Chapter Eleven

I awoke in chains once more.

As I moved to adjust, I felt my muscles cry out in protest; the guards had beaten me bloody. I could feel the dried blood on my face and had cuts and bruises all along my chest and legs, which I saw clearly through the torn bits of fabric that now covered me.

I groaned, feeling a shooting pain rise through my whole back.

"God damn," I cursed.

"Feeling better?" came a voice from in the shadows.

I jumped, more agony singing through my body. I winced, slowly sitting back on the cot and peered into the shadows where I saw a man leaning against the wall, his arms folded across his chest.

The man stepped from the shadows, moving with grace and ease. I figured him a vampire from the way his movements were so fluid. He wore black leather pants and an opened crimson shirt; no shoes.

"Brynn says that you are being brought into the slave trade. I was told to prepare your wounds and make you ready for an immediate sale."

"What?" I exclaimed, suppressing the urge to leap to my feet again.

The man chuckled, his black-brown hair shaking around his face. I could feel my expression drop in awe as I caught the man's eyes; they were of a pure, sparkling emerald color, as though the precious gems resting in his very head.

He reached into a bucket that was by my bedside, removing a rag soaked with water. I gritted his teeth from the pain as my wounds were cleaned and dressed.

When the man was finished, he unlashed me from the bed. "The Mistress will want to clothe you more properly," he explained as he untied the shackles. The dark–haired man reached into his pocket and handed a collar to me. "Here," he said, "put this on."

I stared at the collar a moment and then asked, "Why?"

The man froze, as though not understanding why I would question the request and answered, "Because it is wished of you."

I laughed bitterly. "Because that woman wants it so?"

He stared coldly, brushing his long hair away from his throat to reveal a soft red-velvet collar around his own neck, and along side it, dragged down his collarbone, a pearly scar. "She does not like it when we disobey. For your sake, I think you should put it on."

I stared for a while at the large scar on the man's shoulder; it looked to have been quite painful when it was open, and so I complied with little argument, putting the black strap around my neck and locking it.

The man smiled. "That was good of you to do. The Mistress will be happy that I did not have to hurt you."

I scoffed, doubting that feeble, mindless creature would have laid a hand on me.

"Come now," the man whispered. "We must bring you to the main hall; there are buyers there waiting for us."

At those words, I wrenched my hand from the slaves. "I'm not a piece of meat to be bought and sold among vampires!" I protested.

Again, the man stared with wide brilliant eyes. "Of course you are."

"I'm a man!" I shouted. "I have a life, and who are they to take it away from me?"

Sean chuckled, standing in the doorway. "We should be careful not to sell Aubrey's pet to just anyone," he said, walking towards the two. "I think only the most brutal trainer would be fit to break you. It is a shame that we could not find Gabriel, but then again, I don't think you're his type. He prefers exotics, like the shifters. Like Caso here."

Sean placed an affectionate hand on the man who had dressed my wounds.

"Have you ever met an elavie?" Sean asked, almost interested in my response. "Caso is an emerald boa, once a member of the dancers guild of the serpiente. I'd have him show you what it looks like for an elavie to shift into his animal form, but I'd be too afraid that he'd forget how to turn back. He was a brilliant dancer, well-known and well-liked, except by those who envied him. His real name is now forgotten to even me, though I hear tell that the dancers still speak of his grace and charm when performing alone on the dancer's dias. He was sold into Midnight by those who felt he made them look clumsy in comparison. I broke him for Jeshickah a very long time ago, but she did not want him. Poor thing."

Caso nudged his head into Sean's side affectionately, the name one he had been branded with by this trainer; his past life nothing more than a blur inside of his head, a memory or a dream.

"He's been through so much. He was Gabriel's for a time until that picky boy grew weary of Caso's dependency. He was the slave for a king once, in Egypt. But that ended when the king's reign was brought down. Now, he is with Brynn and I, soon though to be sold off, for we cannot keep many slaves around what with Mayhem's power spreading and threatening all who deal in flesh. You see how the life of a slave can be tough, of course?" Sean pet Caso's slick hair. "But it can also be most rewarding, if you obey your master or mistress correctly. They might grant you such freedoms as walks in the sunlight, or extra meals."

I was growing tired of this vampire's drivel and looked away from him.

It earned me a sharp backhand to my face and Sean's continued discussion. "You are handsome and strong, Barrett Gelder. I shall suggest to Brynn that whoever buys you makes you a *bleeder*," he said the last word with utter contempt. He slugged me in the jaw and I fell backwards onto the cot, my back arched over it as I half-slid off of it.

Sean stormed to the door, Caso falling to the ground as his support was suddenly removed.

"Bring him to the main chamber immediately, Caso," Sean ordered gruffly before finally leaving.