Two

When I regained consciousness a few hours later (or at least that’s what I assumed), I was a little confused at first. My mind was too hazy from sleep to comprehend or remember anything for a few seconds. Though, it only took that long for me to realize that my hands were tied and I was still blindfolded. When I realized that, everything came flooding back to me in one huge rush. I had been kidnapped and was being taken to some vampire named Damien, who was going to do God only knows what to me.

It took me another moment to realize that several things had changed since I had fallen asleep. For one, I was no longer gagged, and I was able to take in a huge lungful of air, that I was very thankful for. I also was no longer lying on the floor; instead, I found myself lying across the leather seat with my head lying in someone’s lap. That realization made me get up, or at least try, but the hands that were suddenly on my shoulders prevented me from moving; they shoved me back down again.

“Ah, finally awake I see… did you have a nice nap?” it took me a moment, in my grogginess to recognize the voice of Jerrick coming from above me. It only took me another second to realize that it was his lap my head was lying in. Not a very comforting thought, and with his hands still on my shoulders, I was unable to move from my position.

“I asked you a question, Casey...” he growled, “Remember what I said, I expect a verbal answer. I hope you can remember the rest.” his words were dark and held the threat of pain if I didn’t comply.

“S-sorry…” I mumbled, “Yes, I did, sir.”

“Good girl for remembering.” He praised.

I didn’t say anything to that, mostly because I really had nothing to say.

“Would you like something to drink?” was the next question. It was obvious that he hadn’t expected me to respond to his last comment.

“Yes, please.” It wasn’t until the question was asked that I realized how dry my mouth really was. I tried to swallow and winced because my throat was so parched that the simple act hurt.

“Such good manners.” he noted, “I think Damien is going to like you… he likes the ones that already know how to behave.” he explained, as he pushed me up into a sitting position. “He doesn’t have the time or the patience, to put up with training the disobedient ones.”

I didn’t respond to that, I just shifted, trying to get into a more comfortable position.

Other than the squeaking of the leather as I shifted positions; it was quiet before I felt the coolness of a glass touch my lips, I opened my mouth and the glass was tipped to allow the cool water within to quench my thirst. I gulped down the entire glass before it was taken away from me, but I felt much better, “Thank you.” I whispered as I was pushed back down again.

“What are you doing?” Kale’s voice broke the silence. “You’re not warming up to her already…”

Jerrick snorted, “No, I’m not. Kale, I have been doing this longer than you have. You’ve only been capturing humans for about a week; I’ve been doing it for nearly two months.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I’ve had more time around humans and I have a better understanding of how they behave. And, over the past two months, I’ve discovered that if you treat the scared and cooperative ones like this, they are less likely to lash out all of a sudden. There’s no point using scare tactics on a human who’s already frightened.” he said, “It could really only make things worse.”

“How so?”

“We picked up a girl a week ago who was more frightened then this one was and was being as cooperative as she could be and she made one little mistake and I freaked her out to the point that she had a panic attack. It took a good ten minutes to calm the girl down. I would not like a repeat of that if I can help it.” he said, “Our job is not to scare them half to death or to the point that it causes permanent mental damage, even though it’s rare, it could and does happen. Our only objective is to capture and deliver them to their assigned Master or Mistress, that’s all.” he explained

I suddenly felt someone grab my foot and, out of pure reflex, I kicked them and actually succeeded in hitting something. “Ow! Stupid b***h.” I didn’t know what I hit, but Kale didn’t sound too happy. “What the hell did you do that for?” he growled, I realized that his voice sounded kind of nasally… like he was holding his nose and it was distorting the sound of his voice.

I gasped as I was jerked up by my hair, “What did I tell you about cooperating?!” Jerrick growled into my ear.

“I’m sorry!” I whispered, “I didn’t mean to! He just startled me!”

I screeched in surprise as I was suddenly shoved to the floor, “If you’re going to act like that then you deserve to stay on the floor for the rest of the trip.” here he was proving, once again, that he had really weird mood swings. Since, I had nothing to break my fall, I had no choice but to allow my chest and stomach to absorb most of the shock… and that really hurt.

“Don’t you dare strike her, Kale… Damien likes his slaves unmarked.” Jerrick said, nudging me incessantly, until I got the hint, he wanted me to roll over onto my back.

“Then how are you going to punish her for nearly breaking my nose?!” he whined, his voice still sounded nasally. If I wasn’t so scared, I would have laughed, it was kind of funny…

Jerrick snorted, “She didn’t even come close to breaking it. Stop whining and don’t f*****g argue with me.” he growled.

