Blood Lust

Chapter 10

Long before I was born London was a thriving city, one of the biggest in the world. It had towers, amusements, lots of buildings and was teaming with life. When we made it known that vampires existed, all of that changed. London was abandoned for smaller, communal towns and villages. The buildings began to decay, towers and amusements were falling to ruin and just like that London was no longer a thriving part of the world.

Making our way further into the cave to reach the mountains outside of London I thought back to the conversation (albeit one sided) with Helena, what did she mean by special gifts? And why couldn't I trust Tally? So much was going through my head that I hadn't realised Tally was speaking to me.

'Huh, what did you say?'

'I said it looks like a dead end, there's an invisible barrier blocking our way.'

Seeing my confusion he walked up to the barrier and tried to move further, with a lot of strain he finally gave up. I had never seen an invisible barrier before, I had heard that witches had existed at one time, this seemed to be a result of some kind of magic after all, but witches were extinct, no one had even seen one for over 100 years. Just as I was about to speak I remembered what the huntress had said to me. Helena, I don't know if you can hear me or not but we have a problem. There seems to be an invisible barrier within the cave and we can't get through, do you know how to help or of anything that could help us? Within moments I got my answer, or rather an image of a woman, and a name popped into my head. I silently thanked Helena.

'We need to call out for a woman, Lilith.'

Before Tally could ask how I knew this information I put a hand up to stop him speaking and told him to call her name with me 3 times. I felt a little silly, I had never even met a witch and if this didn't work I would look like a lunatic. After the third calling of her name a sudden burst of light filled the cave.

'You called.'

A young woman appeared, she had long, silky blond hair. Her eyes were green with a hint of brown and she was the most beautiful being I had ever laid my eyes on, noticing my staring Tally spoke up.

'Yeah, we need to pass through this cave to get to the mountain but there's a barrier, can you take it away?'

At this request she looked slightly agitated. She stared at the barrier and then looked back at us both.

'There, done. Next time my help won't be free.'

And with that she was gone.

*

After the witch's sudden disappearance I realised that I was hungry, looking in my pack I saw I only had 3 blood bags left, this worried me slightly but surely in the mountains they had donors, didn't they? Shaking my head I took a bag and drank only half, I would have to ration. I offered Tally some but he shook his head, instead he continued through the cave, leaving me to catch up.

Vampire's rarely used their speed, it weakened us if we used it too much which is why it was taking so long to get to the mountains, the cave seemed endless and the conversation was non-existent.

'How do you and the Rogues know the huntress?'

I made sure to not say her name as she never gave it to me verbally.

'Sometimes when we need something done and she is the only one who can do it we call on her. If we need enemies hunted or if we're running low on humans.... Helena is the one we call.'

At this I stopped, it wasn't what I had expected. He had told us he was different to other Rogues but he never said 'if they are running low on humans' he said we, it was possible I was just overthinking about what he said but Helena had said he couldn't be trusted. At that moment I heard another voice, this time it wasn't Helena's but was my fathers. Cheska, I know you can hear me. Listen to me, when you find Milly do not come home until I tell you otherwise. An attack has occurred since you left and I don't think it's a coincidence, I think Tally set us up. 5 families were found in the centre of the village, butchered. He then sent an image of the human families who had been killed, I had never seen anything so horrid in my life, their heads had been ripped from their bodies, they had teeth marks all over them. Their stomachs had been ripped open and their hearts were missing. I know you're still with Tally, but get away from him as soon as you can! Use him to help you find Milly, then when you can get away from him. There's a small cabin just north of the mountain, it has been spelled by a witch so that only my family can see it. Ill show you a map, follow it and stay there until I say otherwise. The panic in his voice was nothing like I had heard before, Ronan did not panic or worry about anything, but the way these families had been killed and so soon after we left the village? He was right, Helena was right, I couldn't trust Tally.