“He’s sorry,” I rushed out, stepping between them. “We just want to talk to our friend.”
Norman frowned. “Friend? Only family is allowed to say goodbye.”
“We are family,” Helena shot back. “She grew up with us.”
“Oh. You’re all orphans,” Norman spat out, his voice filled with distaste. “You kids should be more grateful. This city took you in. If not for us, you’d be dead.”
I glared at him, not saying a word. It wasn’t like we had a choice where we were sent. During the war, kids who lost their parents had been sent to safe cities wherever there was space. I had no idea who my parents were or where I was from. Helena and Warner had lost their parents when they were six, so at least they had some memories. Although I wasn’t sure that was any better than not knowing at all.
“You have ten minutes,” Norman stated, backing away. “She needs to start treatment as soon as possible.”
A cry escaped Lisa at his words, and she tried wiping away the dried blood as if she could fix it. Her arm was stained with the black blood, and I shrugged out of my zip-up hoodie and put it on her so she didn’t have to look at it anymore.
“You’ll be okay,” I told her, barely able to keep my voice from cracking. “They’ll help you.”
“And then what?” Lisa asked, her lip trembling. “No one has ever come back after they go to treatment. So what happens to me?”
“I’ll find you,” Helena promised. “You won’t just disappear like the others.”
My heart sank as they kept talking. I wasn’t sure Helena would be able to keep her promise. We never saw the others again. Whether the treatment worked or not was a mystery. Ever since the war, society had turned into a dictatorship. The Peace Alliance Response Administration controlled our life now.
Everyone called them PARA, and when the war started, they were the government agency that created these safe cities. But now, it was more than about safe havens. Civilians had no say. No power. We followed PARA or suffered the consequences. From what I’d learned in school, our country used to be fair. Citizens used to be able to vote. I wondered how life had been before the war.
The war between humans and vampires. So many lives were lost in the decades-long fight. Humans wanted the vampires extinct, while the vampires fought to take over everything. When I was a child, the war finally ceased. There was no winner—only a tense compromise that was still holding this world together today.
Vampires weren’t allowed in our cities, but the humans who wandered outside the walls were free game. People could make extra money by selling blood, and it helped to keep the vampires peaceful. The rules in our cities were strict to keep people safe. Women especially were under a scrutinizing eye. During the war, a truth had come out that only made things worse.
Certain male vampires could impregnate human women. It wasn’t clear why only specific vampires could, but from what I learned in school, not all male vampires were able to. And people with black blood were the result of that.
They were called Shadows. The name had been around since before I was born, and it was the worst thing that could happen to someone.
The children who were half-vampire were no different from humans in the first part of their life. They bled red, and there was no test that could prove if they were human or half vampire. Until they turned twenty-five. That was when the changes began happening. The first thing was the blood turning black within a couple of days of their birthday. Then, within six months, the sickness would start.
We never saw what the symptoms were because they were taken right after the blood check, just like what was going to happen with Lisa. There were rumors about what happened to the people after they were taken away, but no one knew the truth. The city officials assured us that they were doing everything they could to take care of the sick people and were working to find a cure.
Every city had strict rules about blood checks. We hadn’t seen Lisa in weeks because, like everyone else, she had been taken a week before her birth month. There was a building that was only used to house people during their birth month. They weren’t allowed to leave and were watched every second. PARA didn’t want a chance for people to try to escape if they found out they were Shadows. In the past, some had tried running and hiding, but in a city that was so locked down, there was no place where PARA couldn’t find them.
People would stay in that building for their entire birth month, and then the first week of the next month was when the blood checks were.
“Time’s up,” Norman grunted as he shoved past me and took hold of Lisa’s arm.
Helena lunged forward, screaming when Warner grabbed her around the waist to hold her back.
“That wasn’t even five minutes,” I said, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. “You said we could have ten minutes—”
“The convoy leaves soon.” Norman cut me off sharply. “She needs to be on it. To get the help she needs before it’s too late.”
His words had ice sliding down my spine, and I couldn’t help but feel he wasn’t sincere. Maybe it was because I knew he was a cold-hearted bastard. He seemed to thrive on other people’s pain, and it was killing me that Lisa was about to be left alone with him.
“Please don’t take me,” Lisa sobbed as Norman dragged her away. “I don’t want to go.”
Helena was screaming as Warner held her, and I stood next to him as three men, all wearing military-type clothes with guns on their hips, stood in front of us, making sure we stayed where we were as Norman pushed Lisa through the back door. My heart was in my throat, my nails digging into my palms as I forced myself to stay where I was. Trying to go after Lisa was a death sentence. The city officials didn’t take kindly to disobedience, and I’d learned that the hard way in the past.
Once Norman and Lisa were gone, the three men ushered us out of the building, and I swallowed my words when one of them grabbed my ass as he pushed me onto the sidewalk. I whipped my head over my shoulder to look at him, nausea building in my stomach as he gave me a leering smirk.
“Come on,” Warner gritted out, taking my hand and glaring at the man who’d touched me. “Let’s go home.”
We were halfway down the block when Helena halted in her tracks, turning until she was in front of us. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, but they were bright with a burning rage as she leaned closer.