Page 61 of Blood Day: Part Two

No one moved or replied, all of us well versed in this exercise.

The lycan grinned. “Pity.” He took a seat behind the driver—who was also a lycan—and the bus began to move.

With no sign or word from Cedric at all.

I’m leaving,I told him.Not that you can hear me.

More silence.

Just me and Six and a bus full of prospects, all holding our graduation gowns in our laps, as we headed toward our fate.

Blood Day.

* * *

The bus ride was only maybe an hour or two long.

And it dumped us in a sandy field where we were told to stand silently in lines.

I stood behind Six, my heart in my throat. Every mile had hurt a little more because it further drove home that Cedric wasn’t coming.

Which I already knew.

But experiencing the truth hurt more than conceptualizing it.

My throat burned, my mind rippling with sadness, anger, and a myriad of other emotions.Fear. Fear of what had happened to Cedric. Fear of what was about to happen to me.

That sensation only worsened as my line started to move again, this time with a vampire at the helm.

Marching.

Marching.

Marching.

No words were spoken. No explanation. Just a gesture toward stairs that led upward to some sort of plane. It was massive with cages inside.

Cages for us.

I followed Six into one. We stood at the back with our shoulders touching while others filled the space in front of us.

“Sit,” one of the lycans barked.

Everyone inside obeyed him instantly, then the doors were slammed shut as prospects were corralled into a second cage.

Then a third.

And finally the fourth.

Roughly twenty-five prospects per cage, some holding a little more. Because it was my bus loaded into the plane.

Where are the others?I wondered. There were over a thousand in my year. However, Cedric had once mentioned that not everyone would attend Blood Day.

“There are ten Blood University locations throughout the globe,” he’d said a few weeks ago.“And the Blood Day field only holds about a thousand of you. Thus, only a percentage of your class will actually qualify. The rest go directly to their fates.”

“And me?” I’d wondered aloud. “Will I go to Blood Day?”

“Most likely, yes,” he’d told me. “Your scores are among the highest in your prospect year. At a minimum, they’ll add you for dramatic purposes.”