Chapter 7

OCTAVIA

R ed smacks my arm away but stumbles forward, coughing and spluttering. She's withdrawing hard and needs to take my blood or we're going to have a problem.

The air shifts, something prickly sifts through the atmosphere, making my forearms rise with goosebumps.

"What?" Red says and then gags, bending over her knees again.

"Quiet," I say. And take a step to the side. I scan the tunnel left and right. Something is wrong. Someone is here.

"Get up. Move," I say, gripping her arm and dragging her forward as fast as she can stagger.

"Get your hands off me."

"Red—" I start, but a rushing wind steals my words away like secrets and shrouds, and then I'm knocked halfway up the tunnel by an immense blow to the ribs.

One moment I'm holding onto Red and the next I'm soaring through the tunnel, her body getting smaller and smaller in the distance.

I clatter to the floor, smashing my head against the concrete and bricks. My skull is cracked. I know by the immediate grey and black spots that smatter my vision and the sickness coiling in my gut. I lean over and puke.

I touch my hand to the back of my skull. It's definitely fractured. My fingers come away wet. I glance at them and groan. But the bone is already knitting back together. Someone is going to pay for that. I squint down the tunnel. Two men have Red, one on either side of her. She's hanging limply between them.

I'm up and using vampire speed to race down the tunnel towards her. No one gets to touch her or take her from me. I don't give a shit how pissed off she is with me. She's mine.

The vampires haul her up so her feet are no longer touching the ground. Shit, they're going to run her out of here.

No, you fucking don't.

I lean down, using my arms to pump my legs harder, faster. I have to reach her. My head throbs like a hammer striking an anvil. It makes my vision blurry as I finally get within touching distance. I don't slow down; I just barrel straight into the first vampire the way he did to me. I knock him flying as penance for what he did to me.

He clatters against the side of the tunnel in an almighty boom sounds as his head bounces off the tunnel wall.

"Put her down, and you get to live. Try to fight me, and I'll make it extremely painful for you." I say the words with a tangle of snarls and growls.

A mask covers his face. His entire body is hidden, so that the only pieces of him I can see are his eyes and his teeth.

One of his hands moves fast, whipping out a stake.

"A vampire with a stake? How original. How foolish," I say.

"Listen, love. You let me kill the little human hunter and we can all go home and be done for the day. Alright?"

"You touch a single hair on her head, and I will rip your balls from your crotch and feed them to you."

He laughs like I'm joking, but he has no idea.

Red murmurs, her head lifting. He must have knocked her out. I'm surprised he landed a punch. She doesn't normally drop her guard like that. Her need for blood must be greater than I thought. I will have to make her drink when this is over.

"Oct… Octavia," she breathes.

"It's okay, Red. Everything's going to be fine."

"Fine?" she snaps and hauls herself upright, to the vampire's surprise. He steps back, his eyes wide.

"What about this is fine? Yes, this fucking prick interrupted our argument, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with you. You fucking lied to me, Octavia. You broke the one promise you swore to keep to me."

Three things happen at once.

One, Red winks at me as she slides her hand down her hip and to a stake lodged in a concealed thigh pocket.

Two, the vampire I threw against the wall, gurgles and rolls onto his front, trying to stand up.

And three, the vampire in front of us reaches for Red as she ducks and I lurch forward, grabbing his throat.

Chaos erupts.

He throws himself forward, seeing me coming a split second before I can get a solid enough grip on his throat.

Red lurches forward, swinging up with her stake a second too late and punctures his shoulder instead of his heart.

"Fuck," she roars as she rolls and scrambles back to her feet.

Then it's an eruption of arms and fists and kicking as the second vampire races in to defend his brethren.

He focuses on me, swinging fist after foot after fist. I duck and throw my legs out, knocking his feet from under him. He flips his body, throwing himself upright before I can jump on top of him. And then the second vampire spins around Red's back to land a savage punch to my jaw, slamming me back.

I stagger several paces before leaping forward and jumping onto his torso, locking my legs around his arms so he can't move.

He swings about, trying to throw me off. He steps back, back, back until he crashes against the wall, crushing my legs. But I'm punching him hard and fast on his jaw, his eye, his nose over and over.

He's woozy and fading.

I'm going to win.

And then a blast of white-hot pain has me detached and falling to the ground.

"OCTAVIA," Red screams.

My vision whites out. I try to roll over, but my legs and arms aren't working. I'm paralysed. The vampire I was attacking sneers down at me, yanks the stake out of my spine and hauls me up by the throat.

As soon as it's out, the tingling sensation of nerves regrowing trickles through my body, but until I regain full movement, I'm defenceless. We're sitting ducks, especially because Red is now being held by the other vampire. Her face is bloodied, one of her arms hangs limp.

