15: Blood Oath

Gabriel leads the way through the maze like halls. I don’t ask questions, I don’t say snarky remarks. I remain quiet and thank God that my feet take step after step and my legs remain strong enough to carry me.

We walk into a large elegant ballroom. The spacious room is beyond elegant with rich jewel tones from ceiling to floor and intricate patterns from the curtains to the tapestries that line the walls. But, no matter how beautiful the room something very ugly resides inside.

Phillip, almighty vampire master sits in his throne. It’s just a stupid chair, but he draps himself in it like he’s bored and unamused, too prissy for company. Vampire slaves stand at his sides, soldiers. Human slaves, too stupid for their own good, bleed out into a large crystal glass that Phillip tightly clutches in his hand. Phillip’s eyes go from the glass to Gabriel and I. A snap of his fingers sends his bleeding servants away and now I have the unwanted attention fully on myself.

Slowly, almost mockingly, he brings the glass to his lips. He savors the taste as he takes a long drag of the thick liquid. He even goes as far to make eye contact with me over the rim of the glass, silently saying ‘this could be you in the near future’, filling my glass.

“Hazel, meet Phillip.” Gabriel says in what is the lamest greeting ever.

As if I didn’t already know who Phillip was. I’m just hoping that he didn’t know who I was. “I would say it’s nice to meet you, but it’s not.” I say into the eerily quiet room.
He lets out a harsh, rough laugh. It sounds forced and I can’t help but to cringe as if I just heard nails on a chalkboard. Disturbing. “Gabriel has told me about your bluntness. Braveness is looked upon greatly here.”

I’m sure it is. There’s probably a reason behind it, something like braveness makes the blood taste sweeter. I fight back a smile at my own joke and remain silent and what I hope is to be perceived as calm.

“You’re tired, angry, you want answers but maybe you should rest before we discuss my proposition.” Phillip says and I couldn’t be more furious.

“I’m fine.” There are those words again, slipping out between my lips so easily. “Wide awake. I would rather you just spit it out so I can go home. What is it you want from me?”

Phillip smiles and I can’t tell if it’s a true smile or it's on his face to cover up his anger. “I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time, Hazel and the best option for you to repay your debt is a blood oath.” Just as I open my mouth, suck in a breath to reject the offer, Phillip raises his hand politely cutting me off. “But not bond to myself, to Gabriel.”

“I will do no such thing.” I shout in disgust. A blood oath? No. My head whips to Gabriel. He flashes me a smile as his golden eyes stare intently at me. He knew. All along he knew what Phillip was planning.

“You act as if you have a choice,” Phillip’s voice snaps me back into reality. “You see Hazel, you're being commissioned and you will accept.”

“I wouldn’t call a blood oath commissioned.”

“You will work for me for your recklessness in killing one of my own.” Phillip snaps.

“I didn’t kill him on purpose. I’m sorry my self preservation kicked in at your expense.”

“And what about the little concoctions you’ve been brewing? Have you been handing those out like it’s candy. Taking our food supply away, poisoning them against us.” He steps closer to me, silently threatening me with more punishable accusations.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” I spit out.

“I don’t know how stupid you are and I don’t care to find out. I don’t have time or the patience to get out of you what I need. I would rather just turn you and force you to do what I want, but Gabriel has insisted you’d be more useful alive.”

I flash Gabriel a glare. Creep. “And what does this oath entail? What is it that I’ll be bound to do?”

“Find a witch.” Phillip says as if it's simple.

My head goes back and forth between Phillip and Gabriel, “you’re kidding me, right? Why can’t you find her yourself?”

“We’ve tried. She’s very smart, you see. And special. She pledged herself to a coven that’s closely affiliated to me and then disappeared, too scared to commit. Even if she is frightened of the objective of the coven she is still a key component. Her name is Tessa.”

It couldn’t be? What are the odds that I know a witch by the name of Tessa who was supposed to join a coven, got scared and ran. Death, so much death. The prophetic dream. “The end of the world.” I mutter.

“I see you remember her.” He flashes me a smile and I realise just how uncoincidental this all is.

This blood sucking bastard set me up and I fell right into the palm of his hand. The vamp in the cemetery had been sent to get me. That very night set a path in motion. Either I would be tortured and then most likely turned or indebted like I am now.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the end of the world,” Phillip goes on talking unfazed by my wandering mind, “more like the rise of the vampires. And you can join us Hazel. Vampires and witches working together. Climb the social ladder. The air is much more pleasurable up here.”

“You don’t even breathe, so how would you know.”

“Don’t patronize me girl.” His hand that isn’t grasping his glass soars through the air and slaps aggressively across my cheek. “Shall I change my mind and have you bound to me instead? You do know what happens when vampire blood is ingested, right?”

We glare at each other. His cold evil eyes stare into mine. He snaps his fingers and one of the soldier slaves approaches with an empty crystal glass. Gabriel instantly holds out his arm and before I can blink Phillip slashes Gabreil’s forearm with his fingernail.

Blood oozes out of the wound and spills into the glass. I sway on my feet, woozy at the sight of blood, at the sight of blood that’s intended to be ingested...by me.
Within minutes, the glass is half full and Gabriel’s wound is already stitching itself back together. Phillip takes the glass and holds it out to me, a smirk twitching the corner of his lips, because he knows that I’ll take Gabriel’s blood over his.

The aftermath is much less gruesome, Hopefully Gabriel’s blood is less potent because he’s a half breed. And then there’s the part of me that wants to believe that he wouldn’t take advantage of me like Phillip no doubt would.

With a sneer on my face, I snatch the glass out of his hand. I was hoping to spill it, but it’s so thick that even the swish it makes in the glass doesn't even come close to the lip. I stare at both of them and debate about smashing it on the ground and making a run for it, but who am I kidding. I wouldn’t even make it to the door.
Nope, the only way out is bottoms up.

I bring the glass to my lips trying not to smell of the liquid inside. I try to tell myself that’s all it is. Liquid, not blood. Gabriel urges me with wide eyes and a small jut of his chin. Phillip on the other hand only glares impatiently at me.

It’s an out of body experience. I don’t remember tipping the glass, pouring the contents down my throat and swallowing it. I do however, experience the foul taste and the burn it leaves behind.

“Smart girl.” Phillip says with what I believe to be a genuine smile. “You can stay the night. Gabriel will bring you back...when you’re ready.” With that said, he walks away, leaving me dumbfounded.

I shout at his retreating back, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

I instantly regret it, falling for his games, drinking vampire blood, Gabriel’s blood. The vampire with an angel’s name. The vampire who I refuse to find attractive, but constantly find myself getting lost in his golden gaze.

What the hell did I just get myself into?