The Blood Rite

Chapter Fifteen

They jumped immediately into their questions.

"What happens if we never feed?", "Do vampires have to live here?", "Why do we drink from bottles instead of people?", "What happened to the vampire that turned me?"

Ruby fell silent at Halle's last question, her heart breaking for the girl.

Orpheus huffed out a laugh. "I'm assuming that isn't even half of your questions?"

"No," Ruby said. She vaguely remembered where they were as they walked with him. Passing a window, she gazed out towards the sunset, silhouetting the trees and coloring the sky in rich oranges, pinks, and purples. But the sun itself was bright red as it descended.

"I guess I should start answering them now before it gets too late," he said, a smirk on his lips. "If you never feed, your body will desiccate. It is the worst kind of torture a vampire could be put through. No, vampires don't have to live here. But we recommend it for the newly turned. We drink from bottles rather than people because we don't want to risk any deaths on our hands.

"As for the last one," he said, looking directly at Halle. His expression grew hard. "he was severely punished. That is all I will say but know that justice was served."

Halle nodded, fighting to keep her expression neutral.

Ruby cleared her throat and drew his weighty attention to her, "Why do all of the vampires treat you like royalty?"

He grinned, revealing a startling handsome smile. "I'm not royalty. But I've worked hard to earn all of their respect."

"How?"

Halle's eyes lifted from her nails at this. He took a deep breath, his gaze drawing off into the distance as he began, "Let's just say, there has been a very powerful enemy determined to kill off our kind. The past leader refused to create any sort of army or protection. He was lazy. Because of this, the death rates of our kind were sky rocketing and if it continued that way, our kind would go extinct.

"So, I challenged him to a duel. If there was one quality of his I could count on, it was his pride. The night came, we fought, and I came out the victor."

"A duel?" Ruby breathed. When the both of them looked at her, she realized her mouth was hanging open and quickly snapped it shut.

Halle shook her head, "How long ago was this?"

"Many, many decades ago," he said simply. As if it was normal. Then again, to him it was.

"So," Ruby started, mind spinning, "you became the new leader because of the duel?"

"Yes. It wasn't easy. There were many vampires who were too scared to do anything and tried to oppose me. But in the end, I won. That's when programs for vampires to train their powers began."

Ruby was awed into silence.

He went on, explaining how over the years they'd developed lines of defense to keep the enemy at bay. But Ruby couldn't keep her mind off of one thing.

"Are we immortal?" She blurted.

He appeared shocked by her outburst but only said, "Yes and no."

Boisterous laughter and conversation reached Ruby's ears long before they reached the ballroom, distracting her from his cryptic answer. She wasn't sure that was because of her vampire hearing. The sight she beheld at the doors revealed just how many new vampires there were. Almost every space on the benches was taken.

She hadn't realized that they'd been walking for over an hour nor that Orpheus had looped them back to where they'd started. Her head was still spinning with questions but she knew she'd need to stuff them away for later.