Silvester

I was requested to join Anthony at breakfast. I honestly wanted to skip breakfast since I wouldn't be enjoying the food if I had to look at his face. Still, I was forced to go and here I was, sitting across from Anthony with a frown. Anthony had an amused smile on his face, and even though my stomach was grumbling at the delicious smell of food, I didn't have any appetite to consume them.

"Well Bella, I could hear your stomach from here. Aren't you not going to take a bite?" He asked, his eyes shining in amusement.

"I've lost my appetite." I replied.

"Well that won't do. You need to eat so I could carry out my plan for you at noon."

I blinked, before his words registered into my mind. "Noon? Why so soon?"

He arched an eyebrow at me before chuckling. "You want it to be sooner?"

My eyes widened with an inaudible gasp. "No! No, that's not what I want." I sighed and looked down, tugging at my bottom lip between my teeth. "Noon is…fine."

He chuckled in approval before standing up. "Good, now eat. That's not a request, it's a demand. I expect you to have a full stomach when the time comes." With that he left without touching his food.

I sighed. "Great, being forced to eat."

"At least when you are changed you won't be at the lowest rank."

A voice spoke up, causing me to jump in surprise. I turned to face Silvester there, a spiky collar wrapped around his neck and a silver chain connecting to it, the length of the chain stop just as it's about to hit the ground. He was also covering in bruises and big gashes that were still healing. Even though he was still wearing fashion branded clothing, it didn't change the fact that he was being tortured to submission. His eyes held absolutely no emotions as he looked back at me, letting me look at him in such vulnerability from the way he was displaying. He was tortured to the point of losing himself.

"Silvester…" I whispered as he inched himself closer to me. My eyes widened in shock when he instantly dropped down on his knees, his head hanging low.

"From this day onward, I am your pet as a gift from Master Anthony. Do to me as you may wish, I am in no position to reject your orders."

My heart broke at the sight of him; so small and so fragile right now. Although I had no idea what game Anthony was playing here, but I couldn't let them touch Silvester again; not when he had turned out like this. His spirit was lost and I know that he was afraid of what would happen to him if he rebelled again. If anything, Silvester was a lost puppy without an owner. And if Anthony was throwing him my way, I couldn't help but feel a bit happy since I would be protecting him from those cruel punishments, somehow.

"Silvester," I sighed, placing my hands on his stiffened shoulders. "Please stand up."

"I won't stand up if you don't accept me as your pet." He quickly replied as if he was acting out a part with his lines memorized.

"Alright," I sighed once more. "I accept, now would you please stand?"

He slowly stood up as if he was afraid he might fall. He did look like he was going to faint though. It was a surprise that he could still stand around now. His face held no color, and it didn't look like he had eaten either. He was literally fighting off the drool that was trying to drip from his mouth; his eyes trying their best to not focus on the food on the table for too long.

"Why don't you join me?" I asked gently.

He snapped his head to look at me in pure surprise and shock. "Really? You'd want me to join you for breakfast?"

God! What had they done to him?

"Yea, take a seat." I nodded towards the seat that Anthony had sat on earlier. "And eat as much as you'd like. I wouldn't be able it finish all anyway."

He gave me an odd look before taking a seat across from me. He then gave me one last look before starting to dig in. I watched him eat in pure amusement. I've never seen anyone that could swalloe the piece of food after two bites – with the help of water of course. It was then that I complied to my stomach's need and started to eat. Hopefully I could get Silvester back to his old self again.

After breakfast I was ordered to go back into my room, Silvester trailing lazily behind me with his head hanging low. The sad part was…he stayed in the farthest corner of my room when we arrived. No matter how much I wanted him to feel free around me, I felt a little awkward to ask him what I want to know. For example, what happen to him?

I was reading a book the bed when the door to my room opened gently. I sighed to myself; that wasn't Valencia visiting. I wasn't sure where I stand in Valencia's eyes, and vice versa, but her sharing her history with me did ease some tension between us. However, as far as trusting would go, I still couldn't bring myself to trust her fully.

"Shouldn't you be panicking and freaking out about what is going to happen at noon?" Estrella asked mockingly. Why most vampires had to be this difficult to deal with?

