The dream turned into a nightmare, the way they always did. The library was exploding, just as it had before. Glass and the vile stench of vampire blood filled the room. Around her, her friends were dead. Picking through the debris, she called out for help. She turned a corner and found herself in a dead end. When she turned to leave, she was back in that basement in the Underground. The dead that she had killed were laying all around her and before her was a mirror. In that mirror, she saw herself, but not. She saw that same blue-black hair, sapphire eyes, and snow-white skin, but now her lips were dripping red with blood. Long black claws had erupted from her fingertips and two onyx horns twisted around her head.
"You did this," she said with the command of a queen, the same command as her mother. "You can't outrun your destiny." There was a noise behind her like footsteps walking and she turned to see the handle of the door slowly turning. When she looked back at herself, she saw that she was holding a finger to her lips. "Shh. They're coming. You better get ready for when they get here. And remember," Her eyes blazed and turned into an inky black. "Loose lips sink ships." Then she was laughing, and Victoria bolted awake to hear footsteps still approaching.
Nicolae appeared in her doorway and raised his eyebrows baring his fangs in a smile. "Sweet dreams?" Victoria growled at him. "I take it that means you have enough energy to begin again. Good. It's Supper time!" he shouted beating a rather wicked looking dagger on the bars of her cell.
"What's with the dagger?" Victoria asked.
"You certainly don't fear being around me anymore, do you?"
"On the contrary. I'm just hoping that one night you'll get so annoyed with me that you'll finally use those special tools of yours to slit my throat." She gestured to the dagger again. "If that's to catch my supper, I can give you a five second head start."
"I don't think so. Though I wonder if your blood lust for animals has changed to people since you decided to take a few bites out of a couple of my wizards."
"I don't care what you think. What's the point of keeping me here for anymore? Ceto's gone, so just kill me already."
"I debated it, but I think it would be much more fun to see just what kind of monster you've become. Maybe show her to the world before I dispose of you. Until then," he held up the dagger. "Time to hunt."
Victoria had no strength to run. Whatever it was that Nicolae was going to have her 'hunt' was going to have to be slow. He undid the chains on her feet while dodging Victoria's weak, half-hearted kicks. Then he led her out of that warehouse and into the streets. Victoria had never really seen the Underground before. When Nicolae had brought her here, she had been drugged, so there was nothing to remember, and when she'd run out with Ceto, they had stayed away from the populated places opting for empty alleyways, instead. Walking through the streets now… she wished she still couldn't see it. She knew she would be seeing those dark alleyways and cruel faces in her nightmares for years to come. There were torches everywhere. Not a single light bulb or candle to light up the space. There were both cries of misery and laughter as all levels of debauchery seemed to go on there. She passed taverns and brothels and shops selling dark magic. Grotesque creatures that she had only ever heard about in scary stories smiled and threw rocks at her. One hit her in the stomach, and she could barely find the air to breathe before Nicolae was pulling her with those chains like a dog on a leash.
There were those that also shied away from her, lesser demons and creatures that were frightened when she roared at them with her long fangs. Her eyes had gone completely black and her claws elongated. Nicolae was right. She was going to die down here a monster. She found herself okay with that just so that the people above would never see what she'd become.
Victoria never realized how enormous the Underground was. The streets seemed to lead them down to the very core of Terrarum.
"Are you going to tell me where it is we're going or is it supposed to be a surprise?" she asked him as she dodged a particularly large stone thrown by what appeared to be some half-man, half-beast thing that was impossible to pin-point just exactly what kind of creature he was. He roared in frustration when he missed her, and she hissed back at him causing a few nearby harpies to shy away in fear.
"I told you, we're going to dinner. Well, dinner and a show," he replied with an insidious smile. Victoria realized she'd rather not know for now.
