Choosing to say out of the Alliance, the Cinders are isolated in their own conflicts, and when Helia Cinder reaches to the void for answers, she inadvertently draws a creature out. Expecting to be eaten alive, she is instead left with a man with no...
Ουπς! Αυτή η εικόνα δεν ακολουθεί τους κανόνες περιεχομένου. Για να συνεχίσεις με την δημοσίευση, παρακαλώ αφαίρεσε την ή ανέβασε διαφορετική εικόνα.
"This is where the fighters wait, Stone," Horus explained. "The humans on the upper deck get antsy if the vampires are allowed to roam. Rodney will be with you. I know he can be abrasive, but he's not cruel. Just gets upset sometimes. It's not like you'll be fighting anyone anyway, just sitting in back while Rodney and I conduct business."
Horus meant fixing fights.
So far as yet, Horus had been kind in his own way and not once dishonest, so Stone stepped into the room. The door clunked shut behind him, the series of deadbolts locking into place, and Stone scanned the room. One large, arched double door led out in front of them, without a lock, so it was a viable escape route. To the left, stone benches lined the wall, plain and divided by small walls like barracks. Rodney was reclining on the bench closest to the corner, and Stone gravitated toward him as he assessed two humans in the opposite corner. One operated a handheld device while the other was reading, both seemingly content.
"Blood, in case the fighters need it," Rodney said, keeping his eyes on the sand concrete as Stone took a seat on the bench next to him. "They volunteer and get paid well. Society doesn't imprison humans like they do blood slaves on the battlefield. There are many rooms like this circling the arena, so it will be just you, me, and the blood."
Stone didn't like the way Rodney referred to the human as beverages more than people, but he nodded before lifting a leg on the bench and wrapping an arm around it to stabilize himself. As he had before, he lowered his lids, keeping the room in view but shifting his focus to the world around. The door ahead offered the route for his senses and he navigated past an open, circular space to slip into many doors like this one. Rodney was correct that they were each occupied by one or a few vampires, accompanied by heartbeats of human blood donors.
Further out, higher in the air, humans chattered and awaited the match, and Horus' voice rose above them all as he gave money to a man for a bet. It had to have been the door guard's cash, and then Horus descended beyond sense into another concrete walled area. Since they did this often enough to be familiar with the practices and areas, Stone did not worry too much about not being able to sense Horus, instead opting for patience and calm in the meantime.
"I apologize for snapping at you earlier," Rodney said, breaking the silence but keeping his eyes pinned to the corner of the room. "Despite Horus taking me in, he is no friendlier with vampires than Pyre or Helia, so when I saw you close to him and his sister, a protective urge surged within me. Cinders are miserable to be around if you have fangs, so I figured you had some ulterior motive. That, and I'll admit I hated you for what you are."
"What I am?" Stone spoke, needing clarification to understand. By all standards, he and Rodney were the same, battleground bred vampires, general class in power, and subservient to a master that they revered.
"You're a living battleground vampire," Rodney elaborated. "Meaning you either fought against my house and killed my people or stood by and watched as they died. Either way, you have what I lost, a family, a place, which makes me envious and spiteful. They're not good masks to wear."
