Lucia fought back, crying out for her mother.
“Mama! Mama!” She screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks as she stretched her arm out to her parents. Her father put his arm round her mother’s shoulders as they watched solemnly. “Help me!” Lucia cried, struggling against the inhumanly strong arms as they dragged her to a black BMW with dark tinted windows. She couldn’t understand why her parents weren’t doing anything, watching silently as these strangers bundled her into the back of their car. As the door slammed she saw, in a fleeting second, a thick wad of cash exchanging hands.
A broken sob escaped her throat as she fell back against the leather seats, clamping a hand to her mouth in shock.
They had sold her. They knew these people were coming.
She was still frozen in a sprawled position when two men swung the front doors open and slid into the car in the blink of an eye. They moved so quickly Lucia had to blink a couple of times to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. The door beside her burst open and a woman shoved herself in beside Lucia, dislodging the smaller girl and forcing her across fully onto the other side of the car. Lucia snapped out of her daze and twisted her body to reach for the door, jerking at the locked handle multiple times, clawing at it until her fingers burned and she accepted her fate.
She sniffed miserably, sitting back in her seat and putting her hand to her mouth again to hide her sobs. The three kidnappers were silent as the car drove smoothly down the road. She sniffed behind her hand, wishing for a tissue. A pale hand reached across her chest and her body went rigid, the hand passed over her to grab the seat belt to her right and pull it across her chest, securing it in the clasp.
“Where are you taking me?” Lucia managed to squeak out. The three exchanged glances but she couldn’t read their expressions.
“Your parents didn’t tell you anything?” The man in the passenger seat asked, his voice was calm and temperate.
“Does it look like they told me anything?” She snapped bitterly, her fear instantly transforming into anger as her defence mechanism finally kicked in.
“You were picked to be the bride of the next head of our clan: Mr Elijah Bonnet.”
“Bride?” Lucia murmured, her heart had stopped in her chest.
“You were put forward as a candidate by your parents and picked by Mr Bonnet’s father.” The woman clarified, “We were sent to collect you, pay your parents and bring you back to his home safely, please don’t feel afraid, we have no reason to hurt you.” Lucia didn’t care about their stupid attempts to calm her, she wasn’t a child, but she did want to know more about the Bonnets.
“What the hell is a clan?” She grumbled. “What is it? A secret club?” The three exchanged looks via the rear-view mirror.
“A vampire clan.” The man in the passenger seat said carefully. Lucia rolled her eyes and groaned but he continued, “I know you may not believe this now but it’s the truth, vampires exist and we form clans - like a family but a bit more business-like.” Lucia nodded with her face screwed up sarcastically and decided to change the subject, there was no point trying to argue with morons. If they wanted to believe they were part of a secret organisation run by mythical creatures, that was their problem.
“How much did they get?” She managed, even though the little smart Lucia that lived inside of her head was screaming that she didn’t want to know, it wouldn’t help to know, it would only rub salt into an already gaping wound.
“Your parents?”
“How much did they make off me?”
“Five thousand deposit, twenty thousand on collection and they will receive a further twenty-five thousand upon your impregnation.”
“My…” Lucia’s mouth hung open, the shock wiping her brain of all thoughts. “My impregnation?” The car was deadly silent, a feeling of tight, coiled tension taking hold of Lucia’s body. Sobs worked their way up her oesophagus until she was hysterical, broken cries bursting from her in uncontainable horror and denial. Every person in the car averted their eyes, whether because they didn’t know what to do or didn’t care she didn’t know. But she cried and cried and cried until her eyes were so swollen she could barely see. It didn’t matter, she thought, she wouldn’t know how to escape if she could see where she was escaping from.
So she cried, and cried some more.
She worked herself up crying until she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. They slid shut but her body continued to shake with her ragged breathing and the occasional broken sob. She drifted in and out of sleep as the car rocked, driving through the night.
-
Lucia woke slowly and sorely, her eyes and nose burning, her head pounding, her muscles aching. She stretched her back, pulling herself up straight with a series of clicks and pops that she noticed the woman beside her wincing at from the corner of her eye. Her head was still groggy and she blinked excessively to bring her vision back to focus. It was hard to tell how long she had been asleep with the tinted windows but she had to assume at least a few hours since she was both thirsty and in need of a bathroom break. She announced this to the car but no one responded.
“That’s fine, give it an hour and this expensive-ass looking leather seat will need some serious scrubbing.”
“That’s fine, only twenty minutes until we arrive at the Bonnet Mansion.”
“Great.” Lucia grunted through gritted teeth. After what couldn’t have been more than ten minutes they took a sudden jerking turn up to a break in a long row of tall hedges and paused in front of an intricate metal gate, the man in the passenger seat pulled out a small fob with two buttons and pressed the top one, the gates began to creak open slowly and the car inched through and followed up a paved drive-way round to a enormous building, at least three storeys with a wrap-around porch leading down to an expansive lawn lined with trees of all types, shapes and sizes. They halted halfway up the drive, near the front of the house and all three kidnappers leaped out with that same super speed. Lucia refused to follow, leaning back and crossing her arms sulkily. Her door opened and she gave the man waiting there an angry squint. He ducked in, grabbed her and lifted her out as though she were a bag of popcorn. Okay, maybe this vampire thing wasn’t so crazy. She decided to roll with it for the moment - no harm in being cautious. Her feet were dropped down onto the paving stones gently and two people each took one of her arms tightly.
