Blood on Roses [COMPLETED]

Nine: Game

"Amongst a field of wildflowers, she is an elegant and spirited rose."
~ Ashton Anderson

NINE

Hailee taught me a few things about vampirism via her telepathy while we ran through the city. I now knew how to speedily travel down the streets while keeping the possibility of being spotted at a bare minimum. Hailee's ability was convenient for on-the-mission training since she could tell me everything without saying a word out loud.

"Pure silver that contains the blood of a Pureblood is burning and deadly to vampires. That's why as much as they want to kill us all, the hunters still prefer to capture vampires first, analyze their blood, then keep them locked up if they're a Pureblood. If not, well, either they're kept for training purposes, or it's off with the head."

I tailed Hailee closely as we took long strides to the guest's room. Since this was a public research facility, visitors were welcome as long as they followed a guide. Hailee tossed me a hat that identified me as a visitor.

"You're on your own from here on out. At the entrance to the inside of the provision, there are scanners to make sure the guests are human. You'll pass it since your vampire blood content isn't high enough for the machines to detect. I'll keep in touch, so tell me everything you see." With that, Hailee hopped back outside to wait for me in the area.

"Now, just wait. More people will come for the 8 o'clock tour. When there are enough to form a small group, a tour guide will come." I glanced at my wristwatch; it was twenty to eight. When I took a seat, a family of four arrived.

They smiled at me in greeting, and I returned it. The two kids jumped around in excitement, declaring that they'd be cool vampire hunters in the future.

By the time the clock struck eight, I had followed the group into the premise. As Hailee said, everyone had to walk through a security detector. Except this one was for detection of vampire blood.

I was at the end of the line. Others strolled through without a care in the world while I took baby steps toward it. I hesitated when it was my turn.

I was the first hybrid that The Ones has ever seen; therefore, it's not proven that these detectors couldn't catch me. What if it started beeping? Could I escape?

The tour guide lady got annoyed by how long I took and shoved me past it. I stumbled a bit. When I stood up straight, the woman went past me to the head of the crowd to lead us around. I glanced back at the silent detector while I trailed behind the group.

I observed each one of the working areas we passed by. The walls were made of glass, probably vampire-proof. I reported the tour guide's statements word by word to Hailee as well as what I was seeing, which was some ten researchers in lab coats per area, either staring at test tubes and microscopes or furiously writing something in their notebooks.

What caught my interest was that each room had a tank of red substance at the back. Anyone could tell that it was blood. By what Hailee said to me, it must be the ultra useful and rare pure blood.

"To get that amount of blood, there must be a chamber in here somewhere that the researchers keep the Purebloods to analyze and take samples," I thought concisely.

Hailee hummed in approval. We were approaching the end of the tour and vampires still weren't anywhere in sight, which meant they didn't plan on leaking such information to the public. For all we knew, behind closed doors, these researchers in white cloaks could be torturing the Purebloods.

The stone floor of the facility was clean and shiny enough to see my reflection, yet perhaps just a floor beneath my feet, beings were screaming in searing pain. Even if vampires weren't humans, that would still be animal abuse.