The Arbiter

by K. B. Ladnier

  I stand perfectly still as they bind me; my eyes sweeping the curious faces of the Damned that are peaking through their cells at what I’ve just done. Some even smile, knowing that their Arbiter has come.

  I give them all a wicked smile, just before something sharp is stuck into the side of my neck. The world fades to black around me as liquid ice spreads through my veins.

  When I come to, I notice I’m in a different area than where I was when they stuck whatever that was into my neck.

  The room is mostly dark, since there are no windows, but I can see a small vanity with a mirror on the wall next to me. The walls are stone like the rest of the building, but it’s been cleaned. On the wall opposite of the vanity, is a large armoire. Both things look so out of place in this scarce, concrete room that’s barely big enough to hold these three pieces of furniture in it.

  I feel a hard mattress beneath me, letting me know I’m lying on some kind of bed.

  Where the fuck am I?

  When the chill runs along my skin from the coldness of the room, I realize something that immediately has me bolting upright in a panic.

  I’m naked.

  I growl, then instantly begin to groan as my head starts to pound from the sudden movement. My brain is a bit fuzzy from whatever it is they injected into me. I try to lift my hand to feel my neck where they stuck me, but my hands are bound. They are clasped together tightly with my fingers interlocked, probably so I can’t touch them with my mark. Not that it’d stop me. I didn’t need to touch them to hurt them with my power.

  I hiss as the silver chains dig into my skin, burning and blistering it.

  When they first bound me, it burned, but it was bearable. Now, it felt like my wrists are being held over an open fire.

  Must be whatever they injected me with that’s making me weaker.

  Thankfully, there’s some good news. I notice a sheet on the mattress, so I at least don’t have to stay naked. I fight through the headache and jump from the bed, snagging the sheet off to wrap it protectively around me. I can’t wait to find who the fucker was that undressed me. Why even do it in the first place? I highly doubt they’re going to try and have their way with me. They should know by now I’d drain the life of anyone who tried.

  A slight bit of light is coming through a window in the metal door. I quickly walk over to it and peer out.

  Two men stand outside my door, both holding very large assault rifles.

  “Pfft. I sure hope they have silver bullets,” I muse to myself quietly. “Cause those won’t stop me, fellas.” I look down and see there’s no handle on the door. “That might, though.” The door is at least a foot thick, so it’s unlikely I’d be able to bust it down with how powerless I feel right now.

  I huff and turn, eyeing the armoire. I walk over and open it, hoping it will give me some clue as to why I’m not in a cell with the others.

  The others…

  I fight back the tears. The monstrosity of what’s been done to them has my stomach churning. Who could do something like that? Who would divulge secrets on how to hurt us?

  I shake my head and will the tears to dry. I can’t fall apart right now. Those Damned saw the promise in my smile that I was going to set them free. I couldn’t do that if I let the wrong emotion rule over me. There was no time for sorrow. Only strength and rage. Those will be what help me to find Monroe and figure out how to take these fuckers down.

  I force my mind to clear and begin looking through the armoire. I frown when I see its actually filled with quite a few, very fancy ball gowns.

  “What the hell is this place?” I mutter.

  Voices begin to filter through the door. I quickly close the armoire and tie the sheet in a knot at my ribs, then stand in the middle of the room in a fighting stance. Naked or not, I’m ready to fight off whoever’s coming through that door. Even if I wasn’t at full strength, I could guarantee at least a few would die before I went down.

  A face I can’t make out peers in through the window, then moves back as the guards open the door.

  I crouch a little more and dig my heels into the ground, preparing to pounce should the need arise.

  However, I’m a little taken aback when an older man steps into the room holding nothing more than what looks like a clear makeup case.

  I lift my brow in confusion as he waltzes in and smiles. He looks to be at least in his late fifties. He’s wearing a white, button-down shirt, black suspenders, and black slacks; all of which look to be expensive. His hair is balding at the top with just thin bits of hair on the sides. His face is friendly, but something about him tells me he’s not nearly as fragile as he looks.

  “Hello. I’m Mr. Grady. I’ll have you all nice and shined up in a jiffy,” he says politely. His smile is almost too pleasant, giving me a bit of a creepy vibe from him.

  I don’t move. I just stand there completely blown away that they really just sent in this little old man to do my makeup.

  “Have a seat, dear. We don’t have much time before the auction starts.”

  I school my blank face into something darker. “No. I’m not going to just sit down and let you do whatever the fuck you’re planning, old man. You have no idea who you people are messing with!” I flash my eyes and a bit of my second form at him in warning. I don’t care how old this human is, I won’t pretend I’m just a helpless little captive. Not anymore. They’ve seen my power now and have my door guarded, so it’s not likely the sweet, powerless act will work anyway.

  He never backs down, though. His creepy, pleasant smile stays in place.

  “We know very well who you are. You are what they call The Arbiter, correct?”

  I stare at him, disappointed my ruse didn’t last long. Oh well, they’d have found out sooner or later after they were informed their men had someone they’ve been looking for captured.

