Royal Pain ~ Slave to the High Royals

Chapter Thirty-One

It took a while for Aiden to break all of us out of our cages, after dispatching the camera quickly once he was out of mine. It was strange that the camera must have caught everything that had happened, from the feeding to the breaking out, and yet nobody had come. Not a sound could be heard outside of our little prison, no panic or alarm system.

It was unnerving, like they were sat in wait for us to make an appearance. Ideally, none of them had seen the footage, but that would certainly be too good to be true.

So, what were they planning?

Josh had hurried straight towards the lab, having made no comment about both mine and Aiden's actions. I was partially grateful for that, half of me was expecting him to want to feed as well and my bleeding wrist was a major temptation, but he hadn't even glanced at it. Instead, he was rifling through the various bottles filled with strangely coloured liquids, his lips pinched in a hard line. Many of them reminded me of the potion both he and Aiden had once taken, though the effects of that had faded until their appearances now appeared completely normal.

Rose was watching him, but her eyes seemed glassy as if she were deep in thought and wasn't actually taking any of her surroundings into consideration. I didn't want to dwell on the thought of how she now perceived me considering she had always displayed her disgust of vampires and their eating habits. I could only hope that she understood why I had done it.

I'd done it to save us.

As a constant, unwanted reminder, my wrist ached. The now cold trickle of scarlet was still evident, displaying the proof of what I had done. My initial idea had been to search the room for any form of fabric that I could have used as a makeshift bandage, but it seemed there was nothing of the sort in here. To be honest, I wasn't sure if it would have been safe to use anyway. The mess of all the other 'experiments' was a clear sign that this place wasn't exactly hygienic.

It was with regret that I began tugging at the sleeve of my rebel uniform, intending to use the cloth and wrap it around my injured wrist. It was a struggle, the tough fabric refused to give and I let out a frustrated grunt. The burden of time pressure caused my stress levels to sky-rocket, I knew we had to leave soon or else we suffered more chance of getting caught. The rebels certainly had the means to do it again.

Suddenly, Aiden appeared by my side, his pale hands batting mine away before easily tearing a strip of cloth from his own suit. He obviously knew what I had been trying to achieve as he proceeded to securely wrap the dark material around my wrist, hiding his bite from sight.

''Thanks.'' I muttered, my voice soft. For a moment my eyes went out of focus, a clear indicator that the loss of blood was taking its toll. I only hoped that I didn't faint.

He didn't say anything, it was Josh who spoke next, ''I can't believe how advanced they are with all this.'' He gestured towards the equipment around us. Although, it didn't look like this was the main storage area for their arsenal, it was probably a smaller collection to be used on 'prisoners'.

That thought made me shiver involuntarily.

Aiden moved away from me once he'd tightened the fabric and hopefully slowed the bleeding, ''We're going to have to be on our guard. Those things pack a punch.'' His eyes seemed to darken at the sight of the liquid that harmed him.

''Wow, finally you two understand that us humans aren't as weak as we seem.'' Rose's snide remark did not go unnoticed, her sour mood tainting the atmosphere.

''Don't tell me you agree with what they're doing!'' Josh exclaimed, anger radiating off of him in waves, ''They locked you two girls up too.''

''I agree with the cause, but obviously I'm not going to fight on the side of the people who decided to label me and Violet as the bad guys.'' Rose muttered, her shoulders slumped and her eyes cast downwards, ''I guess what I mean is, I'm sticking with you.''