AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What are you doing?” I cry out as he unlocks the door, looking over my shoulder at the crowd, every eye still on me, fangs bared.
Holy fuck.
The door unlocks and then he’s shoving me into a dark room. The lights flick on and I gasp. It’s about the size of the cigar room, but that’s where the similarities end. The walls are painted black, the floor is steel with black leather mats every couple feet, right below two pairs of metal chains that hook into the wall. There’s a steel table at the end, the type you’d find in a morgue, with a fridge beside it, and in the corners there are two matching red leather chaises.
“What the fuck is this place?” I say, staring at it all in horror.
He doesn’t answer me, just leads me over to the chaise and sits me down on it.
“Solon, please,” I tell him, grabbing his jacket as he turns around, ready to leave. “Tell me what’s happening. They’re going to…bleed me? How? By biting me? Is everyone in there getting a turn? Am I being chained to the wall?”
With each question I ask, my fist gets stronger, my words trembling, on the edge of panic-fueled tears.
He reaches down and pries my hand off his jacket. “I thought it might come to this,” he says, voice flat. “Just stay here.”
Then he turns, and before I can grab him again, there’s a strange shimmer in the air, and then he’s gone.
Literally, gone.
Vanished into thin air.
Not even appearing by the door, something like I’ve seen earlier when he moves fast. He just disappeared.
And I’m all alone.
But I won’t be for long.
I don’t know who Jeremias is, but if he’s my father, apparently that’s a literal selling point for me. If they can find out my history by drinking my blood, taste my bloodlines, then who knows what will happen to me. As much as I do want to know the truth, it’s not at the expense of bleeding for all these vampires, and especially if I’m being held in chains.
How could Absolon do this to me?
You fucking idiot. He told you what he was going to do from day one.
I sigh, my breath fluttery. I need to get out of here. I can’t be in here.
How did he disappear like that?
I have some of his blood in me still, I don’t know for how long, but I can feel it, the traces of him.
If he can do that, can I do that?
But how?
I stand up and walk to the middle of the room, my heels clicking loudly on the steel floor. I stop and look around. There was a shimmer when he disappeared, like the air moved and enveloped him. Is it an invisible door?
I move my hands around in the air but feel nothing.
Think, think, think.
I know I’m running out of time.
I eye the door, the fear hitching in my throat. At any minute he’s going to come back in with Yanik in tow, and then who knows how many others. Who wouldn’t want to sample the goods before they purchase?
Think, think, think.
But I can’t think.
I can’t focus.
I’m doing that thing I did in the Uber when I was kidnapped. Too panicked to make sense of anything to make a plan. Hopeless, helpless.
But there was something you did and you can do it again.
I close my eyes and stop thinking.
I start imagining.
I see those roses, dead, and then the blood rising in them, bringing them back to bloody life.
I see the moon deep within me, reflecting on a quiet well, an unlimited source of power I need to tap in to.
I feel blue electricity running inside my veins.
I feel everything, all of it, every emotion I’ve tried to grapple with in the last two weeks. It builds and builds in the core of me, glowing white, rising through me until it feels like all my hairs are standing on end.
I need an outlet, I need to escape, I need to survive.
I need to disappear.
Help me disappear.
A sizzling sound fills the room, a slight breeze blowing against my face.
My eyes open to see flames in the air in the shape of a doorway.
On the other side of the doorway is the rest of the room, except it’s in black and white, like an old noir movie.
I look over my shoulder at the real door.
Then I make my choice.
I walk through the one I just conjured in the air.
Into a world of black and white.
Chapter Twelve
I watch as the flames fizzle out, the shape of the doorway fading until it’s gone and I’m still in the room.
Only everything is in black and white. I take a tentative step forward, afraid that the air might feel different or hold me back. I’m not even sure there is air. I try to breathe but nothing happens. When I walk, my shoes make a muted sound.
