Half Blood Rising: (Moonlight Academy Book 1)

by Joanna Mazurkiewicz

  “Good, because you’ll be getting out of here soon enough. The ancient vamps want me instead of you,” I told her, finally catching up with my thoughts.

  I had to heal quickly—time was running out. I must have been knocked out for several hours. I suspected no one from my team even cared I was missing. Who knew what the ancient vampires wanted to do with me next? It turned out I’d become someone’s experiment, an experiment that was meant to fail. And afterwards, I’d been tossed on the streets to die … but, I’d survived, and only ended up with no recollection of who I was. At some point, someone was going to pay. I wanted revenge.

  She came closer to the cage and grabbed the metal bars, staring at me. The dim light exposed her beautiful face. She had several fresh-looking scars sweeping down the side of her cheeks. Well, she’d probably lied about not being harmed. The ancient dude was probably torturing her, too.

  “What? You’re wrong. They won’t just swap me. Leonidius wants to gain influence over the admission board, and now because he has me, he’s gained leverage over my father,” she said, sounding angry. “You need to get out of here, you must be valuable to them, too. If you escape, then you can pass a message to my father and the council.”

  I was confused. She didn’t seem to be happy about the fact she would be leaving this place in one piece. No one apart from the ancient vampires cared about some rogue girl who might have been created illegally. Dorothy was much more important, and I still wanted to get her out of here alive, even if it meant I had to sacrifice myself in the process.

  “A few weeks ago, I accidentally overheard a conversation with a few mages, and how they were upset about the admission selection into the Elite,” I said, trying to figure out if her kidnapping had something to do with the meeting in the basement of the pub. “They wanted to help someone get in, someone who wasn’t supposed to be there.”

  “That’s why you need to do everything in your power to escape,” she said, shaking the bars like she was prepared to bend them with her magic. There was no way I was leaving here without her. I couldn’t tell her I was part of the team from Moonlight who’d come to rescue her.

  “So, what do you have in mind?” I asked, knowing that, soon enough, my strength would return. The vampires had confiscated my knife, but I didn’t need it. Being close to her kind of helped. She was strengthening my core, not even knowing it. I was certain that other vampires didn’t have this kind of ability—Dorothy was special.

  “We need to make them talk …

  She was smart and quick with her thoughts, her plan made sense, but I wasn’t sure what the ancients were planning to do with either of us. There was also Ramona. I had a feeling she’d been working for the enemy this entire time. At the same time, I couldn’t comprehend how she’d managed to fool Oldman, too. The principal was smart, and she trusted Lachlan. Something wasn’t adding up.

  I listened, waiting and wondering if we would be able to pull this off. I had to get Dorothy out of here and bring her safely to headquarters. No one would doubt me after that, and I truly wanted to expose Ramona and Lachlan’s betrayal. They were trying to jeopardise the entire mission, possibly even the school itself.

  We waited all night, well, I wanted to presume it was still night-time outside. It would be difficult to figure out if it was night or day, until we escaped these cages.

  “I need to speak to Leonidas,” Dorothy said when one of the shifters showed up several hours later.

  My wounds were healing, but the process was taking longer than I’d expected. The ancient spell was still blocking all my abilities. Damn it. I didn’t have time for this.

  Dorothy told me it was advanced magic, that the vampires weren’t using warlocks to do their dirty work for them. They were smart.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” the shifter answered abruptly, and then locked the cage. He’d brought her blood, and I was given something that resembled a meal. It was too dark to see, but I needed my strength, so I ate it. The food wasn’t too bad. Time was dragging by, and I wanted to know what was going on. Five minutes later, we were finally alone again. Leonidas, another ancient vampire, was planning something that had to do with the Elite.

  “Okay, he’s gone, so what now?” I asked Dorothy as I paced around the cage like an animal.

