BLOOD BOUND

A few days after the blood festival, it was time for the blood moon to rise. Elissa was happy that lord Nikolai even after all his taunting accepted Illira 'it is the only way to keep her away from the council' she thought reassuring herself but she had more to worry about because lord Nikolai had told his cousin duke valentine that he would provide him with a boy for his daughter's blood bond from Elissa's 'collection' since she was so desperate to give them away. Not knowing how to go about the whole thing she decided to give out Felix as he had more manna than the other boys who were human plus he was more responsible.

The problem now was that she had to figure out a way to get Illira and Felix to the ceremony without having the other kids be suspicious or ask questions when they would see them accompany their new masters or go on errands. So, she came up with a plan. 'I will tell them Illira and Felix are being adopted, it's a long shot and far from full proof but it's better than wiping away all their memories of them' she thought.

After pondering in her room for a while she decided to go with her idea. She then walked to their room and said, "I have great news Illira and Felix are getting adopted".

"By who?" said Felix as he folded one of his three pairs of clothing and kept it on the nightstand.

"The vampire nobles are adopting you," said Elissa to receive confused and astonished looks from all her children especially Illira.

"What, how!?" said Illira.

"Does that mean they are gonna be vampires now", said Amethyst.

"Slow down", said Elissa.

"First of all Illira is just going to be a helper to master Damien the way I help out lord Nikolai and Felix is also getting adopted tomorrow, duke Valentine also needed someone to help his daughter so I recommended him", said Elissa.

"Why can't they both just stay here", said Naomi.

"Because I want a better life for you, one where you don't have to eat table scraps and do manual labor. One day I hope to get all of you new homes", said Elissa with a fake bright smile on her face as she knew that their lives might get better but from now on they will tread a fine line, any tiny mistakes could land them dead as thee council now knows of their existence.

"Hmmm, when do we leave, so I can pack", said Felix in a surprisingly calm tone.

"You will take nothing from your old life, you will be given new clothes and belongings", said Elissa she was just about you say more when the door swung open.

"lady Elissa, Misstress Bernadette would like to speak to you about the ritu...", said a maid as she was immediately interrupted by Elissa.

"Adoption!, you mean adoption", said Elissa as she gave the maid a stern treating look.

The maid upon understanding what just happened said, "Yes adoption".

"I'll be right there", said Elissa as she stood up and looked at the kids not feeling satisfied with her actions.

She said one more thing to the kids that night "I know you'll miss each other so spend the night saying your goodbyes, they'll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning". and she left and shut the door after dropping a bombshell on her kids.

After she left Naomi started crying.

"Again, Naomi", said Felix.

"She is just sad that she'll miss you Idiot", said Amethyst holding back tears of her own.

"We're so happy for you", said Trevor.

"Yeah, but we might never see them again", said Gerald, and as he said that Illira also started crying.

"Fine stop crying ok this doesn't have to be the end, we can meet at the academy but all of you have to promise to do everything you can to get in", said Felix.

They all nodded their heads and went to bed Illira and Felix were still not prepared for what they'll go through the next day.

The next day the kids wake up to a knock on the door it was Elissa, she was here to collect Illira and Felix. After lengthy sobbing goodbyes from the other kids they left with her after leaving the room they were expecting to be taken through the servant's entrance to ride a carriage or something but to their surprise, Elissa walked them to an unfamiliar hall and walked them into a dark room and locked them in.

After banging on the door for hours they realized no one was coming and that something else was in there with them it kept making this high-pitched noise.

"what's making that sound?" said Illira as she clutched Felix's arm.

"How am I supposed to know?" said Felix.

"Let go of me, I think I've got an idea", said Felix and as he said that, he nudged Illira to pull his arm free and he proceeded to rub his hands together pulled the left one into a fist, and when he let it go it conjured a small flickering fireball, it almost looked like a small flame on a candlewick he moved his hands towards the noise and towards the sound and to he and Illira's surprise it was a little girl about their age with white wings which bore iridescent colorful feathers along with its extremes and edges. The girl was clothed and bound by the same expensive-looking fabric.

Her mouth was partially bound but she was able to loosen it and let out those shrieks from earlier.

"Who are you?" said Illira to receive no response.