A roaring cheer reached Victoria's ears as she beheld what appeared to be a coliseum in the distance. As they got closer, she realized the people were chanting and beating on war drums. Yes, the Underground had to be enormous indeed to be able to fit an arena of that size. It reminded her of the one in Teren City, but there was something darker about this one, something more wicked.
A female wraith met she and Nicolae at one of the doors.
"Make her look presentable, will you? I didn't bring you one of Sangera's best fighters for her to entertain the king in prison scraps."
"Entertain?" Victoria questioned, but the wraith just nodded, and she was ushered into one of the rooms underneath the arena.
As she walked on, she saw other creatures of every species being ushered into similar rooms. No doubt others enslaved in order to 'entertain' the king.
"Am I to fight in the arena?" Victoria asked her. The wraith nodded and was joined by others. "Well then," her heart began pounding in her chest. "At least I'll go out swinging."
For it seemed that it was time for Fate to cash in on that infamous Speranta curse.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Killin' and Chillin'
The wraiths forced Victoria into a bath. It was ice cold, just as everything in the Underground seemed to be, but she was still a little grateful as it was the first one she'd had in weeks. Although, the cleanliness likely wouldn't last long as she was soon to be covered in the blood of those she was to fight. Not that cleanliness matters when you're dead. She still planned to die, she just wanted to take as many of them with her as she could. Nicolae wanted to see what kind of a monster she had become. He was about to get his wish.
After the bath, they pulled her long, blue-black hair into a warrior’s braid and strapped on simple black fighting leathers. As a finishing touch, they added black war paint on both her cheeks—a single black line starting from the bottom of her eyes and going down to her jaw. Since she had left her prison cell, her claws had been out and her pupils had been dilated. She wasn't changing that now. Victoria knew she looked like death incarnate and she reveled in it.
"Who am I to be fighting?" Victoria asked the wraiths.
"You are Nicolae's prisoner and the king's grand finale," one of them said in a warped otherworldly voice. "You will fight the champion."
Victoria rolled her eyes. Great, she only got to fight one person and it would surely be a swift death. She supposed it didn't matter. Not really. As long as she was dead at the end of the night, all would go according to plan. If she managed to kill the king's champion, she was sure there would be some surprise ending in store for her. If not, then she'd slit her own throat on whatever weapons were provided for her.
When she was ready, the wraiths forced her down a long hallway. All around her the stench of mildew and urine clung to the air. Victoria could have sworn that blood seeped through the very walls of the arena. She thought of a time when perhaps this would have scared and disgusted her, but she had to have been down in the Underground for several weeks now. Nothing was too shocking or disgusting anymore.
The wraiths pushed her in a cage with other fighters doomed to die a horrible death at the end of a blade. She hissed at the wraiths who shoved her through forcefully, but they grabbed her through the bars.
"Win," the one who led her into the coliseum whispered to her.
"What?"
"Win and kill them. All of them who have imprisoned you here. Remember us when you get free and come back. Free us, too."
She wanted to tell the wraith that there was no way she would win, but she had so much hope in her eyes.
&n
bsp; Victorious hope.
Instead, Victoria nodded struck frozen by the wraith's plea. "I will."
The wraith quickly ran away and Victoria faced her cell mates. She was expecting more rocks to be thrown, but when she saw the looks in their eyes, she was amazed they were able to fight at all. Their eyes and cheeks were all sunken in from malnutrition and their skin was dirty with blood, sweat, and tears.
A little boy peeped out from the corner who couldn't have been more than eight.
"Those are a lot of scars, miss," he said. She sat down on the bench next to him. There was such fear in his brown eyes. He was a lesser faerie by the looks of it. His skin was as brown as mud and leaves grew out of the top of his head rather than hair. "Who is your master?"
"I am," she replied. The boy looked confused. "Though I suppose you're asking who gave me these scars." The boy nodded. "His name is Nicolae Blake." There was a sudden intake of breath by the people around her.
"You're a slave to Nicolae Blake?" A woman spoke up. Victoria nodded. "How are you alive?"
