A Shade of Vampire 13: A Turn of Tides (5 page)

I waited until the ogres outside passed before I allowed myself to look around. I left the door and walked into the center of the room. I’d just walked into some kind of kitchen. There was a wide sink and counters lined with massive pots and pans. In the center of the room was a giant stove. Shelf after shelf of books lined one of the walls. I ran my finger along one of the spines and heaved one off the shelf. It was too heavy for me to hold without straining myself, so I placed it down on the floor. There was no title on the front. I opened the hard cover and flipped to the first page.

There were no words, only pictures. And as I continued flipping the pages, I found myself more and more horrified by what I saw.

It looked like a biology textbook specializing in the dissection of human bodies. There were entire chapters dedicated to each body part—the facial area, muscles, organs. I found myself feeling queasy as I flipped to the last page.

I heaved the book back onto the shelf, then picked up the next one and spread it out on the floor. This one was no more comforting. There were scrawlings under various depictions of ingredient substances—but it was an odd writing and I couldn’t understand it. I only needed to get a few pages into the book to realize that this was a cookbook. And as I turned to the very last page, my breath hitched. I was staring down at a depiction of two human arms sticking out of a pot of broth.
These ogres are man-eaters.

I’d suspected as much, after the old man I’d met in the corridor had told me that I needed to be fattened. But now that this was confirmed I could barely stop myself from shaking. I replaced the book on the shelf and backed away.

My heart hammering against my chest, I hurried to the exit of the room.

I have to get out of this place.

I opened the door and, after checking that the corridor was clear, I stepped out and began to continue down the corridor.

I needed to find that gate that led back to the human realm. I had no idea if Caleb would still be on that island, but anywhere on earth was better than where I was currently.

I reached the end of the second corridor and arrived at a wide staircase. I peered down it, straining to hear any noise coming from the floor below. On hearing nothing, I began descending. I reached the foot of the stairs quickly and found myself in yet another corridor. It looked practically identical to the last. The same sleek floors, the same stone ceilings and walls, the same heavy wooden doors on either side of the passageway.

I took the path to my left first. I lurched forward as a door to my right creaked open. An arm shot out, grazing my shoulder as I dodged. I didn’t dare look back as there was a shout and a quickening of footsteps. I reached the end of the corridor and sped down another flight of stairs. I swung myself down the stairs and stumbled as I reached the bottom. Forcing myself back up, I cast a glance over my shoulder to see three ogresses stumbling down after me.

I have to get out of here.

I rushed to the end of the corridor. My heart sank to my stomach as I found myself standing at another staircase leading upward. With the ogres closing in, I had no choice but to take the risk.

They were catching up. Their legs were about twice my length as they hurtled after me. I rushed madly ahead, reaching the top floor.

Their shouts echoed around the floor, and soon more doors opened as I rushed past.

And then I stopped. I’d lost track of how many hallways I’d run along, and now I found myself standing at yet another dead end. But this time, there wasn’t any staircase to save me. I gripped the handle of the door closest to me and tried to force it open. Unlike the library I’d entered before, this room was locked. I moved to the door next to it, my pulse quickening as a group of ogresses were now within a few feet of me. My hope ebbed away as that door didn’t open either.

I let go of it and stumbled back, climbing up onto the window ledge so at least I could gain some kind of height advantage. As the first ogress reached me I kicked out and caught her nose with my foot. She groaned, and stumbled back, clutching her face.

Two ogresses pushed her aside and wrapped their hands around me, pulling me down roughly from the window and pinning me to the ground. I glared up at one of the ogresses pinning me down. Her face was contorted with annoyance. She twisted my arm so tight it felt like it might break.

“No!” I shouted.

“Where did she come from?” the ogress I’d kicked in the face grunted.

“Don’t know,” another said.

One of them bent down and took a closer look at me. “New recruit, perhaps,” she said.

Three pairs of eyes looked me over, a grubby hand now closing around my mouth.

“We should return her to the rest.”

I found myself being hoisted up until my body was leaning against an ogress’ chest.

