Chapter 23
A Taste of Blood
P rofessor Silver smiles, glitter flecking her eyes. ‘Very good. You have passed the third Ordeal. Let us hope your partner also passes so you may progress to the fourth and final one.’ And before I can thank her, she turns away, gliding through the crowd, regal as a queen.
I down the rest of my toquay, divided over my victory.
Elation and foreboding war inside me at the truth I have heard now from two different mouths.
I place the empty toquay glass on a low table, turning for the door, and step out, past the entrance, into the hollow silence of the chamber beyond Keeper’s Hall.
I need to find Alden. He should be here by now, and if he’s stuck in the first part of the Ordeal, I have to rescue him and make sure he also passes.
It’s a game of information, of trading secrets and discerning the truth, and I have to tell him all I’ve gleaned.
But I find a woman barring my way.
A cold one.
My heart stutters in my chest. There’s a likeness I almost can’t pin down, yet I know, deep in my bones, in that feral, instinctive part of myself, that she is the same breed of monster that killed Dolly, and that Greg killed in the Morlagh.
Perhaps it’s the pale gleam of her skin, or the grey hue that marks her edges …
or just the sense of wrongness, of ethereal viciousness she wears like a dread shroud.
I stumble back as her grin stretches across her skull, eyes manic, gaze pinned to mine.
‘Hello, my dear …’ she purrs. ‘Your scent is … divine .’
Then she grips me by the throat and slams me into the wall.
My head cracks back and I claw at her fingers, the chamber tilting around me as my vision blurs.
I fight down panic as her grip tightens, those manic eyes pinned on mine.
I can’t reach the holders on my thighs with the stake or my switchblade, all I can do is try to breathe, try to stay alive.
She’s slender and small, shorter than me with bone-pale skin and watery blue eyes, lips bloodless as she licks them and sniffs.
She closes her eyes, as though in rapture, and I struggle in horror as she drags me down the wall, lowering my face to hers.
‘It is you,’ she breathes. ‘At last, I’ve found you.’
She opens her mouth, revealing perfect, glinting teeth—
And clamps her jaw around my throat.
I scream, thrashing against her grip as pain explodes in a vice around my neck.
I can barely move, trapped like an animal, whimpering as her teeth sink deeper into my skin.
I drag my fingernails through her hair, raking them back like claws, and every bit of training, every reflex, every strategy drummed into me sharpens to one singular thought:
I’m going to die.
My heels drum against the wall, the breath stolen from my lungs as a line of sticky warmth threads down my chest. The creature, the monster groans, as though in ecstasy, tilting my neck further in feral desperation.
A body barrels into her.
I slump to the floor, wheezing violently, heat rushing through me as I try to suck down a breath.
I bring a hand to my throat, feeling blood, my blood in a cloying, warm mess …
and when I drag my hand away, holding it, shaking before me, I find a smear of scarlet.
When I look up, the chamber doubling and swaying, I find Knox, pinning her to the ground, magic pulsing through him, bright, electric and dazzling in its intensity, illuminating his entire being as he draws a wooden blade laced with iron, and stabs.
The raw magic, his power floods that blade, and the creature shrieks, scrabbling for his eyes with hands that extend like claws, features bulging hideously, teeth, those vicious teeth, sharp and pointed, still ruby red from … from …
‘ Fuck …’ I cough, crawling towards them, reaching out to help him somehow, to hold her down.
But Knox’s magic has overwhelmed her, burning her heart at the point of the blade thrust inside her.
He rips it out in an arc of dark ruby and I freeze in mortal terror.
Blood sprays across my face, her blood, hot and sour, and I’m aware of others, of hopefuls and scholars crowding in the doorway of the hall … and the chamber descends into chaos.
Knox’s eyes meet mine across all that red, the corpse between us, prone and dying. His magic fades, the illumination dulling so he appears as he normally does. But I’ve seen it now, and I can’t unsee it. The terrifying power Knox Darley commands.
Suddenly Alden is next to me, sinking to his knees, gripping my face in his. All traces of the smouldering tilt of his gaze are wiped away, leaving only raw panic. ‘Are you all right? Sophia? Are you all right? ’
‘I …’ I wheeze again, closing my eyes as nausea claws at my insides. The blood, my blood, coating her teeth, how she fed on me, how she tried to … to … ‘The … that cold one—’
‘Knox got her,’ he promises, hands moving away as he pulls a handkerchief from his pocket, bracing it gently against my throat.
