Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
That makes her sober up quick. She forces a smile on her face. “I was just kidding. It was a joke. You know, to lighten the air.” She turns to Zelena with a frown. “Isn’t it nearly time?”
“Yes, it’s nearly time. Your parents are on their way down and should be here any minute now. We’ll start in less than half an hour.”
There is a noise and the door opens. His parents walk in, both wearing red robes similar to the one worn by Isadora. I stare at them in shock. His mother appears as young as Isadora, but his father looks as if he is a hundred years old.
“Shall we begin?” he says, in his cold voice.
Chapter 67
Autumn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iAzMRKFX3c
-The Wind Beneath My Wings-
Zelena opens a big book and begins to chant. Her chanting is strange and yet hauntingly beautiful. I listen to her voice and feel almost hypnotized by it. I have to force myself not to fall into the spell she is casting. I try, but it’s hard, I start to feel light-headed.
I look at Rocco.
“It’s okay,” he mouths. “It will hurt less.”
“I love you,” I mouth and let myself go. Instantly, I feel a strange warmth in the region of my solar plexus. The warmth rises until it is in the middle of my chest. It becomes stronger and I burp loudly. I look around me confused.
“Yes, let it all out. All the old blocks,” his mother coos eagerly.
And suddenly out of nowhere comes a horror of what I am about to do. It makes my body shake. Out of my mouth comes the words, “I can’t.”
Zelena continues to sing her song. She has betrayed me, but a little voice inside me says, listen to her. She will lead you to the right path.
My body convulses. This is wrong.
“I can’t,” I blurt out.
His father moves so fast I do not actually see him. All I see is the glint of the knife as it flashes, then blood, a fountain of red blood pouring out of Rocco’s wrist.
“What have you done?” I yell as I run towards the altar. I try to hold closed the gaping wound but blood seeps through my fingers and flows onto the dark brown slab. I turn to Zelena. “Help him,” I scream.
But she doesn’t take any notice of me. She just sings in that hypnotic voice that makes my insides throb. I am so frightened I feel as if I am floating above my body.
“Only you can help him now,” his father says. “Give him your wrist before it is too late and let him drink your blood before he dies.”
I take my wrist and lay it on his mouth. For a second he does nothing and my gaze moves to his eyes. He kisses the inside of my wrist, then I feel his sharp teeth break my skin. It doesn’t hurt at all. All I can hear is Zelena’s voice and all I see is Rocco’s eyes. I thought I would see greed or a great hunger as the blood thirst takes over. He had denied that urge for centuries. I was even afraid I would be disgusted, but to my shock I see tears fill his beautiful eyes and run down his temples into his golden hair. I stare at him astonished. He is crying! I have never seen him cry. But here he is. Crying. Because he has to drink my blood.
“Now,” Zelena commands, her voice ringing out.
And things start happening around me. The speed with which his parents and sister move is incredible. Three red flashes at the edges of my vision, and suddenly, they are upon me. His parents on either side of my neck and his sister on my wrist. The pain of their fangs inside my flesh is unbearable and I open my mouth to scream, but only a strange strangulated gasp comes out because the horrendous smell of them makes my body dry heave uncontrollably. More than the pain, it is the smell that overcomes me.
I see the terrible fear and shock in Rocco’s eyes, before he turns away from my wrist and yells at Zelena. “Stop them. They are going to kill her.”
She answers him calmly. “Not yet. They have not had enough.”
“They are going to kill her,” Rocco roars, as he tries to yank himself out of his steel bands.
Zelena doesn’t answer him.
He begs her. I hear bits of his begging and pleading. He offers her all his wealth on top of the promise of immortality that his family have offered her, but she ignores him and carries on singing.
The skin on my arms turn pale with the loss of blood and I start to feel faint and cold. So cold. Even their awful smell no longer bothers me. I know I am dying. I look into Rocco’s eyes. I love you, I tell him even though I am already too weak to speak. How greedily they drink from me. Like starving beasts. I feel my heartbeat become fainter. I know I am dying, but a part of me feels glad I will never be like them.