Vampire Blood (Vampire Bite #2)

Chapter Five

Annika

I woke to the smell of blood.

It clung to the air, thick and sour, curling in my throat. My head throbbed, and my wrists burned where the ropes had cut into my skin. When I tried to move, metal clinked. I looked down and saw chains.

Panic flared inside of me.

Breathe, I thought. In. Out. Focus.

A few moments later, with a slightly calmer mind, I looked around.

The cell was small, barely big enough to stand in. Stone walls. Rusted bars. The floor was dirt, damp and cold beneath me. Dim light seeped in through cracks in the wood above, but it wasn’t enough to chase away the shadows.

I pulled at the chains, testing them. They glinted in the light.

“Silver,” I whispered.

Lucas’ skin would hiss at the contact. It probably wouldn’t be enough to burn, but enough to weaken, to keep him still.

I saw him in my mind, the way he looked when I screamed his name. I could see the rage in his eyes, the desperation. But he hadn’t reached me in time.

I swallowed hard and pushed the thought away. He would come for me. I knew that as surely as I knew my own name. But I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t just sit here and hope.

I forced myself to look around. The camp outside the cell was loud. There were voices shouting, metal scraping against stone. I heard snarls and growls, the sounds of shifters moving through the night. Somewhere farther off, there was laughter. Cruel and sharp.

I shifted, trying to see more through the bars.

The camp stretched beyond the cell. Fires were burning low, tents scattered between trees. Figures moved in and out of the shadows, but they weren’t all shifters. Some were human. And others—

Vampires.

The sight of them sent a chill down my spine. They moved differently, slower, like predators who knew they didn’t need to rush. Their eyes glinted red in the firelight. One of them passed close to the cell, and I froze, holding my breath until he was gone.

I didn’t know how long I sat there motionless. Minutes? Hours?

But then, the door opened. I shifted forward, straining to see.

The man who entered wasn’t a shifter. He wasn’t a vampire, either. He was something else entirely. Tall. Pale. His hair was black as night, and his eyes—cold, empty—lingered on me as he approached.

“Well,” he said, voice smooth as silk. “You’re awake.”

I didn’t answer.

He smiled, but there was nothing warm about it. “Good. That will make this easier.”

I leaned back, pressing my spine against the wall. “Who are you?”

His smile widened. “You don’t need to know that.”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

His eyes glinted. “You should be.”

He crouched, resting his hands on his knees, and studied me like I was something fragile. Something he could break.

“You’re important, Annika.” My name on his lips felt wrong. “More than you realize.”

I forced myself to hold his gaze. “I’m nothing to you.”

He tilted his head. “Oh, but you are.” His fingers brushed the bars, and I flinched before I could stop myself. His smile sharpened.

“We’ve waited a long time for you.”

My stomach twisted. “Why?”

“Because,” he said, “you’re the key.” Upon those words, he gestured at me. “This won’t be pleasant, but I’m afraid it is necessary, to make sure.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

That was when three shifters appeared, and one of them started to unlock my cell. I pushed my back against the nearest wall, shaking my head.

“No!” I shouted, although I knew that wouldn’t do much good.

Two of them held me down, while I was kicking and screaming. Shifters, half-turned, their claws were digging into my arms. The third one gripped my hair, forcing my head back against the cold stone wall.

I thrashed, but it was useless. The chains rattled, biting into my wrists and ankles, pinning me like an animal.

“Let me go!” I screamed, but they didn’t even look at me.

The pale man, the one with the empty eyes, stood just outside the bars, calm. Unbothered. He didn’t blink as I fought.

“Hold her still,” he said.

They didn’t need to. The chains did the job for them.

I felt the prick of the needle before I saw it. Cold metal pressed against my skin, just below my collarbone, and then it slid in, smooth and precise.

I froze. My body locked up, every nerve screaming to move, to run, to fight, but I couldn’t. My breath came fast, too fast, and my vision blurred.

“It doesn’t hurt.” The man’s voice was smooth, almost soothing. “Not yet.”

Not yet.

I felt the pull almost instantly, the strange, soft tug beneath my skin as the needle drew my blood.

And he was right. It didn’t hurt. But it was worse.

It felt wrong. Like something being stolen. Something vital. Something I would never get back.

“Stop,” I said again, but my voice broke this time. “Please.”

The man didn’t react.

The blood filled the vial, dark and thick. Then another and another. The shifters held me tighter when I jerked, but the needle didn’t move. The pale man just watched like it was all nothing.

“We need to be sure,” he said once the job seemed done.

I couldn’t move, although I tried. My fingers had the strength to twitch, useless against the cold stone floor, but the rest of me felt too heavy, too empty. They had taken too much.

I gritted my teeth and forced myself up, just enough to lean against the wall. My head spun, and black spots danced at the edges of my vision, but I didn’t let myself fall again.

Not yet.

