#but i also started it because 'ooh what if vampire caretaker' and then 'ooh what if vampire caretaker AFTER VAMPIRE WHUMPER'

[whimperwoods]

Vampire Labyrinth 5

Hey look! Vampire caretaker!

Follows part 1, part 2,  part 3, and part 4.

tw:  nonsexual nudity (temporary),

tag list: @waywardwhump @justwhumpitwhumpitgood @insanitywishes @taboolynx

*****

Lianna saw the light well before she was actually aware of it, the darkness easing away until she could see her own arms, her own skinned knee, the smooth, cold floor.

She stared at her limbs, watching them begin to shake harder as she looked.

“Oh!”

The moment the voice spoke, she moved on instinct, uncurling and trying to scramble backward, her head shooting up to look toward the sound.

It was a man with dark hair and thin, pointed features, carrying a lit torch. He wore a long black coat, exquisitely tailored to him, but the clothes underneath it looked just nicer than average, of the sort a merchant might wear while traveling through her small town, away from his home in the city.

He held his free hand out in front of him and she noticed the claws and squeaked, forcing herself backward again.

“Shhh,” he said gently, “Shh, you’re alright. I’m not going to hurt you.”

She backed up farther, her whole body numb with the cold, or perhaps with the fear.

“No, no, it’s alright.” He took a step forward.

“Stay away!” she managed, her voice hoarse and weak.

“I need to get a look at you.” He sounded calm, but there was something under it, some edge, and she moved quickly to cover herself, blushing.

The man stepped forward and all she could do with her hands in front of where she didn’t want him to look was wriggle backward like a worm.

He hummed sympathetically. “Shhh, it’s alright, sweeting. You’re going to be alright.”

“No,” she answered, panicked, her breath coming so hard and fast it made her head spin.

The man grunted, displeased, and she shivered, wriggling backward again.

He put the torch down gently, and removed his coat, throwing it over one arm before picking up the torch again.

“It’s alright,” he said again, stepping closer. “Put your arms through the sleeves, and pull this on backward. Your back looked the worst of it.”

She couldn’t puzzle out the meaning of that until he squatted down a little bit, sinking into his knees, and tossed the coat onto the floor in front of her. It landed a few inches away, sliding another inch and then coming to a halt, barely crumpled at all, and ready to be put on.

She didn’t move, half expecting the coat to reach over and bite her, to swamp her in darkness and eat her up into itself.

“It’s alright,” the man said again, “Nothing to fear.”

An hour ago, two, five, whenever it was she’d been outside waiting for the sunset, she might have laughed at that. Now, her disbelief came out only as a twisted sob she had no control over.

“Shhh,” he said again, “Shhh, You’re alright. You’ve got to be cold. Humans always are, outside of the center. Go ahead and put the coat on so I can get a look at you.”

She didn’t want to be looked at, but she did want the coat, and after a moment of his strange bronze eyes gazing into her own, unblinking, she scrambled to grab the coat. If he was going to look either way, she wanted to be covered.

As soon as she touched the coat, she knew it was expensive, the heavy silk brocade richly textured under the fingers of her bad hand. The front edges were trimmed in a rich lace, so dark a wine color it was nearly black, too. As she pulled it on backward, shoving her hands through the sleeves and pulling the inside of the coat up against her chest, she found more of the same lace decorating the cuffs, standing out only a little from the black-on-black texture of the rest.

She lifted her hands up, staring at the lace, and caught the vampire’s movement only as a swift change in the light.

Before she could look up, he was beside her, crouching down on one knee halfway behind her.

His hand touched the back of her shoulder and she flinched away, hard.

“Shhh.” His voice was deep and soothing, richer from this close to her, and he was holding the torch well away from her with one hand, leaving only the one free.

She scrambled away again, but had nowhere to go but sideways, where she huddled up against the wall and was trapped.

The man growled, a dangerous, animal noise, and her entire body shuddered.

“These young vampires never listen,” he said, “Heaven help that boy if I find him before you’re all patched up, or I’ll be sending him to hell myself.”

He came closer again, and she squeezed her eyes shut, pressing harder into the wall and turning her face away from him.

His fingers touched her shoulder again, gently, and she flinched. “Shh,” he whispered, “It’s alright.” He probed gently at the edges of one of the scratches, and even with him careful to keep his claws out of the way, it split open. She whimpered, a strangled little noise, and his hand pulled away quickly, only to return with no claw at all. He ran the back of his knuckles gently down her back, staying carefully between the claw marks, and she shivered under the caress.

“Can you stand?” he asked, lifting his hand up and then straightening, the angle of the light shifting as he stood.

The coat was cool, like it hadn’t been worn before, only just now starting to catch and hold her body heat. She turned to look at him, uncoiling slightly. “I have to, don’t I?” she asked hoarsely, meeting his eyes even as they terrified her. “I - I signed the contract.”

“The contract,” he repeated, both face and voice unreadable as he glanced away, suddenly distant from her, like there was a chasm between them. “Yes, I suppose you would have. The things they’ve made of the contract over all these years-” he trailed off.

When he looked back down at her again, he was back with her, bronze eyes warming as they met hers. “Give me your hand,” he said softly. “I’ll help you up.”

