Vengeance (The Prince's Games Book 1) Rebecca Grey (first e reader txt) 📖

he stares back at me in disbelief. "I thought I was the last of my kind."

"You're the first I've seen in years," I tell him as a genuine smile cuts across my face. I don't remember the last time that I smiled. Not like this. Not a full grin that isn’t created by bloodshed.

"Where?" He shakes his head and reaches a hand out toward my face. I don't step out of his reach and his hand is rough against my skin, warm. "Where have you been?"

"The Bend," I manage even though my throat feels like sandpaper. "Are you playing in The Oasis Games?"

"Nilsa!" Marcello calls before the man can answer.

"Nilsa..." he says slowly, tasting every letter, "Your name is Nilsa."

"I-ah," I start but Marcello hollers my name through the crowd once more and I know my time is coming to an end. That could not have been two minutes, I’m sure. "Yes." Marcello's voice calls me back, my feet edging toward the sound. "And you are?"

His hand slips from under my jaw. There aren't goosebumps left behind his touch, the errant thought comes and passes too quickly. "My name is Davison." I take another step away. "I'll see you inside?"

"You'll see me inside." I nod, still smiling, and the crowd consumes me. Hybrids pass between Davison and I again until we're two lonely Humans lost in The Oasis again.

I'm not alone. I'm not alone. I was never alone, just far away. That thought makes the world, our entire continent, feel so much bigger than I ever imagined it. Had Davison been here in The Oasis this whole time? How? How did he get into The Oasis to begin with?

"Find a friend?" Marcello tilts his head.

"Find a Human?" Juilliard mocks.

Looking around them, only Hedda still waits. "No Finnegan or Sloane?" I ask.

"I'm leaving instructions with the guards. If they come show up and try and get in, someone will come find me." Marcello inclines his head to the man and starts leading us into the building.

"And they'll actually do that? We don't need to start this game already down two team members."

"I'm sure they'll show up," Marcello quips.

Maybe I want to say something back. Maybe I want to suggest that his faith in a couple he hardly knows is foolish, but the words are gone in an instant. The doors lead us into a large open lobby that reveals the gold and white railings that run along every single floor leading up to the ceiling where a thousand chandeliers hang like a million diamonds embedded in the sky.

Even the walls gleam with a polished gloss that makes them look wet. Marcello and Juilliard's boots, a much higher quality than mine, click against the marbled flooring. There's a long desk that runs across the entire back wall where short lines form and people exit to their left to the clear tubes that carry them to the floors above. I watch as the platforms inside the tubes carry some up, some down.

"What are those?" I incline my head to the tall shafts to avoid looking like a fool from The Bend who's never seen anything... truly anything... I'm quickly realizing.

"That's an elevator," Juilliard chimes. "So you don't have to take the stairs."

I snort. I’ve heard of those, but the empty shafts in The Bend are nothing compared to these…

"Well that seems awfully lazy, considering we're getting ready to compete in a physical competition." I crinkle my nose. We stop at the end of a small line waiting to get to the desk.

"You'll be glad for them after your body is so tired you can hardly stand, much less walk back to your room after tonight."

As if I've never drug my body up the stairs to my apartment, used the railing to hold me and my arms to hoist myself up all while I was bleeding profusely. Hybrids are weak as shit.

A man, partially covered in fur as if mid transition to wolf, steps out of line with keys in his hand and makes space for us at the counter. Marcello grips the edge of the desk, smirking at the pretty red-haired Vampire who eyes him as he whispers to her. Her lipstick painted mouth parts as she laughs at something probably disgustingly flirty he says and she holds another set of keys up. She takes her time letting them go as their hands touch. When he closes his fingers around the key and she looks back at us, her smile falls.

"You have an hour before the welcome celebration begins. Ballroom is located on the third floor," she calls, only smiling when Marcello's watching. He thanks her and tosses the keys in the air, catching them swiftly again and again.

"Want to see our room?" He dangles the keys in my face and hooks his arm around Juilliard's neck, dragging him with us to the elevator. "Isn't this exciting?" He shakes his friend.

"Wait," I hurry after them, Hedda at my side. Hedda hardly speaks as her large eyes continue to take everything in. I doubt she's seen anything as grand as this, just as I haven't. "Our room?"

"We share a space as a team." We push through the throngs of creatures until Marcello throws his arm in a closing elevator door. I flinch, thinking it'll get caught or slam shut on him, but the door simply stops and opens back up for us. We file inside. Our bodies are so close we're constantly brushing against one another so I have no room to put space between Marcello and I as he looks down at me. "You'll have your own room, for sleeping, for changing, but we will share the living space for meals and relaxing. Until the Games actually start. If you get lonely, I’m not far away." He winks.

The elevator doors close and the ground