Chapter 3
Anna
The blood was still seeping out. I could feel the cloth pressed against my shoulder had soaked through completely, clinging to my skin with a damp, chilling cold.
I could sense Easter's interest in me. If he decided to sink his teeth into my neck too—I would die, without question.
"Prince Anderson." Lian's voice came from beside me, carrying a note of deference I'd never heard from him before. "Today marks Eunice's final evolution and her coming-of-age banquet. I sent you an invitation—I never imagined you'd actually attend. I'm deeply honored."
Easter's gaze lingered on me for several seconds, so slowly it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Then he raised his hand, pointed at me with a casual flick, and turned to Lian.
"Her. Sell her to me."
Five words, delivered in a tone as flat as if he were asking about the weather.
My head exploded with a buzzing sound. Sell? As though I were merchandise. The realization sent a wave of raw fury through me. I opened my mouth but couldn't produce a sound—my throat was parched and rough. The blood loss had left me too weak to even sit upright, let alone argue. A humiliation I couldn't quite name crawled up my spine. In these people's eyes, I didn't even have the right to bargain. I didn't even have the right to be asked.
Lian didn't agree immediately. He hesitated, his gaze sweeping back and forth between me and Easter, as though weighing something. For one moment I almost laughed—he wasn't deliberating whether to sell me. He was calculating whether the deal was worth it.
"Well…" Lian rubbed his hands together, his voice a blend of obsequiousness and reluctance. "Your Highness, Anna is a very special blood slave to us. If we sell her, Eunice would—"
My heartbeat stuttered. Eunice had shown interest in Ryan. If I were sold off, who would serve as blood slave for Eunice and Lian?
The thought hit me like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head, instantly washing away every trace of humiliation and replacing it with something far deeper—fear. They would go after Ryan. They absolutely would.
A violent shiver tore through me. Whether from the blood loss or from the full weight of what that would mean, I couldn't tell.
"Two parcels of land," Easter said, his voice still unhurried. "The vineyard south of the city and the newly cleared plot to the west—both yours. I trust you understand what they're worth."
"Furthermore—" He paused, drawing an envelope from inside his coat. Dark gold sealing wax gleamed on its face. "The aristocratic banquet at month's end. Your family may attend."
Lian's breathing changed. I glanced sideways and caught the flash in his eyes—a hungry wolf spotting raw meat.
An invitation. My mind raced. The vampire aristocratic banquet wasn't a gathering just any vampire could walk into. Holding that invitation meant access to higher-ranking vampires, meant the ambitions Lian had nursed for years finally had a doorway to fulfillment. No wonder the hesitation on his face vanished in an instant.
"Your Highness—" Lian's voice pitched up sharply, barely concealing his excitement, and he reached for the envelope with fingers visibly trembling.
I stared at his hand and felt bile rise in my throat. Two plots of land. One invitation. That was my price. No—it didn't even qualify as a price. It was a throwaway gesture, something Easter could offer with a single offhand sentence, and my life hadn't even warranted a raised eyebrow from him.
"Have her delivered to the Easter estate," Easter said, his tone utterly without ripple. "The land deeds will be sent over tomorrow."
"Yes, yes, of course! No problem at all!" Lian answered with what was practically a grin, nodding so rapidly his head seemed to bob on a spring. "Rest assured, Your Highness—I'll arrange a carriage. She'll be there tonight!"
Lian didn't even glance back at me. Just like that, my fate was sealed as easily as closing a ledger. My nails dug deep into my palms, and the sharp sting traveling up my arms actually cleared my head a few degrees.
I opened my mouth. My voice came out like sandpaper dragged across stone.
"I refuse."
The instant those two words left my lips, the air in the room froze solid.
Lian whipped around. The glow that the land deeds and invitation had put on his face hardened in place, and his eyes filled with something murderous. I was certain—absolutely certain—that if Easter hadn't been standing there, he would have taught me a lesson I wouldn't forget.
Easter turned his head too. His gaze settled on me—and for the first time since he'd entered the room, he truly looked at me, rather than scanning me the way one glances at a piece of goods.
My heartbeat hammered against my ribs like a war drum. My back was pressed against the freezing wall, the cold racing up my spine and spreading across my scalp. That's it. I'm done for.
The thought detonated in my head, but even as it did, a bitter laugh flickered somewhere inside me. At this point, what worse could possibly come? Death was death. If I was going to die either way, I'd rather they knew I wasn't some voiceless object to be shipped around at will.
Lian was the first to recover. His expression darkened and he strode over to me. "What did you just say?" His voice dropped low, laced with undisguised menace. "You think you have the right to say 'no'? You're nothing but a lowly blood slave."
I stared straight into his eyes. I did not look down. My fingertips were still shaking—from the weakness of blood loss, and from rage compressed to its breaking point. "I am a person. Not a thing. You can't just sell me. And I said—I refuse."
Lian's face flushed crimson. He raised his hand sharply, as if to slap me—I flinched on instinct, eyes squeezing shut, neck drawing in, my body curling inward with fear.
The slap never came.
I opened my eyes and saw Lian's wrist caught in Easter's grip, held with such force that Lian let out a strangled grunt.
"Laying a hand on what's mine—" Easter's voice was still calm, but it carried a pressure that chilled you down to the marrow. "You don't have that privilege. Not anymore."
What's mine. Those words drove into my chest like needles, sharp enough to steal the breath from my lungs. So from the moment Easter had said "sell her to me," in his eyes I had already become his possession—not an item still under negotiation, but a settled matter of ownership. The realization sent ice through every vein, colder than anything the blood loss could account for.
Lian's face went from red to white. He yanked his hand back, stammering apologies. "Forgive me—that was out of line…"
Easter released him and turned his gaze back to me. Those eyes were cold—utterly devoid of warmth, as though he were inspecting a product that had turned out slightly defective, or as though what I'd said moments ago simply didn't register.
"Anna, is it? You are indeed human. But you should understand—in vampire territory, there are no humans. Only blood slaves. So your wishes are not yours to decide."
I opened my mouth to argue, but found I couldn't produce a single word. Not because I didn't dare—but because I recognized, with absolute clarity, that he was stating a fact. In this place, I had never had a say.
My gaze drifted involuntarily to the corner of the room, to the pool of blood already beginning to congeal on the floor. That was my blood, shed to keep myself alive, and yet it seemed now that even this life itself was not something I had any authority over.
A wave of dizziness crashed over me. Too much blood lost—I knew it. The light in the room began to blur; the figures of Easter and Lian swayed and doubled. In the last moment before consciousness slipped away, one final thought tore through my mind—
If I'm taken away, what happens to Ryan?
Just before the darkness swallowed me whole, I heard Easter's low voice deliver one last sentence:
"Ready the carriage. We leave tonight."
