DARK ORIGINS (Scarlett of the wolves, Book 4)

12.

At that moment, another Scarlett had just been born. One ready to kill in cold blood to save those she loved. I never thought I could imagine so many possibilities for doing harm. A billion murderous ideas were invading my brain, such as grabbing that chain on the wall, wrapped around a piton, and whipping, crushing the bones of the executioners who were breaking Rucker. I wanted to hear them roar in pain, spit, moan, continue until they couldn’t get up and died of suffocation in their own blood. But what was even more confusing was that I didn’t feel the slightest remorse at thinking of such things. They were part of me, who I had become. I had changed so much.

Pitt turned to us and, with his index finger, told us to be quiet.

He made an invisible movement of several meters, a second, then waved us forward. Before moving, I quickly inspected the corridor absorbed in almost complete darkness. It was lit only by a single torch hanging on the far wall, reflecting a faint glow. The atmosphere, rancid, humid, and oppressive, increased the unwholesome feeling of abandonment of the place. It was of course only an illusion; the lower levels were surely in worse condition than this one. The mold stuck to the stones seemed just as old as the castle, and the ground, slippery and covered in grime, would force us to move with precision and care. One fall, only one, and someone might hear us.

It took a few moments for me to get used to it. No air, no light… This place was more inhospitable than a tomb. How long could the prisoners locked up here live there without losing their minds? And that stench… It took hold of our nostrils, our throat, our lungs, accentuating the feeling of suffocation.  

The corridor was wide and pierced with cells of different sizes, which allowed us to move forward without jostling each other. The low, vaulted ceiling forced Simon, the tallest of us, to bow his back. This didn’t prevent him from moving with the ease and speed specific to those of his species. Not a sound filtered through, not even the friction of the fabric between his thighs.

Moving in absolutely perfect silence made the situation even more agonizing. Where the voice of another would perhaps have reassured us, appeased us, we had to be satisfied, as the only sound exchanged were our short, erratic, and vibrating breaths of panic.

We rushed into a cell when a second howl sounded. More intense and horrifying than the previous one. It led Rufus to put his hand over Gwen’s mouth so that she wouldn’t roar in rage. She was shaking like a leaf, was stretched like a bow, and looked like she was about to break everything. I was certainly more composed, although I wasn’t in better condition. My anger, my fear, my eagerness to save their lives… everything was inside, bubbling like the worst poison in a cauldron. This calm which I tried to keep, I owed it to Elgin’s teaching.

I gathered my spirits and discreetly tilted my head to check out Pitt’s position and progress. We were a little slow. With a nudge of my head, I told them to step forward and was the first to jump to catch up with Pitt who had just slipped behind a large stone pillar.

There was no one on this level, not a sound. Everything took place in the lower level from which arose laughter, applause, and sentences in Romanian. They made fun of him, of Rucker, they played with him...

My heart grew blacker than the darkness. There was a short silence, then another cry from Rucker. I suppressed a moan, biting my lip and continued walking toward the stairwell where Pitt had just stepped into.

Laughter began to ring out again, as the scent of blood permeated the air.

With the flat of his hand, Simon motioned for us to wait. He was going to scout down the steps. We nodded and watched him move forward. He climbed back up almost immediately. We could follow him. Alas, we had barely taken a few steps when a noise echoed behind us. We had visitors. Alerted by our scent, the Strigoi hastened to find us, too quickly for us to have a chance to hide.

Simon and Rufus wasted no time and stood behind us, pretending to hold us. Then they braved the hostile gaze of the newcomer.

He was very short, no more than five feet, and relatively stout. But it was better not to trust his size, it was in no way proportional to his strength because, like his fellows, he must be of extraordinary power. Dark-haired, dark-skinned, and red eyes bloodshot with thirst, the way he looked at us gave me cold sweats.

“Red pittance,” Rufus said with a heavy English accent.

The vampire raised an eyebrow. He looked surprised. So, Gwen, who until then hadn’t taken an ounce of initiative as fear gripped her, reacted much faster than I would have dared to do. She began to giggle, uttering little shrill cries, giving the illusion of being intimidated, while discreetly stroking her neck with a delicate hand. The expected effect was a total success. The vampire gave her a gluttonous look. Galvanized by Gwen’s courage, I imitated her and tried a pleasant smile. After all, we were supposed to be fully consenting, especially since I had often heard it said that blood donors enjoy feeding vampires.

