Human Sacrifice

Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Four

“Well, Brixie, I suggest you explain why you want to talk to me. Your explanation at the door was far from helpful and I’m a very busy man” he rolled his eyes, sitting down in the leather chair behind the desk. I shut the door as he gestured and limped to the less-comfortable looking wooden chair that I was meant to sit in.

“I just don’t think that Phoenix’s crimes are enough to sentence him to be executed” I shook, looking at the King. “Although he hurt Katya, and made her into this, he still shouldn’t be killed; nobody deserves the death penalty unless they’ve killed someone, and Katya is still here”

“He took her humanity, which is a crime that comes with the death sentence, he also turned Zach if I remember correctly?” the King questioned whilst looking through a pile of paperwork. I gulped. “Well Brixie, I need an answer” he demanded, baring his fangs at me, to which I nodded slowly.

“Well, technically he bit her, but you turned her, so you took away her humanity” I corrected. Note to self: never correct an angry, powerful vampire. Before I could blink and regret what I had said, he had me pinned to the wall with his hands grasping my throat. I choked under his grip and gasped for air but he just tightened his grip.

“I could snap your neck like a twig right now” he growled, his eyes turning bright red. “But, on the other hand...I admire your bravery” he admitted, letting me go. I fell to the floor and gasped at the air. “I think you’d make a good vampire, shame really”

“You’re like, the third person to tell me that” I said, climbing back into the chair. “Looks like people don’t pick the right people in the first place”

“I honestly don’t see what Scott sees in that Monica girl. She’s so frail and boring” he laughed, flicking through a large book. “I doubt she’ll even survive the transformation”

“What is the transformation like anyway?” I asked, curious. I wanted to know how much pain Monica would have to go through.

“Long and very painful. Like dying and being brought back to the Earth from the fiery jaws of hell” he chuckled. “Well, something like that at least. I didn’t have to go through it: those born a vampire just gradually turn and it’s painless, but those turned go through inhuman amounts of pain. Most beg for death it gets that bad”

I gulped. Monica couldn’t take the pain of stubbing her toe let alone what Ashtin had just described. She could barely take it when I talked about blood or anything like that, so she had no idea of what she was going to go through. There was a tiny part of me that was glad she was going to go through that sort of pain...

“I think you’d make a far better mate than her, but I guess that Scott didn’t like you enough to spare your life” he laughed, filling out one of many forms that were scattered over his desk. From what I could see (which wasn’t much at all – he liked to keep things well hidden), it looked like some sort of order form and the subject was blood. I gulped again, this wasn’t good. Some freaky shit was going down here and the King was in on all of it.

“What’s that form?” I asked, looking at the piece of paper he had signed. He chuckled and showed it to me as if he had nothing that he needed to hide, he just chose to. Maybe he didn’t trust me. I looked over it and my heart sank. The blood they will drain from Mae and Janice would be sold to different places and different heads of their own species.

“Tell anyone about this and trust me Brixie, I will rip your head off and feed it to the wolves, and then I’ll shred your body up and cook it into your friend’s food, understand me?” he smiled sadistically. “Actually, I would love to do that to you now, but you’re far too much fun to watch”

“Look, I’m just here to say that Phoenix doesn’t deserve to be killed. Spare his life and I won’t tell your sons about your little business deal here” I smirked, knowing that even he would have to go with my way of thinking. Scott would probably kill his dad if he found out. Patrique on the other hand probably wouldn’t mind as much; he was a lot more laid back at times.

“Fine, you have my word” he stated, snatching back the paper that he’d stupidly shown me. “But I can’t promise that the other council members will approve or share your opinion on this matter”

“That’s just a risk I’m going to have to take then” I sighed, looking down as I stood up. My foot still throbbed with intense pain but I put on a brave face and hid behind my mask of deception, confidently walking/limping out of the room. I could hear him mumble behind me as he shut the door.

Katya rushed over to me. “Brix your foot! It’s bleeding so much! Come on” she fretted, placing my arm over her shoulder so I could rest on her and she could take some of my weight. She whistled and Lyle joined my other side so that they could resort to carrying me. Honestly, I didn’t see why they were making such a fuss. I shut my eyes.

I woke to Katya bandaging up my foot. “You’re so lucky that it isn’t broken, trust me” she sighed, looking up at me. Lyle was pacing back and forth, sipping blood from a blood bag with a straw, like a milkshake, which made me grimace. That’s exactly what’s going to happen with my friend’s blood.

“You’re lucky Brix. Ryan’s attractive, single and you get to look after him. It’s so not fair” Lyle groaned, emphasising the word by dragging it longer than it needed to be. He threw the empty plastic blood bag into the bin with a sigh. “I mean, he’s a proper vampire. Bad, blood-thirsty and I’ve heard a rumour he’s a very open minded person”

“Lyle this isn’t the right time to moan about how unfair your life is” Katya said through gritted teeth as she looked at her pacing brother, and then nodded towards me. I could tell what was happening so there was really no point, and I let her know this by sighing at her remark.

“I’m guessing Ryan is this council guy I have to look after” I sighed. The bandages soon stained with red and pulled my sock back on and my trainer, tying the rainbow laces up. Lyle nodded fast with another tut and a roll of his eyes.

“He’s perfect, even by vampire standards. Much like what you’d find in your average vampire novel. You know, the whole ‘He’s the hottest guy I’ve ever seen’ type of thing” Katya laughed. She’s loved vampire novels when she was human but after she was turned, she realised they were built on a foundation of lies. “Well, Lyle seems to think he is anyway”

I looked up as there were knocks on the door. Katya had decided to help me in Lyle’s room because he kept it strangely clean. She’d told me once that she thought he had OCD, but in fact he just liked clean things. Katya removed every trace of blood from me and her own hands, knowing that something wasn’t right; seeing her on edge soon put my feeling of fear into overdrive.

As the door swung open, someone around her height stepped through the doorway and into the room. He was spindly and tall for a guy of 17, his small frame not really intimidating, but he looked mature for his age (he looked like he was more like 25). However, I could see muscles easily and I assumed that he did some serious working out. His eyes were a pale blue, framed by glasses. He had jet black hair and he smiled at us three, but shot me an unamused look.

“Please say that I won’t have to stay with-”

His sentence was cut off by Lyle’s nod. I smiled awkwardly and waved, knowing that Scott wouldn’t like this one bit. That just gave me a hell of a lot more motivation.