“Don’t touch me,” I said through gritted teeth.

The ogress holding me let out a hoarse laugh and began thundering down the corridor.

“No, let’s keep her. I fancy a midnight snack.”

To my horror, she stopped outside the kitchen I’d been in previously.

“This one probably escaped from the dungeons downstairs,” she said, setting me on my feet. The door slammed behind the last ogress, trapping me inside the kitchen with them. As I tried to force myself against the door, one of the ogresses caught me and threw me across the room. My head slammed against the wall. I dug my teeth into my lower lip, forcing myself to get up.

These monsters aren’t going to make a victim out of me. Not again.

I was so sick and tired of being thrown around. Just because I was an underdog didn’t mean that I couldn’t bite.

I stared at the three ogresses hurrying about the room preparing the equipment. One of them heaved a huge metal pot onto the stove and began lighting it. I scanned the counters. My eyes fixed on a drawer one of the ogresses had just opened—filled to the brim with carving knives. Adrenaline coursing through my veins, I saw red. I lunged for the drawer and pulled out a knife. Throwing myself at the nearest ogress to me, I plunged the blade into her chest.

I’d expected it to be hard to pierce through her leathery skin, but it wasn’t much more difficult than I imagined stabbing a human would be. I could only assume that this knife was extraordinarily sharp. Either way, my knife met its mark. Her eyes widened and she let out a gasp before she began choking on blood.

I pulled away, drawing out the knife with me. Clutching the stab wound, she collapsed on the ground, squirming as the blood spurted out of her.

I turned on the other two ogresses. Neither of them were armed—yet. I lunged for the closest one to me and plunged the knife deep into her stomach. Her hands gripped my neck, but I moved fast, even though my head was screaming with pain. There was a squelch as I pierced some kind of organ. Blood oozed out, soaking my already wet hands. Her hands loosened around my neck as she fell back against the wall.

I didn’t understand why this was so easy. Perhaps they were so used to humans around here being docile, they were in shock—long enough for me to take the next one down too. I stabbed her in a similar place—the highest spot I could reach, just above the abdomen. I stabbed the dagger in twice to make sure I’d done enough damage. She staggered back, her head slamming against the stone wall as she slid down to the floor.

The three monsters now all lay on the ground.

I searched myself for any regret that I’d just claimed three lives. I felt nothing. I realized I’d been through so much, I’d become jaded. I was so sick of being a weak human, at the mercy of supernaturals. As I stared at the three corpses, I felt nothing but triumph. Satisfaction, almost. Something had snapped in me, and somehow, I felt there was no going back.

The door handle shuddered and the door creaked open. I took a step back, brandishing my knife once again. Bella appeared in the doorway. I supposed she must have heard the struggle in the corridor as we passed by my room. Her jaw dropped as she took in the scene.

“Miss Rose!” She bustled into the room and locked the door behind her. “What have you done?”

“What does it look like?” I snapped.

“You killed them.” She gaped at the corpses. “Oh, no, no, no. You did a very bad thing, Miss Rose. A very bad thing. If Master finds out about this…” Her voice trailed off as she approached the nearest body and dragged it into the center of the room. She did the same with the other two corpses. Her hands were shaking as she approached a cupboard fixed high up on the wall in the far corner of the room and pulled down what looked like a machete. She approached the corpses again, knelt down on the ground next to them and, to my surprise, began hacking through their limbs.

“We have to hide them. If Master finds out you did this, we’ll both be in big trouble.”

I wasn’t sure what Bella planned to do with these huge pieces, but brandishing my own knife, I began to help her as best as I could. We must have worked for almost an hour until the bodies were chopped up into small pieces. Small enough for Bella. We were both coated with blood by the end of it.

Bella walked over to a corner of the room and lifted up the lid to a bin. Except, as I approached, I realized that it wasn’t a bin. It was fixed into the floor, and it was some kind of chute.

Bella walked back over to the bodies and, filling the cauldron with them, dragged it over to the chute and emptied it into it. She repeated the process until all the pieces were gone and all that was left was a bloody pool on the floor.

