The Vampire Games: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance by Stephanie Archer Page B

alive.
    “I’m going to win next time,” I said, eyelids drooping shut. “I won’t let myself be defeated. I’m going to win everything.”
    “I hope that you will,” he murmured.
    Phillip bent over me. His lips brushed my forehead. If I’d been more conscious, my heart might have skipped a beat.
    Over his shoulder, I saw a figure looming on the other side of the glass wall.
    It was Lord Hector.
    He was watching. He saw Phillip kiss me, his hand on mine.
    I needed to warn Phillip.
    But the drugs were too strong, and I was too weak.
    I succumbed to sleep again.
----
    A fter two days in the hospital wing, I went back to Phillip’s rooms at Dawn Hold.
    The medicine had left my system at that point, so I managed to walk back to the room on my own. I wasn’t alone—the ever-present guards escorted me through the hallways—but I walked without being held upright, and that was a victory all its own.
    Phillip wasn’t waiting for me at the room, but my bed was.
    It was foolish to think of it as “my” bed, considering that nothing belonged to me. I wasn’t even supposed to belong to myself anymore. I was Phillip’s property, an asset to Dawn Hold. But when I sank into the sheets, I was enclosed in a familiar kind of softness.
    Best of all, there was no Lord Hector to watch me there.
    I pulled the blankets to my chin and I slept.
    Someone knocked on my door later—minutes or hours, I wasn’t sure. The instant I heard the rapping, I was awake.
    The door opened.
    Phillip stood on the other side. “They’re announcing results,” he said with cool dispassion. “You’ll want to see how you’ve been scored. Do you need help to the main room?”
    “No, I can walk.” I got out of bed again and only winced a little at the pain. “We know I got points. What else is there?”
    Phillip waited long enough to hold the door open for me. “We need to see if you make it to the next round.”
    “What if I don’t?” I asked.
    He didn’t answer.
    Classic Phillip.
    The return of icy, unfriendly Phillip made sense when I stumbled out of my bedroom. We had company. Several people—several vampires —were in the big room, watching the television. It took up most of the wall and displayed pictures from the fight, along with numbers that meant very little to me. I could generally see who won because of how high the numbers were, but that was all.
    When I entered, everyone stopped talking to look at me.
    The silence was painfully oppressive.
    I felt like I was on auction again, being evaluated for how fierce I was, how much muscle my body had, whether or not I was worth those sixty crowns Phillip had paid for my life.
    “Take the couch, Candidate,” Phillip said from over my shoulder. He didn’t touch me. It shouldn’t have been surprising that he didn’t, but I longed for it.
    I settled onto the couch, stiff-backed.
    To my surprise, he took the other side of the couch.
    The numbers on the TV changed to display statistics from other Candidates who had gone through the Coliseum. The vampires returned to their conversations, murmuring about Shadow Keep and Sunset Falls and all the other fiefs that had been competing.
    “Can you see the scores on the TV?” Phillip asked me. “I’m not sure how good human vision is.”
    “Oh, I think I’ll manage.”
    He either missed the sarcasm in my voice or chose to ignore it. His gaze was fixed on the television.
    I could see the numbers, but I decided not to look. I watched the people milling around the room instead. Many of them wore Dawn Hold’s insignia. These people were, for better or for worse, part of Prince Phillip’s court. They were his allies. That didn’t mean they were mine, though.
    “Looks like your chances are good to move on,” Phillip said. “More big names lost than I would have thought…oh, yes, there it is.”
    Conversation turned to cheering. My eyes lifted reluctantly to the television.
    My face was on the screen. I wasn’t sure when they had gotten