D-day

The next day.

The alarms sounded as usual and the doors were unlocked by the guards so they had their baths and wore a fresh set of slave clothes but these set were cleaner than the previous ones, they also had breakfast and were about to begin doing thei rchores but the guards stopped them and told them to hold on.

The warden came out of his office and walked towards the assembled captives.

He fiddled with his shirt sleeve and held a clipboard in his hand while walking towards them and stopped right in front of them

The guards bowed a little as a sign of greeting.

Zoey and Penelope were staring at the man, a little less nervous than the rest of them at the middle of the assembly, they already knew the man was going to call out the ones to be auctioned out today.

"If I mention your name, move to the left side.

Harpy Balengo

Charles Gilmore

Filip Jul..." He started calling and they were migrating to the left side of the room.

Penelope was called, she gave Zoey a glance and a nod then went towards the left side to join the others.

Zoey knew she was the last on the list so she wasn't tensed or anything, she was just waiting and silently hoping that no one notices her not having the slave mark.

"Zoey... " He finally called but he had a frown on his face while staring at the clipboard.

"No last name... That's weird?" he looked up to look at Zoey who had already joined the others, standing beside Penelope.

He looked at her for a few seconds then back at the name, he didn't say any other word and just signalled to the guards to start cuffing then up then went to the main building's door and left.

The guards went to work, they cuffed their hands behind their backs and waited for the warden to come back when they were done.

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"I'm sorry Xavier, I totally forgot you here" Yasmin said with an obviously fake worried expression.

The bloody faced Xavier looked up at her helplessly "Hey, what did you do to her?" he mumbled loud enough for her to here.

"You've been here for almost a week but the first thing you say to your wife is ask about that filthy human!?" an angry loud voice said from behind and a broad manly figure came into view, another figure came in after him but this one had a slim and curvy figure and a few wrinkles on her face.

"Mom" Xavier totally ignored the man, his eyes fixed on the woman beside him.

She bit her lower lip and her brows arched in worry, she walked towards him and bent down to his level.

"Yasmin, please he has learnt his lesson, I'm sure when he leaves here he wouldn't even think twice about marrying you" she said with a smile to Yasmin.

"...right Xavier " she asked, Xavier didn't react and just stared blankly at Yasmin with gritted teeth.

"It doesn't seem to be that way, he seems to still care about that bitch, I was only making mouth about going to pay her a visit then but now I might really have a word or two with her" Yasmin said "...and he'll remain here for another whole week" she added.

Xavier gritted his teeth, pute hatred was literally oozing out of his eyes as he looked at her.

Unexpectedly for him, a slap suddenly landed on his face.

His head travelled a bit backwards since it was a sudden slap and he wasn't ready for it.

"Mom" he said, staring at his mother after he regained his head balance and his hazy vision became clear again.

He had a hint of surprise and disbelief on his face as he looked at his mother, she was now standing and her hand was partially covered in blood because it had made contact with his face.

"How selfish are you going to be! Do you know how hard it is for me to live knowing my son is being tortured somewhere all because of a stupid human! Do you know how much Jeri and I had to plead with Yasmin for her to let you go today? Do you know? You selfish fool!"

" We're here with her after so much pleading and prodding and you still dare talk about that girl?

Xavier! Yasmin is your wife and you're going to marry her whether you like it or not."

"This is not an option, it is a command!" she said firmly and walked out of the room.

"Eva" the man called and went after her.

"HahahahahahHahahaha" Yasmin burst out in laughter.

"You really do not have a choice in this. If you still insist on not marrying me, both you, your mom and her husband will suffer, I'll tell my father to strip her off her post in the council, the house and horses will be taken, her dignity and honour will also be denied, and for you?" She bent down a little, her eyes directly meeting his.

" I'll make you a slave, I'll starve you and make you submit to me, you'll suffer and live in torture for the rest of your miserable life, and I'll make sure your mom sees you through it" she had a devilish smirk in her face and proceeded to live.

"W-wait, don't do this Yasmin " Xavier finally said something, Yasmin stopped in her tracks and smiled satisfactorily, she turned back to face Xavier.

"What is it? Are you in your senses now?" she asked with a smile.

"I-I'll marry you... So please leave my mom out of this, I'll get married to you " he said with gritted teeth, it was like he had swallowed a stone.

Yasmin gave a wide smile and twirled happily.

"Oh darling, look at you all beat up, if only you said this earlier my love, it's all Zoey's fault, don't worry darling, you'll be released right away" she was still smiling the same way while Xavier had a bitter look on his face as he watched her take out a cellphone from her purse and dialled a number.

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"Penelope?" Zoey whispered, "yes?" "We are on our way now" Zoey said looking out of the moving carriage she was in with three others, Penelope included.

They were twelve in number so there were three carriages, each carrying four captives with a guard.

"I'm not even going to lie, I was scared and anxious when the warden left after calling my name with a confused look, I thought he was going to report to his boss that I didn't have a last name" she whispered.

"Me too, I was so nervous we'll get found out, why didn't you write your last name, that was a big mistake " Penelope whispered back.

"It wasn't a mistake, I do not know my last name, my grandmother only calls me Zoey or Zee when I asked, she told me to figure it out" Zoey said "Figure it out? Like a puzzle or what?" Penelope jokingly said.

"Since it was something trivial I didn't bother with it so I left it at that since she wanted me to 'figure it out'" Zoey said back.

"Tch, it is advisable to know your surname in case of situations like this ".

"Well this is definitely not a situation I saw myself in then, if I was told I would end up in the hands of slave traders I would have laughed and told the person how funny they were" Zoey said and they both giggled silently.

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They finally got to their destination and the guards opened the carriages then they all trooped out and stood in a horizontal line.

"Okay, this is payday for us and goodbye for you, I'm sure at this juncture, you all know you're basically slaves without registered owners but that changes today.

Today, you will become someone else's property and you will get contracted to your owners. If you know what is good for you, don't do anything stupid and just accept your fate as slaves in the vampire world" One of the guards gave a ... Pep talk? And led them in.

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Meanwhile, in the human world; Saffron village, Scarlett was overwhelmed, it has been a whole week since her daughter went missing, technically the whole village knew about it now, everyone was searching, the police were also searching, everyone was worried and concerned, someone going missing out of the blue wasn't a common occurrence in the village so everyone was confused.

Scarlett was sat in the living room, overthinking as usual.

Basically the whole village centre

had been searched so she was sure Zoey wasn't in the village, she only had one place in mind but the village head has refused to help her in investigating and searching in that place.

She didn't care though, she was determined to go there and look for her granddaughter in every creek and corner of the black market.

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The captives were taken into the building, it was obvious it was an auction house due to the presence of many seats and a stage with a curtain. It was still early morning and the auction house wasn't opened yet so the seats were empty.

Only those that looked like workers and some others including them were seen walking around while they were taken backstage behind the curtains.

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The captives were sitted backstage on the floor while the guards were standing with them, there was a particular guard that kept eyeing the girls among them with a lewd look, another guard came towards him and barged him a little, giving him a stern eye contact. The former quickly composed himself and looked away.

After a few hours of waiting around, noise and voices could be heard, footsteps too. The auction house was finally opened and vampires had started trooping in, each one holding their bidder cards as they went to sit.

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