  “Things will be much easier if you just comply, dear,” he continues, his tone edging with a bit of aggravation. “It won’t take but a few minutes.”

  I growl at him. “I don’t give two shits how long it takes!” I begin to advance on him, not having the patience for whatever bullshit these people have planned.

  The two guards come in fast and throw a silver chain around me, wrapping my arms tightly to my body. I feel a bit of strength return to me as my adrenaline kicks in and struggle against them. I manage to yank one of the chains from the guards’ hands. Unfortunately, I don’t get much done as three other men come into the room, each with assault rifles.

  The bigger guard in the group aims his right at my face. “Sit the fuck down. These are loaded with silver bullets doused in Divine water, and I will not refrain from loading your fucking head with all of them.”

  It’s then that something strikes me like a hammer to my heart. These guards aren’t humans. I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed it before. They were Lupin.

  My eyes widen in shock. “Why?” I don’t have to elaborate on what I’m asking the Lupin. He can see it in my eyes.

  The guard sneers. “We’ve been promised something pretty special for our service, and that’s all you get to know.”

  “From who? Surely humans can’t give you anything you can’t take for yourself! What could they possibly offer a Damned besides their life to fuel our hunger?”

  The Lupin laughs. “We don’t serve them, you little bitch. Who we do serve is none of your concern. You won’t live long enough to be able to do anything with the information anyways.”

  “Can we please end this conversation?” The old man pipes up. “I need to get her ready.”

  I glare at the Lupin when he says no more and shoves me towards the vanity.

  Since it’s looking like I have no other choice and my burst of energy is already fading from my shock, I grit my teeth and sit at the stupid vanity. The Lupin guard I yanked the chain from grabs his end again. They all surround me as the old man, Mr. Grady as he calls himself, turns the light on to the room and sits down in a chair one of the guards brought in
for him.

  I think of this betrayal and what it means as I’m subjected to pounds of makeup for the next thirty minutes. Who promised them something, and what was promised? What could be that valuable to them that they’d turn their backs on their own kind? Saul is the first to come to mind. He rules the Lupin after all and has been acting twitchy and secretive. It wouldn’t be too farfetched of a possibility since he pretty much hates everyone except other Lupin. However, he may be an asshole, but is he really smart enough to mastermind something like this? He hates humans and would never work with them. Then again, an enemy of my enemy is my friend, or something of that nature. Fuck. It’s all so confusing and far more complex than I thought possible.

  When the old man finishes making me look like an over made up doll with too pink cheeks, bright red lips, and heavy eyeliner and mascara, he begins working on my hair. I choose the silence I’m given as he works, to reach out and feel around for Monroe in this place. I’d been too enraged by the Damned in the cells earlier and finding out Lupin are working with the humans to look for him.

  I try to hide my elation when I can feel his energy somewhere on this floor. It’s muffled, but it’s there.

  I school my face as the old man finishes twisting my hair up into some kind of French braid, bun atop my head. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen.

  “There. That wasn’t so bad. The crowd will love you. It’s not every day we get such a powerful being in these walls,” Mr. Grady says cheerfully. He packs his stuff back into the clear bag and walks over to the armoire. “Now, just to get you dressed and you’re all set.” He fumbles around through the dresses before finally saying, “Ah! Perfect!”

  He walks over to me and shows me a black dress. The bodice is satin with lace overlapping it. It’s strapless with a sweetheart neckline. The skirt, however, is awful. It’s made of nothing but black feathers. There is a V-shape cut out in the front to show off the legs of the wearer, and the feathers go back into a train.

  I take that back. This tops the hair in the ridiculous category. Gah! Who the hell thinks feathers belong on a dress?

  “This will make you look like a dark angel. I think they’ll quite enjoy it.”

  Again, I hold back a snort. He had no idea how right he was by that comparison. Just wait until I have my moment, they’ll see just how much of a dark angel I can be.

  Since this auction will most likely bring me to a room with several exits because of a crowd, there’s a good chance I could escape from there. Unless, the place is heavily guarded. Which it most likely will be.

  I’m optimistic, though. There has to be a way to get away from these people and get to Monroe. I know Enoch and Larkan had to have noticed I’ve been gone by now. They’ll most definitely be looking for me. At least, I know Larkan will. I have every bit of faith we could take these fuckers down together.

  I’m quickly shuffled from the room. This corridor is a bit cleaner and much better lit than those disgusting cells the Damned were placed in.

  As we walk down the hall, I can feel Monroe getting closer to me. The hall has several doors like the one I was held behind, so odds are this is where all their prisoners go before being auctioned then brought down to the cells below.

  We come around a corner and I see another door that’s guarded with six more Lupin guards, all wearing heavy, black combat gear like the others; three on either side of the door. Behind the door, I can feel Monroe.

  Sure enough, as we go to pass it, I see his handsome face peer through the small window. I go to move towards him, but he shakes his head at me and winks. He mouths ‘just keep walking’ at me and nods. I subtly nod back, hoping none of the guards saw that exchange. If they did, they didn’t seem to care. After all, they felt safe with him behind a locked door and me in chains. Why should they care?

