Blood Series: Green - Chapter 3

Haydar smiled at the entrance of his bent. He walked around his desk and moved toward her with his arms outstretched.

 “My dear bent, you look as though something is troubling you. Put your worries aside. Sit and drink to the celebration. Our plans have fallen together, and soon you will be the only remaining princess on this earth.”

The smile on Haydar’s face was full of evil. Everything about him at this exact moment made Leigh’s skin crawl and a feeling of dread sink into her stomach. “Abb, you did a fine job capturing her. I assume Zayn’s on his way here right now?” Absentmindedly, she took the glass her abb offered and returned the gesture of raising it in a toast.

“Yes, I believe he and the dreadful Nasir should be on their way by now. The Emir was the only one left inside the hospital, aside from their staff, when I took our little treasure here.”

Leigh glanced at Adara when her capture was mentioned. She wished there was a way to make what had to happen next easier. “Abb, you know how Mama felt about Algula women when they are pregnant.” She set her glass down once she was finished and looked between the two, Adara and Haydar. She walked back to Adara and put her hand back on her stomach. There was a longing pull she could feel coming from the child.

“Are you questioning me, Leigh?” His booming voice caused Leigh to whip her head around and look over at the man to whom she had sworn fealty. Suddenly, Haydar was flashing himself right next to her, and his hand wrapped around her throat. “Because if you are questioning me, I will see that it is the last thing that you are ever able to do.” Haydar’s fangs had elongated. His eyes were now swirling a mix between black and violet colors.

“Forgive me, Abb. I just wanted to remind you what Omm had taught us, what she would have wanted. That’s all.” Leigh managed to speak those words out in spite of the crushed windpipe she now had thanks to Haydar. Once she caught her breath after he released her neck and stepped back a few feet from her, she looked to her abb and said, “Shall we continue?”

He turned his back towards his bent and began to walk across the room. “Yes, my plan. I will sacrifice Zayn’s woman and child. The Gods will approve of the delectable blood.”

When Adara finally heard the plans, her body started to flare against the bindings she was attached to the wall with. Leigh looked to the woman and could feel her fear permeating the air.

“What kind of ceremony is it? I do not think I have heard of it before, especially not one with a pregnant Algula.”

“You do not know it. It was outlawed long ago by your gedi. When my abb took over the Algula, the philosophy changed. There are not a lot of Algula left who remember the original ways, the intentions of our Gods when we were formed, but a few have sought me out and taught me.  The late King Hashim outlawed any ritual he deemed harsh, be it with human or Algula victims. He tried to convince everyone we were a better race, one with less violence. I think my late abb was a fool.”

With that final word, Leigh watched Haydar grab his knife and start circling the perimeter of the room, as if he was about to hunt.

“Your omm and I, before you were born, we stared a tradition with some of the European humans. It is called a Blood Rite. It was the first of many rituals that were banned that I was taught once I left my parents’ home, and Sarah and I resurrected it.”

Leigh noticed that her abb’s body was now pressed against Adara’s helpless one. Her face was covered in fear, and there were tears streaming down the sides of her cheeks. She watched Adara look form Haydar and to Leigh, her eyes begging for a savior.

“We loved the children, well, correction, I loved the children. Sarah loved the men, making them scream, but I was drawn to the innocent most of all. Have you ever tasted a drop of baby blood? There is nothing better to grace your pallet than the taste of pure innocence.”

Haydar’s knife was now pressed against Adara’s round belly, the flat side touching her skin. Leigh’s mind raced for something to say to stop him, something to gain control of the situation. Adara’s heart was beating so fast from fear that Leigh could hear it from across the room. The signature of the infant’s mind was on alert. The baby was going into panic. Leigh could feel it, and that meant so could Haydar, and he was enjoying it.

“Abb, I do not think Omm would want this. She would not allow you to hurt Adara right now.” Leigh moved forward, still trying to figure out a plan.

“Silence, bent. This isn’t your decision. I’m in charge. Now, do you want me to finish my story about what your omm and I did to the child, William of Norwich, in 1144?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “In spite of all of the good intentions my Sarah had, her heart was still evil.”

Leigh was now beside her abb, and she pressed a hand onto Adara’s belly.

“Leigh, what are you doing?” he questioned.

“Nothing, Abb, you were telling me a story, so I came to listen, to learn, and to help you perform your Blood Rite.”

Adara started to scream and thrash around more. Her gag wasn’t going to hold for long, as she was trying to cut her way through it with her elongated fangs.

Haydar looked Adara over and then looked at Leigh. His expression now black as night. “Leigh, unfasten the ankles. We need her on the floor.”

The two of them took Adara’s body to the center of the room where the shackles on the floor lay. Haydar secured her hands and then her feet to the ground.

Leigh looked down at Adara whose face was pale. Her heart sounded like it was going to explode from her chest, and when Haydar brought out the knife, the screams began again.

