Unruly pet

I sat in my cage silently watching my new ‘vender’ AKA the person who would sell me to a new vampire master or maybe not depending on how this goes.

I despise each and every time I got bounced to a new shop, the vender was always thoroughly warned about my behavior but thought they could break me anyways. Idiots. Trying to remember I put up with them for a reason I took a deep breath.

My looks and rare blood made me highly valuable. I had straight fiery hair with a constantly pissed off expression to match. Skinny from too many starving my blue and green eyes looked dead even as they glared at the vender.

Deep red gashes and dark bruises that were all too obvious on my pale skin were fading at a noticeable rate. My eyebrows were always perfectly plucked and my skin silky smooth.

I should look like a mess but I have a little more pride than that. Only a little though, I have to look the part at least a little.

My blood was even more rare than my looks however as I was a hybrid. It was rumored that hybrid blood could heal faster and tasted better so why vendors put so much effort into me was no mystery.

Breeders had been pushing making hybrids for a while but even if they somehow found a vampire willing to have a half werewolf child (not to mention a passive enough werewolf) they didn’t know how sensitive hybrid pregnancies were. The mothers always had to be uninjured and well-feed (I wasn’t about to share this information with them though).

If they could just learn to leave me in peace I wouldn’t hurt the ‘trainers’. Beating a pet into submission worked for most, like the shaking blonde in the corner, but once the whips and hot irons came out I always despised whatever poor trainer accepted the job of breaking me in.

Horrid smells assaulted my nose. Every pet shop reeked of infection, urine, and sweat. The smells of the humans and few werewolves in the shop mingled together. Didn’t they realize they would probably sell more of us if we were bathed?

But unlike every other pet in the shop I had a goal. From worst to best the pets had established a system; target practice, sex slave, blood slave, chore maid, and true pets.

Target practice were pets that got whipped, ironed, or scolded with hot water for their master's amusement. Sex slave, blood slave, and chore maid were all as cut straight as they sounded.

A true pet was what every pet was scared to hope for, they were treated as pets, pampered and well cared for they were easy to envy.

Having been target practice twice I refuse to get trapped by a master who didn’t at least make me a chore maid. Of course there are other options, I could be killed for my blood or serve the vender as a door greeter, either of which sounded better than being whipped for fun.

One other ending was possible but I would rather die than see it come true. They could try to breed me. Even the thought sickened me.

I glanced down at my plain white dress and red and orange anklets. Each pet wore a white dress and a colored anklet to signify how ready to be sold they are as far as behavior went. I was the only one with an orange anklet.

The blonde shaking in her cage had a yellow anklet as many of the pets did. Two or three greens sat in their cages staring at nothing, I found them pitiful but it spoke volumes about how broken some vampires like their pets.

Werewolves always seemed to wear red anklets because they would always be ‘potentially hazardous’ and a different anklet for their actual behavior.

Orange was the worst behaved and they usually don't last long unless their pet shop has many customers that enjoy being able to punish pets.

The vendor put a plate of something that could only pass as food to the starving in my cage. It looked and smelled like puke.

“What’s wrong, want something different?” The vender’s gravelly voice hurt my ears. His greasy blonde hair and horrible BO made him a nuisance to all my senses.

“Your head on a platter would be nice,” I mumbled.

“You’ll keep such comments to yourself,”

“Make me,” I snarled showing fangs. Unless I'm hurt I don't need blood unlike full vampires. I get a lot of their advantages as well as my mother's so it makes me stronger.

The vender only gave a cruel smile and whistled.

“How many?” the 'trainer' didn’t even look at me.

“10 should do,” normally that would be minimal but in my condition 10 lashes would knock a human out of commission for days.

I'm half starved, battered, and I think one of my ribs is broken. If I was human I would be half dead.

When the guard reached into my cage and grabbed my wrist I pulled back, hard. The guard’s head thudded into my cage and I latched onto his neck.

The bitter hot liquid ran down my throat and lit every cell in my body alive. A small purr sounded in my chest, the man was definitely a vampire but being a hybrid the type of blood made no difference to me unlike a full vampire.

Careful to leave the man alive I detached from his neck before being yanked out of the cell by my hair. The vender was fuming but I only smiled at him, it was only fair they felt part of the fear pets did daily.