"Nicolae Blake prefers to watch me suffer. That is the only reason I am alive. But when I get out of here, I'm going to rip his head off and feast on his innards."
"You're a vampire with a taste for people instead of animals?" Everyone around her began to back away from her in fear. "Even in the Underground, those types are rare."
Victoria smiled. "Relax, I only eat the people who deserve it. As long as no one messes with me, they shall remain undigested."
"You're rather educated for a slave," the woman from before said. "Where did you learn?"
"My home in Batara. I had a private tutor."
"You are a lady?"
"I am a princess." There were shocked faces from the people around here. "I am Princess Victoria Speranta."
"How did you end up down here?" the boy asked.
"I was kidnapped during Lacrima. My guards were either knocked unconscious or…killed." Victoria couldn't bare the idea of Alex being dead. It had been in the back of her head for a while now. Perhaps that was the reason why he hadn't come, because he was dead.
"Your highness, Lacrima was nearly a month ago."
"Was it? Well, I guess none of it really matters anymore."
Victoria looked out at the arena through the small barred window of their cell. Outside a woman with sharp teeth and a spiked tail was thoroughly killing someone. Blood sprayed everywhere and the crowd cheered. Then someone announced that it was time for the champion fight, the grand finale for the evening. Victoria walked back over to the door of the cell and waited for the guards to escort her out.
"Good luck, princess," the woman called. "And may the creator grant you a swift death."
"Thank you," Victoria replied. "But I have decided that tonight is not the night that I die."
Ω
It turned out that the king's champion was an enormous ogre with a rather wicked looking club clutched between his meaty hands. He had four eyes, six arms, and a single horn growing out of the center of his forehead. Long tusks protruded from his mouth. He was a rather disgusting looking brute, but Victoria figured that he would be slow. There was a rack with all kinds of weapons. Victoria thought back to that time in D.A.R.C. when she told the teacher that she had been trained to fight with most every weapon and smiled. It almost seemed like a lifetime ago. She wondered if she would ever go back to that place. She decided to go for the spear for the sake of speed and reach, just as she had that evening with Maria so long ago.
The crowd roared like thunder when she and the ogre approached the center of the arena and looked up to the king's viewing box. Victoria growled at the sight of Nicolae Blake sitting next to a handsome blond man with black eyes, black clothes, and a tall black crown atop his head. So that was the infamous king Azazel from the Underground, and he had known about Nicolae the entire time. All these months of looking for Ceto and he had known exactly where she had been. Now they were looking for her, and he was watching her participate in blood sports.
Somewhere a gong sounded and Victoria jumped back as that giant club came crashing down on her. Jeers of laughter erupted from the crowd making Victoria snarl in rage. She would not die here. She spun her spear around maneuvering quickly around the ogre. He was big, dumb, and slow. How he managed to win so many fights was beyond her. That club came crashing down again and Victoria rolled out of the way, the ground shaking under his immense strength. As he crashed one foot into the ground, Victoria briefly lost her footing, sinking to one knee. This was just enough time for the ogre to take one of his six arms and whack her in the stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs. As she coughed and writhed on the bloodied dirt, she understood how it was that he could be the champion. He might be slow, but when you got hit, you really went down.
"I'm going to squash you like a bug," he rumbled.
"So, you can talk," she replied when she managed to suck in enough air. "It appears even creatures of lower intellect are capable of speaking."
The ogre lunged at her again and she jumped out of the way. She had been on defense for longer than she cared for. Time to go on the offense. Victoria spun that spear around and used it to launch herself over the ogre with her vampire strength. When she landed, the ogre was still faced the other way and she slashed with the spear down his back. The ogre roared in rage and smacked her with his giant hand. Victoria flew across the arena and landed with a thud. Trying to suck in air, she shakily got back up and picked up her spear. The ogre lumbered over to her and she got into a fighting position. With his large strides, he took no time getting over to her swinging that club around madly. Victoria yelped in surprise and began dodging his swings. He laughed and stomped on the ground causing Victoria to lose her footing and fall to the ground again. She hissed as she fell hard on her shoulder barely scrambling back up before that club came crashing down on her. She took that spear and sliced him, once, twice, three times across his stomach and he howled in pain. Victoria was covered in bruises, but the ogre had not yet drawn blood. She had the upper hand. The ogre came running at her with surprising speed and swiped for her, but she dodged. When he did it a few more times, Victoria got an idea.