The cell was silent now. The shifters were gone. So was he. The pale man with the hollow eyes. But his words still lingered, curling around me like smoke.

They needed to be sure that my blood was what they thought it was. That I was who they thought I was.

I looked down at my arms. The veins beneath my skin felt too close. They were visible, even in the dim light. I pressed my wrists together, like I could hide the evidence, like I could force the truth away. But I couldn’t, because it was true. It had to be.

Why else would they have taken me? Why else would they drain me until my vision blurred and my body shook? They didn’t even need all of it. They needed just enough to test.

I swallowed hard, but my throat was dry. It scraped like sandpaper.

And what if they were right? What if my blood really could wake him?

Aurelius.

The monster buried in shadow, bound by magic so old even the vampires feared it. A shudder ran through me, and I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t think about that. Not now. Then, it all went dark.

I had no idea how long I was out. Minutes, hours or days, they all blurred in the dark and the cold seemed to seep into my very bones.

At that moment, I heard it. A sound that brought me back from my nightmare to another nightmare, even worse. A soft scrape, the sound of metal against metal.

I jerked awake, my pulse spiking as the sound came again. I pushed myself up, vision swimming, and blinked toward the source. A figure loomed just outside the cell, half-hidden in shadows. It was hooded, silent.

A shifter.

The thought shot through me like ice. My pulse hammered, but I didn’t look away, didn’t even flinch at the sight of him.

“What do you want?”

The figure crouched, slipping something through the bars. It was a small bundle of bread and water.

I glared at it like it might lunge at me. “You think I’m stupid?” My voice cracked, but I didn’t care. “I’m not eating that.”

The figure stilled, then leaned closer. “It’s not poisoned.”

The voice… there was something about it.

The hood shifted, and the figure looked back, scanning the camp. He was making sure we were alone. I tensed, ready for anything. Then, slowly, he reached up and pushed it back.

I gasped.

“Kael?”

He pressed a finger to his lips. “Keep your voice down.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. “What—how—”

“Later.” He pulled the hood back up, shadowing his face again. “We don’t have time for this.”

I stared at him, my mind racing. “You’re with them?” My voice dropped to a whisper, boiling with disbelief.

“I’m inside their ranks,” he said. “Just like I told Lucas I would be.”

I shook my head. “How? How did they—”

“They don’t know who I am.” His eyes burned beneath the hood, steady and sharp. “They think I’m one of them. For now, that’s enough.”

For now.

The words settled heavy in my chest. I wanted to trust him. I… needed to. But, how could I?

I swallowed heavily. “Why are you here?”

“To help you.”

It felt like a lie, but what if it wasn’t?

He shifted closer, dropping his voice. “I’ll get you out of here, but I need time. They’re watching you too closely. I have to be careful.”

“Time?” My voice wavered. “I don’t have time.”

His eyes softened, just for a second. “You do. The awakening can only happen when the moon and the stars align just right. We have weeks before then.”

I wanted to believe him. But the chains around my wrists said otherwise.

I leaned in, desperate. “Where’s Lucas? Does he know I’m here?”

Kael hesitated.

My stomach sank. “Kael.”

“He doesn’t know yet,” he said quickly. “But he will. I’ll get word to him. He’s guarding the town. Keeping it safe.”

My heart twisted. Of course he was. Always the protector.

Kael reached through the bars, his hand brushing mine. “He’ll come for you, Annika. I’ll make sure of it. You just—”

The sound of footsteps interrupted him. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and my heart lurched in my chest.

He looked behind him, then vanished before I could say anything. I didn’t even have the time to process it. The only proof of his existence was the food he had brought. If it weren’t for that, I would have suspected it was all just a dream.

I was so hungry. I hadn’t realized how much until I saw it, the bread soft and warm, the water cool, sitting there in front of me like a cruel reminder of everything I’d lost.

I hesitated, glancing back toward the shadows, waiting for the footsteps to draw closer. My body, weak and trembling, seemed to fight against my mind.

My stomach growled, louder than the footsteps. I winced, clutching my side.

God, I was so hungry.

I reached for the bread, fingers trembling. The moment it touched my lips, I didn’t care anymore. I tore into it like it was my only salvation, inhaling it as if I hadn’t eaten in days, maybe weeks. My body devoured it in seconds, the taste foreign but grounding.

The water followed, cool and soothing as it slid down my parched throat. I drank like I was dying of thirst, gasping for each breath between gulps.

It wasn’t poisoned.

But it wasn’t a kindness either.

I knew that. Kael had given me the food for a reason. He’d meant for me to be able to think clearly, to survive long enough to get out of here.

He’d said he would help me.

I had to believe him.

But even as I tried to steady myself, I knew one thing with brutal certainty: I couldn’t wait forever.

If I was going to get out of here, it would be because I did something about it.

Because Lucas would come. And because now, we had to trust a stranger.