by Aya DeAniege
The teeth withdrew from my flesh, but the lips remained locked. His tongue flowed over the fresh wound, lapping up the blood that I knew was flowing. As he pulled away, he seemed to suckle on my flesh, as if trying to get every last bit of blood he could.
He straightened, a finger on his lips. Turning to the other, he made a sound and a hand motion. The other one stepped forward, and I was afraid he was going to bite me too. The fiery pain was blooming in my hand and throbbing up my arm as my blood dripped to the floor.
The other handed over a cotton kerchief, which the first tied around my wrist, stemming the blood flow.
“How many others?” the stranger asked.
“Six, Owen included.”
“Six?” the stranger asked, getting a look on his face as he stiffened and turned to the guard. “Six?”
“Did I stutter?”
“Six Alphas have listed a bid on her and not a single one of you thought that Da would be interested in her?” the stranger asked. He paused to run his tongue over his teeth. “Place a listing. I'm taking her to Da. He needs a breeder and a curiosity to distract him.”
“Payment is necessary.”
“That law is for mutts, are you implying that I am a mutt?”
“War brats are all—” the guard seemed to catch himself, he even paled as the stranger watched him. “Honoured guests. However, the payment is also for the untried. Tell me, do you own land? A breeder? A husbandwife even? This one here is being held to the full extent of the law. That means the bidding and tier systems of old.”
“I can’t help taking after Da. He didn't have his first companion until he was well into his twenties, his first breeder just five years ago. Though that was a failure.”
“Take after him or not, you don’t get to buy a woman outside of the betting.”
“She’s here for giving alms to the scorned. No one else is going to want her.”
“He wants her.”
“He’s the one who scorned and then charged.”
“Has her sister too.”
“Tell you what…” the Alpha straightened entirely and turned to the guard. “I can take her with me, or I can knock you unconscious and leave you here with these women. Who, I remind you, are only affected by you so long as you are awake and breathing.”
The guard cast a sidelong glance at the other women, who were still cowering. I had no idea if what the Alpha said was true, but I was also in no position to give it a try. I might have gotten one, but not the other.
Near as I could tell, the one that I had to get was the stranger. The guard was barely above an ordinary man. He also had the key card that worked the outer door, as well as the gate to the facility.
The two of them were facing one another, the Alpha's back to me. There was nothing heavy or moveable in the room itself.
But my father, before the Dom killed him two years previous, had served in the military. He had seen how the world was changing and moving.
Balling up my fist, I wheeled back and caught the stranger upside the head, across the temple. When he didn't crumple, I hit him again and was around him in a moment. The guard got his hands up, but as I suspected, he was only Alpha in genetics. He was being kept alive to pass on his genetic material to provide a wider gene pool for future generations.
I caught him in the balls with the tip of my foot. It hurt, my whole foot exploded in pain, but so did his balls. As he went down, my hands were on him, pawing through his pockets. In the left pant pocket, I found the key card, slim and plastic. Almost smooth in my hand.
With the key card was a set of keys. With the keys and the card, I bound out the door, headed for the outer door that kept the G14 cells from the intake area. At the door, I slid to a stop and slipped the key card into the slot and back out again. The light blipped red.
“Fuck,” I said as I slammed the card back in and pulled it out.
It blipped red.
I felt something behind me. Stiffening, I turned and looked up at the cold blue-grey eyes of the stranger. Red was blooming over his temple, already turning the nasty shade that meant it would bruise. As I stared up at him, his lips turned upward in a devilish sort of smile.
He lifted his hand, in which there was a key card with a black strip running the length of it.
“Why do you think a gym membership will get you out of here?” he asked.
My foot ached something terrible. I hadn't been thinking clearly, obviously. With a flick of my hand, I tossed the card away from me. Without warning, I struck out with my foot again.
He caught my ankle, teeth gritting as he growled out. As his eyebrows drew downward, his nose scrunched up, and his lips peeled back from those pearly whites. Almost casually, he reached out and grabbed my left wrist, thrusting me back and against the metal wiring that separated the two areas. I cried out as my leg was bent at an odd angle.
“If you had been a rightie, I'd be out like a light,” he rumbled. “Thank goodness you didn't get the right angle.”
The overhead alarm blared to life. With a grunt, the Alpha looked up and around.
“And I would have woken up in chains,” he said, yanking me off the door. “Time to go. You give me any more trouble, and I'll give you a smack, and you will wake up in chains.”
Coming Early 2017
Coming Soon:
At Death's Door
Wraith's Rebellion Book I
I was chosen to interview a man who claimed to be something more. I expected the usual drabble about culture and art and history that all the other interviewers received. With a little fluff and maybe just the slightest hint of intrigue.
I don't think any of us truly believes they are what they claim they are: vampires. None have witnessed feeding, no hard evidence of their lives throughout history are given.
I personally believe it's a giant con, perhaps a huge PR move before a movie is announced or something. This is the real world, vampires and supernatural creatures don't exist. If they did, we'd know about them long ago.
In one night, my whole world was turned upside down. It's a story that spans centuries, of secrets no mortal has ever been told.
The other vampires hadn't been telling pre-approved stories constructed by the Council, they had just led really boring lives. Quin, on the other hand, has spent his immortal life near the Council, running from his Maker, yet unable to escape the man's grasp.
This is his story.
Prototype*
An Aurora Novel
(*Working Title)
My name is Maggy Doyle. I have a three-year-old daughter, a husband, a home, and an extended family. I work a secretary job for a lawyer's office and spend my days just trying to fly under the radar of pretty well everyone.
See, five years ago, I was found wandering around a field. I don't recall anything before that moment. I had no idea who I was. If it weren't for Harry, if not for how much he loved me before the incident, I would have probably been lost forever.
Imagine my surprise when I opened my front door one day to find men standing there, demanding my daughter and me go with them. They wouldn't answer my questions or tell me where they were taking us.
There's this nagging at the back of my mind telling me that it has to do with Aurora. The still new, third world we were linked to, ruled by a woman who is said to have not only created the world, but also animals, and who knew what else.
What could she possibly want with twenty people ranging from late teens to middle-aged? The only thing we have in common is amnesia. Our lives before a certain point were erased. We didn't do anything wrong, none of us know each other and our incidents were months or even years apart.
We're completely harmless.
I think.
About the Author
Aya DeAniege wrote for years, first to please herself then writing stories for free—believing no one would ever pay to read her stuff—before pursuing indie publishing. She still writes mainly for personal pleasure, with topics ranging from roma
nce, fantasy, science fiction, on to whatever takes her fancy in the future. World creation fascinates her, and when she finds one she likes, she dabbles endlessly.
Connect on:
Facebook: Aya DeAniege
Twitter: @DeAniege_A
Wordpress: A Little World with a Big Story
Email: [email protected]