“Romanians?” he asked in English. 

“No. English. They made the trip especially for you.”

And that i***t believed it. Proud, he showed his satisfaction with a carnivorous smile.

“Her!” he said pointing his finger at me. 

The Strigoi laughed and walked over to take my hand. He turned it over firmly and brought my wrist just under his nose to smell it. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, opened them again, and nodded. Even though my blood wasn’t human anymore, the power of the amulet made it as common as any woman. It was unclear whether this was the case for a dark angel.

“Her for me. Others, follow!” 

Abruptly, he dragged me up the stairs with him, forcing Rufus to let go of me.

Out of the corner of my eye, passing a recess in the wall, I saw Pitt hiding there. The guard didn’t notice him, his scent mingling with that of Rufus and Simon. The look we exchanged seemed to consolidate in a silent agreement: I had to let myself be used, no matter what. And I was ready. 

The further we went, the more intensified the bloody scent of Rucker. But I still didn’t perceive Elgin. The vampire bellowed something in Romanian and pushed open a metal gate leading into a cell lit by a few candlesticks. Several Strigoi were waiting. We all entered.

“Hrana!” [Food.] 

He threw me into the middle of the room as the other five stared hungry eyes at me. One of them, taller, blonder than his fellows and with strangely clear irises, slowly approached to turn me around.

I couldn’t see them anymore, but I could feel the hatred of my friends crackling through my veins, because they couldn’t intervene, they couldn’t help me. They were going to have to watch this without saying a word, and maybe even fight inside to not want my blood, too. This almost human blood some of them had been deprived of for centuries.

The blond vampire stopped behind me, parted my ponytail and buried his head in my neck. I held back a shiver. Then, in the height of dread, I felt his cold tongue run through my skin from my earlobe to my shoulder and reproduce the movement in the other direction. I had to force myself not to close my eyelids and show how mortified, disgusted, scandalized I was by what was to follow.

Suddenly he took off my coat. Then, with a brutal gesture, he grabbed the collar of my sweater and tore it brutally to free my skin. Sleeves still wrapped around my arms, what remained of the wool barely covering my cleavage, I found myself in a tank top, bare throat, quivering skin, totally offered. Instinctively, I placed my hands against my chest, not to hide, but to prevent anyone from noticing the amulet wedged between my breasts. To distract from the precious jewellery, I tilted my head, offering my neck. Without warning, the Strigoi planted his canines violently in my shoulder, making me scream in pain and surprise. But immediately, I fell silent and clenched my teeth with all my might, as he gulped down my blood. When he was done, he straightened up, satisfied, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. As discreetly as possible, I tried to bring a piece of fabric over the wound to hide that it was already closing. I was covered in blood.

“Take her to him!” he ordered in English with a nod of his head as if to point to the room on the other side of the wall. 

My heart began to pound harder in my chest, as much from the fear of finding Rucker in a sorry state, as because I was about to allow him to tear my skin. When a vampire has been drained of all his energy, he’s out of control, ready to kill to drink and survive. Rucker would be ruthless.

“You can have the other.”

With a nod, he pointed to Gwen, who became the focus of five sets of bloodthirsty eyes. We watched each other. Then I lingered on Simon and Rufus. We knew Gwen might be unveiled, it was only a matter of minutes. From there we would all have to fight; we no longer had a choice. The blond vampire grabbed me by the arm to make me follow him.

“You come with us,” he said to Simon.

We walked out of the jail leaving Rufus and Gwen behind. We entered the hallway and stopped a few yards away in front of the thick bars of a cell. It was too dark there for me to be able to make out anything beyond a metre. I didn’t see Rucker. However, I felt him. He was there, at the back, in the furthest corner of the cell. Rufus, who was walking behind me, took a few more steps to tilt his head forward. Unlike me and because he was a vampire, in the dark, he had perfect eyesight, and what he saw chilled him with dread.

“Too sensitive!” the Strigoi scoffed contemptuously. “Those of your kind haven’t inherited our strength. Move forward and drop the chains!”   