Her hand shook violently as she held it out toward him, half unsure of herself even as she did it.

He hummed softly, thoughtfully, then leaned down and wrapped his hand around her elbow, instead, where she was protected from his claws by the coat sleeve. “Hold on to me,” he said, “Hold onto my arm.”

She did, and then he was pulling to her feet with a quiet but unexpected grunt of effort.

Once she was on her feet, she felt weak and wobbly, her legs shaking like a baby deer’s.

Another displeased grunt, but when she looked at his face, it was turned away, like he wasn’t thinking about her.

She took one tentative step forward and had to squeeze hard on his arm to keep from falling down. His head snapped back toward her too fast, moving with supernatural speed, and her instinctive flinch away was too much for her left leg. As it crumpled, he swung around to catch her other elbow, the two of them ending up face to face and the torch falling to the ground between them, lighting everything at a strange angle and making stranger, more frightening shadows dance across his face, emphasizing its thinness, its hollows, even, now that she was closer to it, the odd, almost powdery texture of his skin.

She found herself breathing heavily again, panting with fear as her eyes filled with tears that blurred the dancing of the flames into something even more unpredictable.

“Alright,” he said gently, some edge that had been in his voice before disappearing so that he just sounded tired. “Let’s sit you back down.”

She sank down to sit, and he came with her, kneeling as he eased her to the floor and then rearranging to sit beside her with another unexpected old-man grunt. He didn’t look old, the dark hair he wore tied up at the back of his neck greying only slightly and only at the temples.

He reached over, his claws still bent carefully away from her, and brushed the tears gently from her eyes with the back of his knuckles.

She held still, trembling and waiting, but his touch was gentle, and then he pulled away again and reached for her hand, instead. She nearly snatched it away, but something felt - different, and she stayed still, instead, looking sideways at him in curiosity, even as her heart pounded in her chest.

He lifted her hand from her thigh, brought it to his lips, and as her breath stopped in terror, kissed the back of it and then let it drop back down again, away from his fangs.

He twisted her hand sideways, revealing the inside of her wrist and she knew for certain that she should pull away, but this time she felt frozen, no more able to yank her hand away than she was to breathe.

He pressed the pads of the fingers of his other hand against her pulse, concentrating, but she couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t breathe. Her head started to get lighter and lighter and then the instinct to breathe was finally, finally stronger than the terror locking her in place, and she found herself sobbing, gasping for air and letting it back out in broken, desperate noises part of her was ashamed to make in front of him.

When Lorenzo pulled her sideways, tugging her halfway into his lap and wrapping his arms around her, she let him, burying her face in his shirt in spite of every instinct, every thought she’d ever had. Her throat was shattering apart, her whole body heaving and shuddering, every fiber of her being stretched beyond its limits.

His body was cold but soft, and his arms were strong but didn’t crush her, and when one of his clawed hands started carding gently through her hair, it was a reassurance, not a threat.

She didn’t realize until he spoke, and she felt the vibrations of his voice against her cheek, that he had no heartbeat.

“You’re alright,” he said quietly, his deep voice rumbling through both of them, “You’re alright. I’ve got you. I’m going to skin that boy alive before I send him back to the counsel. Then we’ll see if they send me another one like that next time.”

Her hands tightened in the front of his shirt, and the arm he’d wrapped around her held her just a little tighter in response, and she stayed in his arms until she fell asleep in his lap, right there on the floor, her ragged, childlike sobs only stopping when she slid away into unconsciousness.

[thecitythatdoesntsleep]

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[Tags & Tw] Slavery, grooming, abuse, human pet auction, implied/referenced noncon, noncon touching, magnetic restraint implants, drugging/non-consensual drug use, vampire whumpee, they/them whumpee

"This one is damaged, paper says. Apparently the physical defects didn't fix in the turning process."

"Shit, mark it down and put it in with the rest of'em anyways. Just tell the man up front to run a deal."

"You don't think boss'll care?"

"Money is money, right? So long as these bloodsuckers sell, he won't give two fucks."

It was dark as the room filled with stagnant silence, the audience waiting with baited breath for the lights to switch on and announcer to appear.

When he did, it was a little less than grand; a well-suited gentleman taking center stage and cradling a mic close to his lips.

"Welcome to the 500th, yes you heard it right ladies and gentlemen, 500th auction of Lifepets."

Uproarious clapping filled the renovated opera house and it took a long pause to wait for it to thin down. When it did, everyone's attention was hinged on the man's every word.

"I'm pleased to inform that because of this enormous milestone, we've gone above and beyond. Tonight, we'll be auctioning off 50 freshly turned pets."

A cheerful response from the audience would be in any other case, a jovial thing. In this happenstance, it was an ugly, terrifying sound.

"They have been trained briefly, defanged, microchipped and magnetic implants have been surgically installed to each of their limbs for tangle free restraint."

The crowd gave slight chatter amongst themselves, 'ooh's' and 'ahh's' being given the more that the man's voice denoted across the speakers. There was an air of impatience, with every minute spent in lingering wait for the beginning of the festivities.

