The Blood Rite

Chapter Forty Three

All Ruby knew when she woke was the pain at her side and the rough wood her head bounced against with each bump in the road. Four of the hunters sat around her and from what she could tell, they were riding in some old fashion wooden prison cart. Probably for invisibility as they rode through trails in the woods. They had bound her hands and feet with rope, a gag tied tight around her mouth plus cloth to, assumably, prevent her from biting anyone.

She turned her head, and a groan escaped her. Halle lay beside her, already awake. From the way the girl was staring at her, it was obvious she'd been waiting for Ruby to wake. Halle was breathing hard. Her eyes were glazed with pain, and her skin held an unnatural pallor. Ruby's eyes trailed over her friend and found the wound still open. It hadn't healed completely and Ruby's hadn't either. What had been on those stakes?

One of the hunters stepped non-too carefully over the vampires to sit beside a boy with heavy black waves and warm skin. "What do we do with them?" Whispered the first hunter who was the other's exact opposite, with white skin and pale gold hair.

"Kill them," the other said roughly. "What else?"

"Brock, you know Rufus doesn't just want them dead."

Brock's jaw hardened, "That's his business isn't it?"

"Brock-"

"Would you stop using our names in front of them?" He snapped, basically spitting the last word out at Ruby. The golden boy's lips clamped tightly shut.

Ruby's mind spun, still foggy from whatever poison had been on the stake. Vampire hunters weren't planning on killing them? Did they not know what Ruby was capable of or that they'd now marked themselves as a high priority target for Orpheus?

And for the Shadows, a voice reminded her. She shuddered. Ruby didn't want them anywhere near her, even if it meant being in the hands of those whos job was to kill her. But if they weren't going to kill them, then would what they did be worse than the Shadows?

She thought of Mary, her ma for all intents and purposes, clutching her cross necklace with one palm held high in church. Yes, she'd rather endure whatever the hunters planned than be damned for an enternity to hell. Somehow, the fact that she could still save her soul even after becoming what she was, soothed her.

The hunters whispered amongst themselves. None paid any attention to the vampires, as if they were just decrative rugs rather than bound and gagged beings. So they didn't notice when Halle and Ruby scooted close enough for their bound hands to touch.

Ruby's fingers tugged at Halle's binds as her eyes bounced from hunter to hunter. She prayed they wouldn't see what she was doing. Surely, they didn't believe their poison would keep them down forever. If they were experts they had to know that vampires healed quickly.

Still, none paid them any mind so they missed the soft thud of Halle's rope hitting the floor. Halle worked on Ruby's next. It wasn't until Ruby's were off that Brock's dark eyes met hers. But, by then it was too late.

"Hey!" He growled. He lunged for her.

Ruby's fangs might still be constricted but her claws were free. She sunk them into his cheeks and as he tried to pull away, she shoved him hard back into the other hunters who were just beginning to stand.

Halle lunged for one of the hunters, her ankles still bound. She wrestled the girl to the floor and dug her own nails in. Then, as the other hunters got to their feet, Halle whipped around, "Ruby!" She cried through her gags, and threw something black at her.

It was a small blade. Ruby snatched it from the air and sliced through her ankles and the gag cloth combo on her face. She was on her feet just as the hunters converged on her. She didn't know how to weild a knife or her fangs, but decided now was as good a time as ever to figure it out.