The Blood Rite

Chapter Nine

If he noticed their reaction, he didn't show it, for he moved back to his spot before the desk and sat on it, watching them. There was no softness to him, he was all hard edges. Ruby couldn't deny that he was handsome, more so than she had expected. And the streaks of his hair intrigued her. Was it dyed or caused by an accident?

His voice, deep and rough, cut through her line of thought like a silver blade. "You are in transition to be vampires now, saved from the brink of death and offered a second chance at life. You will be stronger, faster, and stealthier than you were before. Dangerous. Under my tutelage and with my guidance you will become the most feared girls alive. But you will also learn control, restraint. I will not tolerate unnecessary deaths nor will I tolerate my orders ignored."

Halle's face had gone white with every word he spoke and now, with a shaking hand, she felt inside her mouth.

"You do not have your fangs yet because you have not fed. If you do not drink blood within the hour, you will die. If you do then," his lips lifted in a jarring smile, "welcome home."

Home. The word was resounding in Ruby's gut. Home was a place of white walls and sunshine. It was her grandma's white hair, her grandpa's gentle smile. It was Talon's warm arms around her and Mary's muttered prayers.

It wasn't this place. This darkness. It wasn't this man before her radiating power and cruelty. It wasn't being dragged through halls and treated as trash, or calling someone 'sire'. No. This wasn't her home and she'd make sure she returned to her real one.

For now though, she was stuck with a cold burrowed deep inside of her and a burning in her chest, her throat, that had come on the moment he'd said blood.

"What if I don't want to drink blood?" Ruby asked. Her voice came out stronger than she felt.

His eyes slid to her and she felt as if they were pulling her apart, striping her bare to see all the things she wasn't saying. She didn't like it. She already felt out of sorts and her strength was draining from the energy it took just to keep her thoughts at bay.

"Then you will die. It isn't my place to stop you. But don't forget, you are the one who chose this."

"I didn't have a choice," Halle said quickly, as if she couldn't quite catch her breath.

"Yes," He said flatly, "and I am about to handle that."

Ruby and Halle shared a look, the latter's eyes wide with fear. Ruby fiddled with the bracelet around her wrist. An intricate twine of yellow and green yarn that Lexi and she had made. The one she wore was of Lexi's favorite colors, woven by her own slender hands. While on Lexi's wrist was one of the exact same pattern in red and black. A way to remember each other by.

Now though, Ruby realized with a pang, Lexi would be buried with it while Ruby lived. Forced to stare at the bracelet and imagine Lexi's ghostly fingers weaving it together.

With a jolt, Ruby jerked her hand from the bracelet. Her eyes were burning and the pain in her throat was nothing to the ice cold blade that sat in her heart. That blade had landed there the moment her Maker had revealed that everyone, all of her friends, were dead and it only continued to twist and drive deeper into her.

Breathing deeply, she forced herself to focus. Focus focus focus. Or else her mind would wander again and she was sure that if it did, she wouldn't be able to hold it together.

He stood and waved a dismissive hand at them, "Leave. Guards will lead you to the feeding room and it will be your choice to turn."

He was already turning away, striding towards two heavy red curtains that led to somewhere Ruby couldn't see.