Chapter 5
Future purchase?
Ren offered me his arm.
I stared at it numbly. Had I managed to catch his attention so thoroughly that he wanted to bid on me? My jaw trembled at the thought. This male had just sent two reasonably old and powerful vampires running, and the power rippling in his eyes and across every one of his movements was enough to make me want to run, too.
When I didn’t move, he took my hand and placed it on his arm, tugging me along.
He pulled us through the door, and it was a relief to be back in the noisy, crowded ballroom. No one, not even him, was likely to assault me with so many witnesses nearby.
He kept his hand firmly on mine as he guided me back to my table. Franklin was still there. His scowl upon seeing me melted into a wary, alarmed look as he took in my escort.
“You seem to have lost this,” Ren said to Franklin brightly as he guided me into my seat.
Franklin eyed Ren as though he were a dangerous and deadly snake.
“Thank you,” Franklin said, when it appeared Ren wasn’t just going to leave.
I glanced at him incredulously. I’d never seen him be so polite to another vampire.
“You are very welcome,” Ren said, his condescending smile belying the words. He studied me, and I didn’t like the possessiveness in his eyes. “I wouldn’t wander off again, if I were you. You never know who you’ll run across.”
Without another word, he turned away, stuffing his hands in his pockets and sidling off, the picture of casual elegance.
I lifted my champagne glass in my shaking hands and took a small sip.
“I told you not to talk to anyone,” Franklin grated, following Ren with his eyes.
“I didn’t,” I said. “He talked to me.”
I left out the rest of the encounter. It hardly mattered anyhow. Franklin wasn’t going to own me for much longer, and I didn’t plan on leaving this seat again tonight.
“Do you know who he is?” Franklin asked.
I shrugged, bewildered. “He said his name is Ren.”
“He’s bad news,” Franklin said, shaking his head.
Yeah, I could tell. Vampires were rarely scared of other vampires, unless the power gap was massive. Both the twins’ and Franklin’s reactions to Ren told me he was well above them. The demure black suit, disarming green eyes, and soft voice likely hid murderous savagery. That was always how it worked. You looked at vampires like Franklin and knew they were careless brutes but likely without much heft. But vampires like Ren? A different ballgame.
He’d broken Jenna’s bones as though he’d broken a million before, and his lack of reaction to her pain was the trained control of someone used to hurting others, someone with an extreme lack of empathy. I’d seen that in vampires before. It was no good at all that I had caught his eye.
But there was nothing I could do about it. I was already in the auction, and auctions were binding. Begging Franklin would do me no good. He needed the money. Blood cost a lot of either money or effort, and most vampires didn’t want to put in the effort. Franklin ignored me, thumbing through something on his phone that was clearly more interesting than the human he was about to be rid of.
For the next couple of hours, I alternately stared down at my empty place setting or scanned the crowd for Ren. I saw him only once, leaning against the bar. His downcast eyes and casual stance made him look almost young. Everyone else in the room was giving him a wide berth. After a minute of my brash staring, he looked up, his eyes finding mine.
His pleased grin was too close to the lovely smile he’d given Jenna just before he’d tortured her, and I shuddered.
With twenty minutes left until the auction, a guard came to our table.
“Trixie?” he said, although he was addressing Franklin.
Franklin glanced at me and waved an assenting hand. The guard grabbed my arm, and I stumbled out of my chair.
Franklin didn’t say a word as I was led toward the staging area.
Good riddance, asshole, I thought, but the sentiment felt hollow against the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
The guard walked me past the auction stage and to a nondescript door. The large room on the other side, bare of any decoration, was filled with humans—mostly young women, but there were some men here and there, too.
“Trixie,” the guard said to an annoyed female vampire holding a tablet.
“Number three.” She handed me a lanyard with a plastic marker at the end bearing the legend 3. “Put this on.”
I fiddled with the 3 marker nervously. Now I wasn’t even someone with a fake name. I was just a number. Less human by the second. I looped it around my neck as the guard shoved me into the line of humans, behind a blond woman in her mid-twenties and a dark-haired girl who looked younger than me with tears streaking down her face. Numbers one and two.
A younger me would’ve comforted the crying girl, but I didn’t have any comfort to offer. She was likely about to end up in a pretty sucky situation, with someone like Jenna or Franklin or Ren. She needed to get over the tears more than she needed to be coddled through them.
Or at least, that was what I’d told myself early on in my own captivity. What else was I supposed to do? Yes, I was jaded. So what?
I kept my eyes on the floor for the next twenty minutes, ignoring the desperate pleas, and the wailing, and the sniffling girl in front of me.
When the door opened and the guard called for the first auction lot, I looked up. The blonde went willingly, although her eyes were glassy now, too, about to spill over with tears. The guard didn’t close the door behind her, so I could hear the auctioneer announce the woman’s height, weight, origin country, and blood type. Vials of blood were being passed around among the patrons for them to get a better idea of her scent and appeal. The auctioneer announced her starting bid—low—and bids came in from the crowd. She went fast. It only took a minute or two to settle the deal before number two was called.
The dark-haired girl didn’t go willingly. She backed away from the guard, whimpering, “No, no, no…”
My jaw clenched. This girl reminded me of my first time seeing an auction, and I felt a cloying streak of annoyance that she was breaking through my defenses.
The guard finally dragged her out, and she sobbed on stage. I cringed. She’d be an easy target for one of the mean vampires, the ones who just wanted broken girls to abuse because they wouldn’t be any trouble. Maybe she’d get lucky and find one of those masters who liked heroin, who kept his or her humans on it to flavor the blood. Maybe she’d suffer less because of it.
Her bidding took longer, getting down to a war between two vampires, but finally it ended. The number was higher than I would’ve expected.
“Three,” the guard said firmly.
I took a deep breath and stepped through the door.
The lights were blinding, hot, and pointed right at me. I shielded my eyes, but I could barely see the auction participants seated at tables spread across the dimly lit ballroom.
“Number three, Trixie.” The auctioneer was a tall vampire, standing behind a lectern to my left.
I locked my hands in front of myself and looked down. Vacant. Uncaring.
Even if I wanted every vampire in front of me dead.
“Five-foot-five inches, one hundred and ten pounds, from the United States, with lovely O Positive blood… Take a look, ladies and gentlemen!” He made an open-armed gesture. “Opening at twenty-two thousand five hundred! Let me hear it, lords and ladies!”