The Blood Rite

Chapter Nineteen

The rest of the time Ruby spent in his office was filled with schedule arrangements and her exploring aimlessly as he and the others talked just out of earshot. Then Sonya was leading her out of the office and down familiar hallways. Except, she wasn't leading Ruby back to her room nor to the ballroom where the Rite had been held. Unsure and drained, Ruby held her tongue.

Soon they reached a short pair of brown wood double doors in a dimly lit hallway. Painted roses crowded onto white wallpaper and a single chandelier hung not too far before the doors they stood in front of. There were other doors similar to these down further in the hall, but this one stood alone, solitary, and Ruby knew exactly what was behind each one. So when Sonya opened the doors, it was no shock to see a luxurious suite.

Ruby's breath caught. These are the Suites reserved for vampires with a power.

She was one of those vampires now, and one of the most powerful. But this couldn't be her room.

As if hearing her thoughts, Sonya turned to her and with a bright smile announced, "Welcome to your new room."

Ruby's mouth dropped. She took in the room, seeing it from a new light now that she wasn't just a visitor. The queen size bed with a red brocade duvet and a black lace canopy. A vanity, a seating area furnished in red and polished oak, a television, a master bath, and a walk-in closet.

A sound between a giggle and a hiccup escaped her and she quickly unlaced her boots and sunk her feet into the carpet. Then with a running start, Ruby leapt onto the bed with a gasp. The mattress hugged her, the duvet as smooth as silk. And maybe it was silk. She wouldn't know.

"Well," Sonya said with a laugh, "I'll have the maids bring up your stuff."

She would have nodded and fallen asleep right then and there but she shot up right, "Wait!" Sonya turned back from where she'd been facing the doorway, brows raised, "What about Halle?"

"What about Halle?"

"Does she have power too? Will she be staying in one of these rooms?"

Sonya shrugged her shoulders, "I have no idea. But," she added at Ruby's fallen expression, "I can find out and let you know."

"Please."

The vampire bobbed her chin and with that, she left and Ruby collapsed back onto her new bed. She'd never had one so comfortable or that smelled of the flowers brocaded onto it. She stared up through the canopy and in the silence, her smile faded and the chasm, along with her pain, became abundantly clear.

Ruby stood from the bed and padded across the room, running her fingers along the red wallpaper. The carpet was soft and white beneath her feet. She fiddled with the tv remote, explored her massive closet, laid down in her tub which was big enough to fit probably three of her.

She did whatever she could to distract herself but ultimately, she ended up sliding to the floor and staring blankly across the room. The sounds of the car crash rang in her head. Her chest hurt as if the metal from the car had left a piece of itself inside of her, twisting deeper into her organs the more she tried to forget what happened.

There was no way to escape it. Ruby saw their bodies, their blood. She heard their screams and the horrorfying twisting of the car. What kind of people could do that? Were they vampires too or something else entirely?

Her nose stung and soon tears were streaming down her face. She thanked everything in the world, every religon, every grain of sand, that she hadn't seen Talon's dead body. That image she never would have recovered from.

Who was she kidding herself? She will never recover from the things she already saw and the mere fact that Talon was dead would forever keep digging deeper and deeper into her until it reached the chasm of her soul and sucked her down into her own darkness.