His arms come around me, shielding me from the gawping stares of the other hopefuls.
‘You’re safe. I don’t think she managed to take much from you. Knox tracked her in time.’
‘You don’t need to … help me …’
‘Shut up,’ he says fiercely. ‘Just for once, let me bloody help you. You’ve just been strangled and fucking bitten. I get a pass. Even if you weren’t my partner, I still get a damn pass .’
I laugh and wince, curling inwards as my throat begins to burn. ‘Is she … dead?’
‘As a doornail,’ Knox says and I open my eyes, searching for proof. The monster is decomposing, skin turning to dust, skeleton shrinking—
And yet she opens her eyes, those watery blue eyes and fixes them on me. ‘This isn’t over, my dear.’
Then she shrivels into nothing.
I blink, her final words ringing in my ears, and become aware of the chamber around us. Screaming. A bottleneck of people, rushing past us for the doors to the courtyard, splintered glass glittering everywhere and the blood … pooling around that vicious monster, on Knox, on me —
‘I’m going to—’ I manage before I turn to the side and heave. That smell, the blood, the feel of its teeth clamped around my throat, everything …
Cool hands brace my forehead as I retch, tears stinging my eyes.
I heave again then when the nausea finally subsides, sit back and find the chamber strangely quiet.
The string quartet in Keeper’s Hall has gone, the hopefuls and scholars scattered.
Leaving only me, Knox, Alden … and a pile of dust that was once the flesh and blood of the cold one.
I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, staring blearily at Alden and realise I’m shaking.
The rush of near death, the freezing winter air crawling over us from outside …
I can’t stop. ‘Did you pass the Ordeal?’ I croak.
He looks at me, then at Knox. ‘You’ve just been attacked by a vampire that wanted to kill you and drain you, and you want to know if I passed the Ordeal?’
‘They both passed,’ Professor Grant says, flanked by Professor Silver, Lewellyn and Hess. ‘You all passed and the Ordeal is over.’
Lewellyn’s fingers flutter to her mouth as she stares at me with unbridled fear. ‘Thank goodness. You’re alive.’
Then Hess puts an arm around her, and is about to lead her gently away, when Grant says, ‘Wait.’ Clearing her throat, she continues, ‘I hope I don’t need to explain how important it is that the truth of this incident remains between us.
The hopefuls believe it was merely part of the Ordeal.
A masquier, some enthusiastic theatrics … ’
Alden frowns down at me but nods slowly. ‘Of course, professor.’
‘Good. Because if a creature such as this were to destabilise the integrity of Killmarth again …’
Again?
‘It was part of the Ordeal,’ Knox says quietly. ‘We understand, professor.’
‘Excellent,’ she says, perfectly composed. ‘We cannot allow mass panic to destroy our efforts here. We must prevail.’
Alden takes me back to my room at Hope, Knox supplying bandages, which Alden carefully applies, using his magic to help me heal.
I just have enough energy left to make sure Tessa and Greg passed as well, that everyone is safe, before I lock my door and darkness claims me.
I sleep for the whole of the following day, only waking when the pounding at my bedroom door doesn’t stop.
It calls to me from the siren lull of slumber, ripping me awake and landing me very firmly in reality.
A cold bedroom, a slash of scarlet silk draped across the floor and my throat, aching and sore from where that vile monster gripped it and squeezed …
Before sinking its teeth into me.
‘Sophia, so help me if you don’t open up, I’ll break this door down.’
‘Coming,’ I croak, dragging my tired body from the warmth of my bed. ‘Stop banging.’
I unlock the door and Tessa instantly bustles in with Greg on her heels. She places her hands on either side of my face, concern marking her features as she turns my head left and right. ‘Already bruising. That’s a good sign.’
‘You—’
‘Don’t try and talk!’ she says, moving her fingers to my lips as concern gives way to worry.
‘You’ll damage your voice. Alden’s created a brew for you.
Grant and Caroline Ivey said we couldn’t risk taking you to medical and you being seen like this.
And yes, before you ask, Alden and Knox told me about the monster last night after I basically threatened to set werewolf Greg on them on the next full moon.
The only reason I didn’t break your door down last night was because he told me he’d bandaged you up. ’
‘She can be quite persuasive,’ Greg says with a shrug. ‘Apparently with fangs, I’m decently threatening. I swear Knox blanched.’
I laugh then grimace as the pressure on my throat feels like tiny stabbing needles.