Moon Blood (COMPLETE)

Chapter Twenty One: A Hunger born from Anger

"After what happened last time, we're not taking any chances, so we've brought some collateral with us."

Ruby spat at her captor, and blood dribbled down her chin. "Don't you dare threaten him."

Neil had been brought as he was - naked, blood pouring down his back and half dazed. His wings, or what was left of them, hung tattered and pathetic from his shoulder blades. He was still in human form, but he had been gagged. Neil was barely keeping conscious, but he continued biting his tongue in order to stay awake. He was starving and a terrifying, familiar feeling was flushing his body.

He was hungry. Not just an inkling for wanting a soggy kebab after drinking too much at a club, but a deep seated, angry hunger. Something feral and uncontrollable. It dripped from his teeth and pooled at his feet.

As if sensing or even just seeing the creature inside him desperately trying to claw its way out, Hettie patted Neil's head and double checked the collar at his neck. "Soon, my dear. Soon. I cannot wait to taste you."

He didn't say a word, not that he could anyway, and glared at Hettie. Still she was tall, and beautiful, and utterly terrifying. She leaned over him and, now in her human form, grabbed the back of his neck.

"Not yet though. We have to clean you, and prepare you first."

Neil attempted a muffled shout, but it did little. Hettie didn't react to his threat and instead, gestured at one of her lackeys. The small, slightly frightened looking one that Neil had never seen in her human form before, held a bucket. She trembled with it, the handle cutting into her fingers. Neil could smell cold water, but Hettie held him fast before he could move away.

The cold water hit like a frozen block, covering him head to toe and turning his blood to ice in his body. He yelped and shut his eyes as the cold water nipped at his skin and pulled him down into a heap on the ground, shivering. His skin shrank as the icy water hit it and his back erupted in a cold fire as the great wounds tried to close. Neil grit his teeth and willed himself to not pass out as a desire to close his leaden eyelids was almost overwhelming. Within an instant Hettie's hands and others were all over him, washing and dabbing at his skin with brushes and sponges. His nails were scrubbed; his hair was brushed. Every part of his body was rubbed down, a bandage was wrapped around his torso, and they dressed him in a white linen smock and white trousers before styling his shaggy hair into a neat coiff. They tied his hands behind his back and sat him on their plush fainting couch where he had sat just a few weeks ago. It was much colder and the air just seemed different. Stiller and more stagnant. He shivered.

Ruby was gone, shoved into the cellar. Neil could hear her, and the four currently in his company were doing a remarkable job at ignoring her angry shouts and protests threatening to not touch him. If the circumstances weren't so terrifying, Neil might've blushed.

"Almost there." Hettie was touching powder on Neil's nose. We were lucky, those wings were signs you're ready. Don't worry, they'll grow back."

Ready for what? Her tone unnerved him as she ran her fingers through his hair. He flinched at her cold touch, and she smirked.

"You're just as I always pictured you, as our mothers told us you would be: pure, beautiful, untouched and delicious." With that she leaned in, grabbing one side of his neck and inhaling deeply.

Her grip tightened around his throat.

"Wait." She inhaled again.

"You've been used!" she spat, "I smell that bitch on your skin, she has sullied you! Our prize, the virgin boy we've been waiting for our entire lives, is now forever unclean. How dare you!" Hettie slapped Neil across the face whilst still holding his neck in a death grip. He gagged as she slapped him again. "Dirty! Filthy scum! Betsy! Get that mangy wolf out here. She'll pay for what she has done to our male."

She hit Neil again and he fell back onto the couch. "Only the seed of a virgin makes the strongest wolves.You weren't supposed to be tarnished by another clan. The entire plan's been completely cocked up." She scoffed and punched one of the tassel cushions. "Of all my luck... Don't you have any idea how special you are? How important you are to us? Everything is ruined! You were supposed to be pure!"

Betsy had returned, surprisingly strong for her stature, and dragging Ruby behind her on a collar and lead. Ruby's hands had been tied behind her back, but it didn't stop her from digging her heels in and trying to headbutt the smaller woman. Neil tried to speak, but the gag just muffled any noise. In his weakened state and only two of them, things weren't looking good.

"How dare you! You dare to lay your hands on our male? After we protected him from spilling his seed and dirtying himself, you tore through him and made his soul unclean."

"Your mothers still believed in all that crap?" Ruby's voice was laced with contempt. "Hettie, I pity you. You cling to belief like it will save our bodies, or his body will save your own. Give it up, and let him go."

"No!" She ripped the rope off Neil's arms with the knife she held in one hand and held him close with the other, encircling her willowy fingers about his neck and pressing the edge of the blade by his jugular vein. "He's useless to us now. After I risked my life to keep you pure. I got my hands dirty for nothing, killing that girl before she got her claws in you."

Neil's world stopped spinning as the image of Rachel's face appeared before him. Whether it was a manifestation of his guilt, of Hettie's crime or some otherworldly spirit, it floated there as the blood poured down her face. The skin peeled and puckered as silently, the ghost's entire body began to crumple and weep under its own weight. Rachel, she was right here, in some form, gored and bleeding but glaring at her murderer. Neil's stomach clenched and cramped, exactly the same cramping he had endured when he'd woken up the first time after transforming, and thrown up. He could taste Rachel still on his tongue, the taste that had convinced him he'd devoured her all those months ago. Half of her skull was now visible before him, the skin torn and one side of her jaw hanging off. Her arm was outstretched and pointed directly at Hettie.

"You killed her! You killed her!" Neil's anger bubbled and frothed over. "You killed her! How dare you!" The cramping in his stomach reached a climax, and he went limp in Hettie's grasp. "She'd done nothing! She was innocent!"

"And I'd do it again if it meant keeping you clean. But it was all for nothing. Well, if we couldn't have you, then no one else should either."

A press of the blade against his neck in the darkness of the room. There was no moon tonight. A split second of pain and thick warmth. And then nothing. Neil didn't hear anything, and the world faded from him.