Winning the Legend (9 page)

“If anyone questions my decisions, they may
be asked to leave the competition. I have agreed to play your
stupid, chauvinistic game for my hand in marriage, which really
only equates to your right to sleep with me since I know I’ll never
love any of you. You have all made me into a glorified whore, so
I’m really not in the mood to stand around debating if what I do is
fair or not. You chose to be here. If you don’t like my game, then
leave.” Arianna glared a challenge at each man. No one flinched or
looked away. They all got her point. Arianna turned on her heels,
and walked away from the awed and confused men. Her little display
of power didn’t frighten them like she hoped, but just enticed them
further.

* * * * *

The next morning Arianna ran beside Andrew
as Thomas led them around the expansive grounds of the estate to
set the course for the next competition. She was trying to ignore
the way Andrew tempted her as he ran beside her so that she could
concentrate more on following Thomas, but it was hard to do. They
were plotting the course that the men would follow later that night
for the endurance test portion of the first round. It was just
before noon, and Arianna kept getting distracted by the sunlight
glistening off Andrew’s day human skin. Even in this form, there
was something not quite day human about him. Like her, Andrew was
too powerful to keep his night human form completely suppressed.
Certain qualities would come through even if he didn’t fully
transform. Andrew gave her a sly smile as he caught her looking for
at least the tenth time since they began their run.

‘Do you need something,
princess?’
Andrew always called her
“princess” when he wanted to get her riled up.

Arianna pouted, and ran a few steps ahead of
him. She distracted herself by watching the border around the
estate. Outside there were already some groups of night humans
milling about beyond the fence. Only those that could be in the sun
were out now, so the majority of people were in their tents, either
asleep or waiting to come out. Arianna wondered if the men inside
the house had called their own people to come, or if the people
were just drawn to the huge concentration of power coming from the
main house.

Thomas veered left as he placed another
marker for the course. Andrew reached up with little more than a
jump and tapped it into place. They worked as a coordinated team,
setting the markers for the contestants.

‘Why do you have to be so
perfect?’
Arianna asked. It actually would
have been easier to marry one of the guys in the house if she
wasn’t so drawn to Andrew.

‘I don’t think my uncle
thinks I’m perfect,’
Andrew replied,
trying to lighten the serious mood Arianna was creating.

‘You know what I
mean,’
Arianna complained with another
pout. Thomas laid a marker, and Andrew again pounded it
in.

‘When you find your other
half, it doesn’t matter what they do. They seem perfect all the
time,’
Andrew explained. He knew exactly
what she was looking for.
‘Really, I’m not
perfect. I seem perfect in your eyes, just as you are in mine. We
will always see each other as perfect.’
Arianna smiled as she ran a bit ahead of him. She didn’t want
him to catch her smiling at his words. It made sense, but at the
same time the idea that he would always view her as perfect made
her happy beyond belief.

Andrew reached out and brushed his fingers
against the ends of her hair, which were fluttering in the wind. He
reached for her, and she stepped just out of his grasp. She stuck
her tongue out at him before taking a further lead, running back to
the house. She was teasing him again, and he wanted to give chase
more than anything. She could out run him, but he knew how to
corner her if needed. He had way more experience than she did, and
knew tricks to enhance his strength to come close to matching hers.
Andrew slowed as he passed the last marker. He wanted to just reach
out and take her into his arms, but he had to be careful around all
the eyes that watched from inside the training room. No one stood
at the window, but every set of eyes was on her. Arianna waited in
the open doorway for Andrew and Thomas to catch up.

After they had showered and dressed again,
Arianna, with Andrew and Thomas right behind her, joined the men
waiting for the next competition. They followed her outside, and
she stood on the grounds facing them and their retainers. The
competitors all were beginning to look a bit anxious from lack of
blood and a few of the retainers looked worried for them all.
Arianna and her team were hoping to lose one or two due to blood
control. These men were all used to having people at their disposal
to take blood from. None had ever had to go without.

“This is both your agility and endurance
test today. Your score will be combined with the scores from the
previous test to give everyone a new ranking.” The retainers all
began communicating with their competitors. They only had to make
it through this one last test before they got blood. Most of them
seemed relieved at that thought.

“There is a course I just ran out on the
grounds. I covered eighteen miles. Along the way, forty-seven of
these were placed.” Arianna held up a small brown button shaped
device. “You must go the eighteen miles, touch each button in
order, and get back here quick as possible. Buttons touched out of
order won’t count. You are timed overall and between buttons. To
make this a bit fairer, you won’t all go at once and try to find
the buttons together. We will be starting you each at various
intervals and recording your individual time. Basically the fastest
time wins. Any questions?” The men all looked to her. It was a
simple enough request. The brown buttons were easy to distinguish
with night human senses.

“Since someone is bound to protest that it’s
not fair to have you run a course to close to daylight hours, Devin
will go first. Go ahead,” Arianna told Devin. He nodded and began a
swift jog, following the exact trail Arianna took.

“How is that fair?” Nik protested. It was
getting harder to control her anger around him. There was no way
she would ever marry Nik. She’d kill him before the wedding, the
way he was going. “You probably told him the course already. Are
you going to tell the rest of us?”

“Nope,” Arianna answered, not elaborating
whether what Nik said was true or not. “Turner, you can leave now
too since the sun isn’t a problem for you.” Turner took off, not
too far behind Devin who just went out of sight. Arianna needed
them to run together for Devin’s protection. His display of ability
at the knife throwing had made him a target of the jealous night
humans who thought he would be easy to beat. “Everyone else can
head back inside. We plan to keep you at least an hour apart.”

“But, but,” sputtered Nik, trying to
complain more.

