Bond Of Blood

Chapter 28

"Ugh..."

Morgan winced as a wave of nausea rushed through her. She ran her hands through her hair and closed her eyes.

I feel like I just got stampeded by a fucking mammoth herd.

She shuddered as a cold wind blew around her and then she frowned.

I hardly feel cold after becoming a vampire, so why do I feel so cold now?

Morgan sat up, and felt her hand sinking into something soft, like sand on a beach. She looked at her hands and saw that they were submerged in a thick grey sludge, and it was as cold as ice.

"What the..."

She stood up, ignoring another wave of sickness coursing through her and looked at her surroundings. She was no longer near Dawnstar. In fact, she had no idea where she was. She stood in an empty courtyard of a city...

Or what was left of a city.

Ruined buildings surrounded her, no sign of life within any of the dwellings. There were torches burning in many places but she couldn't feel any heat coming from them, as though their only purpose was to light up the area slightly. She then looked up and she gasped as she saw the skies were on fire, blue flames replacing clouds.

Where the fuck am I?

A soft knocking noise came from her right and she spun around, wishing her sword was still on her person. A single pair of red eyes met hers, and Morgan knew that it was a vampire. She could now smell the woman, and she stank of fear. Her eyes showed signs of a lack of blood, but what confused Morgan was how the woman shrank away from her, backing into the dark interior of the ruins until her eyes vanished in the gloom.

She walked away from the ruined house where she saw the vampire and decided to head to what used to be a castle, trying to ignore the feeling of fear rising through her. She continued through the ruined city, sensing many vampires yet none of them came close to her.

"You...you don't belong here."

Morgan stopped walking as she came past a massive enclosure, thick barbed ropes between her and the dozens of ragged people on the other side. She walked closer to the ropes, ignoring the vampire that backed away from her, the spear he held sheathed on his back.

Are these....slave pens? Where in the fuck am I?

"What makes you say that?" Morgan asked the person who had spoke, a haggard man who had blood smeared on his rags, and telltale fang marks all over his throat.

He should be dead with that many bite marks.

The man chuckled sourly.

"You see the marks you and your kind leave me. Every night, they come. Every night they feed off us. And every time we die, we are awoken in this pen, full of blood and ready to be used as food again..."

Morgan flinched as the man spat at her....and then it was replaced with a guttural snarl as she reached through the ropes and grasped the man by the throat.

"Now now, my darling, save some for me."

Morgan noted a female vampire standing there beside her, watching her with amusement.

"He isn't my type," Morgan hissed, throwing the man to the ground.

"A pity. He tastes wonderful."

Morgan stared as the vampire leapt over the ropes, straddled the man and paralysed him with a spell before gently lifting him into her embrace, a smirk on her lips.

"You should taste more often, you may enjoy the power you hold over them."

Morgan shook her head and walked away, trying to ignore the sucking sounds coming from the vampire and the slave in the pen.