I woke up to the soft tunes of what I immediately recognized as Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”. For a moment I stayed still in case the music was just a drifting memory from a dream, but when I realized as I continued to wake that it wasn’t fading I looked for the source. There was no one else in the bed with me. I assumed Aveline and Xander had coterie business to deal with and had left me alone once again.

On the bedside table was a new object. It was a small radio-clock, from which not only did the beautiful Stevie Nicks sing to me but also showed me the time written in bright green numbers. I nearly lunged for it as though it were life’s greatest possession. It was 3:06am. Oh I wished there was a date on the clock as well, but it appeared it was only a cheap digital alarm clock. Still, I was grateful and hummed along to the song.

It was only after I had changed into new clothes and about three more songs from a variety of artists, some I hadn’t even heard of, before I noticed there was a whole new other object in the room. There, opposite the bed and now installed against the wall was a flat screen television. I widened my eyes. Aveline had been serious when she said that they needed to get one for me.

The radio forgotten, I stumbled over to the television, looking around for the remote which I found nearby on top of the desk. I turned on the television, fumbling with the controls being that I had a growing excitement buzzing through my veins. When I clicked the guide button for the channels, sure enough I found the date on the top left corner.

July 3rd. What day had it been when I’d been abducted? Sometime in June obviously, but what day? I couldn’t recall, being that I had been in a monotonous schedule of going to work and going to bed. I sighed. At least I could keep track now. Maybe I’d make it to my next birthday, which was November 26th. Highly unlikely, but one could hope.

I looked at what programs were on. A lot were late-night infomercials or weird soft-core porn. I hesitated on Adult Swim, considering watching Robot Chicken. That or some sitcoms like Friends. Then my eyes wandered to the small collection of vampire books I still had to read, which were sitting on the desk against the wall nearest to where the full body mirror previously had been.

Friends or Civil Rights and Laws as Passed by Royals?

I shrugged. Why not both? Now happily decided, I grabbed the book from the desk and spread out on the bed on my stomach. I watched a piece of an episode of Friends I’d already seen probably a million times before opening the rather small book and paling slightly.

Jesus, that’s a lot of random laws. I flipped through the pages quickly just to skim what it looked like. Then I moved back to the beginning of the book where it had the Table of Contents listed. A majority of the laws had to do with Territories between coteries. This meant everything down to how to obtain territories all the way to the proper steps to take when entering another coterie’s territory. There were so many rights a vampire was given in their own territory. I only skimmed it, finding it to be too much information and way too much detail into something I didn’t really think I’d ever have an issue with myself. I wasn’t planning on joining any coteries or owning any territories.

I skipped to the laws regarding Royals themselves. From what I could tell, Royals were the judge, jury, and executioner so laws didn’t typically address them directly especially being that they made them. The only law they had in place was that of not bonding to the Master of a Coterie. Apparently, it was so dangerous – they still don’t specify why, though I could guess it probably would be because of the amount of power bonding to an entire coterie would give them – that even the leading Royal could be executed by the subsequent Royals if violated.

The other laws were more towards the conduct towards Royals. It was illegal to kill a Royal, even if they had broken the law themselves, except by another Royal. This was especially vital now that the bloodlines were being wiped out. It was especially illegal to harm and kill a young Royal, while they were in their fertile years. If found guilty, which was easy to find out due to the bonds between Royal bloodlines, it meant instant death of the dealer and possibly even their entire coterie (if it were a Master, for example). From what I could tell, the law basically stood as a don’t-fuck-with-the-Royals threat.

Other laws included that a Royal’s request was always to be answered accordingly. If not met, the offender could be punished. It reminded me that Jacobi had declined to host the event he threw for the Royals. I wondered if these laws were why he’d probably be punished. I wondered what type of punishment would be in store for something as small as missing a party.

I skipped past all the smaller petty laws and moved into the laws towards humans, which I was very much interested in. The first bit had to do with the secrecy of vampirism and keeping their society safe and out of the mind of humans. Vampires were allowed to kill humans, as long as they disposed of them properly and didn’t overindulge. Humans weren’t to be told of the truth of vampirism. If one was to find out, normally they’d be killed, claimed, enslaved, turned, or have their memories wiped by Royals- only now a lot of the Royals had powers that didn’t include mind control so they stuck mostly to killing humans. Basically, a lot of the laws just wanted to make sure the vampire society didn’t become public. This was probably another way they protected themselves from extinction, especially with vampire hunters on the loose.

The next part on humans had to do with a claimed human. While the coterie belonging to the vampire that claimed the human were physically unable to harm that said human, only the laws in place kept outside vampires from harming them as well. It was illegal for any vampire to harm, feed from, touch in any form, or kill a human belonging to another without permission first. It was punishable by death. Being that the bond connected the human to the vampire, it was considered almost like an attack on the vampire itself. The only vampires which were allowed to do anything to said claimed human included the Master of the coterie in which the human belonged to and the Royals.

The laws to do with vampire on vampire violence were a bit different. Turned vampires were allowed to kill one another, which was strange but I wasn’t one to judge. It was stated though that if vampires from two separate coteries killed one or the other, it could be considered as an attack or an act of war between coteries. This usually meant a fight between the Masters, which in event of the death of one would mean the disbanding of that coterie and an expansion of a newly claimed territory.

As for bonds, there was a whole section on the proper steps to take and the rights presented to those wanting to join or leave a coterie. For those who were without coteries, they typically requested to join a coterie via the Master. It was similar to joining a club or maybe getting a job. They followed a process like an interviewing stage and it was decided by the coterie if the vampire was accepted. Then the Master had to connect that vampire with the bond. If a vampire was finding it difficult to be accepted into a coterie and was at risk of becoming rogue, they could present themselves to the Royals, who would then investigate the situation. In a lot of cases like these, they would force a bond on a coterie, which was known to be unpleasant but was illegal to reverse without Royal permission.

