A/N: My apologies for the lateness of this chapter. I have been waiting for my lovely Beta reader to contact me to make sure it is ok. Thanks, Ana.

Now, on with the sexiness!

Chapter 9

The Presentation/Betrayal

We each sat on one of the stone slabs waiting for the inevitable moment. Our teachers were not allowed to accompany us today so I was thankful that Hecate had shown me what happened here. Some of my friends looked like they had never seen the Blood Pit before and looked around confused.

We had been dressed beforehand and our hair styled.

I held out my wrists as an elderly woman came and sat with me, I turned away as she reached for the dagger besides me and I felt the burning sting of my flesh being cut. It hurt so much. I heard someone cry out; obviously they had not been shown this before. My blood was collected by the elderly woman into the goblet she held. Hecate had offered me her own silver goblet for the occasion.

The other girls each had their wrists opened and offered their sacrifices, some more willing than others.

After some time, my wrists were cleaned and bandaged by the old woman. She uttered a chant as she wrapped my new decorated bandages around my wrists which were jewelled. I could feel my veins sealing with her words, my wrists still stung from the cut flesh but the bleeding had ceased.

I tried to stand up but the old woman forced me down by my shoulders.

"You're not going anywhere girlie until you've finished preparing yourself," she offered me the goblet which held what looked like an awful lot of my blood and I stirred it with the spoon she gave me. She then handed me a cup of sweetened water which she made me consume in front of her, oh Gods it was a sickly taste and after I'd finished that she forced a spoonful of honey down my throat. "Now you're ready." She said and I slowly rose up with my goblet.

We wondered through the corridors towards the throne room one after the other with me in the lead. We wore white ceremonial dresses made of a thin silky material, the front plunged down to our navels and the sides split to the top of our thighs. The decorated bandages around our mutilated wrists matched our dresses perfectly.

Before we reached our destination I turned to the other six, "Everyone, I know that we're exhausted and tired but this is the most important moment of our lives and we must focus. With that said, let us pray. Lords of darkness, on this day we offer ourselves to your service, we ask humbly that our prayers are answered on this day. We will please you, we will do unto you all you ask without fear of your requests, and we will gladly lay down our beating hearts to make you happy. We are here for you alone. Amen."

"Amen." The others agreed.

We entered the throne room, my eyes immediately drawn to Kain who sat on his throne. I couldn't stop looking at him, I saw him with very different eyes now. I found this hard to comprehend, I always imagined I would be looking at Raziel. The lieutenants were also sitting on immaculate looking chairs which formed a sort of semi-circle. Some looked bored while others gazed at us with hungry eyes.

We made our way to the vampire we had each been serving and using what peripheral vision we had we knelt in front of them as one and offered up our sacrifices in the goblets we carried with our heads bowed low.

Kain's hand reached forward and took hold of the goblet I offered him. The other vampires followed suit. I could just about see as Raziel who sat next to Kain reached for Thea's hands and consumed her offering. A pang of jealousy swept through me as I wished it was my blood he was drinking and I could not look up to witness Kain.

"How dare you look upon me human!" It was Dumah's voice which bellowed across the room. I turned my eyes as far as I could without moving my head and watched as he struck Sophia roughly across the face. Her body flew across the room nearly landing on the other side. I closed my eyes, I could hear Sophia crying but I dared not anger Kain by going to her aid. No one moved, no one said a word. Thea was biting her lip.

A clawed finger went under my chin and lifted my head up slowly. Kain made me look him in the eyes and I honestly thought that I would pass out from the intensity of this moment.

"So that's what you look like," he laughed, "Hecate's shadow has green eyes. Does it have a name also?"

"Anastasia, my Lord." I tried to not let my eyes wander to where Raziel sat but I hoped that he was looking at me.

"Tell me, did you enjoy what you saw the other night, Anastasia?" I blushed at his question and felt my heart leap to my throat. Did he really expect an answer?

I answered the only way I knew how, "Yes, my Lord."

"Well then, maybe you'll be lucky enough to have that experience for yourself."

I felt like I would faint at his words, whether this was due to what he was saying or my blood loss I could not tell. Kain consumed my offering while I watched him and then he handed me the empty goblet, giving me permission to leave. My friends and I went to the back of the room and prepared ourselves for what was to follow, Sophia was already there, her tears had stopped but the pain in her eyes was evident.

I noticed that Kain and Raziel were talking as the performances commenced, their eyes flitting between each other and what I hoped was me.

The performances were exciting, a mixture of dance and song depending on what the girls were good at. The sacrifice earlier had obviously taken a toll on the dancers' bodies though and I was grateful that I would be the last act.

This was an important time for we needed to try and impress our Lords to the best of our abilities, it would be Kain who would decide who we were given to but the lieutenants would have a chance to approach Kain if they had a preference, not that he would pay their requests any attention if he was not happy with them.