"What's your name?" said Felix

"I have no name father, I mean emperor said my master will name me", said the winged girl.

"Why are you here?" asked Felix.

She responded like she had been told to say this when asked "I am here for the blood bond as a sacrifice from my people to the vampires".

"What sacrifice?!" said Illira.

"Probably the same one lady Elissa brought us here for" as he said this he sat on the ground feeling betrayed.

"No, she would never. what even happens in this so-called sacrifice?" she asked the girl.

"I don't know", she responded.

After hearing that Illira decided to sit put and wait for Elissa to come to clear this up as a misunderstanding.

After what felt like forever, which was actually six hours all the children has fallen asleep even the mysterious girl. They were awoken by the sound of the door unlocking it was Elissa but she had lost her reassuring smile.

She looked at them and said, "Felix, Illira I'm sorry that I have to do this just know that I had no choice".

"You three will be participating in the blood moon ritual. this ritual aims to bond you to your vampire master so you can serve as their pet, after the bond is completed your master should be able to reach their full potential without losing their humanity, as a pet you should go out of your way to make sure the noble name is not tarnished understood", said Elissa in a stern voice.

"What do you mean humanity," said Felix.

"Yeah and what will happen during the ritual", said Illira

"From now on you are property you shall not speak unless asked to do so", as soon as she was done saying that she turned and left banging the door leaving the kids in utter confusion.

As soon as she was outside the door she started weeping then Eleanor walked toward her and said, "it's too late to turn back now we need to go to the market to buy things for the ritual".

As she said that Elissa cleaned her tears and walked away with her. Once they got to the market, they moved towards the black market where semi-legal items were sold. Some of the items were magical items some poached magical animals some even people.

As they maneuvered through the black market, they came across the slave traders as they made bargains and deals with people, both noble vampires and rich humans even aristocrats from other nations came to bid on young men and women from ages zero to people in their late twenties. They even had people of different races but it didn't matter what age or race a person was anyway, if a person had any qualities that could add a price tag to their head then they were sold all they had to do was be in the wrong place at the wrong time this is one of the dark parts of Grimborne places the officials also known as lord Nikolai and his vampire kin turned a blind eye to as long as they could benefit from them. The market was a long way past the tidy village that surrounds Acelin castle it was dangerous territory.

"What are we looking for?" said Elissa.

"The Lord asked me to bring the durberries", said Eleanor

"Ok then let's go find them", said Elissa.

A couple of hours later a group of guards tied up Felix and Illira and carried the three children to somewhere in the middle of the vast forest that surrounding the left side of the Acelin castle.

Looking up at the sky they noticed that the moon was bright and full in the sky which meant it was night, it was also a bright shade of maroon but they knew that much as today was the blood moon day the day four days after the festival.

They reached a clearing and on that clearing stood an old building that had a glass roof once they were taken in, they saw that the roof magnifies the redness of the already read moon into a deep blood red color.

The guards placed them on a weird-looking alter that had inscriptions all over it once they were down on the alter they were loosed of all their bindings even the mysterious girl was freed from her cage but for some reason, they couldn't move it was as if their bodies were being controlled by the alter.

They remained like that terrified until lord Nikolai, Elissa, Eleanor, duke valentine and two other women walked in with them. once they walked in Elissa crushed up a paste and added some dry-looking berries to it. After she did that she gave lord Nikolai who stired it with his fingers and the brown murky paste turned pitch black. Elissa took the bowl and poured it into three separate cups after that the Lord said "you can come in now".

They watched as three people walked in one older and two children their age. The two boys looked similar dark whine read eyes black hair but the Girl had blond hair and brighter maroon eyes.

"The three of you take a knife cut your palm and pour the blood into one of the cups," said lord Valentine.

Vesper having already done this before, had already done so.

After they poured their blood into their individual cups, they were then instructed further to call the children to drink. once they did so, the children without being able to control themselves still under the influence if the alter moved without free willl. immediately they took the cups and drank from it they began to writhe in pain.

Three attendants were instucted to chain them up and begin the soul branding, metal rods were heated and touched in the middle of their chests.

The other children were in pain too as due to the branding process felt the same pain from the hot rods after the process the new blood bonds passed out.