#Chapter 5: Appetizers

Olivia’s POV

As the Blood Feast was set to begin, a large doorway was opened at the far end of the room, and all of the tributes were ushered inside.

If I had thought the last room was large, this one was three times its size, with a high, vaulted ceiling. The room was filled with tables and chairs, the vampires sitting there. Further ahead, at the other end of the Great Hall, some vampires were sitting in front of long tables up on a lifted platform.

There was one vampire sitting alone off to the side.

“Line up,” Sophia ordered. “You are all appetizers tonight. Let the vampires get a good look at you.”

As we entered the room, I stood back a ways, allowing the other girls to be nearer the front, more likely to be chosen first.

This had been part of the plan that Lucy and I had quickly agreed upon before being led into this room. Lucy was going to find a way to create a diversion so that I could sneak out of a back door.

I stood ready to run and to sneak. I just needed Lucy to do her part and create that diversion.

Instead, as she stood next to Sophia, she was smirking as she looked at me.

I had a very bad feeling churning in my stomach. She looked malicious, like I was about to be the butt of a very unfunny joke.

Still looking at me, Lucy leaned toward Lucy and whispered something to her. I couldn’t hear what she had said, but as someone who had never manifested a wolf, I knew the shape of people’s mouths when they whispered around me, Wolfless.

I was right to have a bad feeling. This was a full-blown betrayal.

Sophia’s gaze snapped to Lucy. “Are you certain?” she snapped, her voice so sharp and shrill that I could hear it even with the rumble of the crowd.

“A wolfless,” Lucy said louder, likely wanting me to hear. “She won’t survive the night. Should probably just drain her first.”

Sophia turned her gaze on the group of us. Her cold red eyes looked over us all. “Which one?”

Sophia pointed right at me. “Her.”

At once, the girls around me stepped to the side, revealing my hiding spot behind them.

Sophia took a step toward me.

Hoping to defend myself, or to at least turn attention away from me, I gestured toward Lucy. “She stole my number. I’m supposed to be number 12.”

“That’s a lie!” Lucy snapped.

Sophia raised her hand. Both Lucy and I fell silent.

“The Vampire Duke would not request a wolfless,” Sophia said with certainty. “You are a defect. The lowest of your already pathetic kind. You insult the Vampire Duke by even insinuating he could want you.” She looked me up and down with a sneer. “You aren’t even worthy of being given to a single vampire.”

Sophia raised her hand, motioning to a group of vampires sitting at a long table near the door. They weren’t dressed as well as the other vampires present, and with their sallow, sunken cheeks, they seemed much hungrier.

At Sophia’s gesture, four of the dozen immediately stood and came closer.

“The lower class vampires are not gifted tributes often, so they are not kind to their meals,” Sophia said. “They will share you, and then throw your bones from the castle walls.”

“No!” I gasped. I turned at once, eager to dash back the way we had come, but the doors had been locked shut behind us. I grabbed at the massive ring handles, and tried to pull, but the door wouldn’t budge.

I only had time for one attempt before four pairs of rough hands grabbed me by my arms and legs. At once, my vampire captors lifted me up into the air and then hauled me back toward their table near the door.

“Let me go!” I shouted and squirmed, but their hands were everywhere, and their grips tight. Escape was futile, but I still tried.

Panic rose up in my heart. It couldn’t end like this!

Would I never see my mother or sister again? Would I never learn what it felt like to actually kiss Jacob, instead of just dreaming about it?

When we reached the table, I was slammed down onto my back on top of it. The force knocked the air from my lungs.

My arms and legs were stretched out. My shirts were lifted up my thighs, exposing my veins.

The wound in my arm still hadn’t closed, and the hungry vampires there tore away the makeshift bandage I had attached.

For the length of one breath, they all looked at me hungrily, their mouths slightly opened, their teeth exposed.

One grabbed my already wounded arm, and with a knife, tore the wound even bigger. I cried out in fresh pain as my blood gushed from the wound.

My vision was already darkening, the blood loss severe.  At least I knew the end would come quickly.

I’m sorry Mom, Kira, Jacob…

Still, in my worst moment, even knowing I was going to die, I was glad that I had taken my sister’s place and she would never know this torture.

The vampire holding my arm dropped the knife, then leaned forward, teeth first.

Suddenly, he stopped. Everyone did.

I hadn’t heard anyone say anything, yet all the vampires had known instinctively to freeze.

I didn’t know why… until I heard the sound of steady footsteps approaching. They were coming from the direction of the stage. I turned my head, watching blearily as a figure dressed in all black approached.

The vampires at my table all stood then, facing the stranger, and saluted.

Nearby, Sophia pushed Lucy forward.

“Vampire Duke Damien,” Sophia said. “This is the tribute you asked for.”

Everything was fuzzy. I couldn’t really see Damien’s face through the fog now clouding my vision. But with the turn of his head, I could tell Damien had considered Sophia.

Then he said, “Not her.”

He started walking then, inspecting the line of tributes. When he reached the end of the line, he spotted me on the table and came closer. The vampires around me scattered out of the way. The one who had been holding me immediately let me go.

I couldn’t move, not even to lift my head. I simply laid there as the most aged and deadly vampire in existence approached me.

Reaching toward me, he hooked a finger under my collar and dragged me upright. I couldn’t sit up on my own. If he released me, I would instantly fall back to the ground.

I tried to focus, desperately wanting to know the face of the man I could credit with my death. But the fog was too great, and in the end, all I could see was a pair of blood red eyes as the world fully faded to black.

Relief flooded me as I was losing consciousness. I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. Instead, I felt like I was floating. Soon, perhaps, I would float away from the mortal world and find warmth in the embrace of the Moon Goddess.

The world of vampires was far too cold.

Yet, just before I fully fell into nothingness, I heard a voice. It was indifferent but loud, and rang in my ears.

“Who allowed you to hurt my pet?”