Page 76 of Club Blood

Shoving my fist into her hair, I began to pull Narcissa down to rooms below. Her body was heavy and slack as I cuffed the chains on her wrists and neck, sure to click them as tight as I could to ensure the metal would be biting into her skin and would rub if she moved. I wanted her tobegfor us to end it by the time I was done with her.

Only when I was sure she was secure did I yank the stake from her gut. Then, with disgust filling every part of my body, I allowed a few drops of my blood to drip into her mouth until she regained consciousness.

The moment realization dawned on her face was something I would cherish forever. For just a moment, her bitch persona faltered and I saw the terror in her eyes. I had always known that Narcissa feared me, knowing she would never be able to control me— even if she was Mercy’s Second. No, I was the one person who had always saw her for the poisonous little bitch she was, and I was going to make her pay for everything she had ever done to betray Mercy and hurt Cecelia.

“What a good little pet you are,” she grunted, sneering at me through bloodied lips. “Did Mercy send you down here to do her dirty work like always?”

My responding laugh was empty and bitter. She was a street rat, a nobody, and she thought she was better than me?

My fist flew into her face with such force that I heard her jawbone snap beneath my knuckles. Before she had any time to recover, I pulled back and threw my anger into hard punches until her face was broken and bloody. Her vicious laugh only infuriated me more, and soon I was carving into her with anything I could get my hands on, letting the wounds close before repeating the same patterns over and over.

At each hiss from her mouth, I thought of Cece’s broken body, and inflicted more pain with the next strike or slice. I didn’t stop until her skin was covered in drying blood, the venom in her body struggling to heal with the amount of wounds on her. The moment her smile fell and her face was barely visible beneath the grime and gore of my abuse was the moment I dropped my tools and exited the room, barely making it back up the stairs before I collapsed against a wall and allowed myself a moment of despair.

The wracking sob that left my chest was so powerful that one might have believed I had been burying it for centuries of this undead life.

41

MERCY

My body wasin agony and I could feel nothing but pain. This was worse than the sun damage, worse than anything I had ever felt. Where before I was fortunate to have Narcissa’s strength as my Second, I was now feeling the dangerous aftereffects of being on the opposite end of her blow. I looked as bad as I felt, beat to shit and with large wounds and teeth shaped bruises that peppered my arms and legs. Narcissa’s blood was furiously attacking my ownneed, and I was spitting desperately across my hands and applying saliva against my wounds as fast as I was able. Some were sealing quickly, but there wasn’t enough of it to cure all of the aches and pains. Vampire venom could be fatal if left untreated. My own saliva would combat it, but it would be a few weeks before I was back to my normal self again. Physically, anyway. I wasn’t really sure where I stood mentally anymore.

Once the worst of the pain was gone and my brain was no longer screaming at me to end it all, I knelt besides Cecelia, cradling her body within my battered arms. My heart was literally beating outside of my ribcage, seeing her so close to the edge of death as she was. She was so still, the rise and fall of her chest was becoming too far in between. I knew her time was coming to an end, I could see it as clearly as if I was looking at the last piece of sand falling from her hourglass. A sob escaped my body as I hovered over her, shielding her from whatever harm could befall her still.

Her face was smooth and serene, eyes flickering back and forth behind her eyelids. Yet despite her calm demeanor, I could practically feel the pain behind those peaceful features. I knew firsthand the horror that was awaiting her. The burning, the pain. It was like you were lying flat on your back paralyzed, unable to do anything to release the fucking torment that was overcoming you. The more you pushed your limbs to move, the more stubborn they were.

Cecelia was dying a torturous death by vampire, and it was breaking me. She should have never come toAmbrosia, she was right. Even just remembering the last words she spoke to me, and me to her, it made me crumble in defeat. There was no favor or action on earth that I could do for her that would change the hell I put her through in just a few short weeks of being in my circle.Ambrosiawas the reason Laura died, and why she was dragged into this mess I created.

I was the monster that caused this chaos. At least I didn’t surprise myself, I warned her what I was. How could I be at fault, when she was the one that stayed?

It was, though.

All of this was my fault, and I couldn’t even be bothered to deny it.

There was very little I could do for her now, unless I changed her.

My blood from pleasures and Narcissa’s venom from pain were not enough to start her change. Cecelia still needed more of it for the parasite to find her beating heart. Without it, the virus would wander through her body, just passing through; it would attack her organs and her nervous system. The parasite would move like a deadly predator, stealing all the life away from her. It would do what it was created to do, to kill all living things.

I needed to give her more blood for her to survive. But was it surviving?

I wouldn’t call this life ideal. Immortality was a double-edged sword, and while she was aware of some of the hardships I faced in my own life, I had only just begun to start opening the door to my past. She’d seen a lot of awful, cruel parts of me, and I was shocked she’d still come to bed with me in spite of it all. There were still darker corners left unexplored, moments and memories in my life that I didn’t want her to experience. There were acts of selfishness that all vampires faced, and these moments were to be an inevitable outcome for her if Cecelia changed.

Being a part of the Known was not a life I wanted for her, no matter if it meant I would get to keep her.

Maybe it was the right thing for me to do, to let her die. She’s already suffered so much at my hands, and I could make the argument that she’d be better off if this was the place where it all ended. After all, how could she go on, knowing the closest person in her orbit had also died so tragically? And by the hands of the vampire she’d found intimacy with?

“Mercy, what are you doing?!” I could hear the panic that carried through Warren’s voice as he sprinted towards us. His feet clattered against the floor with each step from the hallway in which he left, and even without looking at him, I turned my head to face him just as he was a mere foot from my face. His eyes widened as he took in my face fully, tears staining my cheeks and blood and grime caked into my pores. I stared at him with a sort of uncharacteristic deadness in my own eyes, and his hands grabbed ahold of my shoulders. With each violent shake I released another cry, Cecelia’s body rocking with my own.

“Snap out of it, Mercy!” He screamed at me, “Mercy, you have to do something!”

He tried to tear me from her but his attempts to push me off were coming up fruitless. Warren looked at me like I was a wounded animal waiting to break. He was lost in a sea of his own grief, torn between his deferring to my command and taking Cecelia and saving her himself.

But she wasmine. The choice wasmine.

I bared my teeth at him, hissing in warning. His hands stopped trying to pry me away from her, but he didn’t move them from my skin. Warren could see the choice was already made, but he wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

“Warren, heel!” I commanded. He refused to listen to me, a hard steely look overcoming him.

“Fuck off Mercy,” he growled, “Save her!” His hands still tried to pull her from me, but I resisted.

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