Chapter Six: The Prize at the End
~ Marie ~
She splashed her face with water before grabbing a towel and drying herself. Reading until well past the time she should’ve gone to bed had taken its toll. She’d even taken a colder shower than normal in hopes of waking up but she was still tired. Maybe all she needed was coffee. She went into the living room to find Adrian already sitting on the sofa, looking at his phone. He put it away and smiled.
“Ready to eat?” She nodded. It was the only way for her to get coffee. Marie sat down on the sofa across from him and tried not to act as tired as she felt. She knew vampires could feel emotions but she had no idea how much of her physical state he could feel. “We have several things lined up for today. The first thing on the agenda is a meeting. Afterward, we’ll be participating in one of the events scheduled later.” Event? What kind of event would be planned for a vampire-only party? There was a knock at the door and Adrian went to open it.
Marie enjoyed her cup of coffee. The food had arrived soon after he’d made the call. She’d been happy to see that the coffee had come in a large pitcher for them to serve themselves. She reached out and served herself another cup when she noticed him staring at her.
“What?”
“We've already discussed this.” He looked pointedly at her food. She hadn’t started eating yet. Marie sighed as she put her cup down and started to eat. Today he had ordered her eggs with two pieces of toast. It wasn’t a lot and she should be happy about that but she just wasn’t hungry. Coffee and pills would have been fine for her. She glanced at Adrian. His arms were crossed as he stared back at her. Marie went back to eating. She managed to eat about half of her meal before she was full. “Done?”
“Yes.” She went back to sipping her coffee.
“Then I want to discuss how things will go for the meeting. You already know not to speak or look directly at other vampires.” She nodded. “During the meeting, if anyone speaks to you, don’t speak to them unless I’ve given you permission first.” It didn’t seem that different from what he’s told her before.
He looked at his watch. She had about ten minutes left before her helpers would be here. Marie went back to her room to change before they arrived.
*~*~*~*~*
She watched as the elevator display counted down. It hit five before the elevator stopped and a soft ding was heard. Once the doors opened, Adrian led them down one hallway then turned and led her down another. He stopped at a door a third of the way down the hall. Adrian knocked. The door opened to reveal a young man in his early twenties.
“Please come in.” The man stepped aside to let the two of them in. She tried to look around as much as possible while keeping her head down. From what she could see, the living room looked identical to theirs. Everything was placed in about the same areas. Another man stood in front of a sofa, waiting for them.
[Sit down next to me.] Adrian shook the man’s hand before he sat down on the opposite sofa. Marie sat down next to him but she made sure to keep just enough space between them.
“Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.” The young man walked around the sofa and towards the counter. She noticed that he had a slight limp as he moved across the room.
*I’m thankful our times matched up.” Her magic sense wasn't picking anything up. Adrian hadn’t told her to scan for magic but it gave her something to do. The companion came back and placed glasses on the table in front of her and Adrian. Adrian’s drink and the vampire’s looked to be the same clear amber shade. Probably champagne.
Hers on the other hand was pink.
Dammit.
This was probably exactly what she thought it was. She should have known something like this would be here.
Anything else would be preferable to this.
Marie took a sip and tried not to grimace. Hopefully, this meeting wouldn’t take too long. She was thirsty but she didn’t want to keep drinking this.
[We’re leaving.] Marie blinked and realized that time had passed while she had been thinking. She looked at her hands and realized she had placed her glass back on the table. Adrian stood up and she followed him out the door. [Are you okay?] He glanced at her as they waited for the elevator to arrive. She nodded but she kept her gaze on the doors. The elevator doors opened and they got in. They took the elevator all the way down to the first floor.
They walked to the back of the hotel and out onto the terrace. Outside, there were about thirty people waiting to one side. The host stood on a stool and raised his arms to get the crowd’s attention.
“Thank you for joining me. Tonight’s event will be the treasure hunt. Teams will need to be in groups of four. That number includes the companions so please keep that in mind. The area to search is the entire garden area. No time limit. The first team to come back to me with the correct item is the winner. There will be other prizes for those of you who participate so don’t stop once a winner has been decided. Once you’ve created a team please see me at the front for your clues.” He stepped down off the stool and went over to where a table had been set up. Several envelopes were lined up on the left and right of the table. Some people were already forming a line in front of the table.
“There you are! I was hoping to catch you before you teamed up with someone else.” Jackson walked over with Amelia. The woman noticed Marie watching and nodded in her direction. “I hear the clues this year will be the hardest.”
“So that’s why you want to team up with me?”
“Of course. Between you and Amelia, this should be easy.” Jackson looked towards the table before looking back at Adrian. “I’ll get our clues.” He took off towards the table. Amelia stayed behind. The woman didn’t look down at the ground or keep silent. Amelia looked straight at Adrian as she spoke.
"Been a while."
"It has. How have the two of you been?"
"Good. Traveling here and there. Just got back from New York."
"How was it?" Marie tuned out the rest of the conversation. She had no interest in learning about people she was never going to see again. Marie wondered why they were even here. Was there something specific he hoped to gain from this or was he just spending time with his friends?
[Marie.] She glanced at him. He was staring right at her.
"Do you understand how the game works?" Marie glanced at the woman before she looked at Adrian. The woman wasn’t a vampire so did the rules apply?
[You can talk with them.]
"No." Amelia stared at her for a moment before she started laughing.
"I think I’m beginning to see why you chose her."
"What's so funny?" Jackson had returned. He held a white envelope in one hand.
"Nothing." Adrian took the envelope from him while Amelia explained. "Now, back to what we were saying. The rules are simple. We use this clue to go to the place it hints at. From there, we get another clue. We keep going like that. Going from clue to clue, until we find the object at the end."
"We grab the item and bring it all the way back here and win." Jackson interrupted with a slap to Adrian's back. "It's as simple as that." Amelia shook her head while Adrian smiled.
"Can I have everyone's attention again? Now that everyone has gotten their clues, you may now...Begin!" Groups filed out down the stairs and into the garden. Their group followed the others but moved to the right once they’d reached the bottom. Adrian opened the envelope and held it so that everyone could see what was inside it. There was only a small piece of paper with a single sentence written on it.
"Go where Aphrodite shed her blood." Amelia read it out loud.
"And this is why you're my partner." Jackson leaned on Adrian’s shoulder while he looked at the paper and shook his head. Marie put her hand to her chin. One of the books she’d gotten from the sorcerer had been related to herbs and mythology. She knew that she read something about this. What was it?
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