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?

[Know something?]

"The answer is roses." She was sure of it. 

“Then let’s go.” Jackson led the way to the secluded rose garden. They passed by several groups along their way but none were moving in the same direction they were. The rose garden was empty when they arrived. The group split up and searched the area but none of them found the next clue.

“How does the myth go?” Adrian stopped to speak to her while Jackson continued to search while he wandered around.

“Cupid left a thorn in a garden of roses. Aphrodite was walking in the garden when she stepped on it and shed her blood on the roses, turning them red.” 

“Maybe we should look for a white rose.” Amelia was the closest and kneeled down by the bush and looked underneath. The woman carefully reached in and pulled out another envelope. The envelope was handed to Adrian while Jackson helped her stand up. 

Adrian opened the envelope and showed it to Jackson. The man laughed and the two of them led the way. 

“The theme seems to revolve around love this year. There’s a tree out here that some of the guests have been carving initials into.” Jackson shared a look with Amelia before turning to Adrian and nudging him with his elbow. The man whispered something to him but she couldn’t hear them from here. Whatever it was Adrian shook his head before glancing at her. He faced forward again without saying anything. 

A large oak tree was surrounded by a ring of flowers. She recognized a few from reading the books on herbs like the red begonias and purple snapdragons but most of the other flowers were unknown to her. Jackson stepped forward and looked up. She followed his gaze and spotted the envelope stuck on a high branch. Jackson walked around the tree a few times before he stopped and jumped to grab a branch. He climbed up and sat down for a moment. Jackson jumped to the next branch and made his way up until he reached the envelope. The man grabbed it before he jumped down.

Jackson showed off his prize before he handed it over to Adrian.

“It looks like script.” Adrian offered her the envelope. Marie took it and pulled out the paper. Amelia moved to her other side. There was three script written on the sheet.

“Stone. Power. Light.”

“Is that really what it says?” Jackson leaned over and stared at the paper. She held it out to him but he laughed and held his hands up. “I believe you. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Well…” Amelia had her hands on her hips as she frowned. “Maybe it’s supposed to be a water fountain. They're made of stone and several of the water fountains have lights inside them.” Jackson scratched his head.

“There’s too many for us to check each one. Which one should we head to?” 

“If Amelia is right, then maybe we should be looking for the largest one.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, one of the words is power. I would assume a large fountain would require quite a bit of power, especially if it also has lights.”

“The biggest one would be on… the east side!” Jackson picked Amelia up and she laughed as they dashed away. Marie turned but she was too late. Adrian scooped her up and took off after the other two. 

They regrouped at the fountain. Adrian let her down. She glared at him before she turned and scanned the surroundings. This did look like the largest fountain. The diameter looked to be about fifteen feet. A part of the fountain base was cut out so that the water spilled like a small waterfall into a larger pool of water. The pool was in the shape of a rounded rectangle and stretched out from the fountain a good twenty feet. Light decorated the inside of both the pool and fountain, lighting up the area with its light. The tallest part of the fountain was probably twenty feet tall with a stylized jug on the top, tilted so that the water poured out of the opening.

“Is there anything else on the card?” Marie looked at it and flipped it over. Nothing on the back. She opened the envelope just in case and there at the bottom of the envelope was another script written on the envelope itself. 

“Air.” She showed the script to everyone else. Jackson sighed as he shook his head. 

“I’m glad this is the last clue. I don’t know what I would do if there were ten more of these.” Then they were looking for the treasure and not another clue. No wonder the vampire had taken off. Marie looked around at the surrounding garden. Air. The area was surrounded by flowers, bushes, and trees. There were also statues dotted here and there. What would air represent?

“Maybe it’s one of the statues.” Everyone stared at her before turning towards the garden. They split up, each of them taking a different direction.

Several minutes later, Jackson shouted that Amelia had found something. Marie carefully rushed over. A statue of a large swan with its wings spread out was nestled in the middle of several bushes. The statue was a foot taller than Amelia and almost as wide as it was tall.

“This was the only thing I could find that might be the “air” we were looking for.”

“Well, let’s see if you’re right.” Jackson knelt down after saying that and looked under each of the bushes nearby but came up empty. “Don’t see anything.”

“Did any of you see anything?” Marie and Adrian shook their heads. All the statues she had seen had been of women. They were made to look old and broken but from what she could tell they weren't statues of anyone in particular. 

“Huh. So did we go to the wrong spot?” The man scratched the back of his head. Amelia walked around the area while the vampire tried to use the statue to lift himself up. Jackson wasn’t prepared for the statue to tilt towards him and he let go quickly. He fell backward onto the ground, stunned. “Damn! That scared me!” Amelia examined the statue for a moment before she reached out and pushed against it with one hand. 

The statue moved. 

Adrian walked over and grabbed it around the neck and tilted it forward.

“Anything underneath?” Amelia knelt down on the other side.

“There’s something underneath!” The woman reached out and pulled a small brown box out from underneath. Jackson got up and dusted himself off before he walked over to Amelia. The woman opened up the box and showed it to the rest of them. Inside the box was a crystal rose. The amount of detail was impressive. The flower looked lifelike despite being see-through.  

“Great! Let’s take it back!” Jackson picked up Amelia before she had even closed the box and took off. Marie was prepared this time for it and tried not to tense up too much when Adrian picked her up. Though the smug look on his face made her feel less guilty about strangling him.

The terrace was empty when they reached it. Jackson put Amelia down and took the box from her. The man took the box over to the host and placed it on the table in front of him. The host took the box and opened it revealing the crystal rose.

“Congratulations! You are the first to arrive. Here is your prize.” The host smiled as he handed over another envelope. Jackson brought the envelope back and opened it. 

“Tickets to the Garden Party.” Adrian took one ticket while Jackson slipped one into his own pocket. The two men began to talk about a party they’d gone to a long time ago. 

Marie glanced back at the table and noticed another team heading for the table. Three men and one woman stood in front of the host as he looked over what they had brought. From here, it looked like another crystal flower but she couldn’t tell if it was another rose. They were given an envelope as well as two bottles of red liquid. Marie frowned as the vampires accepted it. She expected the pink version but that was not a good sign. 

A woman with grey eyes stared right at her. There were several tattoos along her arm and when she turned to speak to one of the men, Marie could see that she had several tattoos along her back as well. All of the tattoos were written in script. 

[Something wrong?] She shook her head. It was surprising but not a big deal. The woman had nothing to do with her. 

Jackson and Amelia left after telling them bye. 

[We should head out as well. We have just enough time to eat then I have another meeting coming up.] Marie nodded as he offered his hand to her.