"Hey, you big, dumb oaf, I'm over here!" she taunted. The ogre raged and dashed over to her. She knew the way he would run and swipe. He raised his fists to crash down on her when she raised her spear to the sky. She saw the fear and surprise in the ogre's eyes when he realized the mistake he made, and that gravity would be obeyed by all. The ogre came crashing down impaling himself on that spear. Victoria twisted it, ripping a hole in his stomach. He cried out in agony and blood came spurting out of his mouth. The entire arena was silent as they realized a fifteen-year-old girl had just killed an ogre, the king's champion.
She looked up at King Azazel and Nicolae Blake with a smug expression. Then she lifted her fists into the air and let out a battle cry. That was when the audience began to cheer. Victoria could hear nothing except the sounds of the people around her who had gotten the blood they so desperately desired.
Guards quickly came in and removed the weapons and she was left in the arena alone save for the dead corpse of the champion and those thousands of faces laughing at her, highly amused by her performance. It seemed tonight would not be the night she died.
"No dinner?" she shouted up at Nicolae. "I was promised food for my services!"
King Azazel silently motioned towards the body of the dead ogre. He was to be her dinner. She frowned at Nicolae who was giving her that insidious smile again.
She looked back at the corpse of the ogre and unsheathed her claws again. There were no weapons, therefore she would have to make-do, and at a time like this, she couldn't afford to be picky. The audience cheered as she approached the corpse and knelt down to get a better look. With lethal accuracy, she sliced open his chest and pried open his ribcage. She could have sworn she heard people begin to vomit when she yanked out his monstrous heart and held it high in the air. Let them know that they had awo
ken that beast within her. Let them know that if any of them dared to try and touch her, it would be their hearts in her hands next. And with the hunger that only a slave could have, she devoured the heart. The audience was quiet when it happened. Some pretty appalling things were known to happen within the Underground, and Victoria just made the list. They began to cheer again when she ripped at his flesh and shoved it in her mouth licking the blood off of her fingers. Magical people certainly tasted a lot better than that rotten animal meat she'd been forced to consume her whole life. She cleaned those bones until they were pristine and then sucked out the marrow. All the while, the audience watched, laughed, and screamed at the monster that had been made out of Princess Victoria Speranta.
Ω
Victoria was laying across a bench with her eyes closed listening to the sound of the arena around her. Mostly, it was just screams of agony and the clanking of metal. Occasionally there was the sound of a slave being fed to one of the king's beastly animals.
"Another stellar performance," someone said behind her. Victoria turned around and saw Amnesty Baldwin's emerald green eyes peeking out from under her witch's hat. Since she had been moved there, Victoria had gone up against several trained killers, warriors, and slaves in that arena. Every night ended the same, with her winning and another one of her victims in her belly. After that first fight against the ogre, she had earned the title of Champion of the Arena.
"I got fed," she replied. "So, I can't complain."
Amnesty shook her head. "Slavery suits you. You kill just as well as the rest of them."
"Well, it seems like this is my life now, so I might as well adapt."
Amnesty lowered her voice when she said, "You don't think people are coming for you?"
"How long ago did you get Ceto out of this place?"
"Almost two months."
Victoria chuckled. "I've been slaughtering and eating people for almost two months," she said to herself. "My parents are probably glad to be rid of me. They've probably already pronounced me dead and have decided to have a new heir with powers like them."
The Hunger of Wolves Page 13