A Vampire's Life Book 6

Chapter 1

Ariella looked upon the young male, the jeans slung low on his hips, dirty and ripped. His toned body scarred from the many bites of the whip. She enjoyed the view of this gorgeous young man, watching as the sweat slid down his naked torso, glistening in the light. Her eyes washed back up and was met with his, dirty blonde hair hung into those steely blue eyes that stared at her. A smirk curled into the edge of his mouth, revealing the tiniest hint of his teeth. As always the hands were bound behind their back, in this handsome man it showed off the fine curves of his shoulders, pulling back to the flexed arm muscles.

'My lady, I must warn against this particular human. He has a smart mouth and is always finding himself at the wrong end of the whip.'

His body looked like it was resilient and could withstand the harsh summer that was quickly on its way, he was a slave that she knew her father would approve of, even if he had a smart mouth. The other slaves drooped their shoulders, never even attempted eye contact, they knew better. But this one stood strong, shoulders and back straight, his head held high and his gaze never left her body. His eyes languidly made their way down her, stopping at her chest that seemed like it was going to burst out of the tight leather corset. The hem of her heavy black skirt traced over his toes as she passed him to look at the rest of the slaves.

'I am sure the keeper can help him with his smart mouth. Load him onto the truck with the rest of them.'

'Very well my lady.' the vendor nodded with a bow, then pushed the man towards the truck.

She could see him watching her from the truck, she idly thought that the vendor was right in his assessment of this particular human. He sat at the end of the seat, his arms tied behind his back, not caring as the vendor's assistant tied him to the truck. The other slaves cowered in a corner until the assistant moved them to their seats. Humans she chuckled to herself they never knew how good they had it until it was too late.

'Vendor, what is this?' her tone annoyed. 'Why do you present me with a poorly human?'

She looked down at the young male, his skin hung off his bones. He looked malnourished and badly beaten. She almost felt sorry for the poor thing. His eyes showed his fear, she knew that these men would have been taught to fear their new master.

'These are all that we have left, my lady. I would not bring out such a human but my stock is low.'

'How much?'

'One thousand.'

Ariella balked at the thought of this human costing that much. Ordinarily she would not take a human in this state but she knew that the nurse could rectify his problems before the summer.

'Vendor, I will take him at half that price and if he dies on me, I will be coming for your head.'

'Yes my lady.'

He gestures for his assistant to take the sick man to the truck. She watched him as the assistant was very rough with the man.

'Vendor, tell your assistant to take care with my property thank you.'

He nodded at her and hastened to his assistant to reprimand him. She looked over at the truck, the troublemaker watched her with a smirk on his face.

'The women now my lady?'

She approached the truck, the dust from the hard ground kicked up around her, dirtying her skirt and boots. The vendor and his assistant both wiped the sweat from their brows as the harsh sun beat down on them. The heat was unbearable for the humans.

'Yes thank you vendor.'

'Wait here.' he grumped at this assistant as he left to bring the women out.

'Why don't you call him by his name?' the troublemaker asked her.

The vendor's assistant looked sideways at him and then to Ariella. He took a large step back, expecting the worst.

'Humans don't deserve names.' her tone curt.

She looked around the buildings, a few faces peered out from the windows, the vendor's family she thought as she soaked in the dilapidated stone building. Ariella despised the vendor, she knew he would have a lot of money coming into this place and yet he still kept his family in a shack that looked like one gust of wind would knock it over. They deserved better but instead the vendor spent his money on gambling, the latest craze was bare fist fighting between the slaves.

'My lady.' the vendor returned with a dozen women.

He lined them up in a row, all of them in the typical farm issued white dress, their hair pulled back to a pony tail. The women were a little cleaner than the men, but still dirty from the dustiness of this little township.

'Now we are low on your preferred choice.'

'It is not my choice vendor. These are for my brother.'

She inspected the blonde women, her brother lusted for blondes and always requested her to bring some home for him and his wife. These ones would be to his liking, beautiful, thin and ample cleavage, just the way the pervert liked them. She continued down the line of women, the housekeeper had requested two more maids as the last ones had mysteriously disappeared. Of course, she knew exactly where they were, at the bottom of the lake, she knew her father had gotten hungry on a couple of occasions. But that is the way that it was, the head staff were turned, the lower ranked staff were not. They were slaves and if one of the family members were hungry, then they were their food source. She knew it would be easier just to take all of the women, give the housekeeper her two maids and the rest to have for the donation of their blood. That was her mother's requirement, blood to be donated or nothing at all. Her mother had refused to end the life of a human, being that she was once a human. Scarlett still held empathy for her former kind and had tried to instil a bit of empathy into her children. She had tried but had little luck, both Ariella and her twin brother Elston were very much like their father Lucas. A born vampire has trouble finding empathy for their food source, creating some very tense moments in their family. Ariella was very much like her father in personality, cold and domineering whereas Elston had become more like his mother in recent years, wild and carefree.

'These will be sufficient, vendor.'

Ariella couldn't keep her eyes off the slave, he was a fine specimen of a human. But she wasn't prepared to have her heart broken again and there was no man that would ever break through her frozen heart.