“Stop f*****g struggling” Jerrick growled in my ear, only seconds before my left cheek suddenly stung with the slap of his hand.

“I thought you said Damien likes his slaves unmarked?”

“Uh-huh, but she deserved it… besides I didn’t hit her that hard, it’s not going to scar, the handprint will go away after a few hours.” I jumped when I felt a finger trace my stinging cheek lightly.

“I told you to stop struggling…” he ordered, shoving my shoulders down hard on the floor, “I will not say it again.” he threatened.

I lay as still as I possibly could on the floor of the limo, too terrified to move, even a fraction of an inch.

“I see you’re not being very nice to her anymore." Kale noted, nudging my leg with his foot. It was obvious that he was trying to bait me, but I wasn’t about to fall for it. I wasn’t stupid.

“Don’t question me or my actions, Kale… I’m not in the mood.” Jerrick didn’t sound too happy.

“Alright, alright… no need to glare at me like that.” Kale muttered, nudging my feet a little harder this time.

“Stop nudging her, Kale… that goes for you two as well.” Jerrick ordered, “And don’t touch her either.”

There was a mumbled of assent from the other vampires.

Though, I was thankful because at least I was no longer the center of attention, which was something I never liked. I was just glad that I was now being ignored by the other occupants in the car.

I didn’t even pay attention to their conversation; all I caught was a few sentences about the next group of humans they were meant to collect for a vampire named Jaren.

“I’m surprised Jaren didn’t want her.” a new voice, that I recognized as Dominic’s, spoke up.

“That’s because Jaren has much different tastes when it comes to humans. He actually likes the ones that are feisty and not cooperative. He enjoys breaking them in by any means necessary, but Damien doesn’t. Though, I will say that that was the only reason that Jaren didn’t want her, she’s too docile for his tastes, otherwise, it would be him we would be delivering her to and not Damien.”

I gulped at that, now thankful that I wasn’t going to this Jaren person. Even though, I didn’t know that much about him, the fact that he enjoyed breaking humans in by any means necessary made a lot of bad things come to my mind… things that I was glad I would not have to experience. Though, I was still scared about what was to happen to me… but, I figured that it I played the good little human for awhile, that I would avoid any trouble, at least for a little while… since this Damien guy liked the docile ones.

---

After what seemed like at least another hour, the car came to a stop, I just stayed there lying on the floor, my face still stinging slightly from the slap I had received earlier. I heard the door open and listened as several people left the back of the limousine. The door remained open though, I only knew that because I could hear the crickets chirping. Other than that, it was eerily quiet.

I had no idea what was going on or where everyone had gone, the idea just made me even more scared than I already was.

I jumped slightly when my foot was suddenly grabbed and I was yanked towards the still open door of the vehicle. Though, I jumped, I didn’t kick like the last time which seemed to please Jerrick, “Good girl, you didn’t kick this time.”

I didn’t respond as I felt him drag me by my foot towards the door before he picked me up and placed me on my feet. Which, during the long drive had managed to fall asleep and so the minute they touched the ground, I almost fell over, if it wasn’t for Jerrick’s hold on me, I would have fallen.

He only let me take a few steps before he ended up picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder, making me squeal at the sudden move. I tried to get out of his grip, I didn’t like where his hand was… it was far too close to my butt for my tastes, he smacked me hard on my upper thigh making me wince, “Stop struggling.” he order, “And stay quiet, or I’ll gag you again.”

I gulped slightly, but let him carry me, like I was a bag of potatoes instead of a human being. I didn’t want to piss him off and get slapped again. Or gagged either. So, I let him carry me… Even though, I couldn’t see a thing, I could hear and pretty much tell what was happening, I heard several doors open and we went down at least two flights of stairs before he stopped for a second to open one final door.

I was placed in a rather comfortable upholstered chair before my blindfold was finally removed. I blinked, blinded for a moment… it was bright in the room compared to the darkness under the blindfold. Once my eyes adjusted, I glanced around, realizing quickly, that we were in a windowless meeting room. There were very few people in the room besides myself, and not only were they all male, but they were all vampires as well.

“Where are the rest?” a deep voice asked, making me turn around to face forward in my seat, to see the man who has spoken. A man –or vampire- was sitting across from me at the large table. He was slender with an oval-shaped face, prominent and strong jaw, with dark brown hair and eyes. He looked to be somewhere in his twenties, but his exact age was impossible to tell. He wasn’t staring at me, but at Jerrick who stood behind me and to my left.

