Page 19

Ruby

It feels like I have been underground for weeks, months even.

I realize it has only been days when Rat Man brings me coffee and sandwiches and tells me what has happened in the war since I’ve been taken.

“We’re gonna win this war,” he says to me, his tiny eyes gleaming. “Already, we’ve made gains on several fronts, hitting them where it hurts them the most, their pockets.”

I try to eat something but my mouth is too painful. I break small bits of food off and put it in my mouth, sucking on it.

“People think them bloodsuckers care about blood only, but that ain’t it at all. They want money, all of it. They live for hundreds of years and in the banks their money grows, off the backs of us humans.”

I can feel his hatred.

I have never heard Luc talk about money or his possessions. He once referred in passing to his family land but I have no idea what it looks like, or what kind of house he has there. He has talked of the flowers only and the hills, the way the wind blows when there is a storm coming. When he talks about it, he grows sad and it puts him in a melancholic frame of mind. It has made me see how much he has lost. The longer he has lived, the more he has lost, in terms of people he has loved and lives he has seen pass him by. But cars, money, planes? It isn’t important to him at all.

Not that I’d dream of saying anything like that to Rat Man.

“They think we are weak and dumb, but we will show them!”

Once the coffee has cooled, I gingerly sip from the cup. It burns my lips and I wince. I crave the taste but it hurts to swallow, everything hurts. But I know I need my strength. The thought of getting out of here fuels me to try to drink some more and eat the bread even though I’d rather not.

The moment I am above ground, Luc will come to rescue me and who knows how many shifters will descend upon him. Their plan is to capture him, torture him. I have heard them talking, they will deprive him of blood and burn him with fire. I’ve told them he is weakest during the day and their plan is to bring me up in the early afternoon, when the sun is at its brightest. They don’t know that Luc is able to handle the heat of the sun on account of his age and experience. He is exceptionally strong, even for a vampire, a fact he once shared plainly with me, not bragging, just stating the obvious.

But even he would not be able to defeat the shifters when they jump him in the forest. I said I would not try to help him but I have to do what I can. I can’t lead him into his death.

After breakfast, they take me to a rudimentary bathroom where there is a bucket and some bottled water. A piece of a mirror shows me what I look like. I am shocked at my appearance, my face all mottled with bruises, swollen and cut up. My hair is matted with dry blood and there is a cut on my cheek that will leave a scar.

I have never been vain about my appearance but I have been aware that some things came my way because some thought me attractive. Boys gave me attention, men helped me out. Would Luc have been interested in me if my hair was thin and my bum was wide? Well, it wasn’t but looking at myself in the mirror, I see a broken girl. Ugly. Perhaps I will never be pretty again.

I close my eyes and turn away.

Nobody would want me like this.

But I think of my mother and the poor nurse, who is scared to death of what will happen to her children and I know I have to go through with it.

I wash my face as best I can and wince every time I touch it. My ribs hurt, my arm is throbbing painfully and I wish I could climb into my bed at home, pull my lovely duvet over my head and sink into the deepest sleep.

Perhaps never wake up.

There is banging on the door.

“Come on out!”

I limp to the door and step back when I see a crowd of men waiting for me.

“Shit, he’s gonna come back for this?” Someone jeers at the back. They all start laughing, taunting me. “Don’t you wanna put on some make up?” Someone calls out to me.

One of the men takes my arm. “Ignore them,” he says curtly. The corridor is narrow and dark. It looks like it has been dug with shovels. Makeshift lights hang from the top. We walk for a while, then we stop. There is a metal ladder in the wall and I’m told to climb. It takes a while because I’m weak and my left side won’t move well. Something’s wrong with my leg, it hurts every time I lift it.

When I get to the top, there is a trapdoor and it is opened from the outside. A hand stretches towards me, I take it and I’m pulled out into the daylight. I can’t believe it, I’m standing in the forest. When they close the door and cover it with shrubbery, I can’t see where it is at all.

“Ok, men, take your positions,” comes the call from the leader of the pack. They fall back to hide behind the trees. I sense there are even more hidden out of sight.

The leader turns to me, a little apologetic. “I have to hurt you, sorry. He feels your pain, they say.”

“Please don’t,” I beg him. I don’t think I can take it anymore.

“I won’t hit you again,” he says and pulls out a knife.

He comes closer and moves so quickly that I have no time to prepare myself. He cuts my upper arm, from the shoulder down, I feel the blade slice through my skin and scream out in pain.

I can’t help myself, falling to my knees. Nobody comes to help me, they all stand there watching me, writhing in pain, bleeding into the grass, dying for all they care. I’d never hated shifters as much as I did then. Mercifully, I blacked out right there and the pain stopped.

But someone came to wake me up, shaking my other arm.

“Don’t sleep, bitch, your time will come but for now, you gotta be awake.”

The pain in my arm is dull now but I can feel it.

With my good arm, I feel around my neck for the silver chain my father gave me for my eighteenth birthday. When I feel it is intact, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Time passes and then I feel Luc coming closer.

They sense it too and without a word being said or any signal being given, the forest around me grows alive with growling and snarls. Most of the men have changed into wolves, huge beasts and frightening jowls. I look up at the sky, parts of which I can see through the trees but he doesn’t come from there.

Instead, there is a tree close to me and I hear him whispering to me.

“Ruby!”

I pull the necklace from my neck as the wolves jump from the bushes, ready to pounce on Luc. I put the dog whistle in my mouth and blow as loudly as I can, not sure what to expect. Almost immediately, the wolves start howling, but others are still coming. I can feel my strength fading away and I close my eyes as darkness mercifully returns.

When I wake up again, I am somewhere soft.

In a bed.

I blink a few times and try to make sense of it. There is a lot of pain though, my arm hurts.

I try to sit up.

“Lie back,” Luc says. “Rest.”

His voice soothes me and I lie down again.

“Where am I?”

“You’re safe. How do you feel?”

“Fantastic,” I say. “Never better.”

“You look it,” he says and smiles at me.

His smile makes me feel warm and safe.

“We got away then?”

“That dog whistle of yours is a magic weapon,” he jokes.

It hurts to talk and I close my eyes again.

“Here,” Luc says, “Drink this. Some painkillers.”

I swallow the pills gratefully. “My mother…” I say.

“Already on it,” he says. “Rest now.”

I lean back.

As I sink into sleep, I mumble to him, “Stay, don’t go.”

I hear him say, “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Promise?” I think I say.

He comes to sit next to me on the bed and carefully, I nestle into him.

Then I fall into the deepest sleep.