The Blood Rite

Chapter One

The pixie, Lexi, waved the hat in the air like a flag, "Get in! We have to hurry!"

"Where are we going?" Talon asked, already hopping in the back seat on the other side of Rex.

Ruby handed her drink to Lexi before throwing her legs over the back door and sliding into the seat. Two girls who she wasn't familiar with sat squished in the front with Beau. Between gulps of Ruby's slush, Lexi said, "We're going to RedZone."

"And we have to make it by midnight," Rex added as he stole the cup from Lexi.

Ruby ignored the fact that her drink was being passed around and her brows furrowed, "RedZone?"

One of the girls, dressed as a cat, in the front turned around and splayed her tan hands on the seat. From the pink in her cheeks and the shine in her eyes, Ruby could tell she'd also drank, "Yeah, it is this deserted road in between these trees where-"

"Hey! Where are my cigs?" Beau yelled.

"Here buddy," Talon said. He bent down to retrieve the fallen back beneath Beau's seat and passed it to him.

The cat girl who'd been interrupted, glared at Beau before turning back to Ruby with renewed vigor, "Anyways! It is this really dark and scary road. People have said that if you go on it at midnight that you can see a woman in white-"

"Some say you can see blood on the road!" The other girl, a pink dixie chick, with short red hair cut in. Her green eyes were heavy lidded and her speech a little too slow. Ruby got a whiff of 'the green' rolling off of her.

"Sadie," the catgirl hissed.

The dixie chick didn't even register that her friend had spoken as her faraway gaze met Ruby's, "Or that you can hear screaming coming from nowhere."

"Yeah," the catgirl said sharply, obviously irritated, "but it's supposedly really really haunted."

Ruby twirled a strand of hair over her finger, looking at the girl with intense confusion. She'd heard of RedZone and nothing she'd heard had been good. As if thinking the same thing, Talon leaned forward and asked, "Isn't that the road that a lot of people have been run off on?"

"And kidnapped?" Ruby added. Talon glanced at her. It was a heavy kind of look, packed with a feeling she couldn't read. She felt the effects of Rex and Lexi flirtatiously and very drunkenly, shoving each other as they too shoved her but she didn't take her eyes off of the girl.

Catgirl waved her hand, "Those are just stories."

"And the hauntings aren't?" Talon challenged, a gleam in his eyes.

The girl opened her mouth to argue when Beau shifted gears and called, a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth, "Hang on, chickies, because tonight the moon is low and I am half blind!"

A unanimous cheer rose from the group as he gunned it and shot out of the parking lot. Ruby had known Beau for a while from being in shotput together for years, but she'd never heard of him being blind. Still she let out a wild laugh as the wind lifted the hair off of her shoulders and tossed her arms up with Lexi.

She felt a warm hand bump hers and looked over, a bright smile on her face, to see Talon giving her the same smile. For a short second, she saw him with sober eyes. Nearly black hair that usually fell across his forehead now flying back, a strong jawline, handsome brown eyes surrounded by unfairly thick lashes, and a sensual mouth. A mouth that disarmed every girl with a charming, slightly tilted, grin. Ruby was no different. Every time he smiled at her, that smile worked the same charms on her with its obvious confidence.

But she knew Talon in ways no other girls, or even guys, did. And she'd never let herself fall for that damned smile nor for his smooth pick up lines. Though she was unashamed to admit that she admired him from afar. Ruby knew her place though and she knew that she'd rather have him as her closest friend than to be another notch in his belt. So, she bumped his hand back and stuck out her tongue.

As they drove, Rex and Talon made sure to tease Beau for the way the moon was in fact, entirely full.

"You all are lying."

"It's literally reflecting off of your baldass, what do you mean?" Rex yelled.

"Everyone laughed, except for the dixie chick who had completely checked out from the present and stared blankly across the road, as Beau ran a hand over the smooth brown skin of his head. He shook his head, "I'll show you the moon and I promise-"

"Look!" The catgirl cried.

Everyone went silent and followed where she pointed to a tall white road sign reading, 'You are now entering RedZone. Proceed with Caution.'

Lexi gasped, "There's blood on it!"

Rex smacked his lips, "Baby, that's fake."

"Yeah," Ruby added, "just a joke for Halloween." However, her stomach had plummeted ten feet at the sight.

She scanned the shadows and her blood ran cold. Something was very wrong.

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Ooh what could it be?

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