Chapter 5

Olivia’s POV

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 drain 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 a pair of rough hands grabbed me by my arms. Escape was futile, but I still tried.

Lifting my foot, I slammed my heel down hard into the shin of my captor. He cried out and released me, and I made another mad dash, this time toward an opening that servants seemed to be coming in and out of.

Too soon, another pair of hands grabbed me. This time the hands belonged to Sophia herself. She spun me around to face her and her eyes flashed dangerously. Her fangs descended like she might bite me.

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?

Still, I couldn’t regret what I had done, I was glad that I had taken my sister’s place and she would never know this fear.

“Runaway blood pets are to be executed on capture,” Sophia said coldly. “Now you will die.”

Sophia dragged me forward, before tossing me toward a nearby lowly vampire, the one who had grabbed me first, who didn’t seem pleased about me kicking him.

He shoved me down to the ground, as another vampire came closer holding a whip.

With a loud crack, the whip snapped across my back, drawing blood. I cried out in pain.

All of the vampires around us, who had been ignoring us up until this point, turned to look, as if attracted to the scent of my fresh blood. The other lowly vampires were the closest.

I’m sorry Mom, Kira, Jacob…

The vampire with the whip drew it back again.

Suddenly, he stopped. Everyone did.

I hadn’t heard anyone say anything, yet all the vampires had instinctively known 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 around me faced the stranger and lowered their heads in reverence.

Nearby, Sophia pushed Lucy forward.

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

My fear spiked, even though I was powerless to do anything but bleed all over the floor. Unable to lift my head very far, I looked up through my eyelashes, trying to see him.

I wanted to know how he looked, this ageless vampire that had started and ended wars.

In my mind, I had an idea of him as an ugly twisted thing, as evil on the outside as he must have been on the inside.

Oddly, his posture didn’t reflect my gnarled imaginings. Instead, he seemed tall with broad shoulders. His rigid straight posture spoke of unwavering confidence.

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 ground and came closer. The vampires around me scattered out of the way.

I couldn’t move, not even to acknowledge him. I simply kneeled there, slumped forward 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 stand 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?”