Refugee (The Captive Series Book 3) Read Free

through her. Braith was strong and
powerful, but the circumstances of the past two weeks had forced
him to feed from animals instead of her. And though animals
sustained him, human blood was better, and her blood strengthened
him even more. She had a strange effect on him, she empowered him
in ways that neither of them had ever imagined possible.
    And now, when he needed that strength
most, he was being denied it. And they may all be about to pay for
that if the increasing crush of bodies around them was any
indication. “Are you willing to sell one?” a loud voice
inquired.
    Braith raised his arm, pushing it
against her chest as he halted her beside him. It went against
everything she was, but somehow she managed to keep her head bent
and her appearance demure. William took two more steps forward
before Ashby, in a far less graceful manner than Braith, jerked him
to a stop by the collar of his robe. Though Ashby remained
expressionless, his bright green eyes twinkled with amusement as
William grunted slightly. The two of them had gotten along well
enough, but they tended to pick at each other, sometimes to the
point that Aria became exasperated with their delight in tormenting
each other. William bristled against the highhanded treatment, but
thankfully her hot-tempered twin managed to keep his
calm.
    There was a moment of silence as the
town became hushed in expectancy of Braith’s answer. He didn’t know
these lands, didn’t know the people or the etiquette that prevailed
here. In their land servants were not sold, they were not owned and
traded like the blood slaves. That may not be the case
here.
    “They are not for sale,” Braith finally
answered.
    A pair of legs stepped forward,
separating themselves from the crowd. The clothing on these legs
was of much higher quality than the ones surrounding it. Even with
the sand swirling around them the shoes somehow remained black and
shiny. “You look hungry,” the legs stated. “I will make a trade.
Two for one.”
    Her heart was in her throat, goose
bumps tickled her skin. “Why would you make such a trade?” Braith
demanded.
    Though she couldn’t see it, she could
almost feel the man’s casual shrug. “I have grown tired of them.
You know how that is, I’m sure.”
    Sorrow stabbed her as she realized
Braith knew exactly how that was. She tried not to think of his
past, tried not to think of the blood slaves he had gone through
when she had escaped the palace, but every once in awhile she would
be slapped in the face with a stark reminder. She may have been his
first blood slave, but she had not been his last, and he had not
treated the others anywhere near as kindly as he had treated
her.
    Braith’s arm pressed closer to her, he
was trying to offer her some sort of comfort, but she found none.
Her face was on fire; William was as still as stone before her, his
breath seemed to have frozen in his chest.
    “I do, and I have not yet grown bored
with mine.”
    Aria’s breath sucked in, her stomach
cramped. No matter how much time she spent amongst them, she would
never become accustomed to the cruelty and open brutality of some
within the vampire race. She was not naïve enough to think that all
humans were good either, after all, the only real abuse she had
suffered as a blood slave was at the hands of a human, but it never
seemed as overt amongst the humans as it was with the
vampires.
    She wasn’t a possession though, she
never truly had been, and she bristled against being thought of as
such. Braith must have sensed something in her pulse or a shift in
her demeanor, as right at that moment he pushed her back another
step. Defiance surged through her; it took everything she had to
appear outwardly tranquil while inside she was seething. She was
tempted to pull out the hidden bow on her back but she wasn’t sure
who she wanted to shoot more…Braith or the man trying to bargain
for her.
    “Let me at least get a look at her,”
the man prodded.
    “I think