"I don't really see the point in doing so." I replied with my eyes still on the page of the book; Forbidden Frontier. In all honesty, I was just being strong for…my sake.

Estrella snorted. "Is that so?" She paused before speaking again in disgust. "I see that Valencia had convinced Anthony to give you that good for nothing shapeshifter. I don't see why he's keeping that kid, but I guess he's your responsibility now…and of course, a burden."

I heard Silvester whimpered on the other side of the room, a noise that wasn't quite human. I turned away from the book and glanced over at where he was. There, almost hidden in the darkness, was a beautiful German Pinscher…except its beauty was overpowered by sadness and fear. I looked over at Estrella just to witness that she was mockingly glaring at him. I began to think that Valencia had nothing to do with the torture.

"Could you please stop scaring him?" I asked, and although I tried to sound strong but my voice came out a bit shaky.

The vampire tore her gaze from Silvester, her crimson eyes now landed on me. "You're his mistress, and yet you're not doing it right."

"I'm his friend…"

"Whatever. Friends betray one another. Soon enough you'll find to trust no one but the one that you are drawn to, the one you could not defeat." She waved her hand in the air in a dismissive manner, sighing as she shook her head. "Of course, you haven't tasted it yet but soon enough, when you become a monster, they'd turn their backs on you and would try to kill you."

"What…" I started.

"That one," Estrella instantly cut me off as she nodded towards Silvester. "Will snap soon. He's unstable right now, and I know that one day he will try to kill his way out. Too bad, if he as much as touches one single hair strand from Valencia's head, he's as good as dead." The vampire seethed, her nostrils flaring dangerously.

I gulped at the sight of the dangerous side of Estrella. I wasn't sure who was more dangerous than who; Estrella or Valencia. I know that Valencia was the vampires' worse enemy, but when Estrella was that protective of the Phoenix, she'd become more powerful. At that moment I realized that it wouldn't be much of a difficulty for Valencia to kill, not when Estrella would always be by her side.

I opened my mouth to speak, but a dangerous and loud snarl coming from where Silvester was stopped me. I turned only half way when a huge form blurred across my eyes. I turned back just to see an oversized wolf lunging at Estrella. The vampire looked on, anticipating the attack. She let out a quick sigh and the wolf dropped to the floor afterward, whimpering quietly in pain. I thought that the pain was small, but I was wrong. He let out a howl of agonizing pain as he tried to claw at his head while writhing on the floor. I didn't like the sight of it.

"Stop!" I pleaded as I quickly got out of bed and over to where Estrella stood. I clutched at her arm as hard as I could until she could feel it. "Please, stop…"

A part of me wished that she had some sort of remorse that she kept hidden. That was too much to ask for though, I barely know the woman.

Silvester's cry slowly died down and I wasn't sure that my pleaded was actually working or not. I was watching Estrella's expression. Her jaw was set on a tight line, her eyes had changed to a dangerous black color, and she was incredibly tense. Silvester was just whimper now, and Estrella took tha time to close her eyes and inhaled sharply. When she opened them, she turned to look down at me with pity swirling in those scary eyes.

"He's only worth as being a spy and nothing else. He can't fight, he can only shapeshift into any creatures but his strength only depend on which creature he shapeshifts into." She shifted her gaze away only to snort rudely at Silver's fragile form. "To humans, he's dangerous. But to me, he's trash."

With that she turned and exited the room. I sighed and turned to look at Silvester, he had reverted back into the German Pinscher while whimpering on the floor. I wanted to go over to him, but I wasn't sure if he'd attack me or not. Estrella did say that he was unstable, and I honestly didn't want to test that right now.

I sighed before going back onto the bed. I didn't expect today to get any better, and yet…I thought the morning greeting from Valencia was the start of a better day. I thought wrong.


A/N

Thanks for all of your reviews.

And...darling (you know who I'm talking to ;) ), if I'm not being off task, how can I text you? I mean, you're one of the reason that I'm being off task. Well, the only reason...

And do you honestly want me to stop talking to you, sweet 'no good excuse' of a girlfriend of mine? ;)

Okay I'm done. Have fun reading y'all.