“He’s still alive, isn’t he? That makes him very lucky,” I would be punished no matter what I said and being momentarily healed was a nice feeling. In all honesty the guard probably deserved to die but I refuse to kill anyone that hasn’t proved that it was fitting.

“I guess I’ll just punish you myself then,” The vender practically pulled my arm out or socket getting me to the lashing pole in the back.

***

Strapped to the lashing pole with handcuffs I listened to the vender walk around. This was the only part that scared me, the actual punishment.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

Lines of sharp pain erupted on my back as I whimpered. Each time one line crossed over another I grit her teeth, even if I could kill the vendor I had no plan with what to do after. Waiting for the whipping to be over I felt the blood run down my back.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

But that wouldn’t be the worst part, no the worst part would be when it stopped and started to heal. My adrenaline would be gone and I would feel the rawness on my back and how the wounds would stretch every time I moved. I pitied humans who had to feel the sensation for days.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

The whip finally came to a halt and I breathed slowly trying not to hurt my back. Hot water poured over my back causing me to scream and growl at the same time, the mix was terrifying even to my own ears.

The vendor would pay for this dearly, hell maybe I’d torture him so he understood how it felt. Stuck with my own sick, twisted thoughts I gripped the handcuffs until the chain bent.

I had no idea how many lashes were on my back or how bad my back looked.

Feeling my back throb in time with my heart I leaned against the pole. Growling softly I waited for the vender to decide I was important enough to deal with putting me back in my cage. Asshole.

I glared at the man as he walked in even as he put my collar on and attached a leash to it. Pissed but too injured to do anything about it I decided to wait for my back to heal some.

The vender led me back to my cage and clipped the leash and collar to the outside of it (it had been put in my file that other than for transfer cases I would break collars left on me) before roughly throwing me in.

The sun had set and the other pets shrank away from me, whether it was because of the stunt I had pulled with the guard, the lashes I had just received, or the fact that I’d learned long ago my eyes glowed in the dark I had no idea.

It could really be any or all of those reasons. Hell, it could be some reason I hadn’t thought about.

Guessing more for showing face than actually caring my cage now contained a blanket like every other one. Already healing I glared at the vender one more time before falling asleep with the blanket carefully protecting my back.

It brought me a little satisfaction to ruin as much property of his as possible.

***

The small ding announcing a customer woke me up. With my back already about a week healed I carefully stretched before sitting up and watching the customer for amusement.

He was well dressed in black jeans and a button up red shirt that nicely complemented his red eyes. He had a five O’clock shadow and black hair in that half-shaved half-long hairstyle that really only looked good if the sides were long enough, which thankfully they were.

“Welcome, what can I help you with today? Supplies, accessories, tools, perhaps a new pet?” The greasy vender sounding so fake made me feel sick.

“What a fake,” I mumbled. Both vampires heard me and the vender let out a nervous laugh.

“I was actually going to look at your pets,” the costumer’s voice rumbled out. It reminded me of honey. How fun.

The customer looked around for a bit before apparently deciding I was interesting. Giving up on finding entertainment in him I glared at the vender happy to watch him squirm.

“Is this one really that bad?” The customer sounded puzzled.

“Well, she’s a tricky case. While it’s completely understandable to have an interest in her she’s hard to control. She’s got a few…incidents on her file.” The vender spoke carefully and slowly.

“You’re not giving me enough credit!” I huffed.

“We’ve also been unable to control what she says.” I smirked at the vender’s words.

“What were said incidents?” The costumer had heard my breakout and still wanted to ask questions?

“Well it seems that she will do as someone says (excluding how she talks) until they give her a reason not to. I’m currently the only living person who’s whipped her,”

“Not for long,” I smiled as I talked. Wrapping my fingers around the bars I leaned forwards threateningly.

“Has she been a pet before?” How the customer ignored me and kept asking questions was beyond me.

“Yes, she’s been what pets refer to as target practice twice but she killed her masters, multiple scientists have seemed interested but she scared them off before they even looked at her file.”

“You’re telling me this tiny thing not only survived being target practice twice but killed her masters? How would anything so small scare anyone off?”

“Yes, her hybrid blood made her more durable and made her heal faster as well as many other things.” Hybrids always seemed to be feared of scoffed at.

“Will her hair and eye color take effort to maintain?”

“No, they are both natural, she has however not eaten any of the food I gave her. Controlling her behavior and making her eat could prove difficult.”

