Page 10 of Blood Day (Blood Alliance #7)

Cedric

Lily’s ashen features haunted the edge of my peripheral vision. She did her best to remain upright against the wall while everyone executed today’s assignment on the mats. However, I could taste her pain on my tongue.

I’d almost dismissed her to the hallway to join her former partner, but the notion of sending her off with the medics didn’t sit well with me.

The other prospect would live, assuming the medical staff decided her test scores marked her as worthy enough for recovery.

Given how poorly I’d graded Lily in my class, her injuries might be overlooked or left to fester.

It was a risk I refused to take.

So I forced her to stay despite knowing she was suffering horribly inside. It was a testament to her inner strength that she managed to remain standing.

By the time the final prospects stepped up to the mat, my patience had hit an all-time low. So I only allowed them four moves each before I dismissed the class .

I nearly called for Lily to remain behind, but I caught her determined movements from the corner of my eye and decided to see what she had in mind first.

Everyone left quickly, none of them noticing or caring about her slow movements.

That was how this new world worked.

Because the vampires and lycans in charge had devised a mechanism that pitted humans against each other, making them compete for the chance of becoming an immortal, all to the detriment of their former camaraderie.

It hadn’t always been this way.

Mortals used to work together, or at least seek companionship from one another.

But not now.

Now they didn’t even care that Lily was likely going to die from her internal injuries. None of them searched for the other prospect either, her life already forgotten.

What I’d done today was cruel, but that didn’t belittle its importance.

Lily needed to understand that her pursuit of a Vigil existence would never come to fruition. Humans fought against each other now. There was no mercy. And her petite size made her an easy target, one her fellow mortals would use against her without a second thought.

Her partner tonight had beaten the shit out of her without batting an eye.

And the other female’s sparring mate had been even worse.

This wasn’t the existence she truly desired.

Something she now knew, thanks to tonight’s lesson.

I’d expected her to grab her bag and leave with the others, heading back to her room with the hopes of maybe requesting a schedule change.

I wouldn’t have allowed her to get that far .

But that’d been my expectation after her failure tonight.

Instead, she surprised me by staying behind and heading over to her mat.

Where she proceeded to pull off her pants with one hand—something she clearly struggled to do.

And then she began the painstaking process of removing her shirt with a broken arm.

Her hiss of pain was quickly swallowed, her determination momentarily striking me speechless.

Then she slowly went to her knees in a submissive pose.

I gaped at her, stunned by her obedience and determination. That couldn’t have been easy for her—something she confirmed as a violent shudder nearly sent her sideways to the mat. But her muscles locked, and she closed her eyes as she gritted her teeth through the pain.

“If I told you to repeat the fight sequence right now, you’d do it, wouldn’t you?” I voiced the thought out loud because I was stunned by her kneeling form.

Rather than reply, she stole a deep breath and started to stand. When her feet went into the fighting stance, I darted forward to grab her hips and stop her.

“It wasn’t a request or a demand,” I said, my voice colder than I’d intended. But I was pissed that she’d almost begun the routine—a routine that would surely damage her more because it would require sharp movements with her fractured arm.

Her body trembled against mine, her bottom lip disappearing between her teeth.

A coppery scent filled the air in the next moment, the fragrance drawing my focus to her mouth. She was trying to mask her pain because that was what she’d been taught. And in doing so, she’d bitten her lip so hard that it bled.

I wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her against me and used my free hand to tug her lip free. She flinched, her eyes going unfocused for a second, then she blinked repeatedly as though trying to stay awake.

The injury to her head was worse than I’d suspected. I could see the agony in her dilated pupils and hear the internal damage to her abdomen and lungs through her raspy breaths.

“My delicate little flower,” I murmured, leaning down to lick the blood from her lip. She shivered, her reaction vibrating every inch of me. “Are you strong enough to put your clothes back on?”

She swallowed. “Y-yes.”

She didn’t sound very sure. Actually, she sounded almost mortified by the request. Maybe because it’d taken so much effort to undress. “Try for me,” I said, my tongue tracing her lip again to steal the fresh trickle of blood. “I need to send a message, then we’ll go.”

I didn’t elaborate on where or what I meant. Instead, I gently released her, but my hands hovered nearby in case she started to fall again.

She swayed a little, her eyes squinting closed for a long beat.

I waited.

Then she blew out a breath and righted herself.

When her eyes opened, they went a little wide at seeing me still right in front of her. Then she turned toward her clothes and showed me the redness forming on her back.

She’d hit that mat hard.

Her balance shifted as she tried to bend and pick up her pants, her knees giving out beneath her.

I caught her again, this time lifting her into the air and carrying her to my desk. I didn’t bother chastising her for her inability to dress herself. She’d tried and she was in pain .

Because of my lesson, I thought darkly.

She swayed a little as I set her on the wood surface, her gaze seeming to go in and out of focus. “Do you know why I changed your partner in tonight’s class?” I asked her.

