Kidnapped for the Auction

Perin pulled up outside the grotty apartment building and cut the engine, checking the address that he had written down once more. He was in the right place. Hopefully this wouldn’t take too long; he was tired and fed up after a busy day. This was a horrible area of the city; if the target lived here then she would probably be relieved to be taken away from it, he mused. He opened his door and got out of the car, scanning the area to see if there was anyone around to see his arrival, but it was all clear.  The scent of urine assaulted his nostrils as he walked up the concrete steps to the building doorway, and he quickly shouldered the broken magnetic entry door open. He entered the uncared for grey lobby of the apartment building, and seeing that there was no CCTV, quickly crossed to the stairwell. The apartment he was looking for was on the third floor. Although it was 2am, he could still hear sounds of people going on with their lives behind the doors; a baby crying, the distant bass of someone’s music, a couple arguing. How any of the residents got any sleep he didn’t know. The door of the apartment he wanted was locked but that didn’t pose a problem, he had been given a pick that would unlock any door silently. Although if he wanted, the cheap flimsy wooden door could probably opened just as easily with a good kick! He slid inside, using his heightened senses to take in his surroundings so he didn’t have to bother with turning on the lights. It wasn’t as bad as he was expecting; small but clean and tidy. The door opened straight into the kitchen which also seemed to double as a sitting room with a sofa and TV along one wall. There was only one door that he could see, so he surmised that must be the bedroom. He was pleased with how easy this first part had been; the next part would the more difficult bit. Perin silently opened the bedroom door and approached the bed to stand over the girl who was sleeping in it. He took in the masses of auburn curls spread across her pillow, the way the covers had slid down to reveal an expanse of smooth back and her bare arms that looked almost white in the yellow light coming through the thin curtains from the streetlights outside. He couldn’t see her face properly, but was certain that he was in the right place. He wavered for a moment wondering what to do next; he hadn’t been trained for this and was beginning to wish he had never offered to help Dante out. “Wake up” he commanded quietly, and she was instantly awake. With a sharp intake of breath she turned over and looked up at him, surely unable to see anything but a dark shape looming over her. She lay still for a moment like she was unsure if what she was seeing was real, before lurching upright, “Who are you?” she demanded. “What are you doing here?” No screaming so far, which was good. “I’m here for you,” said Perin, quickly realising that he sounded like something from a bad b-movie. Before she could respond he commanded “Get dressed.” And she immediately slid from the bed and crossed the room to the chest of drawers in the corner. He averted his eyes as she stripped off her vest and shorts, but not before noticing her lithe figure and the way she moved. He thought about the information that he had been given earlier that night: Rowan Davies. 22 Years old. Recently qualified as a nurse and currently working every shift offered to her at the hospital for not enough money and too much responsibility. She had no immediate family; her parents had died in a car accident two years ago, no siblings. Only an aunt who was too busy to pay her much attention, or worry that much if she didn’t hear from her.   She lived alone in this tiny flat with no boyfriend or flatmate. She didn’t even have many friends as far as they could tell. She must be shy, Perin concluded, as she wouldn’t have trouble finding a boyfriend.  She kept herself in shape by running when she finished work, and probably didn’t eat enough when it got close to the end of the month and her money ran out. It was on one of those evening runs that she was noticed by one of their scouts. She had caught his eye and he tailed her home, breaking into her flat whilst she was at work in order to find out more about her. She was unaware, of course. Focusing back onto the girl, he watched her pull some jeans up her legs and was pleased to see her dressing sensibly even though he hadn’t been specific in his command. She shrugged a sweater on over her head and then tugged on some socks and boots. Now that she was dressed, his command was obsolete, so she was free to question him and control her own movements again. “You said you had come for me,” she began, eyeing him warily. “What do you want? And how the hell did you make me get dressed?” He may as well be honest. “We are a group of people that live separately from the rest of the world, but we are mostly male and have to take wives from outside our own enclaves” Well, he was almost honest; if he laid out the whole truth of what they were she would probably panic or disbelieve him, maybe both. “Wives!?” she was incredulous. “Are you kidding me? You mean you’re going to sell me to a brothel?” Maybe he should explain further. “No. I mean what I say. Females of our kind are very rare; if we are to continue our existence then we need to introduce some new blood.” “So I’m to be a broodmare, to some weird cult?” Her voice was rising, not in panic like he had expected, but