Vampire Auction

Bastien (the guy I didn’t bother to get a name from before) smirked at James. “Why hello, big brother. Finally came to take back what’s yours? And, as always, you have made a good choice. She tastes absolutely divine.”
“I’ll repeat myself once more. Get you hands off her, Bastien!” James’s voice let out ferocious snarls at his brother.
“Aww, why? You can’t share anything anymore with your little bro—” Bastien’s snide comment was interrupted as he flew right across the room and I fell heavily to the floor. James stood above me, blocking my cowering figure from Bastien’s view.
“You’ve always been a bastard, Bastien, but this time you’ve crossed the line.” James voice was a low and dangerous growl. I cringed further into the fall, hoping and prying I would disappear.
I heard some loud cracks from the other side of the room, so I scooted sideways (ouch!) a little to see what happened. There was a large washing machine sized hole where Bastien was picking himself out of. Ooo…that had to hurt.
Both Bastien and James were in a fighting stance, ready to leap at each other but froze when sirens rang through the air. It didn’t sound like it was very far away. I looked at the open room door with an anxious feeling coiling in my stomach. Bastien and James never relaxed their stances, but Bastien snarled at his brother one last time before saying, “Don’t this will be the last time you’ll see me, big brother.” He spat out harshly, and then he turned and disappeared through the hole in the wall.
James quickly turned to me and picked me up swiftly and gently. I wanted to protest, but I was too weak and far too happy that James had come for me. Besides, he was already out of the house and the sound of sirens eventually silenced in the distance.
I relaxed into his chest until I realized I had no idea where we were going. “James, where are you taking me?” I tried to look at my surroundings, but the scenes were all passing too fast to make out any details.
“I’m taking you somewhere.” He didn’t look at me or slow down. I frowned in irritation.
“No shit, Sherlock. But could you tell me where this “somewhere” is?” If I was standing, I probably would have had my hands on my hips and taping my foot impatiently.
“Some place I know.” He still didn’t look at me.
“Okay, I get it. It’s ‘some place.’ But can you tell me specifically?”
“Here.” I didn’t notice that James had gradually slowed down to a fast walking pace. I turned my head to my surroundings to see that we were approaching an immensely large mansion. There were healthy green ivy vines growing on the house. They went over the windows and the roof, but the front door was vine and plant free. Well, aside from the rose bushes that almost covers it. The rose bushes seemed to stretch all around the house and five feet high. There was a mix of beautiful, pure snow white roses and the bloody red roses. Hmmm…how appropriate, a house that only belongs in fairy tales. Or rather should only belong in fairy tales. Like vampires.
James walked up the steps and when he reached the top, he set me down as gently as he had picked me up on the top step so that I was sitting up.
“Wait here. And don’t move whatever you do. You’ll attract less attention that way.” Informed James.
“Attract attention from what? The green vines on your house. It is your house, right?”
“Hell, no. I brought you to Snow White’s house.” He said sarcastically.
I gave him a look and added, “So who am I not supposed to attract attention from?”
“My distant family. Unfortunately, today happens to be the day my family and I scheduled a family reunion, so please stay here.” With that, he opened the door and disappeared inside.
“Well, he did say please, which is a miracle, so I guess I’ll listen to him.” I rubbed my arms and just realized that my wounds were completely healed and gone. My shirt was still bloodstained, so where did those painful gashes go? I know I didn’t imagine the pain or the blood.
The door opened behind me and James walked out with a long coat in his arms. He handed the coat to me. “Here, put this on.”
I took the coat and put it on clumsily. The coat went all the way down to my mid-calves and the sleeves went past my hands. “Erm…so why am I wearing this?”
“It’s to cover the blood smell. It’s stale, but it can still catch the attention of unwanted vampires. Any scent of blood can drive any vampire crazy.” James looked at in consideration, and then he stepped towards me and started buttoning up the coat. Awkwardly, I stepped away from his hands and out of his reach.
“I can do that by myself.” I mumbled and buttoned myself up before he could reply. The sleeves started bugging me, so I rolled them up far enough so I could see my hands. But then James rolled them back down.
“We want to cover you up as much as possible. Even know you still smell stronger than I would like. Now let’s get you inside and hidden before your smell soaks into the coat.”
For some reason, he comment on my smell made me self-conscious. “Erm…do I smell that bad?” I sniffed my hair and the coat to see if I really did smell bad enough that he would have to hide it.
