Royal Pain ~ Slave to the High Royals

Chapter Twenty

He didn't have the obvious features of a vampire anymore either. Although his skin was still flawless, the colour in his cheeks had brightened and his skin tone had darkened slightly to give him the look of the living. His eyes didn't hold the supernatural, enchanting glow that many vampire's had, the grey had made them look dull and shadowy. The plain t-shirt and jeans combination he was wearing added to the look of an average human.

A part of me was shocked at how effective the potion was, my confidence growing as I realised that the rebels surely wouldn't recognise him. But, already I had the strange feeling of emptiness as if a part of Aiden was missing now, and it had affected myself as a person.

It was an absolutely ridiculous thought.

''Your turn then.'' Aiden gestured towards Josh, and I realised how smart he had been to catch the potion before we had lost the remaining liquid due to Aiden's mini tantrum.

Josh nodded and cringed as he chugged down the fluorescent potion. He shuddered visibly as he swallowed and slowly opened his eyes, as if waiting for pain to signal the start of his appearance changing.

''I guess it takes a while to kick in.'' Aiden said thoughtfully, observing Josh's actions as we had previously watched him.

After a few minutes, Josh's green eyes changed to a dark brown, his hair doing the same, deepening from its previous blonde.

Josh couldn't stop touching his hair, which has shortened considerably, and his newly defined jaw whilst Aiden began to speak again, ''So, the plan is we wonder in there and act like we want to join the cause. We're going to have to be very convincing, so I hope you girls can act.''

It seemed a bit late for his awareness of our terrible acting skills, but he didn't seem to be too bothered. I guessed that I could just do what was usual for me, be quiet and observe. Hopefully nobody would notice.

''Yeah, and we're going to have to look worse than we do now.'' Josh interjected, motioning down towards his clothes which seemed well-kept considering how far he had run.

''Why?'' I asked, curious to see where this was going.

''We have to be believable. They are going to suspect something if we tell them we have spent days searching for them and we look like we've sustained ourselves well.'' Aiden explained, speaking as if it were the most obvious idea in the world.

''What about our supplies?'' I asked, wondering what the rebels would think if we turned up with a high-quality tent and clothes.

''We're going to dump them.'' Aiden walked to a thick bush and dumped the bag containing the tent as well as some of his clothes, emphasising his point.

We all followed suit, dumping our bags in different locations around us. There was no use for them as long as we were accepted into the ranks of the rebels. I felt only a small stab of sadness at leaving our belongings as we had so little with us, but I reminded myself that they didn't truly belong to me, they had been provided to me by the High Royals.

Aiden and Josh began to smother themselves in the dry dirt that lay at our feet. I realised what they were doing after a moment of thinking they had begun to lose their minds, and I started to rub grass and dirt into my own clothes to try and give myself the disguise of a hopeless human that was tired and dirty.

It didn't take much to achieve that look.

We set off again, Rose and I now following the two disguised vampires as we came closer and closer to the camp that held the key to our uncertain future.

-*-*-*-

The sky was completely black when Aiden brought us to a stop again. Ahead of us, we could see the dim reflection of light and hear a quiet hum of noise.

It was the camp.

A strange hush had fallen over us as we had travelled. The boys hadn't shown any of their previous arrogance, though I wasn't sure if that was to prepare themselves for the act, or whether they truly were unnerved.

''Ready?'' Aiden's shoulders were tense as he looked through the trees towards our final destination. Looking at the back of him still felt strange, his entire posture and the way he held himself as a person had changed. It definitely made him seem like an innocent human being.

''Yeah, let's get this over with.'' Josh let out a breath of air, his and Aiden's display of nerves doing little to comfort me.

My palms were sweaty and my heart was thumping loudly in my ears as we broke through the first line of trees and were faced with the rebel encampment.

There were people everywhere, gathered around a large number of tents and lit fires surrounded by teenagers. It surprised me that so many of them were young, the same age as myself. Some were laughing amongst themselves, others seeming to be running around and dodging each other in some sort of exercise. The more I looked, the fewer adults I saw and I knew that Aiden would be laughing internally at the human's pathetic attempt of a rebellion using children.

A young boy with dark hair and dressed in a camouflage uniform jogged towards us, a curious and serious look clouding his features, ''Who are you?'' His response was fast, probably meaning that he was used to greeting random strangers who wondered through.

I could see a sea of faces, all eyes trained on us holding traces of uncertainty. I clasped my hands together nervously, fiddling with my fingers. It felt traitorous being here undercover amongst my own kind, I was not in allegiance with the vampires and with no way to back out.

''Hello, we are looking to join the fight against the vampires.'' Aiden's voice was shaky as he gave a formal response, whether his nerves were a part of the act or not I wasn't sure.

The boy looked us each up and down, his eyebrows drawn together as he bit his lip. There were no signs of recognition or alarm whilst he took us all in, and this reassured me a fraction, ''Fine, all initiates will have to be assessed by our leaders.''

It seemed rather odd that we had been accepted so quickly, yet another sign that the rebels were unprepared. Even I knew that they were being too trusting allowing us in straight away. We hadn't even been questioned.

Nonetheless, I had a little internal celebration at the fact no suspicions seemed to be raised so far, but this was soon replaced when I absorbed his words. We would be faced by the leaders sooner than we thought, and there was no way in telling if they would recognise a disguise potion. It was likely they would be better trained than the initiates, probably descendants of the previous rebels who fought during The War of Blood.

The boy regarded us one last time before speaking again, ''Come with me.''

-*-*-*-

A/N Thanks for reading! Please remember to vote and comment, I adore the support. :)

I'm so sorry that this is later than usual, I have had problems this week with writing and fitting in the time around certain events that have happened that are out of my control. I hope this chapter is good enough for you guys! <3

~ Edited 10/01/2016 ~