"Each of the pets will start at a low, low bid of $5,500. And the filing process will be a low, set rate of $500 for this special night only."

Large display monitors flipped on behind the tables and chairs that were set up for guests, their image turning to a small string of information about the upcoming, first selling item. All sight turned to peek at it and very little description was given seeing as the pet would be brought out on stage soon.

"We thank you all from the bottoms of our hearts for helping make this possible and keeping our business thriving. Whether you're looking for a caretaker, a sexual partner, release for that anger you don't have to feel guilty for... Lifepets has you covered."

At the 'joke' the man had made, there was laughter of all kinds and some lasted longer than others and each had it's own tone. Embarrassment, genuine humor, some patrons looked at each other with slimy grins that spread ear to ear. Like it really was such a funny thing to tease about.

"Without further delay, if everyone could look at the screens in the back of the building. To get us started right, we're going to drop the initial bid for this first pet down to $500. You could pay as little as $1,000 to take them home tonight."

The first vampire was brought out in the darkness of the stage behind the announcer, their limp, doll-like body being propped up in such a way that it held itself up. Whatever drugs they were given were strong, they couldn't manage to pull their head up much from it's half-mast position on their shoulders.

The screens displayed in large, white font on black backgrounds.

22 Years old at turning.

Blonde hair, blue eyes.

One tattoo, no major scarring.

60 days mandatory training completed.

More bright, blinding overheads turned on and it made the bound vampire on stage want to recoil into a ball despite their lethargy. Everything had giant, shining prisms casting off every beam of light; the reflections off mirrors and glass tables illuminating the room with a dim ambiance.

A gloved man grabbed the downcast head of the terrified creature and forced it's head up to meet eyes with the crowd. A tinge of piercing blue cast a ring in other worldly eyes and pupils trembled in what they saw before them.

Wolves, it was like a pack of hungry wolves. Being promised they can torment and torture without the need to feel anything akin to remorse. Even though they were once human, the modification to their DNA made all the difference. The stillness to their heart and deadened response to their lungs was the damning physical traits that lead them to a life of servitude.

"Now I won't lie to you... The discount is for damage, from what we understand, this pet has a few physical conditions that weren't reversed in the transformation process. It's left ear is deaf and left eye blind. All the better though, huh? Wouldn't be hard to sneak up on this one, hahaha."

The gloved man turned the vampires face towards the near-by projector camera and fingers squeezed into the hollows of their cheeks to tell them to open their mouth. When they did, two gaping extractions were throwing off their bite-line, teeth missing all together to prove their fangs had been dealt with.

"Give a little something sexy for the camera..." The man whispered and shoved a leather cased thumb against a plush, pink tongue. It idly wrapped around the digit and dry, uncared for lips closed in an absent sucking motion.

"Their second virginity hasn't been claimed, though, they've been shown how to do a little of the basics. So you're able to get them put to work right away."

No matter where the vampire looked, there was a seedy, low-brow looking person, staring them down like a predator to prey. Their mind was overwhelmed by the drugs in their system but also the thought of eventually being alone with one of these menacing faces.

Drool now clung to their lips from the unwelcomed finger in their mouth but once it was gone, the distraction was over and it almost made the vampire whimper in distress. They just wanted to get it over with, or stay with their handlers. At least the handlers had a guide of loose rules they had to follow.

The more that the man talked, the more the faces around them contorted with plans of sadistic glee. The vampires vision doubled at times, making the room spin with dozens of sets of prying eyes and wicked smiles.

A particularly cruel tug at the magnetic restraints and the gloved man had the vampire yanked down further to their hands and knees. Another push and he bent their middle down, accentuating the curve of their backside and the spread of their thighs.

Tears built up in the blue, ocean eyes and they were fought back when the leather glove carded through their hair. They would never have a chance of getting a good home or serving a worthy master if they were such awful cry babies. Or so their inner voice told them.

The smallest spark of motivation gave the vampire a reason to arch their back and lean into the touch that soothed across their body to cause them to naturally react.

Impatience started to build in the crowd and the announcer was merely letting them all take in the show.

Bare, porcelain skin being displayed on multiple, floor to ceiling screens as the vampire's lips hung open in the tiniest display of pleasure. Fingers curled into blonde hair and ruined the look of lust on their features; a ringing stab of pain to awaken their senses and widen their dopey doe-eyes. Shock looked so pretty when it was tacked to the end of bliss.

"So... Do I hear $500 for the discount pet?"

"$500!"

"$1,000!"

"$3,000!"

"$5,000!"

A twisted pang of relief filled the vampire when they heard the different voices from all around the building echo their bids. The number went higher and higher and it gave them the smallest sliver of hope. That they weren't too damaged and broken for a master after all and that they'd be able to be sold. They told themselves they would be grateful to even get a home but now, it seemed like it was really going to happen.

The vampire felt the unlatching of their magnetic shackles and instead, the gloved man crossed their wrists together for the plates to lock to themselves. He grabbed their arm and pulled them to their feet as the bidding war started to come to a final climax. Ready to drag them back behind the stage curtain to prepare for their future owner.

"Going once, going twice...and... SOLD. To the guest at table 38 for $16,800!"