Half Blood Rising

I must have passed out for a good few minutes, because when I came around, I was lying on a large table, seeing gleaming yellow eyes that definitely didn’t belong to someone who’d come to my rescue. My entire body was stiff, and dull pain was spreading everywhere. Even my throat felt like I’d swallowed razorblades, but it was probably from dehydration. I sensed magic slowly drifting around me.

“Fae are common, silly creatures who think they are better than us. I don’t want to touch that unworthy piece of scum.” A male voice reached me, but whoever was speaking was mumbling, so I could barely understand him. On top of everything, he had a strange accent.

Memories floated inside my mind as I sat up, and the warlock appeared in front of me, then I realised that the scary eyes I’d seen belonged to him.

“What the—”

I couldn’t even finish my question, because then I realised he had fangs. I was wrong… I’d been so wrong—he wasn’t a warlock at all, but another vampire. He lunged for me before I could even anticipate what he was trying to do, sinking his disgusting fangs into my neck.

It was all too much, the agonising pain paralysed me, and as he started drinking my blood, I became lost. Nothing else mattered; my limbs went numb instantly, as I drifted into a state of oblivion. I’d been weakened earlier, and now I had no strength left within me to fight him.

At least the craving for blood was slowly fading, but then I heard a whisper. I didn’t want to listen when it told me I couldn’t just give up. This vampire was draining my inner essence.

I didn’t want to listen to the annoying voice inside my head. I just needed that vampire to keep drinking from me, to take all my energy so I didn’t have to worry about anything else. Then the whisper became louder and louder, and I realised I had to keep fighting, that I couldn’t just give up.

An image of Ramona and Lachlan rolled through my mind. They seemed happy and I didn’t care anymore. Sometime later, I roared out in anger and kicked my oppressor between his legs, not even knowing where this added strength had come from. Everything was slowly coming back to me. He instantly pulled away, screaming and cursing.

Straight after, he struck me in the face, throwing a knock-out punch. I was done after that—done and dusted.

* * *

As I awoke the second time, I was immersed in darkness, in even more pain, and inside something that resembled a cage. My head was banging, and there was dried blood all over my neck. The wound was fresh. It stung, and I should have healed by now, so that meant I was still charmed.

“How long have I been gone?” A strong female voice startled me from out of nowhere.

I struggled but managed to pick myself up off the dirty floor. The vampires used some sort of old charm to break me down, and then one of them fed on me. I could hardly move, everything hurt.

a vampire, and why he’d drunk my blood. My inner energy rose slowly, but something seemed to be blocking it. Who I’d thought was a warlock, (now a vampire like I’d never seen before), had spellbound me

and then to my right, I saw a flickering light. The vampires must

to remember all the events of the previous evening. That ancient vampire had hypnotised me. Even he’d insinuated I was half-vampire

now,” I

to take longer than I’d anticipated to feel more like myself. The ancient

energy was still powerful and rich.

getting out of here soon enough. The ancient vamps want me instead of you,” I told her, finally catching up

become someone’s experiment, an experiment that was meant

several fresh-looking scars sweeping down the side of her cheeks. Well, she’d probably lied about not being harmed. The ancient dude

leverage over my father,” she said, sounding angry. “You need to get out of here, you must be valuable to them, too. If you escape, then you can

about the fact she would be leaving this place in one piece. No one apart from the ancient vampires cared about some rogue girl who might have been created illegally. Dorothy was much more important, and I still wanted to get her out of here

mages, and how they were upset about the admission selection into the Elite,” I said, trying to figure out if her kidnapping had something to do with the meeting in the basement of the pub. “They wanted to help someone get

like she was prepared to bend them with her magic. There was no way I was leaving here without her. I couldn’t tell her I was part of the team from

I asked, knowing that, soon enough, my strength would return. The vampires had confiscated my knife, but I didn’t need it. Being close to her kind of helped. She was strengthening

make

made sense, but I wasn’t sure what the ancients were planning to do with either of us. There was also Ramona. I had a feeling she’d been working for the enemy this entire time. At the same time, I couldn’t comprehend how she’d managed to fool Oldman, too. The principal was smart, and she trusted

to get Dorothy out of here and bring her safely to headquarters. No one would

wanted to presume it was still night-time outside. It would be difficult to

* * *

to speak to Leonidas,” Dorothy said when one of the shifters showed up several

healing, but the process was taking longer than I’d expected. The ancient spell was still blocking all my

that the vampires weren’t using warlocks to do their dirty work for them.

something that resembled a meal. It was too dark to see, but I needed my strength, so I ate it. The food wasn’t too bad. Time was dragging by, and I wanted to know what was going on. Five minutes later, we were finally