in anger. “We are not a weird cult,” he countered, wondering how to make her understand that he was practically “saving” her from her current pitiful existence. “And you would not be a broodmare, whoever buys you will treasure you. You will be provided with all you could possibly want.” He was getting a little exasperated; why was he trying to justify himself to her? In an hour’s time she wasn’t going to be his problem anymore. “I will want for nothing?” she mocked. “Except for the freedom to not be treated like a piece of property, being “sold” to some stranger with no choice in the matter?” She took a step towards him, eyes flashing and chest heaving with rage. “Maybe I want to not be raped and impregnated against my will!” “This isn’t random selection.” He told her. “My people have been watching you for quite some time. You have been chosen because they think that you will be capable of adjusting to our way of life. You are intelligent, healthy and of a suitable age to have children. Plus no one will look for you for long when you disappear.” He left out the fact that she was attractive and appealing, but then again the girls the scouts chose always were.    He saw a flicker of hurt cross her face at his statement, and he regretted being so blunt. He was sick of the entire situation already; he was a warrior. He should be catching criminals, not stealing frightened young women from their beds. “Come on,” he said, gesturing to the door. “We need to go.” She just stared at him like he was insane. “You think I’m just going to walk out of here with you?” His patience had run out. “We don’t have time for this.” He made a grab for her arm but she was quicker that he had expected, and the arm he was reaching for flashed out and caught him in the face. Shocked, he just stood for a moment and watched her scramble for the door. She had a hell of a right hook, had he been human he would have been floored! Enough was enough. Abandoning the plan to keep her in the dark about what he was he leapt across the room, catching her easily by wrapping an arm around her waist and lifting her off her feet. She kicked and flailed against him, not stopping until he carried her over to the bed and pinned her underneath him. “Stop,” he growled as she tried to get up again. “I don’t want to hurt you.” “You’ll have to hurt me,” she gasped, “because there is no way I am going with you quietly.” Heaving a sigh, he commanded “Follow me, and don’t say another word until we are in the car.” He had hoped not to use too many commands, they drained his energy and it made him need to feed more often, which was inconvenient when he had a full schedule at work. Having no choice, she stood and followed him sedately out of her apartment and down the stairs to his black BMW that was waiting a couple of doors down from her building. It wasn’t the most inconspicuous car for kidnapping, but in this part of town people would just assume that he was a drug dealer. Every so often he would notice her trying to fight his command by a slight change in her pace, but she couldn’t throw it off. Nevertheless he was impressed; his mind control skills were very powerful. He had trained long and hard to make them strong so that he wouldn’t have to worry about humans getting involved in any messy situations whilst he was working. The fact that she could even attempt to throw off his command showed that she was very certain of her own mind. She got into the passenger seat of his car, and he swiftly started the car and pulled away from the curb before she began to speak again. “How did you do that?” she asked, finally looking afraid. “That’s the other thing,” he said, feeling more relaxed now he had her safely away. “I’m not human.” “Not human?!” she scoffed. “What are you then? Aside from a kidnapping piece of s**t, of course. An alien?”  She was glaring at him, and he found himself hiding a grin before he answered. “You’re close. The closest thing that you would understand me to be is a vampire.” Although, of course, the stories humans told both embellished and missed out a lot of the truth of their species characteristics and culture. “Vampire? You must think I’m an i***t!” He could see her gearing up for another freak-out escape attempt and cut her off. “Wait. Just think about what has happened tonight. Is it really so ridiculous?” “It’s impossible!” she snapped, but the expression on her face said that she was not so certain. “Impossible?” he questioned. “Is it really so impossible considering the amount of biodiversity on this planet that there could be another species of humanoid living amongst you?” He gave her an enquiring look, and knew that he was getting somewhere when she looked away from him angrily. “We would know.” She said, after a long pause. “The amount of science and technology we have, we would know.” Her wide green eyes met his for a second and he knew that she was grasping the truth, but was going to deny it for as long as possible. “Where do you think the myths come from?” he asked, with a half-smile, then wondered why he was bothering to try and convince her. Once she was delivered to Jareth he would be unlikely to ever see her again. “So what do you really want me for then?” she asked, her face expressionless. “I was telling the truth about that. In a couple of days one of my people will bid for you in an auction, then take you as his wife. And he will take care of you, whether you want him to or not.” He