Half Blood Rising

I was disoriented, trying to deal with the overwhelming dizziness. The other mage was already walking towards me, and I didn’t even have time to react. The blade was in deep, and I felt hopeless. He moved towards me quickly, then lifted me above the ground, mumbling something to himself, and I screamed out in pain. Damn it. I should have walked away when I had the chance, and now this was going to be the end of me. I couldn’t bloody fight. I was too worn out after last night, and I could feel that damn blade scraping against my ribs.

“What are you, creature—vampire and something else?” he asked. He had his hand wrapped around my throat, and my legs were dangling above the floor. He was a fucking moron. Obviously, I wasn’t going to answer, because he was suffocating me. In that moment, I genuinely thought I was dying.

His eyes were dark brown and bloodshot. I stared at him, trying to inhale the last bits of oxygen and remain conscious. What little energy I had was gone, and the world around me began spinning. In that moment, I did the one thing I could think of—I kicked him between his legs.

After all, living on the streets had taught me a few things, and considering I had no will power, that worked. He howled in pain and then released me, grabbing his crotch. I crashed to the ground, thinking that this couldn’t have gone any worse. Pain exploded on my left side and I panted, crawling away. Split seconds later, someone was shouting something in Ukrainian. It was probably Pedro.

The mage was cursing me out, trying to use his magic to bind me to him. Someway, and I had no idea how, I managed to pull the blade from my ribs. Blood began pouring from the wound as I pressed my hand against it. I needed to get the hell out of here.

In the distance, I could see the other mage; he had his back turned to me, and it looked like he was talking to Pedro. Then they turned around. The other mage was still screaming in pain as I began walking in the opposite direction. My entire body felt like it was almost limbless, but I didn’t want to die in this pathetic basement. I dragged my feet, panting, and tried to ignore the dizziness.

The exit was so close, when Marcus began shouting at someone to stop me. Then smoke started filling the space. I felt delirious, my strength was diminishing with every passing second. He was creating fire, and when I glanced back, I saw Pedro lying in a pool of blood. He was dead.

Several seconds later, I found the green door and pushed the exit bar as hard as I could. The bright sun blinded me, and I found myself outside in the yard.

It was bloody hot, but I knew I had to run if I wanted to live, even if my life wasn’t worth it. My legs began working before my brain could figure out what was going on. The mage was probably after me, I’d heard too much. The wound was quickly closing—being half-vampire had saved me. I kept running, not looking back.

Moments later, I found an old jacket near the dumpsters and slipped it on to hide my bloodied T-shirt. The dull pain in my chest slowed me down. The wound eventually healed for the most part, but it would take some time until I was at full strength. I was still only half-vampire, and I didn’t have a blood donor to speed up the healing process—this was not one of the perks.

Soon enough, I walked towards the busy street, blending into the crowd. A few times, I glanced behind me, wondering if the mage was still tracking me. My breathing was shallow, and I had to sit for a minute here and there, but I was too afraid to stop for any length of time.

Half an hour later, I found myself in the Jewish quarter near my friend Melody’s place. I always said that I would never bother her when I was in trouble, but right now everything was falling apart. She had a lot on her plate herself, but I was out of options. She was the only person I knew who spoke English, and the only other person I’d gotten to know in the city.

We’d met outside one of the fountains near her home. I had overheard her conversation with her keeper, they were speaking in English. Melody’s parents had died when she was very young, and she was brought up by a witch community. It had only taken me a few moments to figure out that she was a witch herself. She didn’t seem very happy about it, and when she’d been left alone by the fountain, I’d walked up to her. It had been something I’d never done before. I’d normally stayed away from other supernaturals, but that day, I felt so damn lonely and I’d just taken the risk.

was the fact

thief, but I needed to eat, fuel my body with some energy. She lived in the Sykhivskyi district in an old town house with other witches. I wasn’t particularly welcome there, but she managed to convince them that I was a friend, not the enemy. They didn’t like

to go

had been deep, and I had to tell her what I heard, get another perspective on the case. Besides, after the past shitty few days I’d

some sort of connection to the mages in the basement. My experience with male vampires was non-existent. I avoided them at all

I supposed to know? I couldn’t remember a damn thing.

conductors, but today I was lucky. My legs felt like they were slowly going to give out, so walking in this heat was out of the question. I knocked on the door to her house, and another witch from the kitchen let me in. The smell

my God—what happened to you?” My friend’s high-pitched voice startled me all of a sudden, then she wrapped me in a warm embrace. Melody liked fruity perfumes. She was dark haired and looked a lot like

me, whispering amongst themselves. I was a little overwhelmed by all the different smells. My stomach rumbled

Lord. Kasia, quickly give

my vampire eyes. Her magic was strong; it flooded through my system and relieved some of the pain. Melody always knew if there was something

said. “She’ll be busy for a bit.

I did remember. Five days ago, I’d spent the last of my money on dumplings. The meal was delicious, and since then, I had a

giving orders in Ukrainian to the cook named Kasia. She didn’t seem very happy, but five minutes later, I sat down at the small table with a huge bowl of freshly made stew. I started eating way too fast,

You’re going to give yourself a bad stomach-ache,” she said, but the food was so good. She was right; I needed to savour it for a bit longer. I dipped the bread, imagining having this every day. Getting food was my main issue, and when I did

was then that I began to realise there wasn’t going to be any more money coming in. Tristan’s betrayal struck me once again (it was a hard pill to swallow), and I had no idea how I was going to survive the winter months. The stew

an hour later, and I felt heavy

keeper didn’t want to hear anything about it. She wanted Melody to stay away from me. My friend didn’t have an easy life at all. She had to work really hard, pretend to be this great fortune teller and study during the night. She didn’t get paid; Anna was only giving her some pocket money. Besides, this wasn’t my place, and I didn’t want to be a

but I told her about my unfortunate meeting with Tristan and the near-death experience at the bar. I needed to

Academy one way or another. This complicated things a lot more. The two mages had

probably have to