Simon moved into the cell as if he was walking on eggshells. My heart kept speeding up. Then it suddenly stopped beating when the blond lit a torch behind him.

Rucker.

Broken.

Bruised.

More weakened than a sick child.

There he was, arms and legs spread, partially naked and tied to a wooden frame. Lifted using a pulley, he was held in the air by a belt and shackles through which chains passed allowing him to be raised and lowered. These barbarians lacked neither imagination nor cruelty. Rucker was smeared with blood, forming a puddle just below him. The last punishment had just been inflicted on him. His head fell forward and his hair completely hid his face. I didn’t hear a sound, not a breath, as if he had died, died a second time.

I was scared. Afraid to come in and see precisely what he had been subjected to, fear of the anger bubbling inside me, of the vengeful voice screaming at me to let the beast possess me. I was vibrating with the desire to kill this garbage one by one, to rush on them, to gut them, to behead them and to spill their blood in this cursed castle. My muscles ached, burned me, gripped me. As endowed with a life of their own, they seemed to want to stretch under my skin, to be free to take another form. I was about to go mad resisting like this.

Breathless and jaw clenched, I tried to pull myself together. I wasn’t allowed to let my guard down and indulge in my most primitive urges. If I gave in, several more Strigoi would arrive and wipe us out in no time. Maybe Grigore, Remus and Gabriel would get stuck here and we would have done it all for nothing.

I refused to put us in danger. However, I was still wondering what the purpose of the plan was. How would meeting the vampire leader make the mission easier? From the start, Grigore knew that this monster wouldn’t change his mind. So why was he so keen on making the case for Rucker?  

“Come on!” cried the Strigoi behind me. “And you, pull on those damn chains!”   

Simon and I did so, caught in the grip of our most murderous urges, literally torn between what we wanted to do and how we had to act at all costs. At the same time as Simon brought down Rucker, I had the feeling that I would never be able to reach the two meters which separated us.

“Stop!” the blond vampire yelled at Simon. “Now rotate the frame.” 

Simon obeyed and turned Rucker in front of us.

My legs let go and the contents of my stomach rose so fast that I doubled over and threw up on the floor before I had time to see it coming. I coughed, spat, and slowly stood up, barely daring to rest my eyes on Rucker.

The vampire laughed.

“Your blood will perk him up, girl! Come closer!”  

Rucker was in a terrible state. He had been missing for three days and already looked so emaciated. But this wasn’t the worst part. He was missing shreds of skin on his chest, stomach, and legs. His ribs were torn from sharp blades and his knees formed a curious angle as if they had been broken several times. On his waist, his armpits, and his biceps, it seemed that pieces of flesh had been torn off by teeth.

The wounds were deep. He didn’t heal completely because he was so weak. His body had surrendered to the torture. If he didn’t drink from my vein, he would die.

The blond vampire pushed me forward until I found myself inches from Rucker. There he grabbed his hair to lift his head, Rucker didn’t react. So, with his other hand, which he passed behind my neck, he prepared to lift me off the ground but was stopped by Simon.

“I’ll do it,” he suggested.

He grabbed me by the waist and, as the vampire forced me to tilt my head to one side, he lifted me to Rucker’s face.

“She’s not bleeding anymore. Bite her,” he ordered Simon. “It will wake him up.”

I felt the panic that had enveloped Simon. How many years had it been since he drank a single drop of human blood?

With a blink of my eyelids, I made him understand that it wasn’t necessary to delay. His irises, brightened by excitement and guilt, completely liquefied. He took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and dived into my vein, quickly, precisely. Then he got up immediately and refrained from licking his lips, as a glimmer of unfulfilled pleasure embraced him. Blood was running down my neck, profusely and enough to make Rucker look up. Behind the curtain of his blond hair sticky with dirt, sweat and blood, I saw the gaze of a predator, the red irises of a hungry vampire, and for a moment I was afraid. Thirsty, he no longer recognized me.

Suddenly, the other four Strigoi burst into the cell with Gwen. She hadn’t been bitten yet.

“We wanted to see this.” One of them says in perfect English.

Gwen...

I heard her moan, and not because she was afraid of what these bullies might do to her. She had just seen Rucker.