“We had some problems.”

The man stared at him, obviously expecting him to elaborate a little more.

“Luke accidentally killed the other three.” Jerrick explained.

“How’d he manage that?” there was a slight accent to his words that I hadn’t picked up on the first time he had spoken; it took me a minute to distinguish it as being British since it was barely noticeable.

“He suffocated them by pushing their face into the carpet to the point that they couldn’t breathe. He almost did the same to her, but I arrived just in time to prevent that.”

“I see.” he said softly, “since you only brought me one out of the four I requested, Jerrick, I can only give you one-fourth of the money that I initially offered.”

“I understand, sir”

“Good, though you brought the one that I was most interested in, so maybe I’ll give you half just for that.” he add, thoughtfully, his words scared me… not only had he requested my capture, but I was the one he was most interested in.

“Though, you won’t be getting any of it until I’ve talked to her.” he said, before he turned his brown eyes to me for the first time, I glanced down, not liking the intensity of his gaze, “Look at me, girl” he ordered. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly before I followed his order and glanced back up at him. I was too terrified to discover what would happen to me if I didn’t do what he said.

He smiled at me, though it wasn’t a very friendly one, and he managed to flash his fangs at me before he spoke again, “Where’s her file?” he asked, keeping eye contact with me as he spoke.

Jerrick handed a manila folder over to him, and I watched him as he opened it and began reading over the contents inside. I could only assume that what he was looking at was all my answers to the questions that I had been asked earlier that evening. He studied it for a few moments before closing it and placing it on the table.

He glanced up, “Any sign of hostility?” although, he was looking at me, the question was not addressed towards me.

“There wasn’t much of a struggle; she came quietly, especially after Luke almost choked her to death. Though, she did kick Kale in the face while we were in the car.”

“Why did you kick him?” it took me a second to realize that the question was addressed to me.

“Um… I was blindfolded and he suddenly grabbed my foot. It startled me, and out of pure reflex I kicked out. I didn’t mean to.” I explained, my voice soft.

“I see.” he said, staring at me, “Is that why there’s a red handprint on your cheek?” he asked.

I touched me cheek lightly, wincing slightly since it still hurt. “Yes.”

“That’s the only thing you did as punishment.” Damien was looking at Jerrick again, it was a statement, but he made it sound like a question.

“Yes, Kale was whining too much about and it she wouldn’t stop struggling.”

“Well, that would make sense Jerrick… your temper can change within seconds… your sudden mood change probably freaked her out, even more than she already was.” he explained. “Any other signs of hostility?” he asked, looking away from me.

“No, like I said, except for the lash out in the car, she’s been nice and quiet.”

“Good.” was the response the brunette man –vampire- gave, “That was just what I was expecting to hear.” he noted before glancing back at me, staring at me for several long seconds before he spoke again, “I would have been surprised if you had told me that she hadn’t lashed out at all. Every human, even the quietest and most docile ones, have their moments; the moments where they try to fight back out of pure terror. Some more than others… though, I do wish that this was a one time thing, I do not have patience with constant disobedience.” he was still staring at me as he spoke, making me gulp at the look on his face, it was one that held promises of pain and punishment if I acted out too much.

I looked away from his gaze, staring down at my hands, clasped tightly, in my lap. They were shaking slightly. When I looked up again, I was shocked to find him still staring at me.

“Leave us,” he ordered, “You too Jerrick, don’t worry, you’ll get your money once I’ve talked to the girl.”

The four vampires, including Jerrick, that were scattered around the huge board room followed the orders almost immediately and it was only a few seconds later that I found myself alone with him, the door shutting quietly as the last vampire left the room.

It was quiet between us as he leaned back in his chair and studied me for several long moments; I shifted, uncomfortable under his intense gaze, “You have very beautiful eyes.” he noted, still staring at me.

“Thank you.” I muttered, remembering my manners.

He looked pleased at my response, “Such good manners too.” he said, “Now, I’m just going to be asking you the same questions that Jerrick asked you earlier this evening… just to make sure you didn’t lie. Once that’s over; I’ll be able to introduce myself to you, for I know you’re very anxious to know who I am, aren’t you?”

I nodded, only really to please him; I already had a pretty good idea of who he was.

“Good.” he smirked. “Let’s begin then…” he said as he opened the manila folder and began the questioning process all over again.