She walked over to the sink and grabbed a pile of cloths, dabbing down the blood and rinsing the cloths in the sink until the floor was completely clean. Then she cleaned the pot, the knives, dried them, and replaced them.

Once she was finished, she stared at me.

I pointed to the waste chute.

“Won’t someone see those bits and pieces if they go through the waste?”

She shook her head. “That goes down to the compost heap at the base of the mountain. Someone goes down there once a year to make sure things are in order. They’ll be rotted before then.”

She grabbed my arm and brought me over to the sink. She washed her hands and face, and then pushed me against it.

“You need to clean yourself.”

I did my best to wash off as much blood as I could, though there wasn’t much I could do about the stains on my clothes.

She heaved a frustrated sigh. We were both still covered in blood. We needed a shower. Spotting the keychain attached to my waist, she ripped it from me, then caught my hand again and dragged me to the door. Opening it, she peered through the crack.

She lurched forward so suddenly I almost lost my footing. “Hurry,” she hissed. “We need to get back before anybody sees us.”

I ended up climbing onto her back so we could be faster. Thankfully, we reached the room without bumping into anybody. We hurried into the room and Bella locked the door behind us. I went straight into the bathroom. It was huge—tall and wide enough to hold at least four full-sized ogres. The shower was so high up it could also hold an ogre. I stripped and got in the shower, pulling the curtains around me. I soaped myself down and cleaned my hair thoroughly, from the roots to the tips. When I was finished, I pulled the curtain aside and reached for a towel. Wrapping it around me, I stepped out. My bloody clothes were nowhere in sight. Bella sat waiting for me on a bench, still wearing her own bloody clothes.

“You need to have a wash now,” I said, looking at her pointedly. She nodded and walked into the shower. I left her alone and walked into the bedroom to find some clean clothes.

I wasn’t sure what she’d done with my dirty clothes—disposed of them safely somewhere, I hoped.

I walked over to the cupboard and opened it. I couldn’t find anything comfortable—like pants and a shirt—so I had to settle for a silk dress. It was the loosest thing I could find.

I slipped it over my head and walked over to the bed, sinking down on it and staring at the wall.

Now that the rush was over, I was suddenly aware of the ache in my muscles. My wrist hurt—I was sure that I’d strained a muscle. I lay my head back down on the pillow and closed my eyes, breathing steadily as I listened to the sound of running water, Bella showering next door.

The bathroom door clicked open after five minutes and she walked out, wearing a crisp white smock. She had the keychain in her hands, which she proceeded to tuck into her bra again. She shot me a glare and waved a finger at me.

“You shouldn’t steal, Miss Rose. I already told you what happened to my daughter. It will land you in trouble. You don’t know these parts.”

To my surprise, she walked over to me and pulled me to my feet. “You wanted to go for a walk? Then come, I’ll take you for a short walk.”

I had to admit I’d lost my appetite for a walk now. My limbs were groaning and I felt I needed at least a few hours’ sleep before venturing out again. But I didn’t think it wise to wait. Bella might change her mind by the time morning came, for all I knew. Besides, I was curious as to where she might take me. I nodded and stood up.

“It’s best that we go at night when fewer people are about because, like I said, Master wouldn’t approve of me taking you for walks about the castle.”

She unlocked the door and led me outside.

Instead of leading me toward the end of the corridor, she stopped outside a door to our left. It led into a dark, circular room with a winding staircase in one corner, leading to the upper and lower floors. We began descending it and stopped five levels below in another small dark room. She left the staircase and opened the door. It led into an enormous hall. The ceiling was perhaps a hundred feet high, and rich drapes hung from the walls down to the marble floors. There was a long table with about fifty high-backed chairs around it directly in the center of the hall, and at either end of the table were chairs of particular luxury. One looked like it was plated with silver, the other gold. The rest of the hall was empty, save for the decorations on the walls. It reminded me of some kind of fairytale court, of the castles of old.