CHAPTER 4 #3
“Wait.” She pulled her arm away before Sera could give her the injection. “I need to lie down. Sometimes I faint when I get shots.”
“And you came to a blood auction?” The freckle-faced girl tittered. “Guess you didn’t think that one through.”
“Oh, hush, Loralee,” the other girl said. “Don’t be such a bitch.”
But by then, Yvonne had already taken three small clean blades from her pocket. Without offering warning or pausing to ask permission, she nicked each of their fingers in turn. Dani felt the room begin to contract, her vision blurring at the edges.
“That’s one down.” Loralee’s voice dripped with contempt. “Maybe you should let me have that pretty dress since you clearly aren’t going to need it.”
“Why don’t you give her some space.” Distantly, she felt Sera’s gloved fingers beneath her arm, guiding her to sit, then to lie down on the floor.
“Does she need to leave?” Yvonne asked. “We can’t have a scene once she gets in there.”
“I’m fine,” Dani slurred.
She was anything but fine. Her stomach churned.
Black spots swam in her vision. But she had to get up, had to go out onto that stage.
She had overcome the attacks before, when Ava had been much younger and couldn’t yet give herself injections independently.
If she fainted, they would throw her out. And she couldn’t go home empty-handed.
“She’s fine.” Sera knelt before her, voice low and urgent. “Are you sure you want to go through with this? In a minute, it’s going to be you out there. How are you planning to get through a feeding if you faint at the sight of blood?”
“I’ll close my eyes,” Dani said through gritted teeth. The urge to faint was receding. “I don’t know why I’m like this. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always passed out at the sight of blood.”
“That’s quite common actually. It’s a stress response. A trigger causes a drop in blood pressure and heartrate, leading to fainting.” Sera paused. “I still need to give you the injection. It’s required.”
“Okay.” Dani drew a breath. “I’ll probably pass out, but I should come back around within sixty seconds.”
Yvonne shook her head in obvious disapproval.
“Ready?” Sera uncapped the syringe.
“Do it.”
She awoke to find the room spinning. Her head felt woozy.
“They’re almost ready for her,” Yvonne said coldly. “If she isn’t going out there—”
“Dani, how are you feeling?” Sera asked urgently. “If you want to go home, I can take you back myself.”
“I’m fine.”
It was a lie, but she knew if she didn’t get up right now, that all of this would have been for naught. Staggering to her feet, she gripped Sera’s arm for support, noticing the bandage that had been taped across her index finger.
“I did it while you were out,” Sera whispered as they made their way to the door.
“I thought it would help and it won’t matter to the males in the room.
They’ll smell the blood regardless, especially since they’ll be primed to feed.
If you start to feel faint on stage, cross your legs.
No one will see beneath that long dress, and it will get blood flowing back to your brain.
You can also try squeezing your hand into a fist. That should help as well. ”
“Thank you.”
As they neared the window, Dani could see several of the vampires had emerged from the shadows, drinks in hand, to circle the dark-haired girl.
She stood motionless, head down, as they ran fingers down her bare arms, stroking her cheek like she was a pet.
One of them lowered the strap of her dress and the others laughed uproariously.
Dani felt tears sting her eyes, as she saw the way her hands were trembling.
Terror, helplessness, and a sickening sense of rage filled her at the sight of the girl, forced to stand there and be touched against her will.
Worse, was the knowledge that she would be next.
That she could turn and walk out the door, leave the auction house.
But if she did that, she would be sealing Ava’s fate.
Balling her hands into a fist so hard her nails dug into her palms, she watched until at last one vampire, a middle-aged male in a business suit, signaled the winning bid, and was allowed to take his sanguine away through a private door.
She’d never even learned her name. She wasn’t sure why that mattered so much in this moment, except watching the girl in the blue silk dress disappear through the unmarked door, it felt like she was being erased, like she was now nothing but a vessel for the blood in her veins.
The door to the auction room lurched open. Dani flinched. Suddenly there was a shove at her back, and before she could react, she was stumbling out into the bright light of the stage. Forced to grab her skirts to keep from tripping, she focused on the spot at the center of the platform.
Silently, she repeated what Giselle had told her.
Eyes down, hair smoothed to one side so they could see her neck.
Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. She drew a breath, burying her fingers in the folds of her skirt so they wouldn’t see how scared she was.
“State your name and age,” Yvonne directed over the sound system. “And why you wish to become a sanguine.”
Glasses clinked in the back of the room. It smelled like liquor, body odor and cologne. She couldn’t see any of the vampires clearly due to the brightness of the stage lighting. Sweat trickled down the back of her neck as she willed herself not to faint.
“Daniela Girard, aged twenty.”
From the back of the room, she could have sworn she heard someone drop a glass.
The murmurs and side conversations fell silent.
Dani’s heartbeat quickened. What did they expect her to say, that she’d always dreamed of being some rich man’s blood whore?
To tearfully plead the story of her sister?
She wouldn’t tell them about Ava, not at the risk some sick monster might decide they had a taste for her underaged sister’s too sweet blood.
“I think we all know why we’re here.” She lifted her eyes to the back of the room. “Perhaps we should just begin?”
There was a moment’s hesitation, and then a chime sounded, quickly followed by another. Bidding had started.
There was a laugh from one of the tables in back.
“Alex, you are full of surprises. And here, I thought you came out tonight only to look?”
A chair clattered to the floor. One of the vampires staggered towards her, a glass of amber-colored alcohol sloshing precariously as he made his way towards the stage.
Her stomach threatened to turn over. Dani shrank back, which earned a roar of laughter.
There was nowhere to retreat, except to knock on the door, and she couldn’t do that, couldn’t sign Ava’s death warrant.
“The smell of your blood is fucking intoxicating,” he growled, running clumsy fingers through her hair.
Dani shivered, wanting to claw his hands away.
She hated this, hated every part of a system that had forced every human within it into such abject poverty that eventually young women like her were all driven to this point.
Making terrible, unthinkable choices in the hopes they or someone they loved might live to survive another day.
Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she forced herself to hold very, very still, despite the way her hands were starting to shake. He ran one hand down the length of her bare arm, lifting her hand. When he got to the finger Yvonne had nicked, he inhaled deeply.
“Young, untouched blood is so divine,” he leered. “I can’t wait to taste you.”
That was when Dani saw the blood dripping from the edge of the bandage onto the floor.
Instantly, her knees went weak. Her field of vision narrowed, the floor rushing up to meet her.
The folds of her red silk dress puddled around her like the petals of a flower as she tried to remember what Sera had said.
She couldn’t pass out. Not now. She didn’t want to think what might happen if she were to lose consciousness in this room full of thirsty vampires.
Dully in the background, she became aware of the auction bell pealing relentlessly. A sick feeling curdled in her stomach. She was wounded prey, and there was nothing that excited alpha males more.
She felt the moment they began closing in around her, three of them maybe, or was it four? Fingers stroked her hair. Traced the angles of her face. Caressed the vein at her throat.
“I can’t wait to taste you.”
“I think this one likes being on her knees.”
Raucous laughter filled the room. Someone yanked at the fastenings of her dress. She felt cold air at her back. Gasping, she clawed for the panels of her gown, trying to hold it together.
“No, please.” Dani tried to shrink away, uselessly covering her breasts.
“Why’s she even here if she’s just going to act like a little prick tease?” one of the younger ones sneered.