He wasn’t lying when he said that he was going to ask me the same questions that I had already been asked… he really did. When he was done he was pleased that I hadn’t lied, “Very good, Casey… you’re the first who has actually not lied at least once.”

I just stared at him, not really knowing what to say to that. He continued speaking, obviously, not expecting me to respond to his comment.

“My name is Damien, and if you haven’t already figured it out… I’m your Master, and you will refer to me as that or as ‘sir’ at all times. That is the most important rule that I can give you at the moment. I will give you the rest of them a little later.”

He watched my face, obviously looking for my reaction. My face didn’t change much, mostly because this had been exactly what I had been expecting to hear. “You don’t look surprised, why is that?”

“B-because you said exactly what I expected to hear… sir” my voice stuttered as I spoke and I added the ‘sir’ a little late for I had already forgotten it.

“I see.” he said simply. “Are you scared?”

“A-a little.” I stuttered out.

He smiled, “Good.” he said before standing up, giving me the first look at how tall he was, he was at least six feet, probably more.

I watched him warily as he made his way around the desk, “Up” he ordered, motioning with his head.

It took just a second for me to realize that he wanted me to stand. Once I was standing, he took hold of my arm with his cool hand and pulled me away from the table, far enough so it gave him enough room to walk around me. Though, what he was doing, I would not consider “walking”, it was too predatory–like for my tastes, and I gulped slightly. With him being so close to me I was able to get a better idea of how tall he was. He was almost a foot taller than me, so that made him probably 6’3 or 6’4.

“How much do you weight?” he asked from behind me, making it the first time I had heard the question. I was surprised that Jerrick hadn’t asked it earlier.

“Um… I-I don’t know.”

He yanked hard on my brown hair, making me cry out at the sudden pain. My head was pulled back until my body arched uncomfortably and I was staring at him in the eyes, “Aren’t you forgetting something?” he asked, his eyebrow arched questionably.

I thought for a second, before suddenly remembering what his orders had been not ten minutes before. “I’m sorry, sir…” I started, “I-I don’t know my exact weight.”

“Best guess?” he asked, still not letting go of my hair.

“120, I think… at least that was what it was the last time I went to the doctor, sir.” I explained.

He let go of my hair so suddenly, I almost fell, but I managed to keep my balance with no help from him, of course. Once I could stand, I watched him as he started circling me again.

“Any scars?” he asked, stopping in front of me and grabbing hold of my wrists with his hands once again.

“Nothing, but a few minor ones from scrapping my knee when I was a child… sir.” I added hastily, when his look to dark.

“What’s this then?” he asked, tracing the right side of my neck with his index finger. The touch was light, so light, that it tickled a little.

“I-I don’t know.” I answered, honestly… I’d never noticed any scar on my neck before, but then I remember that he was vampire and his eye sight was probably ten times better than mine.

“They look like bite marks… have you been bitten before, Casey?”

“I don’t think so.”

He placed his hand under my chin and forced my face up so I was staring into his eyes, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir.”

He was quiet for a moment, “You are not lying, I would be able to tell.” he said, “it’s very strange, Casey, you have been bitten, those are bite marks on your neck, but you don’t know about them at all, do you?”

I shook my head, “No, sir… I didn’t even know the scar was there until you pointed it out.”

He cursed under his breath before he made his way to the door, “Jerrick!”

“Yes, sir?”

“Did you know that the girl’s been bitten before?”

Judging from the silence, I could only assume that the answer to that was a ‘no’.

Damien turned to me, “You stay right there, I will be right back.”

He didn’t even let me nod my assent before he was gone. The door was made up of some heavy wood, so that no sound could penetrate it, so no matter how much I strained, I heard nothing.

I had little time to stand there and wonder what they were discussing; they came back into the room a few minutes later, “No matter… Jerrick, I’ve decided to keep this one.” he explained as he made his way over to the table, and picked up a briefcase that had been apparently, lying on the floor by his feet. He opened it, scanned over the contents quickly, taking out a few packs of what appeared to be one hundred dollar bills, before closing it again and handing it over, “There’s your payment, I’m most pleased and decided to pay you seven hundred thousand. I took out a few hundreds because you didn’t bring all the ones that I requested, plus I do not like the fact that she has been bitten. But, it’s much more than fifty percent.”

“Thank you.” Jerrick said simply, accepting the briefcase before continuing, “Do you wish to spend the day here?”