“No, it’s not that you smell bad, stupid,” James had a troubled frown on his, which was strange from his usual smirk/no-expression/angry expressions, “the trouble is that you smell too good. Normally we don’t feed from anyone else except for the human we tie our life to.” That rang a bell somewhere in my brain.
“Oh, that reminds me. What did…Bastien mean when he said you ‘tied your life force’ to mine? Does that mean what I thi—”
James interrupted me. “Not now. I’ll explain everything after I get you inside where it’s safe. Well, safer than here anyway.”
“Okay.” I walked to the door, but he stopped me again. I gritted my teeth together. “What now? Your family can smell my footsteps?”
“Well, if you want to run right into the middle of a couple hundred vampires, by all means, go right inside. I’ll wait here for you.” I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. He had a point. I took a deep breath.
“Okay. So how are we going in then?” I looked around again. I couldn’t see any secret doors or other entrances except…
“This is how we’re getting in.” James picked me up so fast that I didn’t even see him move. In another quick movement, he leaped into the air and landed on a thick tree branch about fifteen feet off the ground. I started panicking.
“What the—put me down!” I wailed.
James seemed to enjoy my reaction. “Alright, then.” He started to set me down in front of him, still standing in the tree. I panicked more and hastily protested, wrapping my arms around his neck tightly to make sure if I fell, he was coming with me.
“Okay, okay! JUST DON’T DROP ME.” I emphasized the ‘don’t drop me’ part.
He laughed and it made me blush for unknown reasons. He crouched down for another jump and I closed my eyes tightly so I wouldn’t have to see how high we were and how high we were going to go. I felt air brush me in the face, but that was the only sign that told me we were airborne. I tightened my arms around his neck and told myself over and over that I was not going to fall. It wasn’t until James spoke that I realized that we had landed onto solid ground.
“You can let go now. We aren’t outside anymore.” James’s tone told me that he was smirking. Hesitantly, I opened my eyes and we were most definitely not outside. We were in a semi-dark room that had a huge king sized bed on one side of the room and drawers on the other. The carpet was read and gold as was the comforters and sheets on the bed. The walls had small intricate designs that were also read and gold. I felt out of place. James’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“I said you can let go now. Or do you prefer me to carry you?” Startled and embarrassed I realized that I still had my arms wrapped around his neck. I quickly let go and tried to get out of his arms. He set me on the floor and I almost kissed it. Sweet, sweet holy ground. If you hadn’t already figured out, I was afraid of heights and being carried. Aside from that, I was flustered from the fact that I looked to James for safety.
Without looking at him, I asked, “So, since I’m as safe as I’ll ever be, will you explain this bond thing you have with me and maybe some other occasional questions I might have?” My sarcastic question was a bit muffled by the fact I was speaking to the floor.
“Okay. But first let’s get you cleaned up.” I looked up in surprise, his suddenly, grave and serious tone coming to me as a little disturbing. I watched as he crossed the room and walked though a door I didn’t notice earlier. Cautiously, I stood up and followed him. It was a closet. A really big closet. My God, it was bigger than my room! He was searching the shelves until he grabbed what he wanted and threw it to me. I caught it before it hit my face. It was a shirt.
“Take off your other shirt and put that on. It’ll be a bit big on you, but it will have to do until I can find a different one that will fit. Unfortunately, I don’t have a pair of pants that will fit you. So you’ll have to wear just the shirt.” He said that with such a straight face I wondered if he even understood what he just said.
“You want me to go pant-less?” My shock prevented me from making a better response.
“Look, I’ve seen better female figures than—” I interrupted him.
“Okay, too much information. I don’t want to know what you have or have not seen. I’ll wear the shirt without my pants, okay?” I pushed him out of the closet and I changed into the shirt. The end of the shirt stopped right above my knee. It still made me uncomfortable, but if it didn’t bother him it won’t bother me. See? Sometimes my stubbornness can come in handy.
I exited the closet and gave James my bloody clothes. He took it and shoved it under the bed. Well, that says something. Note to self: don’t look under his bed. I stood ineptly, not sure what to do. James sighed.
“Well? Are you going to stand there gawking at me all day? Sit on the bed so we can get this over with. The quicker, the better.” I sat on the bed. It was a very soft bed. James sat next to me and took a deep breath. “I’ll start from before the auction, okay? Try not to ask too many questions until I’m done, okay?” I nodded, excited and anxious to hear his story.
He took another deep breath and began his story.