  We go up two more flights of stairs and three more corridors. It doesn’t take me long to realize this place looks like an old hospital of some sort. The layout looks like an asylum I visited about seventy years ago. I knew a Damned that fed off the fear of the patients there that owed me some money. I hated the place. I wasn’t a huge fan of humans, especially now, but I still didn’t agree with the conditions of places like this so long ago.

  However, this place was renovated to suit these people’s needs. The higher we go, the cleaner and fancier the place becomes. By the time we reach what I believe is the top floor, you’d never guess it was once an asylum at all.

  The fluorescent lights have been replaced with small chandeliers. The floors appear to be white marble. The walls are plaster and painted a gold color, and there are several pots of flowers and other plants to liven up the place. It gives me the chills at how they tried to disguise this place as somewhere nice when it was anything but that.

  The guards take me through a set of double doors that lead to another room that looks to be the back of a stage. There’s light equipment and props lying all over the place. Several other Damned are chained next to their own set of guards, all looking down at their feet in fear.

  They’re all dolled up like I am. The men are dressed in fine tailored suits, and the women in an array of ball gowns much like mine, only theirs are all white.

  This is just sick…

  All of the Damned in the room begin to perk up and look to me, having probably felt my presence. However, their faces fall once again when they see I’m chained just as they are, only more heavily.

  One of the males, an Incubus, goes to say something to me, but I slowly shake my head at him in warning. There’s no telling what these people would do to him if he tried speaking to me, so it’s best he kept quiet while we’re surrounded. Thankfully, the Incubus looks to the guards and understands. He closes his mouth and resumes his forlorn look like the others.

  “Listen up, monsters,” a human guard says, his tone giving off as much disdain as his facial expression. “You’re all about to auctioned off to the highest bidders. Whoever buys you, gets to decide what to do with you. No matter what though, you won’t be leaving this facility. You’re slaves. They can torture you, kill you, or even fuck you. I don’t really care. Either way, you’re theirs for however long they want. Got it?”

  The others nod their heads, but I only glare at the man. He sneers at me but makes no comment at my lack of agreement.

  A loud voice booms into a microphone through the door that I could only guess leads to the stage.

  “Ladies and gentlemen! May I have all eyes to me! We have a beautiful collection of different species to show you tonight! However, I must warn you; no matter how beautiful these creatures may look, they are not human and are very dangerous. We thank you all for participating in this truly remarkable event.” The announcer adds.

  I’m going to fucking kill them for this; the Lupin included. Do they not care that I’m their Arbiter, or are they hoping I’m tortured and killed during this shit show because of who I am?

  “Most of you are repeat clients and know what is expected should you win the bid, but just in case this is your first time here at The Factory, I shall remind you of the rules,” the announcer continues. “Once a bid is placed, you cannot resend your offer. Once your purchase is made, there are no exchanges or returns. You are not required to kill your prize, but you are required to return them to us should you not. No creature in the auction is to be taken from this facility or you shall reap the consequences. A Non-Disclosure Agreement will be signed before acquiring your prize to make sure none of what happens within these walls will be discussed outside of them. And finally, each winning bid will be given a private room of their choice to follow through with whatever they plan to do with their asset. We have luxurious rooms in the higher levels for more privacy, as well as chambers in the lower levels of the building that will supply you with many tools of choice for torturing needs.”

  A round of applause meets my ears from the audience. My stomach rolls with bile. These sick fucks all deserve to die. It doesn’t matter that we are different.
We feel as deeply as humans, if not more. We deserve to live normal lives just as much as they do.

  They will all pay.

  “Without further ado, let’s meet our auctions for the night! We have a wide range of specimens for you, as well as a special auction at the end of the night.” The man announces, and the applause grows.

  Without a doubt, that special auction is me. I reach deep within myself and feel my power coming back little bits at a time. The serum they injected is thankfully wearing off. I hide my smile of satisfaction as one of the guards opens the door and the Damned are lead out one by one. I’m the last to be herded through.

  I tune out the applause and push down at my power, making sure to hide it as much as possible from the Damned who are guarding us. They already know who I am, so hiding that isn’t the goal. It’s because I plan to let them believe that I am vulnerable, and they are safe. I want them to think that they have all the power. I want them to feel like they’ve gotten away with something and will reap the benefits of the deal they’ve made.

  When in fact, they will meet their end in this room. And no amount of power will save them from the eternal Damnation I will rain down upon them and every human in there.

  I’m the fucking Arbiter, and I’ll show no mercy.

  Monroe

  I knew she was here the moment she stepped through the doors of this damned place.

  I knew her scent and the feel of her power like I knew my own. I was both elated and pissed all at once. There’s no way she’d been captured. She’d have let them take her. My girl was much too strong to come unwillingly.

  I wait patiently in this bare room, biding my time until the right moment. I’m not sure why they put me in here, but I can only imagine it’s because they knew their pathetic silver cell couldn’t hold me. Honestly, this room probably couldn’t hold me either, which is why they’ve kept me sedated a majority of my stay since taking me.

  It’s a bit insulting actually.