Roses for Rachel

Chapter 4.

"Yeah." She whispered sadly. "The whole time we thought we were being saved from the vampires, but we were being saved for the vampires instead. Did they tell you what happens if we lose?" I shudder at the thought, but nod. "The first elimination is a month from tonight." She shook her head, her brown eyes looking distant.

Her words caused me to stop dead in my tracks. I practically slammed my plate on the buffet and turned to her. "What are you talking about, Greer? What elimination?"

Greer stepped in closer to me, looking around herself as she spoke. "The prince will pick someone to be eliminated at a grand ball on the last Friday of every month until there's just one of us left." She said with a shake in her voice. "I don't think he liked me, Rachel. He hardly even looked at me. What if I'm the first one sent out and I get-." She was slowly getting more and more anxious.

I reached out my hand and took hers firmly. "We can't think like that, Greer. I'm sure he did like you, he'd be stupid not to. I bet he was like that with everyone." I tried to assure her, but her eyes were still scared.

"Not with you." She whispered, peeking up under her fake eyelashes.

"Greer." I said muttered. "He only picked me to dance because the king said he couldn't leave until after he'd danced with one of us and I just happened to be standing there." I rationalized.

She looked up to my eyes. "I bet that wasn't the only reason." She grumbled. "Did you hear what happens to the winner?"

I furrowed my brows, concerned why she was bringing it up. "She becomes the princess?" I asked slowly.

"Yeah." She nodded once. "The vampire princess. The prince is going to turn whoever wins, Rachel." She whispered. "Right after she has his heir."

"No." I whispered in disgust, but Greer just nodded again.

"That's what Tessa's handmaiden told her." She shrugged.

Despite the news I smiled to myself. "Well, the whole situation is helpless then, isn't it? We get booted out and we die, or we win, then get used as a human incubator for nine months, and we die." I turned away from the table and began walking away.

"Where are you going, Rachel?" Greer called out, a squeak in her nervous voice.

"Back to my room." I said over my shoulder, then turned forward to run into a waiter carrying a tray of drinks. "Sorry." I apologized, helping him steady the tray, then I grabbed one of the glasses and walked away. The glass was full of a weird tasting blue drink, but my mouth was so dry I drank it all anyway.

I reached the top of the stairs and waited impatiently, tapping my toes, for the men to open the large doors for me. As soon as the gap was large enough to fit through, I was out of there. I ditched my shoes at the elevator and went up one level. When I exited the elevator my head began to feel funny, like my mind was fuzzy and my fingers were numb. I began walking through the tangles of passage ways in the dark, trying and failing to remember which way to go. After a while of floundering around my legs started to betray me, causing me to sway when I walked and giggle when I bumped into the walls on either side of me.

Ahead of me I saw a man's figure walking my way out of the darkness. "Excuse me? Sir? I'm lost." I giggled stupidly.

Before I could blink the man was suddenly right in front of me. I hadn't even seen him move. He was muscular and very tall and looking at me very strangely. Like I was something to...well, eat. "You are very lost, aren't you?" He smiled viciously, leaning down towards me. "Pretty little thing like you shouldn't be running around here alone. Hasn't anyone told you there are vampires everywhere?" He smiled, his teeth gleaming.