The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 1: Chapter 24

The others occupied themselves in various ways. I spent my time fantasizing about getting a look at the updated information we had stolen. I could not stop myself from hoping that he would be in there and that I might finally get revenge for Melissa.

As to what I would do after I managed that, maybe I could remember some of the worst vampires I had seen in her database and start staking them off one by one. There was not much else that I had to give to the world, and at least it would give my life meaning once I had achieved my goal.

* * * * *

Several days passed when the relatively peaceful idleness was broken by a knock on the door. Agro was the nearest of her trusted slaves, so he went to the door. Henry, one of the tech slaves, stood at attention so I copied him since I imagined he knew more about being a proper slave than I did.

Agro opened the door, revealing a small group with a vampire in the lead. He ducked his head towards the bloodsucker and stepped out of the way. His muscles seemed more tense than his usual preening cockiness.

I kept my gaze lowered, but watched surreptitiously as he led four humans into the room. They were shackled to the wall by the lead leach, exactly where Trisha and I had been when we had first been bought.

Once the humans were secured, the two vampires left the room and Agro shut the door behind them. Henry seemed to be watching him for guidance and followed as Agro left the room.

I did not leave immediately. I looked at the new humans and could practically feel their bonds on my own arms. I had been far from the only one down in the slave pits, but it was likely all the other humans who had been there with me were likely long gone in new places of misery, if they were even still alive at all. These would have been new slaves that had been hunted from the wilds or sold by their vampiric masters.

It would be out of line for me to talk to them and I would not have cared and done it anyways, but my promise to the leech made me hold my tongue. I did not want to give her an excuse to stop me from looking for that information. After I had found him, or found that he was not in the council's information, I would properly defy her as I pleased.

There was one female among the humans, pretty with shocking orange hair. She was stick thin and looked young, maybe even as young as fourteen or fifteen. I could not imagine why the leech had chosen her if she was looking for high quantities of blood, although who could say what she might be thinking.

The other three were all male and seemed to fit her pretty male requirements, so I did not question that choice further.

Only one looked at me, a man who was probably younger than me and very lean, but not with the appearance of near starvation. I did not let my sympathy show. I doubted he would want that. Instead I acknowledged him with a nod of my head before leaving the room.

* * * * *

I was waiting with the others when the leech finally returned to her chambers. She waltzed into her rooms with that satisfaction that was almost always prevalent, as if everything in her life was always her way.

My earlier temper had resurged at the reminder that she was no better than other vampires, a creature of cruelty and slavery. I was mostly furious at myself that I had somehow forgotten her nature for even one minute. I tried not to let it show.

She made her way directly over to her newest acquisitions. She stopped at the female. "What's your name, human?"

The girl whimpered.

"What was that?" she repeated. The girl flinched.

"Barb."

"Mmhmm. Delicious."

The girl made another pitiful sound.

The leech moved on to the next human. "And your name?"

He was as dark as Rocky, but not nearly as large. He did not say anything.

"Come on, fifty-seven three hundred and twenty-two. I asked you a question. Surely they taught you in the pens to always answer the question of your vampiric betters?"

"Stick it, leech."

Well, I liked this guy.

She smiled as if delighted and I was reminded that she seemed to get perverse satisfaction from being challenged. The poor man did not know that he was giving the leech exactly what she wanted.

"Come now, if you don't tell me I'll do unspeakably painful things to you. Is that what you want? All I want to know is what your human given name is. Holding it back will only hurt you in the long run."

She ran a long nail along his neck and he tried to twist away from her.

"Tell me," she said.

"Travis."

"Very, very good. I believe we're going to have a delightful time together, Travis."

The next man did not even try to resist. He was fairly muscular, considering he seemed to have been out roaming the wilds, but he had a nervous tick. I was certain he had seen some bad things in his time.

"Evan."

"I had not even asked you, yet. Perhaps I had a different question?"

"Sorry," he gasped. He was sweating and kept his eyes away from her. I pitied him.

She moved onto the final one who had met my eyes earlier, as if she had all the time in the world. "And last, but I suspect not least, what's your name, human?"

"Mark," he said. He glanced at me. I kept my face straight, hoping that he would understand not all the humans in her possession were completely under her control. At least one of us could remember what she really was.

She stepped back from the humans chained to the wall. She turned to us. "Marcel, Jeffry, Greg, Mantis, Javier, clean these four up to an acceptable standard. Jamie, you're dismissed. Mantis, come see me afterwards."

I wanted to disagree for the sake of disagreement, but at the same time I really did not want to be party to enslaving other humans, so it was just as well she was sending me away.

Let the leech lovers handle it. I wanted no part.