Chapter 5. What's Going On Here?

Ainslee

Looking up into the grin of the vampire I’ve just run into, I take a deep breath. “Shit,” I mutter under my breath and take a step back.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you,” he tells me, his glowing amber eyes disturbing. But he’s not smiling at me in a menacing way like that other asshole.

“It’s okay.” I’m not sure what else to say. This guy was there earlier, and he’d seemed relatively nice, at least compared to that last guy.

It’s not the vampire I’d been hoping for, though. Where the hell was the hot one?

Not that I preferred to run into a vampire—hot or not. On any given day, I’d choose running into a vampire over nearly nothing. Maybe I’d prefer this to getting my foot stuck in a fire ant mound, if my foot was slathered in honey. But maybe not.

“Can I speak to you for a moment?” His tone is polite as he folds his arms across his massive chest. This guy is the largest of all of them. That one who just walked away was tall and wiry. The other one, the one that had actually caused me to drop my bread, had been slightly shorter, his build more like a runner’s, tight and compact.

And sexy.

Where this voice in my head that keeps telling me to be attracted to the jackass that had made me drop my bread originates, I have no clue, but I really wish it would shut the fuck up.

“Ainslee?” The vampire calls my name to snap me out of my stupor, the same way that Lenny often does. I can’t see my friend over this hulking dude, but I imagine he’s still nearby.

“Yes?” I blink a few times and wonder if I should add “sir” onto the end of that question in order to pretend to be polite, but I don’t.

He clears his throat. “What were you saying to my colleague there about these rules?” His bushy, dark eyebrows nearly touch one another as he contemplates my statement.

“I’m confused,” I admit, taking another step back. “You are the ones that make these rules, yet none of you seem to know any of them. We can’t just decide we want to start a farm, you know. Hell, we can’t even have a vegetable garden outside of our house. Forget about having livestock or anything of value. And only certain people are allowed to work at the few farms we were allowed to keep after you guys came in and started ordering us around.”

“That’s—what?” He scratches his chin, and I let out a sigh.

“Listen, sir, I need to get back home to my sick mother and small toddler siblings. Perhaps the two of you should check with the king when you get back to Castle Shadowmanor, assuming that’s where you came from.” I want to step away from him, but he moves to block my path.

“Wait, please. I have a few more questions.” He flashes that smile at me, and I find myself sighing because I know I won’t walk away from him yet.

“Fine. What is it?” I settle my hands on my hips the way Mom is always telling me not to do because it looks like whomever I’m speaking with is insufferable.

“I’m Zeke, by the way,” he says, extending his hand to me in a gentlemanly manner. “Zeke Winters.”

I stare at his hand, wondering if this is all a sick joke. Why is he bothering to introduce himself to me. “Ainslee Bleiz.”

“I know.”

I don’t ask him why he remembers my name. Lenny did shout it in front of them, and that other guy did ask my name. Still, why did they care? There’s only one Ainslee in this town, so if they forgot and asked around about where to deliver the basket, whether they asked Mr. Laslo Black the baker or his brother, Mr. Bart Black, the butcher, or even Mr. Angus Black, the oldest of the three brothers, someone had told them the lunatic in front of the bakery was Ainslee Bleiz. My mother would die if she’d seen any of that.

I remind myself that she could be staring out the window right now and hope she at least avoided witnessing the confrontation I’d had with the other dude.

Hooking a thumb over my shoulder, out of curiosity, I ask, “Who was that guy?”

“Kris? Oh, don’t mind him. He’s always been an arrogant bastard.” He waves a hand like it doesn’t matter, but I feel the blood running out of my face.

“Wait—Kris Moore? Advisor to the king?” I’d heard of that guy. He had a reputation for being ruthless. And I’d just chased him down in the street and yelled at him.

Zeke shrugs. “Yeah, he used to be. He has a new job now, though. Anyway, tell me more about the economy here. Why couldn’t you afford to buy bread? Bread should be, like, four or five vlads, tops, and you should be getting at least sixty vlads for donating blood.”

I almost laugh, but I remember these people could kill me if they wanted to. “Uhm, no. There are three men in town who run everything, driving up prices.”

“Whose that?” Zeke asks me.

I sigh, knowing I’ve already said too much. Lenny is standing out here. We’re in the middle of the neighborhood. People are probably listening. But when Zeke wags his eyebrows at me, prompting me to speak again, I do. “The butcher, the baker—"

“And the candlestick maker?” He laughs, and I roll my eyes at his silly joke.

“We don’t have one of those. No, the mayor. They’re brothers. So they control prices and wages. The sheriff is their cousin, so he goes along with it.” I’ve said too much. “I should go.” I believe I smell meat cooking and want to get inside to help Mom. The last thing I need is for her to overexert herself and pass out.

