Royal Pain ~ Slave to the High Royals

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The day had faded to night when the time had finally come to leave.

My mind was muddled with emotions at the confusion of what was about to unfold. We'd heard no activity from upstairs as we lay in wait to make our move, assuming that the vampires were already out scouring the woods around the mansion.

It was my only hope that Aiden wouldn't find and stop me before I could do what had to be done.

Although I wasn't entirely sure how I could stop the war from starting, because after all I was only one girl surrounded by people so much more powerful and influential than myself. But, I had to at least try.

The only thing that gave me any idea that I might be able to stop this was that I had people on both sides that should hopefully take some notice of me. Aiden and Josh were two of them, and then my father.

The vampires should have been my biggest worry, but I found myself doubting that my father would listen to anything I said after what I'd done.

Jared and Silvia led the way out of the mansion and I noticed Cami behind her sister, looking a lot more afraid than I'd really ever seen her. Celia was supporting Jared by running behind him also as we snuck up the stairs on tiptoes. In total I would have guessed there to be around twenty of us, which would have been difficult to miss if anybody were in the mansion.

Of course we couldn't be sure it was empty, but it was a basic, primal instinct for vampires to protect what's there's, which meant it was most likely they had all gone out. I wouldn't have been surprised to hear that some Punishers had been informed and had gone with them, just to strengthen the lines.

Those factors are what allowed us to exit the building, hurrying to seek cover in the nearby woodland, ''Great job, everyone.'' Jared tried to raise the morale, although everyone looked pretty petrified, ''Now, we need to split up to be inconspicuous. Follow your team leader and we will all take our different routes to the meeting point, got it?'' There were a series of nods in response.

Silently, everybody separated into different 'teams'. I hadn't paid much attention to who I was travelling with, more focused on what had to be done shortly afterwards.

What I did notice was Rose ever-present beside me, a much needed support. Through the darkness, I could just make out her form and the determination in her eyes as she grabbed my hand, ''We're in this together, Violet. Remember that.''

I nodded, fighting back tears as they threatened to spill. Having her there and knowing how close we had become made me wonder how a friendship could come from the sick idea of slavery, but it had.

Travelling through the woods went by in a blur, my mind focused on other things as we blindly stumbled our way across the greenery. We had gotten extremely lucky as we hadn't even had a glimpse of a vampire in our travels. The other slaves we were with were silent, probably excited for the freedom that was promised to them after this.

But not seeing any vampires seemed almost too good to be true. That thought sent shivers down my spine, everything could all go wrong so fast.

We eventually reached the clearing that had been labelled and directed as the designated meeting place. My hands were shaking, my teeth clenched together as I surveyed the area.

It was silent, nobody else in sight. That was the first sign that something was wrong.

''Aren't the other rebels meant to be here?'' I whispered to Rose, the other slaves with us turning their heads in my direction.

''Yeah.'' Rose breathed, her cheeks flushed as adrenaline coursed through all of our veins, ''What should we do?''

I was crouched behind a tree, my fingers digging into the solid bark as I bit my lip, sifting through all of our available options. I shook my head at a loss, it hadn't been my priority to think about what to do in this kind of situation.