But she's done a serious amount of damage to the vampire too. She appears to have dislocated his shoulder, and he's limping. I glance down. There's a vomit-inducing amount of blood on the floor, but it doesn't appear to have come from her.

"Well, well, well, looks like we're at a standoff," the vampire holding me—let's call him Fucknut—says.

"What do you want?" Red says.

"Just you, pretty little thing," Fucknut replies.

"Take me instead," I say.

"Octavia, no." Red's eyes narrow, and I'm not sure if it's because she's defending me or wants to murder me instead. More feeling seeps into my limbs and body. My fingers twitch at my sides.

"We don't want you," Fucknut snarls.

I'm shunted forward as Fucknut slides his arm under my neck and pulls a stake out of his coat, resting it over my heart.

Red inhales, sharp and uneven, her eyes watery.

There's a moment of sheer silence where none of us move. The only thing I hear are the whirling, ragged breaths from Red as her shoulders heave up and down, up and down.

"I'll come with you," Red says.

"NO. No, you fucking won't," I shriek and shunt forward, but the stake the vampire is holding is sharp enough it pierces my chest.

Red hisses as a line of my blood dribbles down my clothes. I instantly stop, but Fucknut's grip is like steel. I stand there, blood leaking from my chest, knowing that Red is going to struggle harder the more of my blood that spills.

There must be something on the stake because my head feels woozy. I glance down and see the silver threaded like ribbons through the wood. But it's more than that. There must be some kind of potent herbs in the wood, too.

"Looks like we're in a stalemate," Fucknut's friend says.

"You can't stop me, Octavia," Red whispers, ignoring the vampires.

My heart is in my mouth, all I can hear is the roaring of blood in my ears. My stomach is so tight I think I'm going to be sick. I can't allow her to do this. I will not. She won't die for me. Not after what I've done to her. Not after how angry she is with me.

"I will not let you sacrifice yourself for me," I say.

"Oh, because you're the only one who gets to be a martyr?" she snaps.

"LADIES," Fucknut barks. "If you can stop fucking bickering for a second, I'll tell you how it's going to go. Red is going to come with us, and Octavia, you're going to sit here like a good little vampire bitch and let us leave, otherwise I'll make you watch as I pluck her eyes from her head and rip her arms off and slap you with them."

He pushes me forward as he pulls the stake out of my chest and his friend drags Red aside.

But just as suddenly, both vampires are on the floor, giant blades sticking out of their chests.

Red stares at me, open-mouthed. But I am equally confused.

"This wasn't me," I say.

"No. It was me," Scarlett, the magician assassin from New Imperium, says and steps out of the shadows.

Red drags Scarlett into her arms. "Mother of Blood, thank you, Scarlett."

Scarlett slides her arms around Red, a little stiff as she pats her on the back and holds my gaze.

She's right to check with me, too. My jaw is tight enough I may break a bone in my face. But I suppose this is only a natural reaction to someone having saved your life.

"Thank you, Scarlett," I say and incline my head. "But why are you here?"

Scarlett untangles herself from Red. "I came to make sure you got back to your own city. I can't afford Morrigan going off at me because I let a vampire into the city. You understand, I only followed you to make sure you left."

"Well, we did. And now we'll make it home too. I am in your debt."

Scarlett wrenches her long swords out of the hearts of the now desiccating vampires.

"It's a shame we can't question them. We need to know who is behind these attacks. Otherwise, none of us are going to make it to the end of the trials," Red says.

"I will leave you to it. I can see you're only a mile out from your city's border now. Will I see you at the wedding?" Scarlett says to Red.

She nods. "Bella asked me to go. As long as the trials are all done and dusted, I should be able to make it. Are you sure Morrigan and your sister are okay with me attending?"

I stiffen. I don't want Red in another city unguarded, especially at the moment.

Scarlett nods. "They'd love to you be there. It's the least they can do for all your help with Roman."

Roman? The magician blood bag in my club? Interesting.

"Octavia," Scarlett says, and then she surprises me and holds out her hand. "I misjudged you in assuming you were coming for my city, when I can see now you were coming for your heart."

I take her hand and shake it, and then she's off, sprinting down the tunnels back to New Imperium.

It's only Red and I left in the tunnels with the weight of everything we've done settling between us. I relax a little as Red looks up at me.

"We should talk," she says.

And then her expression hardens into steel and my stomach swirls with bile.

"This," she gestures at the vampires, "doesn't mean anything. Just because I didn't want you to die doesn't mean I forgive you."

And then she's off, marching down the tunnel back to Sangui City, and I'm left standing alone staring after her, wondering how the fuck I'm going to resolve any of this.