Zeke blocks my path again. “How much do you get for donating blood?”

Yet another sigh escapes me. “Forty-five vlads.”

“What? But we pay seventy per bag. The handler should get something, but not that much.” He seems baffled.

“The handler is the mayor,” I explain. “That’s what we get.”

“And how much does a loaf of bread cost?”

“Uhm, forty-five vlads,” I tell him.

Zeke shakes his head. “I don’t believe you. There’s no way you’re only getting one loaf of bread for donating an entire bag of blood.”

“Believe what you want.” I shrug and try to step around him again. This time he lets me. “I don’t know if other people will be honest with you or lie to keep from getting in trouble, but I’ve got no reason to be dishonest. A cut of meat, even the cheapest one, is seventy-five vlads. Hell, ask your guy who bought all the food. Thank you, by the way.”

I am now wondering what Zeke’s office is if he hangs out with that other guy, His Majesty, whatever that means. I’m thinking through the royals I know, but the list is short. I’ve never paid much attention to them. Maybe I should have. Some of them I’ve heard about probably don’t even exist, I’m sure of it. No one in the villages ever sees them, anyway. The princesses and the like.

As much as I want to, I won’t ask Zeke any questions because I am done looking stupid.

And desperate.

As I approach my house, Zeke calls out, “Thank you, Ainslee.”

I turn and look at him, and he smiles at me, his toothy grin catching the light from the few rays of sunlight and glinting. It’s one of the only times I’ve seen a vampire smile and not felt creeped out.

I lift a hand and then march up the porch, and Zeke disappears.

But Lenny is suddenly there, almost as fast as a vampire. “Ainslee, what the hell were you thinking?”

I stare at him a long moment before I say, “How many times have you asked me that today?”

“More than I can count,” he admits. “If the Blacks find out you just told all their business to those guys from the castle, they’ll have your head.”

“Well, I didn’t really have much choice, Lenny. That guy works with a royal. I’m not sure which one, but he does. I couldn’t lie to him. Besides, it’s easy to find out the price of anything. Just go into a store.”

He shakes his head. “They have special prices for vampires, you know? And they lie when they go in. They erase all the prices really quickly and act like they’re having a sale or some shit. My mom told me. She used to work at the bakery when she was younger.”

I didn’t know any of that. I feel a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach like this is going to be bad. The Blacks already dislike me. If they hear of this, they will find a way to punish me, though I’m not sure how. Thank the Goddess we have three more years until another culling. That means I have three years to figure out how to make it up to them.

Or get the hell out of here.

And where the fuck do I think I would even go?

Still, even if I had known that they didn’t tell vampires the truth about how much they charge, I’m not sure I would’ve said anything different if I had known. Didn’t Zeke deserve to know? Maybe he can do something about it. Especially if what he said was true, and we are supposed to be getting more for our blood and paying less for bread. The Blacks are clearly up to something. Bastards.

“I have to go help my mom,” I tell Lenny. “Listen, they just brought us a ton of food, and we don’t have a refrigerator. Your family should come and help us eat the meat and cheese.” We can save the bread and some of the fruits and vegetables, but the rest will go bad in a few days if we don’t have help from our neighbors eating it.

I don’t have to ask twice. “I’ll tell my family. Thanks, Ainslee.” He scurries off, and I go inside to help Mom cook.

The moment I walk in, I see the bow is gone, and there’s a fire in the fireplace in the living room. I wonder if she’s burned it. I think I see a longer piece of wood sticking up. Bile rises in the back of my throat. I know why she’s done it, but I might need that again. Am I capable of making another one?

“Ainslee, run next door and tell Ms. Mildred we’ve got food.” Mom smiles at me. “I’m not sure how this all happened, but it sure is a blessing from the Moon Goddess.”

“I’ll go tell her.” I take a step backward, noticing Mom’s color is better than it has been in a while, probably because she’s had some of the food already, that and she’s just so happy. The littles are munching on fruit with big grins on their faces, too, which tells me no matter what happens, this has all been worth it.

In the long run, I’m not sure there’s much to be happy about just yet, though. We might have food for today, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a problem. I might’ve made things a whole lot worse for myself. And if I have a problem, so does my family. Especially if the Blacks take drastic measures and try to punish me in a way that removes me from my family.

Like throwing me in prison. They can basically do whatever they want.

Trying to put those thoughts aside and enjoy the one night in many years when I am actually happy. I go door to door and invite our neighbors to come and enjoy some food. They are all ecstatic at the news, especially Ms. Mildred who takes my arm and walks along, crying again. But this time, they are tears of joy.