“Well if the food you give us didn’t look like puke maybe I’d eat it,” I huffed.

“I’d like to view her file,” The customer said calmly.

The vender quickly scampered off to go get my file and I was left with the strange man.

“I would suggest against whatever you’re thinking about, choose someone who’ll be less of a pain in the ass than me.” I leaned against the bars and sneered to seem less worth it.

“Noted,” he said. I saw him glance around my cage and on the floor and at my blanket. “Is most of that blood yours?”

“Most, yes.” Frankly I saw no harm in answering questions, what could he or the vendor do to me that I hadn’t been through before?

“How long has it been since you got whipped?”

“Yesterday,”

“Can I see?” I turned around sure he would see some of the wounds through my tattered dress.

“Jeez, that seems excessive,” His voice was kinda quiet.

“Not if you knew what I did,” I turned around and the vendor came back.

“Here’s her file,” the venter handed over a very large file.

The costumer skimmed some of the pages before smiling and looking at the vender.

“How much?” He was seriously thinking about buying me? How dumb could you get?

“Only 200,000 she’s too high maintenance to sell for more.” So the vender thought he could get rid of me before I killed him, wrong. A wicked smile grew on my lips.

“I’ll take her,”

“Excellent! Meet me up front and we can sign papers.”

As soon as my cage door was open I sprung forward and flung him against a wall. A deep growl resonated in my core and my fangs grew.

“You were warned,” sure his blood would taste like tar I snapped his neck. pulling the key to the cages out of his pocket I took the lock off every cage to give the pets their choice. Taking the edge of a key I carved a line in his chest and watched the blood flow out.

Long-since a tradition I smeared the blood on his hands to symbolize that there was blood on his hands and it was his fault.

Holding my collar and leash I walked straight up to the costumer and sat on the counter in front of him.

“Regardless on if you decide you still want me or not your payment will not be necessary.” I said as professionally as possible.

“Guess he should have payed more attention to the warning,” he mused quietly putting my collar on.

I followed him outside to a plain black car. Surprised there was no slave driving the car and even more surprised he had me sit in the passenger side I stayed silent. He put the file on my lap and got into the driver’s seat.

“What’s your name?” He asked turning on the engine. Some masters called their pets by a name so I guess it wasn’t too weird that he would ask.

“Fall,” it felt weird to hear my name again, my hair and eyes reminded my mom of fall so as weird as my name is I had missed it.

“Alright, Fall, here are the rules.” My heart sank and I waited for some unreasonable rules that would break the peaceful illusion. How long will this stick? “I know I can’t control what you say all the time but any time someone that doesn’t live with us is over you must speak respectfully and call me master, any other time you may say whatever you want and call me Derik.”

My eyes widened. “You may do whatever you want while you’re in my room but do not keep the other slaves from doing their jobs. I bought you for entertainment so you can be yourself but I expect you to answer any questions I ask you. The only time I permit you to be rude to, avoid, or hurt my guests is if the try to drink from you or punish you,” He rattled on.

“You have to wear a collar when in the presence of any one but me and please try to refrain from killing anyone, understand?” Were those really the only rules?

“Yes, sir.” A little relief played on my voice causing him to laugh. I liked the sound it made.

***

We pulled up to a large mansion and Derik took my file and led me inside by my leash. It was a bit smaller than my last masters place but if I got whipped less here I couldn’t complain.

As soon as we were inside I saw maids and slaves working and my leash was removed. None of the maids or slaves looked injured or underfed which was a little surprising to me. Maybe he keeps the punished ones somewhere else?

Derik motioned for me to follow him and I did. Walking up the stairs and into the first room on the right side I stood in the doorway waiting for him to give me an instruction.

“You can wear this for now,” he tossed a shirt in my direction and I wondered if I was supposed to change into it right now. “Go take a shower,” Derik pointed to a door to my left.

I nodded and walked through the door. Confused as to how to use a shower after three years I fiddled with the handle until the water was hot.

“You can use the bucket under the sink,” Derik yelled through the door.

“Alright,” wtf was he talking about. Looking under the sink I found shampoo, soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a hairbrush and wondered what had happened to his last pet. I pushed the thought out of my head.

I decided to quickly brush my hair and teeth seeing how deranged I looked in the mirror. Painfully removing the dress, collar, and anklets I noticed there were too many lashes to count on my back in half-healed raised red lines.

