Dum! Dum! Dum!

Loud knocks sounded at the door not long after I woke up drenched in sweat and confused from my troubled dreams. My heart rate sped up at the loud knocking and Elisa stirred beside me, the noise waking her up as well. What could be going on that warranted such urgency in knocking.

"Gabrielle, Camilla. Wakeup!" Cezar's familiar voice called with urgency but instead of the usual softness that his voice it was a little hurried and nervous, betraying some of his urgent countenance. I shook Elisa beside me so that she would wake up fully and the second her eyes popped open and she heard the knocking, she jumped out of my bed and went to scatter hers o make it look like she had slept in it while I rushed to the door and opened it.

The door opened to see Cezar's kind but anxious face. There was an extra line on his usually smooth forehead and he glanced down the corridor where I noticed that more upper class slaves were being woken up as well. My brain immediately went into overdrive wondering what was happening. Of course, the worst case scenarios came first and all sorts of gruesome and torturous possibilities ran through my head fueled by my past trauma as a slave.

"What is going on Cezar?" I managed to ask, holding my night gown firmly around me. Slaves weren't made to have modesty as our masters and mistresses could strip us naked whenever they wanted to but I always preferred to maintain my dignity for as long as I could while I could. I had spent just one day and two nights here but I knew already that this wasn't normally the waking time for the upper-class slaves, which meant something must be going on for us to be woken now.

"Get dressed. Meet me in the kitchen in fifteen minutes." He said in an unexplanatory tone and my heart beat sped up even more. He then left with no more explanations leaving me confused. The other slaves who had woken up were looking groggy and sleepy but they sluggishly nodded their heads when they were informed they were to go to the kitchen.

"Hurry up Gabrielle. Time waits for no one." A voice sang not far from me and I looked to see the other slave wo always dressed in all black leaning on the door of the room next to mine and smirking like all this was so amusing. Even her nightwear was black but there was no black eyeliner on her eyes yet. How hadn't I even realized before that she was my room neighbor? How did she even know my name and how could she even be so unaffected by everything going on? Before I could reply her or say anything else, she went back into her room and closed the door. It took me a few seconds before I decided to move as well.

"Elisa, lets hit the baths." I told Elisa and she immediately went to take our bath sponges and soap with towels. One thing was sure, I made sure to bathe whenever I could. Even if I was going to use five minutes to do so, I planned to. Only two other slaves planned to use the baths as well so luckily it was not crowded. I finished my bath in record time of five minutes and Elisa finished not long after me. I didn't even bother to wash my hair and I instead just tied it in a head wrap. We then rushed to the kitchen and from my internal clock, I realized we were thereon time.

I was surprised to notice that the dark girl was already sited in the kitchen in her usual spot and she was staring right at me though her smirk was gone. Funny enough, she had even had time to change her clothes, comb her long dark hair and even draw thick dark eyeliner over her eyes. She looked...fresh and ready and yet...detached and uncaring. I turned away from her to look at Cezar.

When the rest of the upper class slaves that had spent the night in their beds trickled in, Cezar started talking. Melanie was sat at the opposite side of the table I was on and she rolled her eyes at me. I rolled my eyes right back at her and turned my head. I may have been planning to avoid trouble but that didn't mean I was going to allow a fan slave to look down on me.

"We are all here earlier than usual because of an important matter. Most of you who have been here know why but for the benefit of Lady Karayan's new slaves; Gabrielle and Elisa, I will explain it." Cezar started. He opened his mouth to continue but Melanie interrupted

"There's no need for that Cezar. It's not like they are going to be alive enough for long enough to get used to these." Melanie snickered and a skinny looking slave beside her snickered along with her.

"Silence Melanie." Cezar spat so coldly I was surprised he was the one talking. Melanie and her friend immediately sobered up but now she instead glared at me. I rolled my eyes again and looked away.

"As I as saying, we have to explain for the benefit of these new two. Lord Kyryaan is back from his trip. We all know he had not been in the mansion for the past two days. He got back yesterday night and as is expected of us, we as the slaves to the highest nobles in the mansion have to be up extra early whenever he gets back from a trip." Cezar explained but it still made no sense. Why would we have to wake up extra early.

"Why is that?" Elisa asked boldly and I almost stomped on her foot to hush her up. she still had a lot of her liberal ways and they were those liberal ways that were going to get us killed.

"Hush!" I hissed lowly but Cezar spoke, interrupting me.

"It's alright Gabrielle. The child still doesn't know the ways of slaves yet. Though that means more work for you. Anyway. Elisa, the reason is because the Lord's mood changes every time he comes back from a trip. It could either be positive or negative. And whatever mood he's in, will have great impacts on his closest collaborators who are our masters and mistresses. The moods of our masters and mistresses will then reflect on us and all the other lower people of the southern regions. So it is our duty as slaves to please our masters and mistresses more so that they are even more receptive of whatever mood the Lord wakes up in. This entails waking up early to make sure everything is alright and prepared." Cezar enunciated every word, making us understand the importance of what he was saying. I understood him perfectly.