“But nothing,” Arianna walked away with most
of the men right behind her. She paused as she noticed a few
remained, staring off at the course. She added. “If any of the
competitors touch another competitor in the course, they will be
disqualified. I want to see individual strengths, not how you can
sabotage each other. I have cameras throughout the path watching
everyone. So think twice before you do something to the course or
each other.” All planning immediately stopped.

Arianna returned inside to get the meal she
missed earlier on her run. Throughout the afternoon, she sent
person after person out on the course. When the ending people
noticed Devin return after only a few hours, they all began to
worry and changed into night human form for the run. Their day
human forms couldn’t run the course like he could. Even in night
human form, a few would have trouble running and tracking in the
time Devin did it. They all were ready to use up their blood since
the first leg of the competition was almost over. Little did they
know, they’d have to wait more than just for the last runner to
come back. Arianna wondered if they could handle going a few more
days without blood as she wasn’t going to tally scores until
then.

To finish the course, Ken was sent last. He
finished before the three all sent before him. Ken passed Manuel,
Jan, and Nik as he swooped around the course. They had purposely
had Thomas fly the course so that it would be accessible to Ken as
well. Nik jogged through the finish line behind Ken and immediately
started to whine.

“You said we had to run the course. He
should be disqualified because he flew it.” Nik didn’t need to
catch his breath as after he passed Jan; his time would be good
enough to move on to the next round and so he had slowed down for
the rest of the run. Nik wasn’t one to overexert himself without
reason.

“I never said you had to run it, I said go
around the course. There is a difference. Maybe everyone should
listen as well as Ken did. I’ll need three days to sort this all
out, so you are all free to do whatever you like for the next three
days. Just don’t leave the grounds or interact with the outsiders
gathering around the estate.” Arianna turned on her heels and left
Nik standing there, preparing to fuss more. The rest of the men
stared in shock. They had not expected to go three more days
without blood.

“Three more days,” Nik complained as she
walked away. Arianna didn’t even turn to acknowledge that he had
spoken.

‘I wish there was a way to
shut that kid up,’
Arianna remarked to
Andrew as she walked back inside and down her own hallway. Three
days without the masses was fine by her as she planned to stay in
her room and only go to the library when Devin needed her for clan
business.

Chapter 10

Three days passed too quickly. By her
choice, Arianna had not left her room or seen the other competitors
as the time passed. Devin and Gabriel took care of all the clan
business, and between Gabriel and Patrick, Devin, Turner, and Ken
were all safe. Arianna didn’t even need to check on them, even
though she did several times with her monitors set around the
estate.

Each afternoon she woke and watched the men
as they entered the dining hall. Only a few were as chipper as when
they arrived. Rhys and Loan didn’t seem to mind going without
blood, but Manuel was getting really jumpy. He was watching every
human as they entered to cater the meals like they were the last
day humans alive. When there were no day humans around, Arianna
even caught him stealing glances at Molina. Arianna really wanted
to see him try that. Molina may not have been a pureblood
dearg-dul, but she was quite strong and very well trained. Manuel
didn’t stand a chance if he attacked her.

Distracting as the men were, Andrew was even
more of a distraction. Thankfully, Thomas was around most of the
time, going over the plan for the next contest. Andrew stole what
time was left.

After the second day ended, and still no one
had bitten anyone else, Andrew’s hopes of more contestants being
eliminated were slowly fading. He would not be giving Arianna up
without a fight, but he knew exactly what that meant. The clans
would unite against Arianna if he didn’t rightfully win her. It was
growing harder to stay in control and let things work out the way
Thomas planned, but Andrew couldn’t even think about Arianna ending
up with another man without wanting to punch something.

On the final morning, Arianna reluctantly
went to join the competitors. She had known who would be eliminated
for the current round after the last person had come back from the
run, but even she’d been hoping that someone would break and either
attack, or sneak blood from, a day human at the estate. She was
only planning to let two go for this round, but wouldn’t mind
getting rid of the more violent ones that couldn’t control
themselves.

Each clan kept mostly to themselves; so
while they had intel on the other clans, there was no way of
confirming their exact skills. Arianna needed to keep them around
to have a display of their night human skills. They would never be
able to win against everyone unless she knew what they were capable
of and what their best skills were. It was also a chance for Devin
to check everything he knew about the opponents, as the last test
would be one-on-one fights. Devin’s greatest strength came from his
knowledge, and the training that used his knowledge to make him not
the better, but the smarter fighter. Devin was trained far beyond
any of them, even those twice his age. Arianna was depending on
that to keep her freedom, and from having to marry any of the other
competitors.

Arianna arrived first and made sure that
everyone in the room serving the group was a day human. Every
worker there knew exactly what the danger was to be around hungry
night humans, but they were all loyal to Arianna. None of them
wanted these men to move into the Randolph estate and become their
new leader. Some of the younger girls even purposely left buttons
undone on the tops of their dresses. Arianna’s own thirst was
becoming more of an issue, but she refused to admit it to anyone.
She had been without blood for weeks before they even arrived. It
wasn’t ideal, but she couldn’t risk Andrew’s strength for her own.
At least no one beyond Andrew sitting next to her smelled anywhere
near edible.

Arianna sat at a table alone with Andrew and
watched each competitor as they arrived. Rhys arrived first. It was
as if he knew exactly where Arianna was, and knew when to show up
to see her before everyone else. He gave a small nod before filling
his plate beside his retainer. His retainer also nodded to Arianna
before they found their own table. One by one the other men
arrived. Manuel was the last and obviously suffering the most. As
he passed each young girl, he visibly paused to refrain from
following his instincts.