So long as I'm not given to Dumah, Melchiah or Zephon, I'll be more than happy. Dumah's brutality was not something I wanted to witness first hand, Melchiah did not have a good reputation for his treatment of girls either, and the thought of Zephon coming anywhere near me after what I'd seen made my skin crawl.

My heart pounded harder with each passing minute. My eyes never left Raziel. This would be my only moment to grab his attention, Please Gods, hear me now. I will be loyal to whomever I am chosen for... But please, grant me my wish. Let me be with Raziel... My faith will be greater with no other than him. Lord Kain enchants me, but my heart has been stolen already...

Selena danced to a tune played by a lone minstrel we had given our music to earlier. The dance was exotic and involved her curving her spine and moving her arms in fluid motions, it almost looked as if the girl had no bones in her arms they moved so perfectly. I was pleased that her hips barely moved for my simple dance would involve a lot of that. Many of the vampire Lords were taking notice of her incredible flexibility which I'll admit was hard to ignore. By the end of her dance I was exhausted just from having watched her.

Thea rose next with her shining flute. She smiled at me as she walked to the where Selena had just been. She pressed the pretty instrument to her lips and began to play the notes that I knew so well from memory, my jaw dropped and my face went white with shock.

BITCH! The voice in my mind screamed.

She was playing my song, the song that I was going to sing after her, the song that I had spent the last two months of my life practising until it was perfect. She was playing it on her flute!

Have I been so blind?! Is this Thea's own doing or the work of Dinah? Selena who was sitting next to me again, gripped my hand tightly. The others looked at me anxiously, they all knew what had happened for we'd all known what the others were going to do and this was not what Thea had said she was going to do.

So this was why she had let me teach her all I knew. This was what it had come down to. Had her want and desire been so consuming that she would betray me like this? Was she the one responsible for cutting my hair all those years ago?

I wanted to serve, I wanted to be a worshipper and be Lord Raziel's concubine, but never would I have been lowered to this. Turning on my fellow worshippers.

I wanted to dive at her, to wrench the cursed instrument from her lips and shove it down her tiny throat into her tiny body. I wanted so much to kill her now. She had already taken Raziel from me when we were Followers… I would not let her take him from me again.

I had little time to act, so I dashed out of the throne room, not caring how it must've looked. I knew what I was doing. I just had to find the sheet music and quickly. I ran with all might to Hecate's chamber and threw open the door. She was ready for me, a look of frustration and anger in her eyes.

"Dinah has just come to me," she spat, "I know what's happened." I struggled for breath and had to support myself against a beam, "They concocted the idea together, both Dinah and Thea to make both of us look like fools and to embarrass you in front of the one you desire." She held out her hand to me and in her grasp were several pieces of paper.

"Is that… what I think it is?" I asked between short breaths.

"Yes, it is our only chance." She handed me the sheet music and I nearly cried, "Don't do that, you'll ruin your vocal chords and your makeup. You'd best sort out your hair before you go back." She quickly ran her fingers through my hair, smoothing it down and then giving it volume again. I thanked her and ran back to the throne room hoping that I still had time.

Thea had not yet finished when I got back so I approached the minstrel and handed her my new sheet music.

"Don't ask, just play." I said, then I sat down again next to Selena and quickly started my breathing exercises to calm me and to expand my lungs ready for my performance.

When Thea finished she took her bow and walked towards us, I rose to my feet with my two large white fans made of feathers and passed her. The smile on her face was tainted by the fire burning in her eyes and I shot her an equally flamed look. I resisted the urge to trip her up. That was not how Hecate had taught me to do things; I would prove myself in other ways.

I knelt down with the fans practically covering me as I waited for the minstrel to play.

The song itself was well known but an extremely difficult one to master, so I was lucky that the minstrel knew what she was doing. The only reason we had not chosen this song originally was because of its complexity in vocal range with quick tempo. Hecate had said that although I was capable it may be too much to handle after my first sacrifice, but with the new found rage within me, she obviously had no doubt that I would have the energy to achieve it.

The lyrics were of a seductive nature, which suggestive words. This also helped me in my dance for I was able to tease the vampires using my fans and by gyrating my hips. My eyes looked to each of them as I sang the lyrics, I approached several of them to make it seem as if I were singing to them alone and of course I included Raziel in this, I kept my gaze with him for a only a fraction of a second longer than I had the others but I knew that it would be enough for him to notice, he was smiling at me, his eyes glinting as he scanned my body up and down. I returned his smile as I turned back to Kain. He was not smiling, but his eyes definitely were and I hoped that he hadn't mistaken my smile to be for him.

The end of the song had no words, but it involved me having to sing notes which got progressively higher. This is undoubtedly the hardest part of the song but somehow I reached into my own diaphragm and reached the notes effortlessly. I threw my arms out to the sides still holding my fans and let my head fall to my chest as I finished.

There was no applause, although I did not expect one so I simply took my bow and left.

As I reached the back of the room I suddenly felt very dizzy, my face felt hot and the images began to blur together. I think I fell into Selena's arms.