stifled a grin at the thought of her husband trying to please her in the coming weeks; he was going to have his work cut out. “That’s not a wife” she retorted acidly, “ that’s a slave.” “You’ll see.” He told her, and they drove in silence for a while, the girl seemingly lost in thought. “Almost there.” He said after a while, breaking the silence. He was surprised when she turned in the seat to face him. “Please don’t do this to me” she implored. “I am begging you; take me home. I won’t tell anyone, I won’t do or say anything that would expose you in any way, just please, please take me home.” She had reached out a hand to his arm in supplication, and they both looked down at it in surprise before she snatched it back. At her touch, his gaze was instantly drawn to the pulse hammering in her throat and for the first time that night he felt a stab of thirst. “What are you looking at?” she asked, her voice suddenly tight with fear. “Watch the road!” Forcing his gaze away from her, he realised that his fangs had been lengthening and knew that his pupils would be dilating too. No wonder the girl was afraid; he would look like the monster he had been trying to convince her he was. They were nearly at the compound, and he turned off the main road and into the industrial estate where the entrance was situated. He pulled up the warehouse that was the façade for the entrance to their underground parking area. Seeing their surroundings, the girls fear rapidly increased. “Please, just let me go!” she cried, even though it was obviously futile. For a moment he was tempted to comply; just turn the car around, take her back and she he couldn’t find her. But if he did do that then one of the others would just go back another time to collect her, and nothing would change for her. She would come to realise that she was better off with them eventually. “I can’t.” He told her, watching a single tear track down her cheek. There was one thing he could do for her though, to make the next couple of hours easier. “Sleep” he commanded, and she slumped almost instantly. He pulled into the garage and parked up, then got her out of the passenger seat and cradled her to his chest whilst he walked to the lift that would take them down into the compound proper. He studied her features, relaxed in sleep. She had a light smattering of freckles across her cheeks and her porcelain skin was smooth. Her eyebrows were a couple of shades darker than the hair that was trailing over his arm, and her lashes looked long resting on her cheeks. Her lips were thinner than would be typically thought of as sensual, but he found his gaze drawn to them anyway. Her body felt warm against his, and he was enjoying the feel of her in his arms. She would definitely be snapped up at the auction the following evening, no question.   The lift doors closed and they began their descent. When he arrived he would hand her over to Jareth and his wife Theresa who would look after her until the auction. The fact that there was only a short period of time before the auction was why the duty of collecting her had fallen to him that night. Dante, whose job it was usually to collect the women chosen by the scouts, was needed by his wife who was having their first child. Perin grinned when he remembered how nervous his friend had been when he asked him to do him a favour; he hadn’t wanted to be away from Emily for a moment in case she went into labour and he missed it. It always amused him to see how his peers changed the moment they got a wife, turning into overprotective, doting spouses. Dante had been lucky with Emily; they had quickly bonded and were blissfully, sickeningly happy. The lift arrived, and Perin exited the doors, making his way towards Jareth’s holding space for the girls that got brought in. They only had an auction every six months, and there could be up to ten women here at any one time being acclimated to their way of life by Jareth, and more importantly Theresa, who had been through the process herself. Perin felt a little uncomfortable as he realised that Rowan wouldn’t have time to get used to being here before being claimed by her husband, wouldn’t get a chance to bond with the other women so that they could support each other out in their community. Jareth was expecting them, and opened the door as soon as Perin knocked. “Hello Perin,” said Jareth, stepping back to let them in. “You got her then? Was she much trouble?” Perin walked over to a sofa and carefully set her down, ignoring Jareth’s questions. He found himself bristling as Jareth walked over to inspect her, and had to step away to stop himself from shoving Jareth aside and gathering her back into his arms. It must be the thirst, he told himself, in order to account for the strange possessiveness that he was feeling towards her.    “Pretty colouring,” commented Jareth, oblivious to Perin’s turmoil. “And not a mark on her too. You did well.” Perin just nodded; what was there to say? He hovered for a second, reluctant to leave until he had an idea; maybe there was something he could do to make things a little better for her. “I’ll be back in about an hour.” He told Jareth, leaving the room and starting to head back towards the garage. A short while later, he stood in the doorway of her flat looking around, trying to work out what would mean most to her. He found a shoulder bag hanging on a hook near the door and emptied it out before starting to refill it with her things.