18

CHAPTER 18: The Red Running River

Safe to say that I ran. But in the direction most would believe, the second her fingers had spat out droplets of blood towards me, I knew not to let one land, every molecule, every plasma bond and essence in her blood was toxic poison that would sizzle and fry through my skin like liquid magma. I never thought a creature like her could be made, I couldn’t kill with a sword, I couldn’t meet flesh with a gun even if I had one, even if I had the bullets, they’d sink through her and out the other side. To capture such a thing is to first summon it. Mission accomplished.

Now I needed her on my side. The one thing blood can’t meddle with is fire or water. I didn’t have an inch of fire around me, but water, that would be sufficient. I run and dive straight into it. Run, do anything but fly, if creature against her could. I push through the water like I’m one with it and just pray that it moves with me. That the environment doesn’t move to please the predator, but moves to protect the prey.

I felt droplets move, she had the stamina, the ability and probably the age to do this. I choke in horror, sinking down in the water by a mechanism that should never be possible yet it was. The poison seeping through an opening in the water that makes every image blur and in that moment, fear sang through my bones, bristling them with it. Taunting them with its presence and mockery singing against my ears and echoing it like a lyric or beat.

I felt that burning sensation grasp my tongue, tickle my eyes as the droplets of blood she wanted to slap against my skin burns or rather it boils in front of me. It sings like a canary, as does her painful, delicious scream as I push up and touch the surface like a rocket to space.

I land on my feet in front of her screaming form, her blood-filled hands against her red head, ”WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”I stare at her screeching form. Unable to describe what I did, but right now I don’t care.

“Run the red river, sing it like a hurricane, make them breathe in a tsunami. I order you to drown out and send Martin Julius far from me. That is my reward, my request and my riddle, dear Red riding hood.” I say to her, I was the wolf and she was the cape of the girl so innocent in a story too original for the likes of the creature before me.

She stares at my feet, ”Belittling me, hurting my blood when all I want is to touch skin. I want skin, I want bone and flesh and the ability to hold and be held. Is that too much to ask for, wolf or demon? Whatever you are?”I stare at her, moving around her.

“I am no demon.”

"The lens cannot see, the ears cannot hear if I wish it.”So, was she telling me the cameras and live entertainment in here was off. What lies? What fiddling, little lies, I could hear the audio dial louder, I could hear the camera lens narrow. The thing with being underwater in an adapting, unpredictable environment is that getting good images underwater was bloody impossible. Unless they had the technology to do so and if anything, we’re an underdeveloped race.

Dropping with the water from the pool, I watch her move while I knew this would buy me some time and perhaps even points in staying away from Martin, whilst giving him a sense of ‘survival of the fittest’.

Let’s see how strong you are against the taste of blood, little doggy.

When her presence moves from the cave, I take gulps of air, almost stumbling back. I move towards the mouth of the caves grabbing onto indentations in the stone wall, climbing up and out and flinching at the sound of sudden screams that echo like lyrics in a song. Only this was no venturous melody I wanted in my mind. Leaping over logs, I run in the sheer opposite direction from the masculine roars and horror of what I saw in my mind, to what I pause in my rippling run to look at. Darkness struck the sky when I see what the creature can do. What she will do just to for,late something so unworldly.

Then I recognise one thing.

She’s not a figment of my imagination.

Maybe she was free before her life in this dome as a monster that will never see the true light of day, or the true shade of the night. But she’s at a stand still, locked in a dungeon and treated like a predator. I watched her cry blood tears at whatever foolish, maybe moronic thing I had done in the water.

But this...it was something else entirely. It moves like a Titan in the night, luminescent lights were on it because it surely would have been love entertainment at the red running river that turned into a choking storm of crimson. Looked like every vampire’s dream, but every non-undead being’s nightmare. She didn’t need to keep her hands raised as it destroyed and choked everything in its path.

I couldn’t match an expression, whether she liked her role in this, or if her shackles tightened considerably because of me. Because of my commands, after one win, she’s indebted like a crimson genie in a bottle and I felt it in the air as if someone had commanded me, had won over me and then used that for whatever they wanted.

Like a puppet on strings.

Only this time, I was pulling hers.

I felt the dark guilt seep in, but something else, something that recognised when pain and torture, when revenge and ruins played its part in fate intertwined with known, purposeful decision. It was a decision that I made, to use her and her power just to get Martin off track, just to beat him in this too. Or I’m insane enough to want to see him struggle, to see him choke on blood, even if it wasn’t his own. I wondered if that made me sick, or if I was sickening in the eyes of others. I shouldn’t have cared, right? Hearing those screams, I couldn’t track who, I could only hear what I’d ordered.

