Blood Rebel [COMPLETED]

Chapter Six - Contemplation Before the Offering

The following week Jackie was in an isolation unit. Selene was glad she didn't have to see her, and the freedom she felt knowing that she wasn't going to bump into her when she turned a corner in the theatre was like having wings and being able to fly.

Everything Jackie did, Selene found intensely irritating. If she as much as overheard her talking to one of the other girls, her hackles rose: Jackie's voice alone was enough to set Selene on edge. She knew her reaction was disproportionate, but there was something about Jackie that wasn't quite as straightforward as she had first thought. She often caught Jackie looking at her, watching her, and she found it unnerving.

But there was something else which pulsated through her thoughts with more urgency. It was foremost in her mind and almost, almost, pushed any thoughts of Jackie out entirely. That day, the same day as that week's Bleeding, was her eighteenth birthday. That day, or rather that night, she was supposed to offer herself to Hector. As she sat at her dressing room table, applying her make-up, she thought of him.

"I won't be at the Bleeding tomorrow night," he had told her as she left the house. He had come down to the basement flat, which she shared with the other servants and women he owned. He rarely came downstairs, and something about it had struck Selene as not quite right. He looked unsettled, and almost nervous, shifting as he did from foot to foot, and pulling at the left sleeve of his linen jacket with his right hand. "But come to me afterwards. I shall be waiting for you." His lips turned upwards, forming what was almost a smile, but his eyes remained dead.

It wasn't true that she found him repulsive. She didn't. Had he been a human, she might have found him attractive, but even then he would have been more than twice her age. As it was, he could have been ten times her age; she had no idea how long he had walked the earth. And yet there was a part of her that liked him, admired him.

He could have locked her up. He could have beaten her, whipped her. Some of the other Vampires treated their humans that way, and there were plenty of whispered horror stories shared amongst the girls in the theatre. But he had never laid a hand on her, not in violence. When she had come home the week before, with her cheek red and swollen where Jackie had hit her, he had looked concerned. He had asked what happened, and she had made something up:

"Cecily opened a door. She didn't realise I was standing on the other side."

She was fairly sure he had known she was lying, but he had said nothing. He had put his hand to her cheek, but it was hot, too hot, so he had asked one of the servants fetch some ice, wrapped in a towel, which he had held to her face. She accepted his kindness, partly because she appreciated it, and partly because you let a Vampire do whatever he wanted. If he wanted to hold ice to her swollen cheek, then who was she to object?

But there was one thing that Jackie had said to her before she went down to the isolation units, and the words had plunged somewhere deep within Selene's innards, like a blackened spear piercing her belly, and she recalled it now:

"It sends them wild, you know."

"What?"

"The blood. When they take a Virgin."

Selene had told her to leave, in no uncertain terms. How did Jackie know anyway? Selene didn't even know who owned Jackie, but she knew she wasn't yet eighteen. Presumably she had never been with a Vampire, and she couldn't imagine anyone trusting her enough to confide in her. She came to the conclusion that Jackie had just said it to frighten her. For some reason Jackie had gone out of her way to upset her from the first moment they had met, and Selene wasn't really sure what she had done to deserve it. But now it was too late to put it right and if this antipathy between them continued, she would have to speak to Diana, or Hector, and get Jackie moved to another theatre.

She opened a drawer in her dresser and took out a bottle of vodka and unscrewed the cap. It was hard to get alcohol, and one of the stage hands had bought this for her on the black market. The bottle was dirty with a peeling hand-written label that had the word 'gin' written on it, crossed out and replaced with 'vodka'. She poured some into her empty water glass and drank it down in one. Vodka wasn't her favourite, but it was all he could find. She was grateful for it now, even though it burned her throat as she swallowed and she coughed away the alcohol that clung to her oesophagus.

"Don't drink too much. You won't be able to dance if you do." Cecily poked her head round the door.

"Your creeping up on me is starting to get annoying!"

"Well, maybe you shouldn't leave your door open so often then. I just wanted to see how you were."

"Nervous."

"About tonight?"

"About Hector, yes."

All the girls knew that it was Selene's birthday. They had even sourced a cake, but Selene hadn't wanted to eat any of it. She had completely lost her appetite.

"I just don't see why it's necessary."

"It's another method of control, isn't it? I mean, Hector doesn't have a choice in it either. If the Grand Chamber found out that he didn't go through with it, they would probably destroy him. They control everything, and they'll be paying particular attention to someone like Hector. He already has more power than I imagine they're comfortable with, what with owning all the theatres and running the Bleedings. The Bleedings keep the humans repressed, living in fear: he's an integral part of Vampire-human society. The Grand Chamber have to watch him, keep him on side. It's all just a power struggle and, unfortunately, we're part of it." Cecily rubbed at her nose and then looked down it at Selene.

"Do you think he doesn't want me?" For some reason, Selene found the idea that Hector might not want her upsetting; she had taken it for granted that he did, an assumption that arose because as far as she was concerned every Vampire wanted her: every day she had to avoid rabid fans who tried to grab her and smell her. Some of them even licked at her skin, too afraid of the wrath of Hector Stanley to ever actually take a bite. Selene picked up a make-up brush and began to twirl it in her fingers, round and round, concentrating on it so she didn't have to look at Cecily.

"I am sure he does. What man wouldn't want you?" Cecily smiled, but only for a second. "But he might not. It's an obligation, part of his role as your owner. He might not think of you in that way. But you should make the most of it. It's not as though you'll ever get to sleep with anyone else: especially not a human."

"I met one." Selene was keen to change the subject, and she stilled the brush in her hand, fisting her fingers around it.

"One what?"

"A boy. A man really."

"A human one?" Cecily's jaw dropped open.

"Of course a human one."

"Well, excuse me for not believing you! Surely that's impossible? Where did he come from?"

"He was in the park. He was unbranded."

"Unbranded?"

"I know. It's strange, right?"

"You could say that..."

"He kissed me."

"What? Oh wow. What was it like? What did it feel like?"

"I don't know. It was short. I wasn't expecting it. Anyway, I'll probably never see him again. He ran away."

"He kissed you and ran away? Sounds like a real man." Cecily laughed.

"He didn't run from me! He ran from the Sunlight Guard. I mean, you would, wouldn't you? If you had no brand? No proof of who you were?" She began to twirl the make-up brush again, spinning it over her knuckles.

"I suppose you would run. I wouldn't like to try outrunning the Sunlight Guard though."

"Well he didn't have to. I don't think they were looking for him after all. But it's late and we don't have long. We should get changed."

"Can I have some of that first?" asked Cecily, indicating the vodka. Selene nodded, and Cecily swigged from the bottle and licked her lips. "Thanks."