  “Now we wait, and don’t worry, he doesn’t have much patience, so he’ll be here,” she answered, sounding confident. My stomach growled, but this time, it wasn’t from hunger. I didn’t feel right for some reason, and I needed answers. I wanted to know what that ancient vampire had done to me.

  After several more minutes, we were both pacing around, waiting. The same shifter returned an hour later and he opened our cages. Then several lights flicked on, and I realised the vampires hadn’t moved us anywhere—we were still in the same abandoned building. Dorothy was a strong vampire, and maybe our plan wasn’t perfect, but it could work.

  “Come on, you two, they are waiting for you,” the shifter said. He was short and stocky with a lot of facial hair. Dorothy was much taller than him, and even when she was walking next to me, she was doing so with extreme elegance. I needed to get my hands on a sword, because draining a full-blooded vampire was going to be much more difficult considering the condition I was in. Either way, this had to work. I couldn’t return to headquarters empty-handed, defeated, without proof of Ramona’s or even Pretty Boy’s guilt.

  We were taken to an even larger hall, but this one was filled with old rusty machines that had seen better days. However, instead of Leonidas, we were brought in front of three other shifters. They were wearing suits and talking in Russian amongst each other.

  “Adonis, what the hell is this? I specifically asked to see the ancient,” Dorothy said. She looked pissed off, and my own blood boiled.

  “Master is busy, so he might see you later,” the stocky shifter answered and then just walked away. We were outnumbered. I doubted I could take care of the three of them, considering my current state.

  “What did you want to speak to Leonidas about?” one of the shifters asked, approaching Dorothy. His English wasn’t great, and he had a thick Russian accent.

  “Challenge the one who looks the most intelligent, and I’ll take care of the other two,” I heard a voice inside my head.

  I glanced at Dorothy, feeling empowered. I’d heard of this ability and read about it in books, but I never thought vampires could actually communicate with each other through mind-speak. In that moment, I felt like I was in a trance. She must have done something to me, feeding me with her energy, because I suddenly felt invincible. The pain I’d felt was finally gone.

  “I bet you’ve never fought a half-blood. Why don’t you show me how well you use that sword of yours?” I shouted at the shifter who was watching Dorothy. She was already hypnotising the other two as they approached. We didn’t have much time; the lower floor was filled with ancient vampires. They all worked for Leonidas, but I needed to make sure I could get her out of here alive and in one piece.

  Adonis had probably brought us here without the ancients’ knowledge. Maybe he had a soft spot for Dorothy.

  “I don’t fight little girls, get lost,” the shifter answered, spitting on the floor. He glanced at the other two shifters and cursed in Russian.

  He was close to me, so I didn’t wait and attacked, kicking him squarely in the chest as my strength returned. He went flying across the room, then crashed to the floor. I glanced at my sparkling hands, confused and baffled. My own abilities had exceeded my expectations once again.

  “Finish him, before the others realise what’s going on,” Dorothy told me, completely controlling the other two shifters. She was good, and together, we were leaving this damn building whether she was ready or not.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sacrifice.

  Dorothy was much more powerful than I’d anticipated. Normally vampires relied on other creatures for magic, but not her. Her energy was shrouding the entire space, soaking the air and overwhel
ming my own vampire senses. The shifter wasn’t dead yet. He rose to his feet, staring at me with fury and wiping the dirt from his face. I had to finish him if I wanted to get out of here alive.

  Dorothy’s compulsion was affecting me, too, but I shook my head and blocked her voice. I had to kick his arse without my weapons, which wasn’t impossible.

  “You’re dead, little girl,” the shifter growled, stretching his neck from side to side. Then his body went rigid, and he started transforming. All right, so I hadn’t anticipated that, but it should have been obvious that he would fight me in his other form.

  I expected to see a wolf, but when he shifted into an animal that resembled a tiger, I had to admit, I began to freak out a bit. Normally when I tracked a werewolf, I was more prepared, but a cheetah? I was in new territory here. I suddenly missed my knives, and his damn sword was too far away. Fur appeared all over his body, his bones cracked and twisted. The smell of smoke wafted around the air. Something was burning, but I couldn’t see fire anywhere around me.