I purse my lips, stepping backwards, only to freeze at the suddenness of change in the air.

“We employed her first,Darling.”

I still in my tracks. Hearing and seeing more than one pair of eyes, more than the group that clearly lured the creature there. I watch slowly as the woman of blood moves languidly back, the crimson glow of her shining through as the screams I heard suddenly switched off, “We paid a pretty price just for that to work.” Hearing the one Alpha I found as repulsive as his Luna, Marcel stood behind me with Martin, Reina, Robert...and devastatingly others who looked like they were watching me.

“You told the creature to drown your own mate?” Alpha Kai Torrence sounds almost pissed, looking to me with disgust when I meet his eyes, his deep ginger hair tied back at the top. He tilts his head at me, “You are unfortunately young. Martin deserves better.” Well, he just became a member of the ‘I will kill you one day’ list.

Torrence steps forward, tilting his head, “You believe you are the first little pup to step onto her tiny podium and demand superiority? Demand power where fighting in the big leagues is not the same as working for them, Celestine. You can use your ‘Agent’ title against guards who are still employed for an organisation you are so brutally loyal to. But look at what they reveal when you are no longer a part of their family?” He uses the word ‘family’ as a way to elicit something in me, but I never saw them as family, being loyal doesn’t hold that definition, or that meaning.

I stare at him, wondering if he was overstepping boundaries for a reason, “You believe the council are the ‘big leagues’?”

He smiles slowly, “No, I just wanted to test whether you did. On a technical level, they’re advanced. Any other level, you wouldn’t have a clue.” He was clearly on Martin’s side in this regard.

I stare at him, “Have you found your mate yet?” I wonder.

He sneers, “Watch it.” Martin moves slowly forward, hand raised out.

I trail my eyes to Martin’s piercing, indecipherable silver ones that hold emotion he tries desperately hard to hide, “No matter your status, Kai, you will learn how wrong you are in saying he deserves better. Age and maturity, is that what you want to call it? That I don’t have the years for wisdom or the attuned nature you so-called have. I didn’t stop for the screams, you idiots.” I smirk when I see just what they’re standing on, and right as I spoke, this time they scream for real as tectonic plate movement causes their ground level to crack and drop like a broken elevator on the hundredth fall as I wave down to their screaming fall.

I sigh, “I honestly thought that would be more dignifying.” I mention.

Crimson next to me shrugs, ”I did as well. Do not forget your promise.”Her hiss-like voice snakes around me like a shackle of mind and metaphors.

I wave her off, “Yes, I will. As you were.” I tell her, knowing it would have taken a lot to shift that much ground, moving the toxic waters of distasteful, mutational blood cells that could harm anything touching its path was pulled from the core of the fabricated maze, or whatever this place is.

I stare at the newly forming ground that follows before me, “Honestly, does no one watch the documentaries they make of this place.” I mumble, moving through lines of trees, wondering if the trees really would be the safest sleeping arrangements in a place like this, but based on my surroundings, I knew there was nothing and no one within a mile radius.

The promise I made to the creature, her freedom, whether I could truly give it or not, was worth more than whatever Martin clearly tried bargaining her with.

“My mate was in that group.”

I still with an annoyance flustering up my spine, “Seriously, how the hell are you people coming out of nowhere, I just checked the perimeter.” I growl, moving into an attack mode when I still at the sight of the girl I never believed would actually approach me.

She stands there, with a backpack, looking to be in an element she understands, “Beta of the Torrence clan.” She confirms, Alice her name was. Her blue eyes look from me to a small bonfire created to cook up whatever animal was caught.

“That’s the idea of a place designed the way this one was, your senses are disrupted. When you think you have a scent, it’s a manipulation or a fabrication or whatever your impulsive brain wants to call it, Celestine. It’s all just another illusion.” She sounds bitter, probably about the Glass of Dreams and Nightmares, I wasn’t so surprised by this revelation.

I look to her, I knew something must have happened, but I didn’t see the shy, quiet beta show her backbone, even now, “How have you hid from your mate?” I ask her, almost hesitant to ask.

She studies me, “You truly believe this is my first year doing this?” She questions me.

I stare at her, not knowing just what to say, she takes a slow seat, a log to prop her up while she crosses her legs by the strange-looking fire, for some reason I couldn’t feel it, the warmth was there, but any kind of hidden connection wasn’t. Like it wasn’t real, like it wouldn’t burn anything, it just exerted warmth. A safety mechanism by the looks of it. I take a slow seat down, “It isn’t?” I murmur.

