He doesn’t move, and I start to sob a little, realising that I can’t help him and we are both most likely going to die here.
Austin and my parents will never know what happened to us, that is if Austin isn’t here.
The crowd goes silent, and I know a bid has been accepted, even before a man jumps onto the stage. The man has brown hair cut short, a big beard that is braided at the sides, and he has a flannel shirt on over jeans. He seems so normal... though he just bought a friend of mine.
“Another one for your daughter?” Merethe asks, and he inclines his head. “Another toy for her to break? Do tell her that addiction to human men is going to get her in trouble.” I scream at them, gritting my teeth as the man nods and briefly looks my way.
“Perhaps I will stay and try my luck for my own treat?”
Knowing he means me, I sneer at him, and he only laughs.
“Mark him and do stay. She is coming up next as she so clearly can’t behave.”
“Fuck the lot of you!” I shout, and I start screaming again as the man picks up Arlo by his arm and drags him across the stage, leaving a line of blood. “Arlo! Arlo!”
The vampire holding me makes a mistake and lets my arm go, thinking the other man can easily hold me. I reach into my dress and pull out the knife, and before I can overthink it, I slam the knife into the vampire who is holding my stomach, and pull it back out with a lot of effort. He roars and lets go, and I run to Arlo as fast as I can. Merethe catches me just as I get near, and I kick out, hitting her knee, and I spin around, my knife burying itself in her shoulder before I pull it out. Hot blood splatters across my cheek as the vampire who caught me grabs my arm holding the knife, and he snaps my arm like a twig.
I gasp before I scream, the pain immediate and so strong that I can do nothing but collapse to my knees next to Arlo, holding my no doubt broken arm. Everything goes foggy from the pain as I collapse on my side, seeing Arlo lying right opposite me.
His eyes open and widen, just before his “owner” drags him away from me.
“How did she get that knife?” the vampire demands as I watch Arlo being taken away, having no strength to get back up. To chase after them. I just watch him go.
“She is a little thief, that’s how,” Merethe snaps and picks me up by my hair, dragging me to the front of the stage. She shoves me down, jostling my arm, and I cry out. Before I can recover from that, she turns my head to the side, and with the knife I stabbed her with, she makes a long cut down my neck as I scream. My blood feels hot as it drips down my neck and down my chest, the sharp pain making everything blurry.
“As you can see, she is a wild one, and her blood is that of gods themselves, I am sure,” she shouts out, and the crowd cheers. “Who wants a bite?”
“One hundred thousand dollars!” a man shouts out.
“Four hundred thousand!” another one replies. As I feel close to passing out, they keep bidding, and I stare across the crowd, wondering if anyone decent is going to stop this. If there is even a god in this world anymore and if anything is fair.
“Ten million,” a man’s voice shouts out, and the crowd goes silent. I recognise the voice even before I look down to see Reign standing beneath me, right at the front of the crowd. They all stare, whispering to themselves.
“My, my,” Merethe replies, her voice full of joy. I would be if I just made that kind of money. Not by selling humans though. “You’ve never played in our auctions before, and now you come with such a high bid!”
“I will double my brother’s offer,” the man I didn’t want to hear talk states as he steps out of the crowd. Maddox, the Mad Prince, stops a good distance away from his brother. Looking like a dark angel in the crowd, he wears all black like he is attending a funeral. But the smile on his lips says something else entirely. He meets my eyes, and he smiles wider, like seeing me in pain and covered in blood is pleasing to him. The crowd drops into further silence, almost a fearful silence. The distance between the brothers is clear in many ways, more than just where they stand.
“I will triple his bid,” Reign counters, his eyes flickering with annoyance at his brother.
Maddox smirks at his brother.
“Money is no object,” Maddox replies with a wave of his hand. “Have what you wish, Merethe, but Riona Dark is leaving with me.”
“Like fuck she is,” Reign coolly replies, and they turn to each other. It’s very clear these brothers do not like each other, and everything feels tense and awkward.
And ever so perilous.
“Perhaps it should be the girl’s decision?” Merethe suggests, winding them both up so she can get more money. “Seeing as money is no issue.”
“The girl doesn’t know us, and it would be impossible for her to judge which monster she wishes to live with the least,” Maddox replies with a devilish grin. “Although, Riona, I’m the fun one.”
I gulp.
We most certainly have different ideas of fun.
“I have a counter offer,” Merethe hums, pulling on my hair a little tighter when my head starts to drop and I didn’t notice it. My blood is soaking my dress now, and I’m smart enough to know dying from blood loss could be an issue soon. “She should spend alternating weeks with one of you at a time, and in six months, she can make a choice. It would be a fun competition and make this fair.”
“I do like a competition,” Maddox smoothly replies, sounding like he has won before he has started.
Reign looks me dead in the eye. “I agree to these terms, and my brother can go first. Once she sees the horrors of his home, I have no doubt my house will be a relief.”
With that, Reign disappears using his vampire speed.
“Brilliant!” Merethe says while Maddox looks pleased as he looks up at me. “She will be marked by both, and one can be removed if needed.”
“Understood,” Maddox replies and jumps onto the stage. Just before I pass out, I see and feel Maddox catch me.
In the arms of a monster, I am owned, but I will escape.
Chapter Nine
Slowly I come around; harsh light beams flickering across my eyes every so often does just that. I dreamt I was taken by vampires and sold at an auction...wait. As I open my eyes, I know it wasn’t a dream at all. I shut them straight away, wishing I could go back to sleep and pretend everything didn’t happen. My arm throbs, not nearly as bad as before, and my neck is sore as I look up at a glass ceiling above me, the sun high in the cloudless sky with the red mountain in the distance, covered in red snow. I think that is where we are heading by the looks of it. We are in something that is moving as I slightly rock every now and then, but not in the way a boat would. Gradually I become aware of the sounds of horseshoes against stone and wheels creaking every so often in a strange rhythm. Wherever I am smells of blood and something almost sweet, and for a moment, I want to pretend I don’t have to acknowledge where I am.
Then he talks.
“I was concerned for your well-being,” Maddox states in his deep and seductive voice, almost like the very thought of being concerned about someone is insane to him. “It would be a shame if you died and the chance to beat my brother at something was lost.”
Ah, he cares about the competition, not my life.