  I inhaled sharply, trying to think on my feet. A moment later, a large cheetah charged towards me, and I needed to make a split-second decision and figure out how to kill it. Dorothy was shouting something, but I couldn’t hear her.

  If I had any other magic inside me, well, now was the time to use it. He was going to kill me, and I didn’t know how to defend myself. The shifter roared, and every single hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Time slowed down, or I was witnessing my own end in slow motion. Saliva was dripping down his large fangs. I had no chance of escaping.

  I just knew that, in a short moment, I’d be dead. My magic faded, so I did the only thing I thought that made sense. Maybe it was silly, but my normal “brave girl” wasn’t here anymore—she’d checked out. I shut my eyes, pulling energy from every cell inside my body, concentrating on this one final moment.

  Dorothy kept shouting, but now her voice was fading. I didn’t want to listen, imagining the cheetah’s breath on my neck. Energy discharged around me, pounding inside me like a volcano. My heart started jackhammering inside my chest as I waited for sharp claws and pain. It never came—the cheetah yelped, then I heard a crying roar in the distance. I finally opened my eyes, releasing the magic I was holding onto. The shifter was immersed in flames, he was burning alive, rolling on the floor, trying to save himself from the fire. I glanced down at my hands, seeing flames, and I had no idea what I’d just done.

  “Impossible,” I whispered to myself in complete and total shock.

  The flames were killing him, while he was trying to shift back to his human form. I stared, thinking that no one deserved this kind of pain, but I couldn’t reverse the spell. I didn’t know what to do.

  When I glanced at Dorothy, she’d just finished draining one of the other shifters. She looked grotesque, blood was spilling down her face, neck, and chest. She pulled away from one of the shifters and kicked him hard. He was barely conscious now, and the other one was staring at the wall. Damn, she was good, and I was still pretty amazed with my own strength. The smell of burnt flesh was making me nauseous. We had to get the hell out of here—this was our chance.

  The cheetah shifter was now in his human form, he’d stopped burning, but he wasn’t moving any longer.

  “It’s time, we need to get to the north fire escape exit. It’s the only place where I don’t sense them,” Dorothy said, stepping over the bodies. She wasn’t even wearing any shoes.

  “How did I do it? I mean, I’m half-vampire, not a mage or a warlock,” I asked myself, but she must have overheard me because she answered:

  “You’re definitely something more than just half-vampire, and you can kill with magic. I don’t think I’ve met any other vampire with that sort of skill,” she said, then grabbed my hand. “Let’s go, they’ll sense that something is wrong here soon enough.”

  She didn’t have to tell me twice, and for a moment, I felt like a novice who was being guided by a master.

  “No, let’s go to the first floor; the corridor up there was empty when I snuck in here last night,” I told her, pulling her towards the stairs.

  “Snuck in—what the hell do you mean? I thought you were caught?” she asked. Her eyes were bloodshot, this was strange. I’d never seen another vampire reacting from blood this way. Her skin was grey, almost sullen. The shifters had probably been charmed, too. Crap. She shouldn’t have drunk from any of them.

  “It’s a long and complicated story, but let’s get out of here. A lot of people are searching for you,” I told her, thinking about Ramona and Lachlan.

  This place was riddled with small corridors and even smaller rooms, but once we located the stairs, I was a bit less nervous.

  Ten minutes later, we reached an obscure long corridor. The lights were flashing there, and magic was still drifting around. It felt like I had bricks of nausea rolling around in my stomach all of a sudden. There were other creatures here with us. Even Dorothy must have sensed them, because her face had suddenly gone pale. Well, pale from grey. My mind kept whispering “demons,” but I refused to believe it.