Suddenly, Rucker threw himself forward with a powerful thrust. He hit my forehead hard with his, causing me to throw my head back. The next second, he broke his fast of more than six centuries by harpooning my throat fiercely. A frightful howl escaped from me. It hurt so much. It was impossible to know what exactly was the most painful; the violence of his sucking, or the fact that my friend could kill me coldly without realizing for a single second that it was me. He was no longer the same, it was no longer him. For a moment I was convinced that I would die here. 

Then everything happened very quickly. A wild roar echoed, followed by the dull thud of a blow. Gwen had just exploded by brutally throwing one of the vampires into the stone wall. After the surprise of this turnaround, the blond Strigoi didn’t take long to react, he immediately propelled himself on Gwen and Rufus. Simon let go of me immediately and, unable to hold the weight of my body with his jaw, Rucker opened his mouth, dropping me to the floor like a rag doll. Without moving, I tried to catch my breath, while behind me, I heard grunts, cries... A ruthless confrontation had just begun. Five against three, including a female dark angel with little experience, they would never make it. The Strigoi were extremely powerful, surely even more so when they were in their own territory.

At the end of my strength, I managed to turn slowly towards them. Gwen defended herself like a devil, trying to avoid the blows she still received. She had become the toy of a vampire who played with her like a cat with a mouse. Whenever she wanted to respond, he dematerialized in black smoke and Gwen’s fists fell into the void. So, he would appear behind her to hit her sneakily and more violently. With a sudden movement, she managed to face him and send a knee in his lower abdomen. Destabilized, he doubled over. Gwen took the opportunity to grab his neck with both hands, squeezed with all her strength and made it c***k with a sharp gesture. Without wasting a second, Rufus took Gwen’s place and let his sharp talons fall on the vampire’s neck. The head fell to the ground, rolled, then the body sagged.

What happened next, I didn’t have time to see. Raging, unleashed and thirsty, Rucker succeeds in breaking the shackles holding his ankles and wrists. Frantic, he crashed down with all his weight to find my neck. Desperate and exhausted, I tried to push him away. But in this trance-like state, even weakened, Rucker was stronger than me. He took hold of my hands which he held above my head to better dive on the blood which continued to flow abundantly from my veins. There was nothing I could do.

“Rucker! Rucker!” I cried, choking. “Rucker!”   

Nothing, he heard nothing. He only existed for this fluid which he had so lacked and which he perceived as a miracle. Nothing else counted but to drink, to fortify oneself, to feast on the sacred elixir.

I was cold.

I wasn’t going to make it out alive.

His tongue clicked against his palate as he sucked my life out. I began to see stars. If he didn’t stop now, there would be nothing left of me.

“Perceval…,” I managed to whisper.

He responded with a wild beast growl as he let go of my hands to grip my shoulders and gain more grip on my throat. He was insatiable, brutal, and determined. I no longer had the strength to struggle. Motionless, I waited for death to fall. Suddenly I felt him being lifted off the ground with ferocity. Freed, I blinked several times and caught sight of Pitt. He had just saved my life.

“Scarlett!” Gwen cried, kneeling beside me.

I caught my breath and managed to gently lift my head; my eyesight blurred.

I could smell her iron scent of a dark angel again. She had lost her amulet.

Gwen helped me sit up and put the warm wool of my sweater on my shoulders. I twisted as best I could and put it on completely. Because even though my blood was regenerating quickly, I had lost a lot and I was freezing.

When I could pay attention to my surroundings again, there was only one Strigoi left in the dungeon, and he was dead.

“Where are the others?” I asked. “Have they fled?”   

Gwen nodded.

“What about Rucker?” 

“He’s here,” she whispered.

I followed her gaze and saw him. Breathless, eyes wild, he was held roughly against the wall by Pitt.

“Reinforcements will be here any minute,” Gwen said. “We have to leave as soon as possible.”

“Not without Elgin!” I cried as dizziness forced me to close my eyes. 

“They’re coming,” Pitt whispered under his breath.

No sooner had he said these words than the all-too-familiar smell of decay, rotten cabbage and fresh tar spread through the corridors. The same persisted around the bodies found in St Andrews. It was them. The Moroi.