Selena
I woke, cold, hungry and confused. The memory of my encounter with Ignus clung to me like a dark shadow, filling me with dread.
My heartbeat rushed into top gear.
Where was I?
The place smelt of fresh paint and something clinical that assaulted my senses. I rose to my feet and swathes of material swung around my legs.
A painful sigh parted from my lips. I was in a white gown that resembled a wedding dress. The bodice was made from an intricately woven lace that gathered into a sweetheart neckline. The skirt was heavy and laden with layers of silk and netting beneath it, puffing out in a large fan.
Beneath the dress were thick, woolen tights and heavy army-style boots.
My breathing grew uneven as I gazed around the small, square room with glaring white walls.
I chose this. This is what I wanted.
The wall opposite me morphed into a screen and the pale blue silhouette of a girl shone at me.
A voice cut through the air, soft and male, taking me by surprise. “Welcome to the V Games, Selena Grey. You have been selected to compete in a week long event run by the esteemed Helsing family where you will have the chance to eradicate your prison sentence for good. Wouldn't you like to be a free woman again? To return home to your family and have all the mistakes of your past forgotten?”
I wondered if that was even a possibility for me now. And how the Helsings could even offer such a thing. Could Kite Charm people like Varick was able to? Would she do what they asked?
Two words appeared either side of the silhouette's head. Yes and No.
When I remained silent, battling the feel of barbed wire around my heart, the voice rang out again. “Would you like to continue on your path to redemption?”
I'm here to survive.
I'm here for Varick.
“Yes,” I ground out through my teeth.
The voice spoke again and a new graphic appeared on the wall, showing a girl with an arrow pointing to the back of her head. “Each round of the games will be completed within a time limit. Failure to reach a designated safe zone in time will result in the detonation of a poison capsule already inserted into the base of your skull.”
I groaned, lifting a hand and rubbing my fingers of the raised skin beneath my hairline. The capsule detonated on the screen and red liquid seemed to spill through the image until the silhouette fell to the floor unmoving.
I grimaced, a sickness filling my stomach.
The words melted away like mist and a compartment opened in the wall beside me. A drawer slid out of it with a single white oak stake inside.
“Please take your weapon. You will find a pocket sown into your dress where you can carry it.”
I moved across the room, taking the stake into my hand, finding the feel of it all too familiar. Dread scattered through me, but I fought it away. I'd chosen this path. Now I just had focus on surviving until I could find Varick, then I'd figure out what to do after.
“Please watch the demonstration video.”
The silhouette began to move, a stake appearing in her hand as she twisted an arm and stabbed upwards with a sharp jab.
“Repeat,” the voice commanded.
I grimaced as I played along, stabbing the stake into the air before me.
“Excellent. The demonstration will now continue.”
The silhouette was joined by another, this one tall and male, moving more animal-like than the other; clearly a V. As it ran toward the girl, she thrust her arm up, driving the stake into the V's chest. The image evaporated in a shower of blue shards and a new image replaced it. A clear graphic of a weak Vampire appeared on the screen, slowly circling whilst a diagram pointed to its fangs and claws.
“A Vampire can be killed by a stake directly to the heart,” the voice explained. “They are fast and can smell your blood, especially if you get cut.”
I glared at the screen, half furious, half terrified.
The V on the screen faded away and the room darkened to an ominous red glow, the light emitting from inside the walls themselves.
I clenched my stake harder, terror trickling through me.
“You will now have a chance to practice. Are you ready?”
The words Yes and No appeared on the screen again and I tried to mentally prepare myself for what was coming. Shutting my eyes and counting to five, I answered, “Yes.”
A hidden door shot open in the wall behind me and I flung myself around. A snarling V charged at me, arms outstretched, snapping at the air as it sprinted in my direction.
I cried out as it collided with me, shoving me back into the far wall. The breath was choked out of me. But I'd been here before. I knew what to do.
As the V caught hold of my neck with ice-cold fingers, I thrust my stake up into its chest. A screech ripped from its lungs. With a grunt, I pushed the stake in further and it fell back, slumping dead at my feet.
The lights brightened as black blood pooled around my boots. I stepped back, sickened, but strangely accustomed to the sight.
For a moment I thought I was reflected on the screen, but quickly realised it was a computer generated animation of me, so life-like that it scared me. I was smiling in the graphic – my first clue that it wasn't really me, slightly twisting side to side so my dress swept around my ankles.