“Of course,” Damien answered, “it’s far too close to dawn for my tastes and I believe Casey would like to get some sleep before she’s taken to her new home, wouldn’t you Casey?” he asked, glancing at me.

I nodded, “Yes, sir.”

Jerrick nodded, “Your usual room then?”

Damien nodded, “If it’s available, yes.”

Jerrick nodded again, “It’s not taken at the moment; this is a pretty slow season, after all. If you’ll just follow me.” he turned on his heel and left the room, not waiting to make sure that we would actually follow him.

Damien started to follow but took a second to realize that I hadn’t moved from my spot at by the table, he turned to me, “Well? Are you coming or not?” he looked annoyed.

I nodded dumbly as I made my way over to where he stood impatiently in the doorway. When I was close enough to him, he grabbed hold of my arm and started pulling me out of the room.

The room that we were lead to was huge and windowless (it was underground after all) and decorated a mixture of blood red and black. The room was painted a blood red, and while I didn’t necessarily like it, it was a lot better than black. The bed, which sat up against the far wall, was a King, covered in a black and red print comforter, and adorned with black and red pillows. There was a desk and a chair off to one side, while near the door there was a little sitting area, with two dark leather armchairs and a small sofa, complete with matching black and red pillows. I was surprised to discover that the room had electricity… for there was a clock on the one of the tables besides the bed that read: 5:00 in bright red numbers.

Jerrick had given me something to sleep it, at the request of Damien. The sleeping garment ended up just being a flimsy, little nightgown that looked like the one I had originally worn to bed that night… my eyes welled up with tears at the thought, that was the first time that I had had time to think about all that happened to me. I wiped my eyes hurriedly, not wanting to be caught crying. There would be plenty of time for that later… when I was alone.

I made my way into the adjoining bathroom and changed quickly, not even looking at my surroundings, too tired to care. It was five in the morning and I had been up practically the entire night. When I came out of the bathroom, Damien was lying in the bed, reading what looked to be my file again. I stood there in the doorway of the bathroom, not really knowing what to do. Not really knowing where to go.

Damien glanced up, his eyebrow arched, “Well? What are you waiting for? Are you going to get into bed, so I can turn the light off or not?”

“Oh… sorry, I thought-”

He interrupted me, “The bed is big enough for the two of us to sleep comfortably, Casey. And, I am not about to make you sleep on the floor.”

When I didn’t move right away, his face darkened, “Get over here, and get into bed now, Casey. I will not ask you again.”

I gulped slightly, but followed his instructions; not really wanting to see what would happen if I didn’t cooperate. I crawled under the covers, staying as far away from him as I could get, thanking God that the bed was so big, which allowed so much room to be between us in the first place.

I huddled near the edge of the bed, watching him warily as he opened my file once more and glanced over it, before taking a pen from the bedside table and making several notes on the sheet of paper within. Once, he was finished for it only took a moment, he closed the folder and placed it – along with the pen – on the bedside table.

He turned to look at me, still huddled as far away from him as I could get, he let out an exasperated sigh, “I’m not going to bite you, Casey…I’ve already eaten.” the way he said that made me scrunch my nose up in disgust, though he wasn’t looking at me anymore, so he didn’t see it. He continued, “I know that we just met and you're probably – no, you are – terrified, but you’re going to have to just get over it.” Well, that last sentence just proved to me how sensitive and caring he wasn’t.

I nodded though, as I leaned my head against the pillow, yawning, I was really tired and I needed to get some sleep. At least that was what my body was telling me, the complete opposite of what my mind was saying, which consisted of warnings of possibly being bitten while I was a sleep.

Though, my body won that argument rather quickly… for my eyes closed and I fell asleep only seconds after my head hit the pillow. The last thing I saw before I did just that was Damien turning off the bedside lamp and the room plunged into total darkness.

Reviews

[Sierra Ann]

I absolutely LOVE this- I was really skeptical at first because every vampire story I tend to read is either based around Twilight or ridiculously unrealistic. But this really caught my attention in the fact that it didn't start off like any cliche vampire story would which is usually they are either immediately attacked or meet the vampire somewhere and they don't know it's a vampire. :) I love the fact that the vampires come off so... cleanly? I don't know the right word, but I was laughing at the note they sent the students. It might as well have said "We're going to do very very bad things to you... oh and prepare for pain". But at the same time, it had a very serious note to it, one that made ME scared. Altogether, great job! I would've commented on the first chapter, but I got sucked right into the second. :)