“I think Adara here knows what happens during a Blood Rite. Her reaction is perfect for the sacrifice.” He looked down at Adara. “Did your parents teach you about the old ways? Is that why you are so scared?”

“Leigh, it is time you see what the Gods intended for us, the ruling class. We are not civilized beings. Civility isn’t in our bloodline, and Hashim tainted what would have been pure evil had he not taken over. The old ways are coming back, and it’s time new leadership replaces what my abb destroyed. Just like you killed your akhs to get ahead, I’m killing this woman. We all end up in the same place. You’re a Khaled, and you’re a killer. It’s what we are.”

Leigh thought that she heard pride coming from her abb’s mouth when he spoke about her. That almost made this right. Almost.

Haydar placed the knife along Adara’s throat and then slid it down her body. It was like he was playing with his food.

“Abb, Omm would not want her dead,” Leigh said again, her voice trying to sound more firm than scared. It was hard for her to watch the man she had loved and looked up to torturing Adara. Leigh felt pulled in several directions as she tried to decide what was right and what was wrong.

“Last time, Leigh. Join me, or you are next. You did not know your omm like I did, and I would advise you not to bring her up again!” Haydar stood up tall. He towered over Leigh who was forced to turn her head upward to look at the full figure her abb turned into. “Let me finish the story, and you will see just how heartless your mama really was.”

One night, Haydar and Sarah were walking through the streets of Norwich. A group of human men passed by them, carrying on about nonsense. Work had just let up, and the smell of the trees still engulfing them. Forestry was the main job around there; it kept over fifty percent of the town employed.

Sarah took his hand and placed a kiss over the scar where the Nexus had been performed. “My love, would you like me to teach you more on mind control? We can perfect it, sharpen your natural bloodline talent.”

“I would love to practice with you, Sarah my love.”

“Go find a boy and bring him back to us. I shall keep our new toys under control.” She walked towards the human men who had no idea they were nothing but cattle. She stretched out her arms and began to summon her inner strength with a long, deep breath. The inhale and exhale that followed swam through the air, and once the men breathed in Sarah’s essence, they became spellbound.

Haydar returned to Sarah with a child in his arms. She turned her head around and glanced over her shoulder at him and the boy. With a smile she said, “State your name, child.”

The young boy looked up at her, whimpering for his omm. The sound that came from his mouth was pathetic. “William.”

“Follow me to the woods, my dearest. We will have more privacy there.” She looked at the men who were now standing around, waiting for a command, and stated, “Follow.”

The two Algula and five humans made their way into the forest swiftly. It was dusk, and they would soon lose the light of the sun. Haydar silenced the child by growling at him, showing the boy his fangs and scaring him.

“Haydar, please think what you would like three of these human men to do for you. Anything you like. Just don’t speak it aloud. Focus on your desire and the person you wish to perform it. Force them to do your commands.”

Sarah watched as the man she loved closed his eyes. She watched his heat, the signature of his aura, start to glow as he grew warmer. When he opened his eyes, his irises were dancing shades of violet and black. The three humans all walked toward him and took the adolescent. They walked over to the clearing and pinned him down on the ground.

Sarah walked towards the men and looked down at the child. She stretched her arms out, and a chant started to leave her lips. “Gods of old, Gods of new, prey on the weak, for them we offer you.”

Haydar looked over at the fourth man who wasn’t doing anything. After a moment he picked up a piece of wood and brought it over to the tree trunk. Haydar and Sara watched the human begin to sharpen the edge of the wood, making it into a point.

Sarah moved close to Haydar and slipped her hand into his. In unison they both commanded, “Drain the boy.” When the man began to move towards the child, Haydar and Sarah resumed chanting, “Gods of old, Gods of new, prey on the weak, for them we offer you.”

Adara listened to the story Haydar was telling Leigh about the Blood Right. Her body shook out of fear for her life and that of her unborn child. She was terrified and now was thinking horrible thoughts, thoughts of Haydar cutting her child out of her womb.  She didn’t understand what this Blood Rite had to do with anything. What was the point? Why were the Gods fond of this behavior? Haydar wanted the Algula to be saved, but she just didn’t see how this would help that.

She had tried to fight back the tears, to hold in her fears. She didn’t want them thinking of her as someone who was beneath them, weak and feeble. She knew deep in her soul that the reason Haydar came after her was because that was how he saw her, weak and helpless. But she wasn’t. Zayn would never have chosen her as his queen and partner if she was truly weak.

Her eyes opened, and she saw Leigh and Haydar now sitting on the couch, talking. Leigh turned her head slightly and made eye contact with her. It almost looked like Leigh held remorse in her eyes, but that couldn’t be so. Leigh had done so much evil in this world. Why would she now grow a conscience and actually care about the families of the people she killed? When she stopped thinking long enough to focus on Haydar’s words, she grew sick to her stomach.

“My bent, come. It is time to start reviving the ways of our ancestors. The gods have spoken, and another Blood Rite is needed. Let us begin.”.