Royal Pain ~ Slave to the High Royals

Chapter Fourteen

The next few days passed by slowly as I was confined to the slave quarters, with Marie visiting often to check up on me and provide me with blessed painkillers. As I wasn't allowed to leave, I hadn't seen Aiden or any of the other vampires for a few days. In some ways I was grateful for that as I didn't think I could face seeing Josh after what had happened, and I felt guilty for delaying the whole trip because Aiden needed me for blood whilst they were out with the rebels.

Lounging around for a few days was relaxing, a break from the stress of being a slave. But, there was the constant nagging thought that soon I would be leaving to follow through with the plan and travel to the rebel camp with two vampires and another human.

I wasn't sure I was mentally prepared.

I was sat up on my bed, fully dressed after watching all of the other girls leave to start their chores. I fiddled with the hairclip that my mother had given me before the auction and my thoughts were consumed by sadness as I wished that I could see my mother again and tell her that I was doing fine. Not only that, but I wished she could tell me the same.

Movement in the sitting area through the door captured my attention and startled me out of my thoughts. I quickly stashed the hairclip into the top drawer of my dresser and lay back onto the bed, expecting Marie to scold me for being up.

It wasn't just Marie who entered, as I had previously thought. Instead, I was surprised to see Aiden wondered in with Marie following closely behind. Aiden's face was expressionless as usual, but Marie had a friendly smile lighting up her features as she spotted me.

''Good morning, Violet. How are you feeling today?'' She asked kindly as she strode past Aiden and perched beside me on my bed.

I returned a warm smile, familiar with this routine, ''I feel great, honestly.''

''That's good to hear; you certainly look like you've got some colour back into your cheeks.'' She chuckled, ''Anyway, Aiden she's all yours.'' Marie stood up and I felt nerves rise up as my eyes followed her movements and she made her way out of the room.

''Finally.'' Aiden's tone sounded impatient as he approached, ''You need to pack.''

I felt my eyes widen at his words, realising that today was the day we were obviously going to leave and go on this dangerous 'adventure'. Didn't take him long to determine that I was fit and ready.

Without speaking another word, Aiden began rifling through the clothes in my wardrobe, occasionally throwing an item onto the bed by my feet. I noticed that most of the clothes he chose were thick and made to conserve body heat, and this made my nerves worsen, ''Don't just sit there, I'm not going to do all of the work for you.'' Aiden shifted impatiently as I hurried to sort the clothing into piles to then be packed into a small bag that had been provided for me the day before in preparation for the journey.

''Who else is going then?'' I asked curiously as we continued to sort through clothes. I wasn't really paying attention to what he was packing anymore, my thoughts consumed by the worries for the journey and whether we would fit in as rebels at the camp. Who knows what would happen if they realised that our party consisted of two vampires and their slaves.

''Josh, obviously. And he's chosen that girl that you speak to...I can't remember her name.'' Aiden paused in thought.

''Rose?'' I asked hopefully.

''Yeah, her. I'm assuming you two are friends, right?'' Aiden returned to the task of picking out clothes.

''I think so. I mean, we weren't friends before all of this but she's been helping me a lot these past few days.'' I answered honestly. Rose had been making more and more conversation with me, but she hadn't mentioned that she would be travelling with us.