She clearly doesn’t want to be here, playing this role she’s been forced into. That was obvious from the beginning, but now…
I’ve never been big on alliances. I work alone. Teaming up with someone else or creating some kind of partnership has always seemed to be more trouble than it would be worth. But in a situation like this, making a similarly-minded friend might be helpful.
“Hey,” I murmur to her in a low voice. “You doing okay?”
She glances mournfully at me and shrugs. “As okay as I’m ever going to be again, I guess.”
“Yeah. Can’t really argue with that.”
She looks startled by my blunt, quiet words, then narrows her eyes at me. “Really? Seems like you wanted to be here just as bad as anybody.”
“Seems like you don’t,” I shoot back, dodging the question. “So why are you?”
She looks like she’s going to cry again. Please don’t, please don’t. She takes a breath to stop the tears, and I let out a quiet breath of relief. I’m not good with tears.
“It’s my mom,” she tells me in a voice barely louder than a whisper. “She’s sick. She’s always been sick, and she’s going to keep being sick for the rest of her life. Last year, her Parkinson’s got worse. Way worse. She can barely see anymore, and her flare-ups never end so she can hardly move. Her medicine alone costs so much I had to take three jobs just to pay for it, and I couldn’t make enough to pay for a caretaker for her. She fell last month.”
“Oh, no.”
The girl nods and bites her trembling lip. “I wasn’t there. She was alone on the floor for ten hours, and I wasn’t there. She didn’t break anything, but the bruises and the shock to her system made her symptoms so bad she couldn’t get out of bed for days. I needed a nurse for her.”
Fuck. That’s awful. But there had to be some other solution than this. I open my mouth to say something, but before I can get a word out, the dark-haired girl raises a hand to cut me off.
“I know, I know, there are programs in place to help with things like that, and I’ve been looking into those for months and months already. I had my mom on a bunch of waiting lists and things. I called my brother for help, but he loves money more than anything else and isn’t going to ‘waste’ his on her. He’s a dick, honestly. But it gets worse.”
“I can’t imagine how, but go on.”
She almost smiles at that, her hazel eyes glassy with unshed tears. “The cost of her medicine went up. So did rent, at the same time. I was already working three jobs and barely had enough money to scrape by before that happened. I sold everything I ever owned that had any kind of value, except the things my mom needs to be comfortable. We were about to get evicted. I begged my landlord for more time—I even offered to sleep with him if he could cut us a break. He took the offer and then denied any memory of a deal, so even after all that, I was still going to get evicted.”
I narrow my eyes, my jaw clenching. Vampires aren’t the only monsters in this godforsaken city. “What a fucking prick.”
“Right? But the end of the month got closer and closer, and I needed like ten thousand dollars in my hand. I could only think of three ways to do it in that timeframe. Since I don’t know how to hook a high-roller and I can’t push drugs without talking the customer out of the sale, that left vampires.”
“You didn’t sell yourself for ten thousand, did you?” I ask, barely managing to keep my voice to a low hiss as I drop my head a little, catching her gaze.
That’s not nearly enough. Her mom’ll be in the same position next month, and this girl will still be down here.
She shakes her head. “No. I sold myself for my mom’s health, well-being, and financial security until the day of her natural death, plus funeral costs. I couldn’t put a number on that and neither could the vampires, not with how unstable the economy is. So the deal is a fluid one. She’ll have four nurses who rotate shifts, so she’ll never be alone. She’ll have food and medicine and drivers to take her to and from her appointments. She’ll have rent and utilities covered, along with anything else she could possibly want or need.”
“That seems like a generous offer,” I say slowly. “How do you know they’ll hold up their end?”
She smiles sadly. “I don’t. That’s why, when I negotiated all of this before the auction, I insisted on monthly updates. I’m allowed to talk on the phone with her whenever I want, as long as I don’t tell her what I’m really doing. If I’m good, and if I bond with a vampire who allows it, I might even get to visit her someday.”
I squeeze her hand clumsily, trying to comfort her even as fury boils inside me. She hasn’t done anything wrong. She’s been forced into this, just like Nathan was, but she’s even more innocent than he is. She’s done everything right, trying to help her mom and keep a fucking roof over their heads. How could she have ended up here? The whole fucking system is rigged.
“I had no idea,” I mutter. “I’m sorry.”
She breathes deeply, clearly trying to pull herself together and put on a brave face. “It’s okay. Mom’s taken care of, and that’s what matters. I did it, and I did it without resorting to crime. Which I would have done, if I’d known how to profit off of it, but I’m just not good at breaking rules.”
No, it’s not fucking okay. None of this is goddamn okay.
I