Above the video, beside my name were statistics.
Death Toll: 1
Rating: Currently Undetermined
Health: Stable
“Congratulations on defeating your first Vampire, Selena. Please wait while your rating is determined by the viewers.”
My brows drew together as I waited. Rating? This was new. And I had no idea what it meant in terms of my survival. What difference did it make how well I was rated?
I waited for several tense minutes until the voice spoke again. “Congratulations, Selena. You have been rated 5 out of 10. The spectators will vote throughout the game, so your rating can change at any time. You are judged on the following criteria: Courage, Skill, Personality and Attractiveness.”
My scowl increased and I raised my middle finger at the screen. “How's this for a personality rating?”
The voice ignored me as it continued in a much-too-casual tone, “If your rating drops to a 1 at any point during the game, you will need to take part in a redeeming process to raise your score. However, the process is hazardous and has a high mortality rate, so it's in your interest to keep your rating as high as possible.”
I shuddered, not wanting to know what that would entail.
“Those with the highest ratings, ranking between 8 and 10 will be given extra supplies, including food and water as well as better defenses against the Vampires. To ensure you have the best chance at raising your score, we have gifted you with a personal tablet to connect you with the spectators and provide you with more information on how to increase your rating. You will now find this in the drawer to your right.”
Another compartment slid open in the wall and I moved toward what looked like a slim, black mobile phone inside it. A strap was attached to the back of it that would enable me to tie it onto my wrist. The screen unlocked at the press of my thumb and a profile was revealed on what looked like a social media site for psychopaths. The accents were a deep, blood red and black; my picture took centre stage with my stats beneath it. At the bottom was an option to record videos and take pictures, making my heart stumble over itself.
I navigated my way to a list of the spectators; all with obviously fake names like Magnus, Lionheart and Goliath. They had basic profiles tagged with what they were hoping for in the games including, 'violence', 'close-calls', 'feisty personalities', and one guy even had 'lesbian antics' as his number one tag. I was tempted to throw the device at the nearest wall, but instead gripped it in my fist until my knuckles turned white. My heart lurched as a picture caught my eye - the only profile picture posted by any of the spectators - on a profile for someone called Hund. Tapping it, I zoomed in on the photo of Ulvic who looked like he'd snapped a selfie in an extravagant hotel room with his cheek pressed against Ignus's.
My thumb hovered over the option to message him. But the picture put me off. Had he sold me out after all? Had Mekiah and Reason rescued his Alpha and abandoned me? But if they had, surely Ulvic wouldn't be here, attending the games, cosying up to Ignus? No, he had to still be playing along. And that gave me a surge of hope.
I tapped out a quick message, not wanting to be obvious we were in an alliance in case Ignus read his messages.
Looking forward to watching the games?
Discovering another tab, I found my way to a list of profiles. The contestants were, once again, entirely female, and my heart beat a frantic tune in my ears as I thumbed through their statistics. Some of their rankings were still undetermined, but others were rated from 1 to 10 like me. The odd girl was even ranked zero and their profiles had been scored out with a giant X. I shuddered to guess what that meant; some girls hadn't even survived the initiation test...
There must have been fifty of us, much more than last time. I paused on an ebony-skinned girl with violent pink hair that was cropped-short, her arms crawling with dark tattoos. Her profile revealed she was an eighteen year old from Louisiana. But that wasn't what caught my eye. It was the ranking of 10 illuminated beneath her name, Twyla-Rae Stepson. What did she do to get a 10?
I noticed a flag beneath her picture, informing me she had posted a video. Curious, I pressed on it and the video filled the screen. Twyla-Rae's face took up the entire space, baring her teeth, before saying in her thick southern tones, “Thanks for the invite, Helsings, here's my acceptance letter.” She angled the camera behind her where she'd painted on the white wall in thick, blackish V blood:
Twy Won't Die.
The footage ended and I sank down to the floor, in shock. I was rocked to my core, knowing without a shadow of a doubt, that these games were going to be brutal. As I continued to scroll through profiles, I grew almost as fearful of meeting some of the girls as I was the Vampires in the game.
And worst of all, I had one, enormous disadvantage already: I had to rely on the spectators liking me to survive. So I was unquestionably damned.