She started to nod, then stopped to swallow, another of those convulsions going through her. “To show me I’m too weak for this.”

I frowned, not liking the way that sounded. “No. I wanted you to understand that perfect form means nothing against someone twice your size.”

I didn’t like to think of her as weak , just delicate. Which wasn’t her fault.

This society had ensured that she remained petite.

She was strong for her size, and her determination was admirable, but she couldn’t win against someone like Prospect Six Hundred and Forty-Two. It was a simple matter of size and strength.

But that didn’t make her weak.

“Strength isn’t always physical,” I told her softly before going to retrieve her clothes.

She remained silent as I started dressing her. I worked on her pants first, noting the bruises forming on her legs from trying to kick her partner tonight. It distracted me from admiring the apex between her thighs, my focus too consumed by the blemishes on her skin.

Just as the sunken quality of her abdomen and the bruising along her ribs kept me from enjoying the sight of her full breasts.

She had to be in unspeakable pain.

Which again was my fault for allowing tonight’s lesson to occur.

I wouldn’t take it back.

She needed to understand how this world worked.

It was a distinction I shouldn’t be trying to teach her, as her life would end soon regardless of that knowledge, but I felt compelled to help her in this small way.

Sighing, I tugged the white cotton over her head and then carefully guided her upper limbs through the arms of the shirt. She remained silent while I worked, only slightly flinching when I touched her wounded wrist and forearm.

Definitely broken , I thought, noting the swelling spiraling from her wrist up to her elbow.

It would take her months to heal from these injuries.

And that was only if the medics allowed it.

Grinding my teeth, I stepped away from her to retrieve my tablet from the desk.

I didn’t even really think about my plans; I just selected her name in the Blood University records and opened the off-site assignment form.

Submitting it would allow me to take her off the university grounds for a day.

No one would question the request, as the staff here often borrowed humans for personal reasons. Some wanted a temporary maid for a day. Others wanted a fuck toy or a blood bag or both.

It didn’t matter.

Taking a student for a test-drive was considered to be one of the few perks of working at Blood University.

It was something I’d never done.

But I’d only been instructing this course for a few years.

Before that, I’d been playing in Silvano’s political games.

This was my sabbatical.

Or escape, really.

And now I had a human pet to play with for the next twenty-four hours.

Under “Reason for off-site assignment,” I wrote physical training .

Then I hit Send and went to retrieve my shoulder bag from the closet. I slipped my tablet inside and picked up Lily’s bag and her shoes on my way back to her.

She still had that unfocused look about her, making me wonder if she even noticed my movements as I slid the socks and shoes onto her feet.

“Can you walk?” I asked when I finished.

She tried to nod and almost fell in the process, causing me to snort.

“I didn’t think so.” She’d expended the last of her strength by trying to placate me with her submission on the mat.

Shifting the bags to one arm, I used my opposite to lift her off the desk, then situated her into a cradle-like position against my chest.

“Close your eyes and try not to scream,” I told her. “This may hurt a little.”

I didn’t often phase while holding others, and I wasn’t sure how the abrupt movement would impact her injuries.

She clung to my dress shirt as I engaged my ability, taking us from the classroom to the parking lot in a literal blink of an eye.

Teleportation was a unique ability among my kind, often only adapted through certain bloodlines and perfected with age. I was the only vampire at the university here with the skill, which explained Lily’s wide eyes as she gaped at our new surroundings.

Rather than explain, I used my foot to wake up the sensor beneath my car. The door of my two-seater coupe hissed open in an upward angle to reveal the bucket seat inside.

I set Lily on the leather and tossed our bags into the small area by her feet. She trembled, clearly uncertain about my intentions. But she didn’t speak .

I guided the belt across her to buckle her in, as I suspected she’d never been in a car before. There weren’t any excursions on her record, which meant she’d never left the university grounds. And driving training wasn’t an offered course.

I shut the door.

Walked around the car.

And settled beside her.

“Ready to go for a ride, darling?” I asked as the engine roared to life before us.

She swallowed, her big blue-green eyes glancing at me with a mixture of fear and intrigue.

I studied her for a moment, my gaze falling to her puffy lip before meeting her eyes once more. “A weak human wouldn’t even be conscious right now, Lily.”

Her brow crinkled at my nickname for her.

But I didn’t explain it.

Instead, I lifted my hand to gently cup her cheek. “Tonight was a demonstration of how perfect technique can fail you, not a lesson in weakness.” I drew my thumb along her lower lip. “Now I’m going to show you what it feels like to be strong.”

By giving her something I shouldn’t.

And revealing a secret that could cost us both her life.

But there was no other choice.

Either I did this and she survived…

Or I did nothing and she died.

I wasn’t ready for her to wilt just yet.

So instead, I’d help her blossom once more.

Into a new kind of flower—one infused by immortal blood.