Eighteen

Moon

“ O h, fuck,” I groan, trying to figure out what’s happening. When I blink, my eyes are blurry, and nothing makes any sense. My head is pounding, and I realize, I’m hanging by my feet upside down in…a hospital?

“Moon?” I hear one of the men grunt, and when I turn my head, I can see we’re all upside down.

“What the fuck?” I ask, trying to reach up and grab the rope wrapped around my feet.

“Try not to get caught. There could be deadly consequences. Free yourselves, because no one is coming to save you. Those who survive will be the top finalists.” There’s that fucking voice again.

As soon as he finishes speaking, a light clicks on, and I look up, and my blood drains from my body. There’s a massive…beast. I don’t even know what it is, but it’s wearing a doctor's lab coat and a scrub hat.

“Oh hell no,” I whisper, flailing slightly, when it turns, and makes its way over to a hospital bed. I nearly vomit when I see the body that’s being dismembered on the table. “Nope, nope, nope,” I keep mumbling, as I flail.

“My powers are blocked,” Silas whispers, and that’s when the panic really sets in.

“We’re all going to die,” I yelp, desperately trying to reach my ankles, when a shadow moves, and I cover my mouth so I don’t scream.

Someone cuts Cato’s rope, and I watch him fall to the floor, revealing Lust.

“Lust! Oh, thank fuck…” I deflate, relaxing, because he’ll get us down, and help us get the hell out of here. He cuts Odas down next, and I reach out to Lust as he walks over to me. Instead of cutting me down, he drops to one knee in front of me and grabs a fistful of my hair, making me yelp.

“Stop fighting. Surrender. Tell them to stand down. Or they die. All of them.” When Lust releases me, I’m too stunned to speak. “ She’s watching.”

“What the fuck? Lust! Marcellus!” I shout, as Lust turns his back on me, grabs Cato and then Odas by the backs of their necks, and in a cloud of ash, he disappears.

“NO!” I scream, and the thing from the other room slams through the door, and his disfigured face is the only thing that stops me from crumpling.

I know, in my heart, that that wasn’t Marcellus. Not the real him. Those black eyes…I know they’re gone. I don’t know how, but they’re not in the trial anymore, and I don’t know where the fuck they’ve gone, but I have a bad fucking feeling.

“Moon,” I hear one of the men whisper and turn to see the monster in a lab coat holding a knife to Daire’s throat. Some of the men are still unconscious, but Daire and Silas are both watching me. The thing holding a knife against Daire’s skin turns its head, smiles at me, and draws the knife across Daire’s throat.

Blood runs down his face, spraying the deformed monster, and spraying me.

“No!” I scream, throwing my hands out, and begging every ounce of magic I have to do something, anything.

Save them…

Silas

I watch, uselessly, as Moon screams for Daire. His blood splatters on the floor and walls, as the beast cuts deep. If he decapitates the Vampire, he’ll die.

Her hands glow with magic, as the room fills with an energy unlike anything I’ve felt before. The rope around my ankles releases, and even though I fall hard against the ground, I roll, jumping to my feet. I make it two steps toward Moon when I see she’s floating. Still upside down, but her magic carries her higher as she slowly turns until she’s upright, and lowered to her feet.

“No…” she whispers, and I watch in awe as her magic wraps around the Muncher Beast’s neck, and tightens. It flails, before tripping over Fenrick’s body and falling hard on its back.

“Die.” She sounds so unlike herself. So powerful. So terrifying.

Now is a highly inappropriate time to be turned on… I scold myself internally, shaking off those thoughts.

The Muncher Beast’s head explodes in a cloud of black blood, and the smell nearly makes me gag, despite how used to the scent of death I am.

“Daire,” Moon cries, falling to her knees beside him, and wrapping her hands around his neck.

“He’ll heal, Moon. Daire is a Vampire. They’re not impossible to kill, but it is difficult,” I try to reassure her. I resist the urge to go to her, and instead check on her other men. I kick Tristan’s side and the lazy Elf grunts.

“Need blood,” Daire husks.

“I’ll feed him. You need to conserve your remaining energy, Moon,” I offer, but she shakes her head.

“No, it needs to be me.”

She holds her wrist to his mouth, and he bites, taking a long pull. I turn back to the scattered bodies and nudge the Fae royal with my boot. His magenta eyes fly open, and his hand snaps out to grab my leg, but I step back.

“Make yourself useful, and get up,” I hiss, taking my frustration out on the wrong person.

How was Moon able to access such strong magic, when I cannot call out to my own?

She’s much stronger than I ever realized. Even though I’ve suspected what she is for some time now.

“You should have blood too, Moon. It will strengthen you,” I tell her, dropping to my knees beside her, and offering her my wrist. She’s covered in blood, with a manic look in her eyes, and I remind my cock that now is not the time.

“What?” she whispers.

“My blood, Moon. You’re a Blood Fae. One of only two. The other?—”

“Fenrick’s father…” she whispers, and I shake my head.

“No, Moon. Not his father.”

She frowns, but when my words set in, her eyes go wide.

“No…”