Vampire Romance: My Heart has Lost Direction

Chapter 11 -- Show and Tell

Audience?

A sickening sensation started in my gut and it wasn't from Quinn's shoulder digging into as he carried me in a fireman's carry. I didn't want to be dressed up and prance around in front of these two vampires.

"Sure." Patrick said with amusement in his voice. I held back a whimper.

"I'll be going to my study." Kaylyn muttered.

Quinn was about to say something, but Patrick took the initiative and spoke up. "Come on. It'll be fun to see that little thing wear something fancy."

Something must have passed between them for there was a tense silence, but somehow Patrick convinced him with those few words.

Quinn suddenly shouted, "Great! Come on Sam, we must go change."

Without warning Quinn took off with a burst of speed that landed us in his work room. All I could really remember was an odd feeling of being dizzy and then replaced. When I felt my feet touch solid ground, I opened my eyes to find that I was in front of three mirrors. I knew vampires were capable of moving quickly, but I didn't know they could move quite that fast.

Normally Quinn acted...well...human, so to witness something Amaranthine in him reminded me what I was standing in the room with. Ignoring the feeling that threatened to put a frown on my face, I looked toward my right, where I heard some shuffling, to find Quinn looking through a rack of dresses.

"Why did you have to get an audience?" The words sounded edgy to my ears as I said them.

"Because I want to show you off." He said before grabbing an early 19th century styled pink dress from the rack and looking it over.

"I'm not a Barbie Doll I hope you know." I said crossing my arms over my chest.

"No, you are not." His words were reassuring that he understood my stance.

Feeling better, I sighed and didn't fight as he put me in the old dress. When it went over my head, I wasn't prepared to get a whiff of old dust. I tried not to gag from the smell of the dated particles coming from the dress and looked in the mirror with disgust.

"Don't worry," He said noticing my reaction toward the dress. "If I show them something bad first, the others will look great. Come on." He grabbed my hand and in another blink, we were suddenly at the bottom of the steps. I felt dizzy again, but it passed while I steadied myself against the wall. I feared that if he didn't stop in time, I was going to stay dizzy on one of the trips. Quinn motioned me to stay there while he ran out into the left entryway. It seemed my audience would be sitting in the billiard room.

"Our first dress of the evening should bring back memories of times well past." He announced while motioning me to walk in.

I realized then that I was about to prance out in front of Amaranthine, and the memories started to bleed to the front of my mind before I could stop them. The smell of dust as it brushed past my senses, brought up a particular ugly memory that caused me to pause mid step.

The first few auctions I was in, I was going through drug withdrawals and every sense on my body was heightened, including smell. The hunched, ashen colored Amaranthine that led us out to the stage was a gargoyle, or so the other slaves said. He had an aroma about him like he was nothing more than furniture in an old house that was only moved around every once in a while. I only knew because many times I fought against him not wanting to go out on the stage because I knew what would happen afterward. The specific memory that my mind started to draw up was one that I tried desperately to wipe from my brain. For a moment heat started to build at the back of my neck and my stomach began to turn. I had to remind myself that I was not in the Slave Trade and I was not walking out onto a stage to be auctioned off.