Page 3 of Blood Sacrifice

She squeezed my hand before moving to the next priestess.

My sister had been one of the first to leave, and I hoped she had waited for me, but there was no one outside when I emerged. With trepidation, I moved silently toward the lands surrounding our home.

I stopped for a moment to try and gauge my bearings, wishing I could find Salvator. He had been the strength that kept me going when I was homesick, the one person who listened to me. There had been nights we spent high in the mountains, lying side by side to watch the stars, and Salvator sneaking me back into the temple. I had never feared the dark with him guiding me.

Imagination was a terrible affliction, because in my head a threat existed in the darkness, creatures stalking me, ready to strike at any moment. My pulse thundered in my ears, and I stumbled several times over the uneven surface.

I fell forward, my hands in front of me, and the shock echoed up my arms and into my shoulders. Pain pierced throughme, and my arms failed to hold my weight. Tears ran down my cheeks without my permission, and I felt defeated since it was only my first night being independent. I would never survive, none of us had the skills to last out in the real world since we had lived in a temple with attendants bringing us everything we needed.

I lay in the dirt until I had my emotions under control, and then pushed myself to my feet to stare up at the moon to centre myself. My ankle throbbed, but I continued to move forward one footstep at a time since I needed to put as much distance between me and the war I left behind by morning.

A flash of amber made me aware that I wasn’t alone. These grounds were patrolled by the dire wolves who were under orders to kill anything they found out here. I froze when there was a terrified scream from somewhere behind me, and my hands covered my heart since it felt like it was going to try and escape my chest.

A figure leapt out at me, knocking me to the ground again and forcing the breath from my lungs. We had been told not to use magic as Balor would be able to track us. This was the moment that I realised without my magic, I was useless, nothing more than a helpless child. I felt the breath on my skin of whatever predator had knocked me down, a drip of saliva that fell on me. I didn’t even have a weapon with me.

I faced my mortality and the real possibility that tonight I was going to greet death.

Chapter Two

Luna

My fight or flight kicked in, and I rolled, pushing myself to my feet and running as fast as I could on a sore ankle and painful body. A growl behind me rippled on the air, and made the hairs on the back of my neck rise in terror.

Whatever was chasing me knocked me forward again, pain piercing deep in my shoulder. I rolled onto my back, to face death and look it in the eye when it claimed my soul.

Another shadow emerged to stand in front of me, a deeper growl rumbling. Amber eyes glowed dangerously in the darkness as the massive predator stalked forward, hackles raised and menace in every step.

There was a clash of shadows, terrifying noises and cracks of bones. My fingers dug into the ground as I watched the fight in the moonlight. I had lost the package mother priestess had given me, and now was about to lose my life when this fight ended.

I crawled backward, afraid to take my eyes off the monsters fighting. My hand landed on something sharp, and I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out, wiping the tears that sprung from my eyes again.

There was a horrifying howl, followed by a gurgling sound, then a thud as something hit the ground.

My breath stilled, and I tried to swallow the terror that crawled up my spine. I jumped when a hand touched my arm, rolling to try and crawl away on my hands and knees. A whimper escaped when a powerful hand covered my mouth to prevent my scream.

“Easy, Lunabelle. You need to come with me if you want to live,” a masculine voice said in my ear. His presence calmed me, my heartbeat returning to normal for the first time tonight.

“Salvator?” I whispered when he removed his hand.

He didn’t reply, grabbing my wrist and leading me a different way than I would have chosen from my home. I almost had to run to keep up with his long strides. A shadow made me stumble, but he pressed his body against mine, hiding me from whatever prowled in the darkness.

“I can’t keep up with you,” I muttered. “You need to leave me and save yourself.” I rested my head against his bicep, both my hands wrapped around his.

I felt the motion of him shaking his head. “There is nothing to save, nowhere for me to run. I promised your brother I would keep his little sister safe in this living hell.”

“Is that the only reason you’re here?” I asked, staring up at him in the moonlight.

His eyes glowed softly, his finger tracing the curve of my cheek. “I would give my life to keep you safe, Lunabelle. We passed the barriers of friendship a long time ago.”

His free arm slipped around me to tug me against him. This was what I had wanted for so long, just the two of us running away together to have a life and family together. We faced death for having a relationship in this tribe, but I had dreamed of a future, a home, children.

Salvator lifted my battered and bruised body as if I weighed nothing, my legs wrapping around his waist and my arms snaking around his neck. Hours passed, and at some stageI think I fell asleep, the lightness on the horizon revealing the direction we moved in, and highlighting his features. It was a gift to be able to view him this closely in the daylight, since our relationship had evolved in the shadows. Salvator’s face was tense, his body muscular under my fingers.

He had been in every fantasy I had played out in my head when I watched the other youths in the tribe falling in love. I wanted to be able to smile at him as we passed each other, our fingertips touching discreetly when close to each other, knowing that it was all a prelude to being able to have a relationship.

I pressed my head into the crook of his neck and his arms pulled me tighter to him. “Is it supposed to feel like this?” I asked in a low voice. “Being together in the light of day.”

“They would kill us,” he replied, his lips skimming the side of my throat.

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