Page 46 of Skin Trade

“He has meetings,” Sky said.

“With Tasha?”

“Tasha? No. It is all because of the business with Lush. Lots of boring things he has to do. Makes Sir a little cranky.”

Cranky, huh? Part of Payton was sure she couldn’t imagine that. Angry, yes, dangerous, of course, but cranky? It didn’t fit him.

Another data entry, another table selected successfully, and the room had a nice layout for the first week of the next month. “Seth doesn’t have a blood slave, does he? Like the others at the meeting I went to with him. They all had them.” She tried not to think about Creven and Josie. Tried to focus her mind on the other vampires and their slaves. But it was hard. Every time she focused her mind, it wanted to go back and torture her.

“Sir doesn’t. No.”

“He doesn’t want one?”

“Are you trying to volunteer yourself?” the woman said as she came from the office. “I wouldn’t bother. You’re not his type. He likes them more …” she paused, eyeing Payton, “busty.”

Well that was certainly true if she went off Peta. Peta had more than amble breasts. But Payton shut her mouth for the next hour or so, her cheeks red from what the woman had said. People came into the building in waves, as many left, others were let in. It was just a continuous sea of patrons to the place. But when a man approached the desk, the woman came out of the office, grabbed one of the key cards and a folder, and sauntered out towards him, her hand extended.

“She doesn’t like me very much, does she,” Payton said when the woman was out of earshot.

“She doesn’t like anyone,” Sky said. “She doesn’t like me because I haven’t worked here for very long. But Sir said I can work at the desk. She doesn’t like that the most.”

“You and Seth are close?”

Sky smiled but paused as if she was thinking what to say. “Sir saved my life. If it was not for him, I would be food for the thirsty.”

“That was good of him.”

“Yes. I was like you, before. Kind of. It is all changed now. But I was a blood slave, as you call them. Ten years ago, now. But then, they got tired of us and sometimes drank too much from our bodies and we couldn’t come back from it. The only way to get rid of a slave like that is to turn them, or to leave them outside for the thirsty. They eat everything.”

“I thought they were just starved vampires. They don’t eat.”

“They do. It is different with them.” She nodded towards the main door. “They are beyond anything. They are not vampire anymore, and not human. Just monsters. That one who chased you. That Sir killed. He was a big one. They grow like that. He probably ate the most while the others starved. He would have eaten you too. When I was left outside, it was still dark. I was lucky. I crawled along the gutter, in the rubbish and the waste. But Sir stopped and picked me up.”

“He turned you?”

She smiled. “He saved me. Made me Sky.”

“You never think to leave?”

Sky looked at her, eyes wide. “Why would I leave. I have everything here. You have everything here too.”

“I am just something Seth chose to buy. Maybe I should just thank him and leave. My father is out there somewhere. I wish I could just walk out the doors.”

“If that is what you wish, then do it.”

Payton yelped and turned. It wasn’t Sky who had replied. Seth stood to the side of them. He handed Sky the leather folder she had seen him carrying when she had gone to Lush. “Can you please send Miranda to my room?” he asked Sky, not even looking at Payton. Not seeing the way her expression dropped or the way her heart hurt at his request. Not seeing anything she foolishly thought mattered.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Thank god Sky didn’t make Payton order this Miranda woman to his room, because if she’d have been asked to order this woman, she might have sent the wrong one to piss him off or do something that would. But for what? To show him? What was she even showing him? That she was pissed off?

She went back to sorting the table reservations, this time with a little more vigour than she had before. The mouse would barely survive under her grasp, but she could focus on the seating plan. It was simple, put party here, move this party to the other table. Move dates. Whatever. She could do this. But as she had been enjoying it before, now it was tainted. Her entire body felt like fire ants crawled along her skin. She needed to go outside, just to breathe. But she couldn’t even do that. The storm had come in full force now, whipping sand up in whirlwinds of orange and gold. They slammed down, smacked the door, settled and set off again. At least the storm matched the one going on in her head.

“Is everything okay?” Sky asked.

“Huh?”

“You, something is wrong.”

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