Not set her down. Dropped her.
"Ouch." She pushed herself upright. "How much pain is one body supposed to absorb?"
"So you're the new one."
The voice came from the shadows before the man did. He emerged slowly, unhurried, like the woman, like everyone in this place seemed to move, and settled into a chair at the centre of the room as though it were a throne. He looked at Lilith with the particular attention of someone appraising something they haven't decided the value of yet and also smoking something from a long pipe.
"What, can't even afford to buy a cigarette, so weird" Lilith thought.
The man blew the smoke out slowly and dropped the long pipe near the table next to him.
The guards and the woman bowed.
"Greetings, Lord Callinis."
Lord Callinis looked at Lilith for a long moment without speaking. Then:
"I'm hungry."
"Shall we bring the girl, my Lord?"
"No." His eyes moved over her slowly. "She'll fetch a high price at the auction. Keep her fresh. Bring me one of the others."
F2 disappeared through a side door. Lilith stood very still, processing the word auction with the calm of someone who had temporarily run out of reactions.
When F2 returned, he had a girl with him.
She looked like she had been here a long time. That was the only way Lilith could think to describe the girl, not thin, not injured, just emptied. Like whatever made a person animate had been quietly removed from her over a long period and she was simply continuing on momentum.
She walked slowly to Lord Callinis, knelt, and positioned her neck against his mouth without being asked.
Like she had done it many times before.
Like she had stopped expecting anything different.
The fangs came out.
"Oh my gosh, what is happening?" Lilith exclaimed loud enough for everyone to feel the panic in her voice.
But no one paid attention to her, especially Lord Callinis as he was too busy enjoying his meal, he sank his teeth into the girl and began to drink greedily because he was so hungry, hungry for blood.
"Stop." Lilith moved forward without deciding to. "Stop, you're going to kill her —"
F1 and F2 caught her by both arms. She fought them — uselessly, furiously — and when it became clear that she was not getting free she turned her face away and squeezed her eyes shut, tears cutting down her cheeks, because she could not watch this. She could not stand here and watch this and do nothing.
She heard everything anyway.
When it was over, the room was quiet.
She heard the body hit the floor.
She heard Lord Callinis lick his lips.
She heard him call for the door guards to take the body away, calm as a man asking for the dishes to be cleared.
Lilith opened her eyes.
Nobody moved for a moment.
The guards stood where they were. The woman stood where she was. Lord Callinis sat with his hands loosely folded, perfectly at ease, like a man who had just finished a pleasant meal and was waiting for the table to be cleared.
Lilith stood between F1 and F2 with her eyes open and her face very still.
She had seen death before, not like this, but she had seen it.
A neighbour once, an accident on the road outside her school when she was eleven. She remembered the specific quality of the silence that followed. The way the world seemed to pause before deciding to continue.
This silence had a different quality entirely.
This silence was routine. That was the worst part. Not the death itself but the absolute ordinariness of the room afterward. Nobody flinched. Nobody looked away. The girl who had just been alive was already being spoken of in the past tense by the simple act of everyone moving on.
Lilith exhaled very slowly.
Then she looked at Lord Callinis.
"You're a monster," she said. Her voice came out low and very steady in the way voices sometimes did when there was nothing left behind them.
Lord Callinis smiled. He seemed to enjoy that. "First time watching a vampire feed?" he said. "Your human stories never quite get it right, do they."
Lord Callinis turned to the woman and said, "Tiana, you said you have news for me, is it only about the girl"
"No, my Lord, she is part of the news I bring also, because it's not everyday we get to see an human with bright and beautiful silver eyes like the moon, but also I got a letter that Duke Drazeil will be at the auction next tomorrow"
Tiana said, handing over the letter to Callinis which had the Vethkara seal — dark wax, the Vethkara crest. The seal pressed deep into the parchment. A single dragon, Wings half-spread, head lowered, eyes forward.
Just the dragon. And everything it
implied.
"What great news," Callinis said, and his tone made it very clear he did not think it was great news at all.
He set the letter down. "Duke Drazeil has never once purchased from this establishment. Not a blood slave, not a pet, not anything.
In twelve years of operation he has never shown the slightest interest in what I offer here." He moved to the window, jaw tight. "So what exactly does he want?"
Tiana said nothing. She had learned that Callinis's rhetorical questions were best left rhetorical.
"I don't want him here," Callinis said quietly. "That man walks into a room and everything I've built becomes a backdrop to whatever he decides to do next." He turned.
"I want this auction to run perfectly tomorrow, No disruptions. No complications." His eyes were hard.
"Whatever Drazeil came for, he gets it and he leaves. I will not have him ruining what I've worked for."
Lilith watched them discuss beings, as though there were just an item.
"BLOOD SLAVES, PET, So disgusting"
"Yes, My Lord, I was also suspicious of the matter and I looked into it, sadly the only information I was able to get is that he would like to speak with you privately about something"
"Do you have an idea what it might be"
"My Lord," Tiana said. "The eastern expansion —"
"Is none of Drazeil's concern," Callinis said. Too quickly.
Tiana said nothing for a second, then; "My Lord, we all know that man has a loose screw in his head, I cannot possibly guess."
"Hmmm, you are right Tiana, I will leave all the preparation to you for next tomorrow auction, I need everything perfect, emphasis on Perfect Tiana and also we are going to display our finest goods for sale specifically for Duke Drazeil hopefully something catches his eye
"Yes, My Lord, expect no disappointment from me" Tiana said bowing.
Lord Callinis rose from the chair and walked toward Lilith slowly, studying her face with that same appraising look.
"Light brown skin. Silver eyes. Curly hair." He tilted his head. "Strange little thing. You'll do well at the auction." He turned away. "Put her in the special grade cell."
"You cannot just lock me up as you please, I have rights —"
"Ah." He paused, like he'd just remembered something small. "One more thing. Knock her out."
"What —"
Something hard connected with the back of her head.
The room tilted. The torches blurred.
As the darkness took her for the second time, one thing cut through everything else — a name she had heard and sounded weirdly familiar to her.
"Duke Drazeil."
Who, she thought, as the floor came up to meet her, is that?