Vampire Romance: My Heart has Lost Direction

Chapter 5 -- New Room

A slave working for room and board? Did he even realize what a slave meant or was he trying to lead me on, only to punish me for falling for it. But there was something with the way he allowed me to use his shower and wear his clothing that told me he wasn't playing with me. I suddenly felt faint.

"I don't know what you've had shoved in that pretty little head, but all Amaranthine aren't devils. Otherwise, we would have taken over the world by now. There are more civilized ones, and you're one of the lucky ones that landed in the lap of a cultured bunch. I put down a year because you need to get in better shape before you decide what you're going to do next. Now if you sign this, it'll handle me. As for Kaylyn, technically, this is his home so you're going to have to abide by his rules as well. Best case scenario is he just ignores you."

I didn't know what the best-case scenario was for signing the contract, but all I could remember about it was his handing over the piece of white paper. I'm sure I signed the paper knowing there was no other choice, but the actual act was a blank in my mind. We started work immediately, and I didn't know if it was because he was able to change me in and out of dresses so quickly or if my brain wasn't able to keep up with time, but everything passed by in a blur. I could remember his asking if I cared about his changing me, but modesty was not a word forgotten in the slave trades so it was no problem to me.

Throughout the entire process of him putting me in a dress, fitting the dress, and then taking it off there was only one fact that my brain picked up on.

The dresses were gorgeous.

They ranged from a night around the town type dresses to dresses one would wear to a ball. I never went to prom while I attended high school. I didn't even make it through my senior year because of the train wreck that ruined my life. Then again, I was ruining it already. I skipped school so much that I wasn't even sure I would have passed. The days I did go, I was either drunk or so messed up that I never knew what was going on; though, somehow I managed to keep myself just above failing. It wasn't much of a life I had been living before, but it gave me the backbone needed to survive through the slave trades. As I got lost in the throes of the past, I wondered if I would have snuck into prom with – short-cropped blonde hair flashed into my mind followed by dilated baby blue eyes. The face was one I hadn't thought about for a long time.

Taylor Cunningham.

The high school dropout I had befriended because his mother used to purchase drugs from my father. Taylor himself would buy from my father because there was rarely anytime he wouldn't be under the influence of some illegal substance. He was also the reason why that night—

"Hold still, Samantha." The sound of my full name made me twitch. I knew he learned my name from my signature on the contract, but no one ever called me that after my mother passed away. The stab wounded far more than I would have cared to admit.

Opening my mouth to speak yet again, I had to correct him. "Call me Sam."

He stood straight from his hunched position from working on the hem of the dress. "All right Sam. My name is Quinn."

The other courtesies of introductions were skipped in an awkward silence, as I didn't know what else to say. Quinn stared at me a moment more almost willing me to speak, but with a sigh he dropped his gaze.

"I guess we can stop for the day. You can change out of the dress while I ask Kaylyn where he wants you to stay. I'll be back soon."

With those words he left me alone once again as he went in search of Kaylyn. Not knowing what else to do, I went to my borrowed clothes and changed out of the simple dress that easily slipped over my head. With my new clothes on, I leaned against the couch as I gave into my protesting muscles from standing for far longer than I had in quite some time.