Chapter 1: Welcome to the Show

Blaine stumbled blindly into the light, almost tripping over himself as he was pushed onto the stage. Before, he had been in a dark room with other scared humans, but now he was on an old, wooden platform. The lights above him shone harshly into his eyes, but he couldn't look away anymore than he could willingly leave. Which was not at all. There were guards stationed at each of the exits and entrances to the building. Blaine knew what happened to anyone who tried to escape. Hell, five minutes ago someone had tried. The poor boy was proptly killed and tossed away to make room for the next person to grace the stage. Which had been another scared, pale boy, and then Blaine who was now standing on the platform in front of a group of figures that didn't have his best interest in mind.

Blaine could barely make out the forms of the...things...standing in the crowd below him. He could hear their whisperings - apparently, he was fit enough to buy even though his hair was a little bit to curly and his nails needed to be clean but that was a small detail that could be fixed easily, but that information only scared Blaine more. Here he was, naked and bound, waiting for one member of the crowd below him to make a bid, once the auctioneer was done reading his information, of course. The monsters below him looked up at Blaine with bloodthirsty eyes. Blaine swallowed nervously and one of the vampires below him licked their lips as their eyes settled on his neck and smiled.

Oh dear. This was not going to end well for him, was it? No, no it wouldn't. Not at all.

He knew what was happening. Every human who was free and hiding knew of the auctions. There were different quality levels of auctions. The most expensive humans, often sold in fancy rooms with low lighting, walls of dark wood and soft carpet, were bred from already captured humans, taught skills, given hobbies, constricted to a diet that made their blood taste good and had any rebellious streak punished out of them by the time they were toddlers. In short, they were little more than living, breathing robots. For that reason, they were more expensive to buy since their owners didn't have to worry about them running off or not following any directions given to them.

The next level down contained humans that had usually been controlled for a few years or humans that never bothered resisting in the first place. Many humans were resold at this level, and for that reason many vampires made their living by buying humans at the next level down inexpensively and reselling them for a higher price at the second level. The conditions that these men put the humans under was no secret and for that reason many people didn't resist when they were caught, hoping to be put at this level to avoid the possibility of these unsanitary, torturous groups. Many people on the last level, Blaine's level, regretted sticking up for themselves.

Blaine had done it on accident. A few days before he was supposed to be sold he flipped out on his guard, calling the man that he was a coward and telling him that he was worse than any human being that the vampire had ever guarded when the guard had told Blaine to shut up and be quiet. Less than an hour later, Blaine was removed from his cell, and shipped off to a place with disgusting floors and scared people. People like Blaine. People who were sold atop wooden platforms in abandoned warehouses for little money only to be used, abused and abandoned whenever their master got bored of them. Every night, Blaine wished he hadn't called out those words, and had just shut up and been quiet. Maybe he would have been placed in a nicer home than whatever his future home was going to be. His fit had been his only act of non – compliance. Not even when he had been captured had be put up a fight, unlike a man who Blaine had called his "father," whose neck had been snapped.

Blaine had been sleeping in his cave with his family group, consisting of a woman, a man and two "brothers," when they had come in. The vampires had taken control of them easily and bound them up so the humans, Blaine included, couldn't escape or try to kill themselves to avoid their fate. Nobody asked the vampires what they were doing. They all knew they were to be sold to the vampires. Anybody who had even had a little bit of education knew that. It was one of the first things anybody learned in the makeshift school Blaine had attended. And Blaine had wanted to learn. So he did. He learned everything he could.

After some research, Blaine learned that a couple hundred years ago, the Vampri, a group of vampires that were tired of having to hide who they truly were, came together to scheme to overthrow the human race, and they did for the most part. Anyone who didn't succeed in escaping was captured or killed. Human beings, who were so used to being in control of their lives, were now less than slaves to the bloodthirsty beings that sold them as easily as the humans would sell food or furniture.

Once the vampires had control of the human race, the ones in the Vampri each seized control of a chunk of land for themselves, some pieces big, others only a few square miles One hundred vampires were in the Vampri, and it stayed that way: one vampire per kingdom. Usually the leader of their kingdom, the vampire that represented their kingdom went to a tri-yearly meeting where problems were dealt with and the head council created and suspended. The head council consisted of three vampires, three prominent figures, whose kingdoms, and the people in those kingdoms, were referred to as clans. They were known as The Three Ruling Clans, and were usually spoken about with both fear and awe, as were their leaders.

The first one was Sebastian Smythe, leader of the Dalton Clan. Cunning and evil, he easily manipulated those around him. If anyone offended him, they would disappear within a few weeks. He was ruthless. He also owned over twenty humans, and was always looking to buy more. Blaine swallowed again. Even though it was unlikely, Blaine hoped Sebastian wouldn't be in the building to buy him. He knew what happened when Sebastian grew tired of one of his humans. They usually ended up drained and then replaced by a new specimen of Sebastian's liking.

The auctioneer caught Blaine's attention as the short vampire stepped out of the shadows and walked up to the podium. Then, he began to read off the sheet of paper in front of him that listed things about Blaine. The name, the age, the physical features of the human and then the personal details of the creature were read aloud. Not that any buyer cared about how a potential purchase cared about animals or liked the snow. Many vampires purchased humans for sexual or feeding pleasures. Nonetheless, personal details were required to be read for the few vampires that did care or used the details as a deciding factor to make a purchase. "Here is...Blaine. Blaine Anderson. Seventeen years old, curly, black hair, hazel eyes, 5'8"." The auctioneer looked around, signaling that he was done reading the physical attributes of the boy. Vampires looked impatiently at him, waiting for the other details to be mentioned and then for the signal to begin bidding.

Then, there was the Carmel Clan. Leader: Jesse St. James. They too were ruthless, but used people in a different way than Sebastian. If Sebastian didn't like someone, he made no secret of it, but Jesse did things a different way. He would pretend to befriend someone. Then, he would humiliate them when he was done with whatever he needed them for. He would humiliate them and drop them until they hated the world around them. Blaine shivered. He knew of a girl whose sister had been picked up by him. The girl was next heard of when they discovered her dead miles away from where they had been staying. Apparently it hadn't taken long for Jesse to tire of her. While Blaine knew it was even more unlikely for Jesse to be there, he pleaded in his mind to anyone who might be listening for him not to end up in Jesse's clutches.

The auctioneer looked up again. "He says his hobbies," the auctioneer snorted, then continued reading, "Are singing and making music, drinking coffee, being with friends and reading." The auctioneer paused, getting ready to say the next three words that would seal Blaine's fate.

The last clan was the McKinley Clan. Haughty and proud, they held themselves over everyone else, including the other two clans. However, they did it kindly, and neither Dalton nor Carmel really cared. They knew that they stooped low to get what they wanted, and they like it that way. The McKinley Clan, on the other hand, was dignified and poised, always speaking properly, always getting the best of anything. The few people that were owned by McKinley did whatever the McKinley clan wanted without hesitation. It was weird hearing stories about the McKinley Clan though. Compared to the other two clans, they were nice, and the reason why people happily served them was because they weren't treated like garbage. Unpaid servants, maybe, but not garbage. Then there was something else special about the McKinley clan. Unlike the other two clans, there was a "prince" of sorts. Usually, the leader would have a second, or a vampire who would take over in the leader's absence or death. The leadership of McKinley was passed down, father to son, or taken over if a leader or a potential leader bonded with another vampire for life. At McKinley, there was a son of the leader. The leader who was known for being the kindest of the three clans, and the most helpful. That leader, who was a man by the name of Burt Hummel.

"You may begin."