Chereads / Kingstone Chronicles / Chapter 19 - Ch. 19: Meeting the Resistance (2)

Chapter 19 - Ch. 19: Meeting the Resistance (2)

After the first guy, kicking Rosy around became normal fun for her guards. Since she healed so quickly, it was necessary for them to beat her every half hour or so, otherwise the wounds that they caused would begin to heal. When Adrian was awake, Rosy put special care into being quiet, but Adrian still probably noticed hem hitting her. Thankfully, he didn't say anything about it.

The carriage ride lasted half a day. Why it lasted half a day when they were supposedly so close to the resistance's main camp was a mystery, but between the constant pain, the multiple people who hated her at any given time, and her rising bloodlust, it was probably among the top twenty least comfortable carriage rides of Rosy's life... Maybe.

Towards the end of the ride, the beatings started decreasing in frequency and intensity. She was even given another shirt when the guards started to complain about the smell of blood leaking through her old one.

...

The five leaders of the Resistance were in a meeting when the messenger burst into their tent, panting.

"They're back... with her."

They shared a glance and immediately rushed out of the tent just in time to see the convoy pull into camp. The rest of the Resistance must have heard the rumors, too, for hundreds of others also emerged to get a good look at the caravan.

"She doesn't look so tough." Fabian, the only resistance leader who didn't have personal experience fighting the princess, postured.

He was the only one who had that opinion, because, despite bleeding through her white tunic from unhealed wounds literally all over her body, she didn't move as if she was in pain. Despite being blindfolded and weakened, she helped her blindfolded and bound companion out of the wagon in lieu of the guards, who were surrounding them like a cloud. This surprised the leaders, except for Fabian, who didn't have first hand knowledge of her general disregard for others.

Doma, who had known Rosy the longest, smiled.

"It's happened." He whispered to himself. Only Chloe heard him.

"You think... Maybe." She muttered under her breath.

They blindfolded Adrian and Rosy before leading them out of the carriage. Despite the blindfold, Rosy had a good enough sense of her surroundings to not be too disadvantaged. She helped a still-bound Adrian out of the carriage and followed their two dozen strong guard detail through the resistance's encampment.

"Big turnout, huh? Some sort of power show?" She muttered to herself, annoyed by the hundreds of sets of eyes that she could feel following their every movement. There were four gazes that stood out from the rest, though. She spared a passing glance at the four leaders of the resistance (through her blindfold) as they passed them by, before they were ushered into a tent and tied to a pole.

"How are your injuries?" Adrian asked once he could sense that they were alone. Rosy picked up on the fact that he wasn't only talking about her burns.

"You noticed? She asked, surprised. She hadn't expected Adrian to be capable of letting them hurt her like that without saying anything to stop them. She always thought that he was just a little too pure hearted for that. 

"I could tell that you didn't want me to stop them, and it didn't seem to actually hurt you enough to make you care, so I decided to trust that you would say something if it got too bad." He explained to her. 

Her eyes widened in shock. She hadn't expected Adrian to understand her so well. "It's the broken rib that I'm noticing. My back isn't bothering me that much." She admitted after a moment.

"I'm more worried about the blood on your back. Are you under control?" He asked. It was a valid concern. It had been more than two days since the last time she feasted on human-like blood, so as she'd explained earlier, the animal blood was probably starting to lose its usefulness. Smelling blood in the amount that she and Adrian were giving off should have driven her nuts, but a sniff stirred up little to nothing inside of her.

"I'm fine."

At that moment, one of the resistance leaders walked into their tent. Their footsteps screamed to Rosy of an equal three-part harmony of combat training, incompetence, and arrogance. Where physical stimulation had failed to bring our Rosy's bloodlust, this guy's mere footsteps succeeded and then some.

"Hm..." She made a little noise to inform Adrian about her little slip as the idiot came closer.

"Seriously? There's no chance at all that you're actually a leader of anything." Rosy didn't bother hiding her disdain for the main, or perhaps she wasn't capable of it. As her bloodlust was beginning to come out in full force, her vampiric arrogance was beginning to show through as well. Adrian could even sense her wrists beginning to relax in anticipation of something. If the dam that was her bloodlust burst any more, she'd completely lose control, and nothing would be safe from the indiscriminate slaughter.

"She hasn't satisfied her bloodlust in days! She's going to lose control if you don't get out of here right now!" Adrian warned the intruder, panicking slightly. Whoever it was that was in the tent with them clearly didn't understand the danger that they were in. In fact, they scoffed as they closed the distance between them and the danger zone.

Adrian silently willed Rosy to keep her cool as the idiot pulled down Rosy's blindfold. Meanwhile, Rosy was quietly taking pride in the fact that she didn't instinctively bite his fingers off.

"You recognize me, don't you?" Rosy answered the idiot with a growl of pure bloodlust, which he took as a growl of recognition instead.

She did her best to ignore him, her last nerve sizzling in response to his appearance.