She was frogmarched to the front doors, the three ‘vampires’ watching her carefully from either side and one from behind, one of the doors opened as they arrived in front of it and another man in a suit gave them a nod before ushering them inside. They stopped again once the doors were closed, a grand entrance hall stood before them with rooms connecting directly to the left and right of the front doors and an enormous staircase leading up to a landing that disappeared in three directions. There were paintings hanging from most of the walls, hand-painted vases and intricate sculptures sitting inside glass cases, fresh blooms decorating every side table, and an enormous crystal chandelier hanging above the centre of the wide stairs. It should have looked crowded and over-the-top but the room was so big that it almost looked sparse. Lucia let her eyes take in the room slowly, unsure of what to look at first, she was very aware of the team that had escorted her watching her closely and she tried to ignore it as best she could. The new man that had opened the door for them spoke in a soft tone,
"Do you have any personal belongings I can take to your room, Ma'am?" he asked. She snapped her head to give him a merciless glare.
"Does it look like I have any personal belongings?"
"No, Ma'am." He answered politely.
"I wasn't exactly given a chance to pack, thing one and thing two couldn't stuff me in a sack quick enough." She turned to jerk her thumb at the three flanking her.
"We had assumed you would already be aware of the situation." Huffed the man on her left. "When you started swinging we had to move quickly to secure you without garnering unwanted attention from outsiders."
"You didn't take that as a sign that maybe I didn't want to be kidnapped?"
"We are just doing our jobs." The second man defended, his expression bored.
"Your job is cradle robbing?" She asked incredulously.
"It's not 'robbing' if we paid for you, which we did," Thing one countered, "and you are hardly young enough to fit in a cradle." he gave her an exaggerated look from head to toes.
"So, slave trafficking." Lucia drawled.
"You are not a slave." Thing two interjected.
"I don't know that, you might be planning to eat me for all I know!" The female vampire wrinkled her nose in distaste.
"Maybe I should take you to get settled in?" She offered. Lucia huffed but nodded, she couldn't fight them so she didn't see the point in resisting. "Why don't you two inform Mr and Mrs Bonnet that she has arrived?" The men gave small grunts of agreement and left. The woman nodded for her to follow and began to plod up the stairs, trying to match Lucia's slow, human pace.
She didn't give much of a tour as she led her through the large house, a lot of it looked pretty similar except the artwork changing, she would have to use that to memorise her way around.
The woman stopped at a lonely door, sitting by itself, and pushed it open to reveal a large but very empty room. Lucia stepped in and looked around, against the back wall sat a four poster bed with white drapes and sheets but other than that there wasn't really anything else in the room, a door led it from the side to a small bathroom but even that was devoid of any home touches or furnishings. It wasn't hideous, there were large windows that lit up the room and everything looked clean, but it wasn't home. She walked to the bed and sat on the edge, resting her face in her hands.
"Are you tired, Ma'am?" Lucia glanced over to the woman but said nothing, her sour expression layered on thick. "Or maybe hungry?" That Lucia had to agree with, she nodded grumpily and the vampire looked relieved at having found something to do with herself. "I'll fetch you something, Mrs Bonnet ordered food from an online supermarket, I can't remember the name but I can find out, so we have lots of bread, meat and fruit in the kitchen." Lucia wondered why this woman was so oddly specific but then figured it must have been a while since she had eaten solid foods, maybe she had never used the internet to order food.
"How long have you been a vampire?" She asked. The woman seemed to instantly brighten at being handed a topic she knew well to talk about.
"Ooh... It must be pushing twenty-five years!" She announced, almost proudly, with a flap of her hand.
"How old were you at the time?"
"Are you trying to work out my age?” The woman winked one of her exceptionally long eyelashes at her. “Cheeky!" Lucia was actually struggling to fight a small smile, those things were infectious, you know! She decided to continue to play coy though.
"I just can't place your age at all, you look young but..." She shrugged.
"Like I've seen some shit?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"I was thirty-four when I was turned but I don't look like I did then, vampirism does freeze your body but not your soul, you end up looking like a very tired young person for the rest of your life!" Lucia nodded thoughtfully before asking her next question.
"Why were you turned?" She didn't know if that was rude to ask but the woman didn't seem fazed by the question at all, she had probably told the story a thousand times.
"Well, I had been in a car accident and was in a coma, I wasn't coming back from that so one of Mr Bonnet's associates snuck into the hospital and started the process - he bit me - he stayed by my side to ward off doctors and nurses and when I woke up, he took me away with him. I was recruited into the clan and have been here ever since." Lucia frowned, something seemed strange.
"But did you ask them to turn you?"
"How could I, dear?” The woman laughed like her question was mind-blowingly ridiculous. “I was in a coma!"
"So, they didn't give you a choice?" Lucia clarified. Coma or not, a stranger laying their teeth into your neck without permission screamed creeper. But then, a lot of things about the ‘Bonnet Clan’ screamed creeper. The woman was visibly confused by Lucia’s persistence.
"They saved me." She stated slowly.
"Against your will."
"How can you be saved against your will?" She laughed again, although this time it had just a hint of mania to it.
"It just doesn't sound right... I feel like you should have had your next of kin sign you up for this…” She motioned in the air with her hands, trying to put together a coherent sentence. “Like a premium package or something..."
"Death Diamond Package?"
"Exactly."
"Well, I'm grateful that I was saved, I like living." She shrugged, "Now, do you have any special requests or shall I just bring whatever I find?"
"I would kill for some Doritos right now." Lucia groaned.
"Please don't commit murder in your room, everything is cream!"
"Don't worry, I'll save my homicidal tendencies for the garden." She said, unsure if she was playing along or feeling genuinely snarky - it was hard to be mean to someone who seemed to be genuinely trying to make you comfortable.
"Much appreciated." The woman left, closing the door gently behind her, and Lucia pulled her shoes off, climbed under the covers and curled up into a ball to hide from everything. Her emotions had been yoyo-ing all day and it had sucked every ounce of energy from her body trying to keep up.
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