For a vampire to leave a coterie, they of course were to obtain permission from the Master of their coterie. If another Master broke this bond without permission, it was considered an act of war on that coterie and could result again in a battle between Masters and the subsequent consequences. Should a Master reject a vampire’s request to leave a coterie for no valid reason, the vampire could follow a process to request the aid of the Royals. The Royals would then investigate and if found necessary would then break the bond themselves and free the vampire.

There were so many rights and laws in place that I really couldn’t bother to go through each of them. Once I found what seemed like the most interesting ones, I decided to give up on that book until I had a very boring day. Then again, I had television now so finding out the proper way to kill humans without breaking the vampire law probably wasn’t going to win over an episode of The Big Bang Theory…

As I stared at the television screen, I wished it was a telephone instead. Then I wondered what I would do if it was a telephone. Would I call the cops? Would that even help me any? Before I had been abducted, my neighbor had been killed in front of my apartment. Would that have been pinned on me? Or did the vampires dispose of his body in order to preserve their secret?

I wondered if I could call information and ask for the number to my father even. Oh, hi. I’m your biological daughter; yeah, the one your wife took when she left you. Uh huh. Yeah, so um I was kidnapped by vampires. Could you be a pal and negotiate my release somehow?

Would he even care?

I spent what I now knew was my night watching random sitcoms, occasionally making my way to the bathroom, and mostly rolling around on the empty bed. When the clock said 7am, I felt my stomach grumble with hunger. Normally when Xander and Aveline left me alone for a long time, they had the kitchen send me food, but this time it looked like I had been left to fend for myself.

Was I allowed to leave by myself to get food? I was claimed now. Just the thought brought my fingers to my neck where the puncture wounds still stood as fresh marks, not completely healed but definitely more so than a wound normally would have healed. I assumed it was the benefit of being claimed; the healing. I remembered their touches on my hot flesh and blushed. It was definitely done, but I didn’t feel any different. I wasn’t even sure if I was supposed to feel different.

Surely this meant I could walk around the Headquarters without fear of being attacked at least, right? After all, I only wanted to walk a little ways to the dining room on this floor. It wasn’t like I was running off to another country.

My hunger decided for me. I moved out of the room stealthily, making my way to the dining room. When I found it empty, I sighed with relief and sat down and waited. The last time, all we had done was sit in the dining room and wait so I assumed this is how it was done. Sure enough, a very familiar and annoyed kitchen staff lady stormed into the dining room with a tray of dishes.

“Good morning, Eastmund’s human,” She greeted rather rudely. I didn’t even bother telling her my name being that each time resulted in a very nasty glare. This small plumped woman did not like me. She presented the dishes to me in a rush. “We have Albondigas if you wish for something quick and filling. Or if you’d like something other than soup, we’re serving Chicken Piccata with fettucine alfredo and broccoli. Or if you’re feeling special, you can make a personal request and we shall see if we can fix it up for you…” Her glare obviously meant for me to pick what she presented or die…

Honestly, at the rate my stomach was going I was considering eating both of the presented dishes. Plus dessert. “Is there any dessert?” I asked, now that I had thought of it. The woman huffed.

“All strawberry,” She stated, knowing by now of my distaste for strawberries.

I narrowed my eyes. “Fine, I’ll take a bit of both dishes unless you think I should starve.”

The woman promptly prepared the food in front of me rather violently. She tried to fill up my glass with some form of wine, knowing I would reject it. When I did, she gave me water and threw me a last offended look before disappearing. She seriously had some issues with me, though I knew almost everyone here had issues with me. I sighed, but my anxiety was forgotten when I dug into the delicious food in front of me. Honestly, I secretly reminded myself to hire a chef when I became free again. If ever that happened.

When I returned to the room, I continued to watch more programs and pass time. Nights went by. I was in a routine of watching, listening to the radio, eating, showering, changing clothes, sleeping, and repeat. After about four nights of being alone, I began to wonder exactly where my vampires were. I knew they had to go on business sometimes, but I thought if they were gone so long they would leave me a note or something. Especially immediately after claiming me…

Sometime between then, I decided to go ahead and give Human Slavery; Unethical or Simply Natural a chance. It was only after reading the highly narcissistic view on how humans were the lesser evolved kin to vampires, less powerful and more barbaric, which meant they were born specifically to feed and entertain vampires that I decided the entire book was nonsense.

On the fifth night of loneliness, I was back in the dining room feasting on a simple tuna salad sandwich. I didn’t believe this was what the kitchen was actually serving that night, but knowing the kitchen woman, she purposely threw it together in order to annoy me. I wasn’t annoyed, though. I happened to like tuna.

I was just finishing when I felt this warm feeling tingling sensation over my skin. I looked up from my plate, trying to understand this feeling of… home almost. When I turned around, Aveline stood at the door of the dining room with Xander close behind her. It was then I realized my body had reacted to them being nearby. Aveline looked pleased, as if knowing I had sensed her as well.

“Come along, little tiger, we want to show you something,” She called easily, holding her hand out for me to take. I hesitated, not sure how I felt about being claimed now that I knew the bond connected us in more ways than one. I reminded myself that I had chosen to be claimed and that I had done so in order to protect myself from some of the harm being presented to me. I had to trust they wouldn’t abuse it in any way themselves.

“Okay,” I answered, standing up to grasp her hand. In that grip I felt safe, like I was where I belonged. I knew it was a false sense of security, maybe even a type of brainwashing, but for now I could pretend it was real. I was just happy not to be alone anymore.