Chapter 4 CHA

LAVINIA QUISPE POV: Fire in the Circle

"Yes, Father," I said, the word a promise to survive.

He looked me over, his eyes traveling dismissively from my desperate face down to my comfortable clothes-dark trousers and a plain blue tunic.

"Could you not have put on something more suitable, considering the solemnity of the occasion?" he asked, his voice clipped with final disapproval.

I chewed the inside of my cheek, refusing to engage. I'm about to be hunted for my life. Decorum is the least of my concerns.

Before he could continue his critique, Priestess Elowen emerged, wearing her usual crimson ceremonial robes. "Go, Daughter of Quispe. Claim your power, and let the Mark own you."

My anxiety spiked again when I finally saw the Princes. They stood on the shadowed part of the hillside, three of the most massive, towering vampire forms I had ever witnessed. Their presence didn't just command attention; it cracked the air with the same raw electricity that had overwhelmed me during the binding.

They were terrifying, each in his own way:

Zilo's essence pulsed with a pale, silvery-white glamour, a deceptive contrast against the deepening sky.

Klaus's aura was dark, almost obsidian-gray, a deep shadow moving with terrifying stillness and focused power.

Zack's was light gray, almost silver, pulsating like moonlight-but with a cutting, predatory edge.

The entire court fell silent. It was impossible to breathe normally when they focused their gleaming, golden-red eyes in my direction. They were too far to discern their faces clearly, yet the concentrated attention was a physical weight on my skin. In a few more moments, the three of them-hunters tethered to me by a parasitic bond-would be after me.

Pride, hot and rebellious, was the only thing holding me upright. I wasn't just going to collapse and make it easy for the consort who already saw me as a burden to be punished.

I swallowed a desperate breath and reached for the hem of my tunic. With the entire Covenant watching, I stripped off my clothes. My skin felt shockingly exposed in the cool night air, made even colder by the sheer, crushing power emanating from the Princes. My father averted his eyes with a stiff gesture of disapproval, but I didn't care.

I stood naked, waiting.

The full, red Blood Moon finally broke through the clouds, bathing the clearing below in crimson light. It illuminated a circle cut into the grass-the Sanguine Circle, glistening darkly. I didn't want to think about the sticky substance coating the earth.

"The Blood Moon arrives," the Priestess declared. "Go!"

I ran down the hillside, my bare feet slapping against the cool earth, adrenaline a burning fuse in my chest. When I reached the circle, I didn't pause. I stepped over the edge, sinking my feet into the slippery, warm goo.

The second I was inside, a strong, sharp heat didn't just tingle-it burst through my veins. It was a roaring, agonizing fire that instantly stole my breath and clarity.

I cried out, collapsing to my knees. The air around me cracked and shimmered, and the sound was swallowed by the roar in my ears. I felt something tearing inside my head, trying to break through a wall I never knew existed. The pain was absolute, physical agony, demanding I surrender.

The Priestess's voice, cool and imperious, cut through the searing noise. "Princes! The Rite of Ascension begins! Claim thy Lady!"

I looked up, the pain overridden by a primal surge of panic. The three colossal auras were no longer patient. They moved, fast-too fast-closing the distance to the circle.

My mind, desperate for escape from the fire and the hunters, finally fractured. And in that instant, a single, sharp command tore through the noise in my head, a thought that was definitely not mine.

"RUN."

It was Zack. Raw, urgent, and underscored with a confusing thread of real, white-hot concern that immediately fractured my terror. He is supposed to be the hunter. Why is he warning me?

I didn't question it. Fighting the crippling pain, I scrambled out of the Sanguine Circle, leaving behind the warm, terrible slick on the earth, and ran, naked and desperate, toward the dark, inviting safety of the woods.