DARK FORCES
‘The Challenge?’
‘It’s a vampire ritual. You most likely won’t have heard about it.’
‘And why wouldn’t I have heard about it?’ I don’t bother hiding my annoyance.
‘Your father and I both admit we’ve made mistakes, Emelia.’ My mother’s tone sharpens. ‘We should have taught you more, when you were younger, about the ways of the vampire world.’
‘Why didn’t you?’
It’s old ground. We’ve been over it before. I know I shouldn’t do this, know they both want me to be Raven and believe in my right to be so. But old habits, as I say, die hard.
‘You know why!’ My mother blinks, looking away. ‘When you were born… God and darkness, we wereterrified. I didn’t leave your side for the first few years of your life. Keeping you safe was our first and only priority. And then … we wanted you to forge your own path. Be free to choose. You are unique, Emelia, and I knew you were special the moment I laid eyes on you. Blood-borne, yet human. And with the potential for infinite change. Even though I know you didn’t feel that way.’
I get it, I guess. If they hadn’t been so strict, I probably wouldn’t have made it past my first birthday. And it didn’t stop me running away, anyway. I reach for my mother’s hand, playing with her long cool fingers. ‘Tell me about the Challenge.’
‘It’s an old custom, and?—’
‘They do tend to be.’
My mother shoots me a look. ‘As I say, an old custom. Your great-grandfather was the last to be challenged so, and that was centuries ago. He won, of course.’
‘But what is it?’
‘A fight. To the death. The winner becomes, or remains, Raven.’
Darkness. ‘Are you kidding me?’ Every vampire ritual I’ve ever come across is like this. Whether it’s Jaguar mocking human religion, drugging them to drink their blood in his stone temples, or Scorpion with their literal blood baths, it’s all the same. A game of pain and darkness leading to one thing. Death.
It’s what I ran away from, the brutality and power of my parents’ world. And it’s what I’m trying to change. I don’t want to be a ruler who kills for sport or punishment, upholding arcane traditions from another time. Humans also used to fight to the death, centuries ago, to settle scores. But years of war were replaced by diplomacy, a desire to build a better world for their children. Vampires, though, seem to still live in that brutal past. Why change something that works for them, I guess. But it’s not going to work for me.
‘You have to understand, among vampires, such things are considered?—’
‘Normal?’ I shake my head. ‘There’s nothing normal about this.’
My mother’s dark brows draw together. ‘Nonetheless, it is serious. A threat to our family name. And with everything else going on, your father wants to be ready.’
‘But you’re Raven, not Father. Shouldn’t they be fighting you?’
‘Your father is not just my husband. He’s also my champion. It’s how we met, you know.’
‘It is?’
‘Well, yes. You know I was with Mistral, of course.’
I wrinkle my nose. Mistral was very handsome, but also a terrible person. I still have no idea what my mother saw in him.
‘He was my lieutenant and champion, as well as my lover.’ She shakes her head as though she can’t believe it either. ‘Then your father arrived one night, offering his fealty. Armour-clad, sword in hand, that look in his eyes.’ She rests her chin on her hand, a smile curving her lips. ‘He laid his sword at my feet and looked up at me, and that was it. There was no one else for either of us. He said it was love at first sight.’
I try not to roll my eyes. ‘So, Oliver and Jacques are challenging for the title of Raven? Like father like son, I guess.’ Mistral’s two other sons are both vampires, blond and handsome and full of themselves. And not above nipping at the human daughter of their Raven rulers, either. I’ve never told my mother what happened at the one Gathering I attended as a teenager.
I was told to stay on my throne beneath the canopy, anti-feed so thick around me I could barely breathe. I stared out at the bustling throng, everything painted grey and silver by the full moon, and wondered what the hell I was doing there. My parents were somewhere in the crowd, a line of Raven guards standing between me and the rest of the Gathering.
Then I heard a hiss. I ignored it. But then it came again. I turned my head. The billowing silk surrounding me moved strangely, and a handsome smiling face appeared between the folds of fabric, a boy about my age with long blond hair.
‘Hey, Raven. You want to have some fun?’ The words were whispered.
Did I? Anything was better than sitting there, bored out of my mind. I glanced at the guards, all with their backs to me. Fuck it. I spritzed myself with anti-feed, then slid quietly from the throne, taking the beckoning hand that reached through the gap in the silks.
