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Lila
“WHO WANTS TO PLAY ANOTHER round of Monopoly?” Natalia asked as we sat in the living room the next day.
Hannah rolled her eyes. “I’m so sick of Monopoly. There has to be something else we can do today.”
I had to agree with her. Lexi hadn’t been kidding when she’d told me that life at the palace could get to be pretty boring sometimes. I’d only been living in the Slave Chambers for one full day and I was already bored out of my mind. We’d spent most of the afternoon watching TV, but there were only so many re-runs of Friends you could watch without getting completely bored.
“Well, it’s not like we can go outside. It’s raining,” Marjorie pointed out.
“Actually, I think we should go outside,” Hannah argued. “You know why? I really miss the rain. I miss the way it smells against the pavement in springtime. I miss the way it feels when it hits against your skin, just enough to cool you down on the hottest days of summer. And most of all, I miss kissing in the rain.”
“We all know you have a lot of experience at that,” Lexi said sarcastically. She glanced over at me and explained, “Hannah has kissed not just one or two but three princes.”
“Wow. How did that happen?” I glanced over at Hannah. “I figured that once you were one of the prince’s slaves, that meant you weren’t allowed to kiss any other vampires.”
“It does,” Lexi informed me.
Hannah rolled her eyes at her and then explained, “Initially, Prince Emerson is the one who chose me as his slave. We made out once in his lounge, but that whole arrangement lasted about half a minute. He never even drank my blood before he decided to release me.”
“He just let you go?”
She nodded.
“What happened to make him want to do that?” I asked. It hadn’t occurred to me that a vampire would just suddenly realize they didn’t want one of their slaves anymore, but it made perfect sense. It explained why Lexi was Sebastian’s longest slave. He must have gotten bored or sick of the others who had come before her.
“Prince Emmerson quickly realized I wasn’t the type of girl who he wanted to be his slave. I think he completely misjudged me based on my hair color and the fact that I was a cheerleader in my old life, so I had a tight cheerleader’s body when I first came here. He thought I would be a good time and that I wouldn’t be resistant to anything he wanted to do to me, but as it turns out, I’m not ‘submissive’ enough for his tastes,” she said, forming air quotes with her fingers. “It’s whatever. He’s not the cutest prince, anyway. I’m glad he decided to release me. When he did, I was put up for auction a second time.”
“I didn’t know they put slaves up for auction again once they didn’t want them anymore.”
“Usually they don’t, but I was a rare case. Most vampires don’t get tired of their slaves until after they’ve already drank from them. Since a blood tie was never formed between me and Prince Emmerson, it was easy for another vampire to claim me as a slave,” she explained. “And apparently vampires must think my blood tastes really good because there were a lot of offers after they sampled it when I went up for auction the first time.” She shrugged. “Anyway, that’s when Prince Sebastian chose me to be his slave.”
“So, she’s kissed both Prince Emmerson and Prince Sebastian at this point,” Lexi pointed out.
It made my gut wrench just a little bit to know that Hannah had kissed Sebastian. As I glanced around the room, I realized that he’d probably kissed all of his slaves at some point... all of them but me, that is. He wouldn’t even drink from me, let alone kiss me.
“Tell her about how you kissed Prince Henry, too,” Lexi went on.
Hannah shot dagger eyes in her direction before turning to me. “I can only tell you if you promise to never repeat a word of this. If Prince Sebastian ever found out...well, I don’t know what he would do to me.” She got a distant look in her eyes, as though she were considering all of the potential consequences.
“I promise to never speak a word of it,” I assured her.
“Prince Henry and I are...” She trailed off, biting down on her lip nervously.
“They’re having an affair,” Marjorie blurted.
My eyebrows rose. “But... how? Wouldn’t Sebastian find out about it?”
“He hasn’t yet. Prince Henry and I always find a way to sneak around. He’s close with one of the guards, so it makes it easy for him to sneak into my bedroom at night.” A blush rose to Hannah’s cheeks. “Once he even climbed in through my window.”
“Wow.” I hadn’t been expecting that. “Does it make you nervous to know you could be caught?”
“Of course it does.”
“Isn’t this whole situation so messed up?” Lexi asked me. “Poor, poor Prince Sebastian thinks she’s a loyal slave to him when she’s anything but.”
Well, maybe he shouldn’t be holding her here, forcing her to be his slave, against her will, I thought to myself, but of course I didn’t say it out loud.
Wrapping her arms around her knees, Hannah sighed. “Lexi doesn’t approve of my affair with Prince Henry, but I can’t help it. I just... I love him. And I know it’s a mutual feeling. I know he loves me, too. We’re in love with each other.”
“I love you, Han, but I’m with Lexi on this one,” Natalia chimed in. “I think this whole affair is pretty pointless. There’s no real chance at a future for the two of you, since you belong to Prince Sebastian. Besides, we all know that relationships between vampires and their slaves never work out.”
“They don’t?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
Natalia shook her head. “Vampires own us. They don’t date us.”
“So, are you saying Prince Henry doesn’t love me?” Hannah challenged.
“I didn’t say that. It’s possible he could love you, but it will be fleeting. Once he realizes the two of you have no real future, he’ll move on—maybe even to another slave.”
An awkward silence hung in the air. It felt like the girls were walking on thin ice and if they took one wrong step, they were about to completely crush Hannah’s feelings.
“Why don’t we go outside?” Marjorie asked in an obvious attempt to lighten the tension in the room. “I think we can all agree that we miss the rain.”
“Yes, let’s go,” Rachel said, rising to her feet. It was clear that she was in no mood to listen to the others arguing. I probably would have felt the same way if it wasn’t for the fact that I was learning a lot about vampires and their relationships with their slaves.
“Okay, I’ll go get the guards,” Lexi said as she stood up.
“We should probably all go put on some rain boots,” Natalia said.
Hannah didn’t say a word as she walked down the hallway that led to her room.
Once I was in my own room, I changed out of my dress and into a pair of black jeans and a white V-neck tank top. I pulled on a red trench coat-length raincoat and found a pair of black rain boots at the bottom of the closet. Glancing at myself in the mirror that hung on the wall, I stared at myself.
It was strange. My chocolate brown hair fell over my shoulders in loose waves. My bright green eyes popped against my sun-kissed skin from days Sean and I had spent out on his family’s boat at the lake. I looked just like myself.
That was what was so strange. On the outside, I looked the same way I always did. But I wasn’t the same.
Everything about me had changed.