She side-eyes me, rolling a stick between her fingers, “You know you’re not the only girl to hate her status and title. I use to be just like you, once upon a time. When I had fight, when I was just me and not a mother too.” She notes. I tense, she was a mother, most likely to the Beta.

She stares at the fire, “I have a five-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. Both of them taken cared for by Omegas in our designated pack. I see them once a week, without Warner, Kai’s Beta.” She explains. The most she’s spoken to me in all the moments I’ve seen her in that ridiculous room or when she fought with her Beta in that hotel room.

I purse my lips, “Does he abuse you?” I ask her.

She stares at me, “He use to. Not since I announced my first pregnancy though. From then on, he was soft. Caressing. And hasn’t changed since. They say it’s a primal shock to the heart, when a man identifies as something else, something more than that. Even if we don’t get to see our children often. When a man becomes a father, more responsibility is sent through the system. We all fight, we women all show defiance against it before the inevitable situates itself in your path. Then again, no one figure out the illusion of our males being cheaters. You shocked many of the women here, who got to start the games naturally, where you were taken in your sleep. It was Martin’s idea, apparently, just thought you should know that before you go thinking that I’m just another bitch telling you that life is this way and you should just make your bed and sleep in it.” She gestures to me with the stick.

I don’t know whether to feel relieved, or pity her or question why she gave up.

I stare at the fake fire building silhouettes around us, “Why the hell did you give in?” I ask her.

Her deep blue eyes penetrate mine, “Because I had to look at where my life was going and while sometimes I find I wish I could have a do over, I moved down this pathway, I might as well stick with it. This is our culture, Celestine. I admire you, so many of the women here do, but we do live in a world where men rule it, more so than women, and sometimes, it is better to come home to a family, food, shelter and purpose, than going nowhere.” She sighs, leaning back in her seat.

I stare at her, “You’re just like Serena, you just don’t broadcast a smile when you’ve accepted an inferior position.”

She leans forward, “You rebel against the council, against Alpha Martin Julius, against the elders, do you think you’re the first to do that? Do you think you’ll be the last? Generations of women have been in your shoes, Celestine. You’re live entertainment today, but like the rest of us, behind closed doors, you’re stuck in another argument, another wretched conversation about propriety, and professionalism. About being the good trophy on your mate’s arm.” She mutters the last part.

I stare at her, long and hard, “You’re not even running, and that’s bored the council enough to make your mate run circles looking for you just to keep the public giggling and the money rolling in while you sit before a fake fire and sing Kumbaya.”

“They send a few creatures my way every now and then.”

Oh, wasn’t she just a bloody riot.

“I really thought you were different.” I whisper, shaking my head and looking to the distance.

“If we had been purely animalistic. We’d die out quicker than we do already. You rejected him, Celestine, and he’s still fighting for you, but no man will let that go unpunished. Especially when it was done publicly. And Alpha Martin didn’t stop you running to the dancer’s aid when you blamed your Beta for not telling you everything in which it is your job to already know. An Alpha female gets far more leeway than a Beta female, and I am speaking from experience, my father was an Alpha before Torrence took over and the man I made a father was the one to rip my brother’s throat out and gut my mother. So, yeah, unless you want to tell me Martin’s torn apart your family, then building relations between us is not applicable here.” She says to me, telling me a piece of vital information. She’ll always hate him, at least a part of her always will.

Except the undertone of something in there made me listen closely to her calm heartbeat, “You don’t sound overly mad about such a vile thing.”

She stares at me, “There are worser things than being the mate of a high rank in our managerial, cultural systems.”

“Like what?” I question, but I never got an answer because of the change in the shadows of the environment around us and she tensed up the way I did, seeing what we saw in the distance.

“Run. Run.” She repeats, grabbing my hand and together we run. She lets me go, seeing the mere fact I could run at her speed.

“We must fight it, not deflect.” I tell her swiftly as she points left.

“Confuse it, then. It’s alone.” She whispers, before sprinting left while I spin right and feel the mutated vampire on my tail, following me instead of Alice. I spin around, about to send a harsh roundhouse kick straight for the vampire, only to still in horror as the mutated vampire has the face of...Elias.

It made me still.

For just one singular second.

And that was all it needed before it sunk its fangs into my neck, and I scream.

Because I know it’s all over when a toxic vampire inserts a lethal bite into a wolf’s flesh.