. More sinister ones.
And I didn’t know what to do about that.
Standing still wasn’t going to help, though, and I forced
myself to keep moving.
When I reached the door at the end of the hall, I hesitated
again. What would I see when I opened it? And more to the point,
who would see me? It was a frightening thought—but I couldn’t allow myself to become paralyzed by fear. I turned the knob slowly
and cracked the door open.
And gasped.
The foyer had turned into a war zone.
Fortunately, the war itself seemed to be over. But the place
was strewn with bodies. Corpses. Horrified, I sank to my knees. My
muscles felt as if they were turning to water.
Not everyone was dead. I forced my mind to focus on that
fact. The palace guards—some of them, at least—seemed to be
alright. They were shifting the bodies, moving them into piles, then helping to carry them out of the palace. I couldn’t imagine where
they were taking them. Out onto the lawn?
Maybe I didn’t want to think about where they were taking
them, now that I considered it.
I did my best not to look at the faces of the people strewn
around the foyer, mostly because I was so afraid I would see
someone I recognized. If I saw Cryder or Cecile lying there among
the pile of bodies, I was going to start screaming. So far, no one had seen me, and I wanted things to stay that way. I was hanging onto
my composure with my fingernails.
But without meaning to, without wanting to, I did see one
face. It was a face I knew.
And I could have sworn I felt my heart stop for a brief
moment.
The man was someone I’d met in town, when we’d gone for
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our tour. Had that been only yesterday? God.
He had shaken my hand, I remembered. He had told me he
thought I would make a fine queen, and he was looking forward to
serving under me. He had mentioned that he had always been a
supporter of Cryder’s.
I liked him, I thought. He took the time to be kind to me on a day when everything was new and strange. That made all the
difference in the world.
And now he was dead. Dead in the foyer of the palace that
would be mine.
I should have spoken to him more. I should have spent more
time with him. If I had known—if either of us had known—that
yesterday would be his last full day on Earth—
I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself. What had
happened here wasn’t my fault, even though it felt like my stomach
was sinking into my shoes. The only thing I could do now was to try
to get my somersaulting emotions under control and figure out what
had happened.
Maybe there was still a way I could help.
And I had to begin by tracking down my friends.
I closed my eyes, counted to three, then opened them and
forced myself to look at the people on the floor. Were any of them
young? Did any have Cecile’s long, flowing hair, or Cryder’s broad
shoulders? Was the queen among them? I looked from face to face,
my entire body shaking as I confronted death after death, over and
over again.
None of the faces were familiar.
I let out a slow breath, even though I knew I wasn’t out of
the woods yet. The guards were carrying bodies outside. That meant
there were more, more than I had seen. Cryder, Cecile, and the rest
of my friends could still be among them.
I waited until everyone was looking away, then crept out and
eased the door closed behind me. The battle, or whatever had
happened here, was clearly long over, but I didn’t want to be seen. I didn’t want anyone to know I was here until I had gathered some
answers of my own.
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For example: What could have caused such massive death on
this kind of scale? Ordinarily, the doors of the palace were open to outside visitors, but it was uncommon for the foyer to be this full of them—at least, based on the time I had spent here. What was
everyone doing here? Had there been some kind of event that they
had come to see?
The only event that I could think of, that I knew about, was
my own trials. Was that something that would draw a lot of guests to the palace? Perhaps they were here to greet me, to congratulate me if I were to pass or to console Cryder if I were to fail.
If that were true, didn’t it mean it was my fault everyone was
dead? It was my fault they had all been gathered in one place. It was my fault they had presented such an easy target. I hadn’t been the
one to kill anybody, of course, but if they were here because of me
then I bore some responsibility for what had happened.
If those assumptions were true, then I definitely didn’t want
anybody to see me yet. There would be questions, questions I didn’t
know the answers to.
I hurried across the foyer before anyone could notice me and
hid myself behind a marble column. From there, I watched as the
guards continued their work, moving as emotionlessly as if they had
been carting luggage rather than corpses through the
front doors.
What could have happened to cause all these people to die
without harming the guards?
And if the guards still lived, what did that mean for my
friends? I knew their primary job was to ensure the safety of the royal family. The fact that they were here, doing this work, must mean the royal family was secure—right?
Or did it just mean that the royal family was beyond
protecting? That they were already dead, leaving nothing for the
guards to guard?
My head was spinning. I longed to sit down, even to allow
myself to pass out. Giving in to unconsciousness would have been a
welcome relief. But I couldn’t do it. I pinched the sensitive skin of my inner wrist, forcing my head to clear. I needed to stay alert and 85
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ready for action. I needed to be prepared for whatever happened
next. I heard a small, delicate sound from behind me.
The sound of a throat being cleared inquisitively.
I almost jumped out of my skin. I spun around, heart in my
throat, sure I was about to see Cryder standing behind me.
But it wasn’t Cryder. It was a woman I had never seen before
in my life.
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Chapter Twelve
She was beautiful, and she was terrible.
She had long, dark hair that flowed past her shoulders and
moved in a way that was almost liquid when she turned her head.
Her nose was narrow and small. Her jaw jutted in a way that was
somehow both appealing and aggressive.
But her eyes.
Her eyes were red. So bright as to be almost luminescent. I
thought for a moment, half-crazed, that if you had turned off all the lights in the palace, her eyes would have shone in the dark.
Her chin was red with wet blood.
As I stared at her, a drop coalesced and landed on the floor.
“Well,” she said quietly. “You’ve arrived earlier than
expected.”
My mind struggled to make sense of the declaration.
“Expected?” I managed.
“You’re the queen to be, are you not?” There was mockery
in the words. It felt like she saw me as nothing more than a little girl trying on a crown that was too big for me.
Which, if I was honest, was exactly how I had been feeling.
Still— “Who are you?”
The woman laughed. “I assumed you would be back there
longer,” she said. “Or that you would not come out at all, that is. I 87
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