Page 13 of Blood Bought

“You won’t. You’re motivated, Addy. Aren’t you?” Renzo tilted his head with his bottom lip between his teeth as he let that sink in, and I couldn’t deny it if I wanted to.

As selfish as it was, I knew exactly what I was going to choose. “Fine. Then I choose bait.”

Chapter Six:

Roughly thirty secondsafter I’d made my choice, three people came in to escort me out of Alaris’ room like I was trespassing. They mumbled incoherent nonsense about not being allowed in there and pushed me toward the bloodwhores’ chamber, but they didn’t let me go in there, either. All I was allowed was a single glimpse in – just a millisecond for them to supposedly prove to me that they were happy – then I was taken to my own room.

It was a quarter of the size of Alaris’ but similarly set up with a bed and my own bath. The three of them whispered quietly to each other about clean sheets and something else I couldn’t quite hear, then all of them turned their gazes on me as one rushed over to the nightstand and pulled out a book. I didn’t have time to make the connection that it was my mother’s journal until he was scurrying back out with the others on his heels and slamming the door in my face.

“That’s mine!” I yelled, banging the side of my fist on the wood. “Give it back! Hey!”

All that answered me was silence, so I groaned in frustration and opened the curtains to let some more natural light in the room and check it out a little closer. Opposite my bed, I found a small bookcase stuffed full of more romance novels. It was nothing compared to the whole library Alaris had in his own room, and I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pettiness coming off those books since I’d made it clear I wasn’t interested in romance... but books were books. Creature comforts were still creature comforts, and I found myself snatchingPride and Prejudiceoff the bottom shelf and collapsing back on my bed to flip through the pages without giving them much thought.

My mind was understandably elsewhere – like on Alaris and if he had really punished Elenor for being nice to me. His domain was Discipline after all, but fucking someone and drinking their blood seemed like an odd punishment.

About halfway through the book, the door flew open so fast it cracked against the wall and startled the hell out of me. I scrambled up, tossing the book onto my pillow to investigate what just happened and realized someone – a vampire, clearly – had brought me food with real utensils and hadn’t stuck around long enough to chat. I wondered if that was their own doing or if this was another one of Alaris’ ways of punishing me.

Either way, eating like a normal person instead of an animal felt nice. I took my time with the meal instead of inhaling it like it would vanish, then enjoyed the ever-refilling goblet of water until I finally started to feel normal again. Sadly, my room didn’t have a fireplace like Alaris’ did, which left me crawling under the covers and regretting my choice to leave Alaris’ blanket in his room once I’d scoped out the nooks and crannies and found nothing else of use to me.

I wasseriouslygoing to need to adjust to northern winters.

~

Acouple of days later, a servant named Nesrin came in to bring my food, but she lingered in silence as I ate this time. I knew I wouldn’t like the reason why, so I kept my questions to myself as I enjoyed the food and pushed the plate back toward her. “Okay, Nesrin. Why are you really here? Does Alaris think I need to be spied on now? Is this about the forks?”

“No. I’m here to clean you and then train you,” she said, with only a fuckload of awkwardness in her voice. “Please don’t be difficult about this. It isn’t my choice.”

I frowned deeply and stood up. “Then why are you doing it? I thought Heir Alaris was all about consent?”

“That’s not what I mean. I consented to do this, but I’m not the one who chose to make you bait. You are. I’m simply asking you not to be difficult about the choice you made.”

Buckets of sunshine everywhere, I thought bitterly. “Fine. I won’t be difficult, though I’m a little offended that’s the reputation I’m building. Just tell me what to do.”

She nodded to my clothes. “I’m having water brought up to fill your tub. Strip. There are towels in the trunk at the foot of the bed.”

I eyed her warily but knew the bloodwhores were virtually always naked, so bodies weren’t as private as I was used to here. That knowledge didn’t stop me from blushing as I stripped down and she watched me with calculating eyes, or when I didn’t get the towel up fast enough to cover myself before the water was brought in.This is hell,I thought, hopefully loudly enough for Alaris to hear wherever he was.Absolute hell.

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