  “We need to get out of here fast. I came in through one of the windows,” I said, turning around to see if Dorothy was keeping up with me. Blood rushed to my head, when a few seconds later, I realised she was nowhere to be seen. Then, after only a moment, she was behind me. What the hell?

  I found her by the stairs, looking like a ghost. She was throwing up, but it wasn’t blood. It was some sort of dark liquid, and then strange marks began appearing on her arms and legs. Fear punched a hole in my gut. We didn’t have much time, and I had to drag her out of here somehow; otherwise we were both as good as dead.

  “One of the shifters’ blood must have been poisoned. I can’t move,” she said, and then vomited even more oily black liquid all over my shoes. I didn’t have a weak stomach, but after everything I’d seen today, I felt sick, too.

  Somehow, after a few deep breaths, I regained control of myself, and the nausea passed. I grabbed her arm and wrapped it around my shoulder.

  “I’m not leaving you behind,” I said, struggling to carry her. She was barely conscious, and she couldn’t even walk. Several steps further when I checked her pulse, it was very weak. Split seconds later, I could hear several vampires approaching. They were going to invade this area within moments, and there was no way I could take on the ancients, even if I was fully healed.

  “Don’t be fucking stupid, at least save yourself. They won’t kill me, Leonidas is just going to be pissed that you got away,” she mumbled, sweating badly.

  She was infected with something, and she wasn’t going anywhere. I cursed loudly, trying to think of something—anything. Even if I could heal her, time was running out. I had to disappear and get back to headquarters without her.

  A few seconds later, I sped towards the light that was beaming through the small space between the window and the metal panel. After tearing away the protective cover, I dove through the window just before the vampires barged in. Their energy turned the last bits of food inside my stomach as I tore my hoodie on the sharp nails that were protruding from the window frame.

  I found myself on the same fire escape, but my legs refused to cooperate. One of the vampires roared, then I felt immense panic inside me. I decided to wait, wondering what was going to happen to Dorothy.

  “Get her back to the cage. If she dies, I am going to kill all of you.”

  It was the ancient who’d spoken, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. My breathing was shallow, and then the wind started blowing from the north. The sunlight blinded me as I changed my position, and then I must have pressed something, because a moment later, the stairs rolled all the way down. I held onto the barriers, but still crashed to the ground a few moments later.

  I crawled towards the bushes, hoping no one could see me from above. The ancient vampires were sensitive to the sun, more than regular breeds. They had to use special magic, so I didn’t expect them to go out se
arching for me now. It took me several long moments to pull myself together. The world was spinning again as memories from earlier on began resurfacing. I still couldn’t believe what I’d done to that shifter.

  There were some deep wounds on my left thigh, and I didn’t even know where they’d come from. I had to head back to headquarters. I kept wondering what happened to Ramona and Lachlan. They had something to do with this whole thing, and I needed to speak to Oldman urgently. Deep down, I was disappointed that everything had gone so badly. Dorothy was still with the vampires, and now they were probably going to relocate.

  It took me another hour to find my way out of the industrial part of the city. There was blood all over my clothes. I retraced my steps back in the daylight. Humans were staring. I’d bet I looked damn scary. I avoided most busy areas in case of the police—they wouldn’t hesitate to arrest me, considering the state I was in. Several minutes later, I caught a taxi, and with very broken Ukrainian, I explained where I needed to go. Thankfully, I still had some money on me from the previous evening. The taxi driver started shouting something when I handed him money as soon as he pulled up outside headquarters. He probably noticed the blood, but I didn’t have time to argue with him. He got his money, and I needed a hot shower.

  I knocked several times before Roxanna opened the door and let me inside.

  “What’s that racket?” a voice from the living room asked, and a split second later someone was embracing me. Small hands, strong perfume, and the smell of bubble gum. It could have only been Karina.

  “Dear lord, we were so worried about you. Are you all right?” She was asking, squeezing me so hard I could barely breathe.