A Violet Fire (Vampires in Avignon #1) - Kelsey Quick Page 0,18
of him is a short line of unaccepted supply units awaiting “the drop,” or, “the forced push into the pit of once-humans.”
The pusher sits upon a similar chair next to the pit. Cage bars that extend to the ceiling prevent fall-ins along the edge, at all but one place—in front of him. This is where the last three rejected units wait. Two now, as the pusher uses a lazy foot to nudge the next in line over the edge. I throw my head away and force down vomit as her screams are drowned by her tearing flesh and crunching bones. The next supply unit reluctantly steps up to the opening and I nearly stop breathing.
“Savvy!” I scream out in disbelief. The panic instantly releases the tears from before as every head turns to look at me. The pusher, distracted, puts down the foot that was mere seconds from sending my best friend over the edge.
“Wavorly?” Savvy’s brown eyes alight from the enchanted lanterns.
“You there, quit causing a ruckus,” the old surveyor squeaks at me. “Get in line or I’ll push you over, myself.” But I pay him no mind. Instead I sprint across the room toward Savvy, and the vampire guards take up their saw-toothed spears.
I happen to briefly notice the other rejected supply unit. None other than a terror-stricken Katarii. So, Giomar rejected her, too.
The pusher stands and holds his palm out across my chest to prevent me from reaching my friend, but it’s a sorry attempt. I shoot my arm out and grab her amethyst dress by the collar. She falls into my chest, crying heavily, and discouraging my prolonging of her death with estranged cries. “Stop, stop, stop. There’s no use, there’s no-”
“Th-there’s been some kind of mistake.” I shout as all the vampires in the room approach me, the surveyor still rambling threats.
I shout, begging to be right. “This unit should not be down here. She’s devoted to Lord Hox Giomar, she can’t—”
“Wavorly,” the mess in my arms desperately pleads. Her fingers quiver, white-knuckling the ruby straps on my shoulders. I look down at her and she continues in a whisper, “...It’s no use. He didn’t want me.”
“How could he-?”
“He s-said everything about me was good,” she now blubbers, “but he said that he has too many like me and so…” She breaks down and sobs, unable to finish explaining what we both already know.
My eyes refuse to close, horrified by this reality. Horrified by everything. I watch my once optimistic friend bury her head into my breast, her eyes dripping black from washed out makeup and squandered hope.
The surveyor grabs my arm, forcing me back into our devastating situation, but my hold and my resolve only strengthens.
“Get away from her!” I yell, as I whip Savvy away from him.
The soldiers move forward with their spears, Katarii breaks down crying, and the pusher grabs me by the hair. I scream, still clinging to Savvy, and her to me.
“Alright, aberrant... Both of you at the same time,” he hisses.
He flings me to the opening in the bars and I barely manage to catch myself on the left while Savvy latches onto the right, our other arms still holding onto each other. Everyone looks to us. The pusher sneers, showing us his yellowed fangs as he rests his large hands on our backs.
“Ready?” He grins.
Savvy and I both look down at the mass of countless detestable beasts that climb and fight their way on top of one another, eager to attack us.
Hunchbacked and naked humanoids, the fallen struggle with their blackened, decaying flesh and shriveled loss of hair, unable to contain the lust for our living blood. Their jaundiced and eerily devoid pupils jump between us. The whites of their once-human eyes now remain bloodshot and bleeding, leaving a red trail flowing down their cheeks uninterrupted, and constant. Jagged fangs that rot from overuse snap at us from every direction while dirt-clogged claws bend and break as they try to scale the bloodied stone walls. Even the few dead and cannibalized beasts look as if they died while ripping something apart.
And then there’s the floor of the pit, made up of nothing but human bones and deteriorating, putrid flesh. I force myself to release my hold on the bars and fully grab onto Savvy. She reluctantly does the same.
“It’ll be okay...,” unconvincingly I console her while shaking. “We will go together. It will only be a few moments, then… then it’ll be over.”