Despite the fact that I wore the anklets like a prize I had been paying a price for it, my ankle was red and swollen and I realized I either needed to stop moving around so much or needed to start switching the ankle they were on weekly.

The water and soap stung my back but I was more than happy to have the smell of dried sweat off my skin and get the oil out of my hair. After three years as a pet the soft smell of roses was like heaven.

Reluctantly turning the water off I abandoned my torn bloody dress for the T-shirt Derik had given me and put the anklets on my good ankle deciding he’d been warned about me and collars I left mine behind.

The shirt was light blue and came down to the middle of my thigh and smelled like mint and raspberries, both things I missed dearly.

No longer nearly as nervous I gave the room a once over. The carpet was black and the walls were a deep green and the rest of the room was similar.

The bay window and bed were both decorated green and black. A messy desk sat by the bed and it looked like whatever Derik did involved a lot of paper work.

Something very odd caught my eye though, the dog bed wasn’t in the cage in the corner but near Derik’s bed instead. Very few people bother with a dog bed so even in a cage it was considered paradise. Confused I looked up at him.

“Being in a cage all day seems boring and uncomfortable so when no one is here, assuming your behavior is decent, you’ll sleep on the dog bed.” Derik stated as if it was perfectly rational.

A bit confused but reluctant to screw this up I sat on the dog bed.

“You’re a lot quieter here than at the pet shop,” he observed.

“Contrary to popular belief I don’t like to piss people off I don’t think deserve it.”

“I’d like to ask you a few questions,”

“Go ahead, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Since you’re a hybrid do you need anything special diet wise?”

“Unless I’m injured I only need human food,”

“Does the half-moon effect you?”

“I grow wings and can’t control my fangs but as long as I’m not injured and no one is bleeding I can handle the bloodlust, unfortunately I have a nasty habit of biting back though.”

During the half-moon vampires crave blood worse than usual and cannot resist taking blood from anything and everything around them and grow wings and scales to help them get it.

I get a similar effect but my bloodlust is smaller and I’ve only hurt people on half-moons if I was injured. Sadly that meant I had hurt innocent people before, the fact haunts me. But I’d never killed an innocent and I never would.

But during the half-moon no one was in the right mindset so it had never been added to my file.

“That’s all for now,”

After about thirty boring minutes of Derik doing paperwork someone knocked on the door. Derik told them to come in and a slave walked up to me and left a bowl of yogurt and fruit and a glass of blood in front of me with a glance at my collarless neck and the cup of blood they left obviously slightly confused.

“They’re both for you,” Scared to make noise and get my meal taken away from me I was as quiet as possible while eating. I hated cold blood but since it healed my ankle and back I just quietly drank it.

Maybe I seemed disobedient but if being good had more advantages for me here than trying to fight the system then that’s what I’d do. So far this looked like the life I was fighting for.

Eventually Derik got up and stretched, the sun was setting. I moved to look at him better. He was good-looking that was for sure. He changed into PJ pants and took his shirt off before laying in bed (I’m not above saying I did enjoyed the view). He clapped twice and the lights turned off.

“Are you hungry, Fall?”

“No, sir.”

“You can call me Derik, and I was just wondering because your eyes were glowing,”

“They just do that to help me see in the dark,” I didn’t think my night vision was as good as a vampire’s but even with just the light from the window I could tell Derik’s eyes were open and he was looking at me.

His eyes did not glow in the dark so I’m not sure how or why our eyes were different, I’d never seen a werewolf’s eyes glow either.

“How much do you know about vampires?”

“More than most, first of all you’re not dead. Their systems work differently than humans; they get nutrition and oxygen from blood instead of food and air. The blood you drink doesn’t have to be human but their diet makes them ideal and vampire blood is close to useless.” Feeling bold and doubting he would care I set my arms on his bed and rested my head on them.

“How’d you become a pet anyways?”

“Well my mother was killed by a rogue vampire on a half-moon and my father killed himself out of guilt. Because I could not claim my father without ruining his name I was turned into a pet. I guess you could say going from fairly high up to the lowest you could get didn’t sit with me well,” My voice got quiet.

“You should go to sleep, Fall, we’re going to the market tomorrow so you can have some real clothes.”

“Alright, goodnight Derik.” I saw a hint of a smile on his face before I closed my eyes and drifted off.