I once had a master who was a treasurer to one of the Lord's biggest savings. A lot of gold had gotten missing once and the Lord had been in a bad mood. The anger had reflected down the hierarchy drain that it reached my master. The funny part pf this type of anger was that it got worse as it went down. So by the time it got to my master, he was really furious. I was the recipient of that anger and I still had scars on my back from that incident. They were faint now as it was many years ago and I had tried healing some of them with my magic but failed due to inexperience but the scars were still there. The areas pinched at Cezar's words and my lips thinned. I pushed the memories away. I was going to be strong. I was strong.

I wasn't sure of what I thought of Lord Kyryaan yet. He held a lot of parties and was said to be jovial but like the rest of his brothers, that ancient first line of vampires, and vampire Lords, he could be very ruthless and evil. He may have been slightly different from his brothers but I believed all the Lords were the same. Firm and tough. I hoped I never had a run in with him. I was just here to train Elisa, and then finally I would be free. After twenty-one years. That was the plan.

"We would get breakfast to regain our strengths but we shall all go to serve our masters and mistresses until they have no more need for us." Cezar finished and most of the slaves nodded. I just stared on. Was that why the mansion had felt strange yesterday? Because the one person the rules over our lives was back? Dear heavens.

After breakfast, Elisa and I headed to Lady Karayan's room while the others went to meet their various masters and mistresses. I had been through so much, but somehow I was still nervous. Hell, you would be too. I had never served in the house of the Lord of the region before. And this was because there were only three so don't judge me too harshly.

I knocked at the door.

"Come in." Lady Karayan's voice called from inside. I pushed the door open for Elisa and I to get in and the sight that first met me shocked me so much I was rooted to the spot and even Elisa let out a surprised squeak.

Lady Karayan was fully naked in bed and there was a young man, not far from my age, naked as well and picking up fallen clothes from the floor. I averted my gaze from him and slightly covered Elisa with my body. Lady Karayan wasn't even looking at us. She was staring at her ceiling, looking lost in thought, uncaring if she had just asked us to walk in while she and her lover for the night were still naked.

My eyes caught a leather band around the man's leg and that's when I realized he was a sex slave. The boy dragged on some pants, finally and I could finally look at him. I couldn't see him very clearly in the dim light but he clutched his clothes to his chest and bowed to Lady Karayan who was still naked and uncaring on her sheets.

"It was a pleasure pleasuring you my Lady." He said and even I blushed. Vampires!

"You are dismissed Larry." She said coldly without looking at him and with another bow, he left her side. When he passed by us, he nodded at me and winked and I blushed again. He seemed to be enjoying this. I rolled my eyes. Some people actually loved the slave life. It was incredible. When the man. Larry finally closed the door behind him, I moved closer to the bed and stood at the edge, Elisa right beside me. The room reeked of sex.

"Good morning My Lady." I greeted.

"Good morning my Lady." Elisa echoed in a small voice.

Lady Karayan finally dragged her eyes to us.

"I see Cezar has filed you in. Go ahead then. Put me in better spirits ready for the Lord." She said unenthusiastically and was that sarcasm that I heard? I wondered what was going through her mind. She seemed to be in a bad mood so early in the morning.

I nodded, ignoring the sarcasm in her tine and why she was sarcastic and Elisa and I went to work. We picked up her own clothes that were strewn about, gathered it with other dirty ones and put it in a hamper to be sent to the washer women. We then cleaned the tables, discarded a plate of half eaten fruits and what looked like chocolate, scrubbed the carpets and fluffed the pillows. The cage in the corner had been cleaned and it looked shiny as new but it still put me on edge.

It took a lot of time but the whole time she still lay there, naked and unbothered. It was mid-morning when we had finished cleaning the outer part of the room. She then rose and went to the bath and we followed her dutifully, ready to clean her up. We washed her, cleaned her and oiled her hair with a nice scented oil and she wrapped a robe around her body when we were done and went to sit on one of the couches in the room. While Elisa combed her hair, I changed the sheets, putting the dirty ones in the hamper and cleaned all around her bed. I almost puked when I cleaned things I wished I never had to clean but alas! That was my life. When I was done, I opened the windows, letting sunlight and fresh air in.

"Which dress My Lady?" I asked quietly with a small bow and she finally looked her me, a smirk on her lips.

"I shall deal with that. You have not annoyed me yet. Go clean the bathroom while I dress and go for breakfast. When you're done, both of you should clean out my closet and dust out all the spaces. Then you Gabrielle will go to the library to find a book for me. The map book of the southern regions." She ordered.

"Yes mistress." I bowed and Elisa and I went to carry out her orders.

By the time we were done with the bathroom, she was gone so we got to work in cleaning her room. This took all morning and most of the afternoon and I was tired by the time I headed down to the library while Elisa went to the kitchen.

I thought the eventfulness of my day was over and I expected nothing more to happen.

How wrong I was.