“Bring her here,” the dark haired vampire instructed, pointing to where Silas stood with his back to me.

The doctor, who had wheeled me in, moved me to the centre of the circle beside Silas. I felt the burning gazes of the crowd and for the first time I felt fearful of what was going to happen. Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good?

I snuck a glance at Silas but his gaze was fixed straight ahead on the council of Vampires and the leader who stood before us.

The crowd was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.

“Avery,” the dark haired vampire said as his eyes took me in.

My hands gripped the sides of the wheelchair. Even if I wanted to run, I was not physically able to.

Any hope I had that Silas would stop this evaporated with each moment that passed when he refused to even look at me.

What had given me hope in a world where there had been none before began to die a slow death as I faced a room full of vampires on my own.

“You have broken one of our most sacred laws.”

What on earth was he talking about? I had done nothing wrong. My anger in that moment outweighed the fear that had kept me silent. If no one was going to help I would have to do this myself.

“What have I done?” I asked.

The vampire looked slightly surprised I had spoken.

Silas stiffened beside me.

“You were the cause of this transgression between two vampires therefore you will bear the punishment.”

It was unbelievable. I wanted to scoff but I dared not.

“Thane attacked me. How am I responsible for that?” I found my voice despite my fear.

“You dare argue with me Sire,” the vampire’s voice boomed through the room. The air vibrated with his anger. “Who do you think you are?”

Silas stepped in front of me, hiding me from the view of the leader of the council. I was thankful for the reprieve, not being in the direct line of the leader’s displeasure.

“If this wasn’t a legal gathering she would be dead already,” the leader announced with a growl.

Now I wished I had just kept quiet as I had made things so much worse. I was thankful that Silas had blocked the view of the angry Vampire.

“She is of no use to us dead,” Silas spoke. His voice calm where I was still shaking inside. It was a reminder of the balance of power, and how little power I held in this world. “The child or children she can bear will add to our population, it’ll make us stronger and more formidable to our enemies.”

I was only good for a ‘use’, nothing else. I was only alive for what they could get from me.

“One less Sire will not greatly impact our existence,” the vampire argued.

“I disagree. We need to protect every possible child. I fear if we don’t, our kind will face extinction before we even realize it.”

The crowd gasped. By their reaction it was clear that this was not the norm.

“A sire who can bear our children is far too important to be punished, no matter what they have done.” Silas stood tall, unwavering.

Why was nobody arguing that I could not be held accountable for the actions of others? This was unfairly slanted in the favor of vampires.

“I disagree.”

I held my breath. This was not going well.

“Unless you can come up with a valid law to defend her she will be punished for this transgression. Severely punished.”

I trembled. I didn’t want to be stabbed in the heart like Thane had. Besides I had done nothing to deserve any kind of punishment.

A vampire stepped out of the crowd to stand beside Silas.

I didn’t recognize him.

“I will remind you that it is forbidden for a vampire to take or destroy what belongs to another. It’s a punishable transgression. Haven’t we just witnessed you enforcing that law?”

“Are you threatening me?” the leader asked, his anger thickened the air.

The stranger shook his head. “I’m stating facts.”

Oh wow. I waited to see how the leader would respond, I peered past the form of Silas to see the face of the dark haired vampire so still it was difficult to read.

“Get her out of here Silas. But make no mistake. If she ever appears before me again for any transgression your clever games will not save her. Do you understand me?”

Silas held his glare before the leader stormed off.

The crowed began to disperse.

“Get her out of here,” Silas said to the stranger, who gave him a slight nod in acceptance of his command.

I didn’t even get a chance to say anything to Silas as he disappeared into the crowd. He hadn’t even looked at me.

I had no choice but to go with the stranger who steered me out of the building and straight into a car. He helped me into the car while the driver packed the wheelchair into the trunk of the car.

I felt like my world had been turned upside down. I was still feeling the affects of Thane’s beating and the realization of how little I was valued in this new world I was trying to survive.

The stranger sat beside me in silence as the car sped from the compound.

“Where are we going?” I asked when I noticed we weren’t going back into the city.

“Perhaps you should concentrate on keeping yourself out of trouble instead of other inconsequential details,” he replied, quite rudely. “Next time, you won’t walk out of there alive.”

At that moment, I’d had enough of his kind and the treatment of me. I couldn’t keep quiet, even if I had wanted to.

“I didn’t do anything. Thane came into the room and attacked me,” I stated angrily. “I had no hand in it.”

“Stay out of trouble Avery, or you won’t last long enough to fulfill your purpose,” he retorted, sparking my anger to another level.

But it was pointless arguing with him. It was wasted time and energy.

Feeling dejected and alone, all I wanted to was to crawl under the covers in a bed and hide for a while. I was too raw and vulnerable to deal with any of this.

I ignored the rude stranger and fixed my eyes on the scenery, trying to settle the fear that remained. Why didn’t I just tell them to kill me and get it over and done with? What was the point in continuing in a world I clearly didn’t fit into?

It was difficult to find a reason to live for, something worth fighting for.

“If I’m punished, what will happen to my family?” I asked softly. If my family would survive, I would give in and allow them to punish me.

Maybe it would be the only way out.

The stranger looked at me. “Rowen is a spiteful bastard. He will murder your family in front of you before he punishes you.” His tone matter of fact like we were discussing the weather and not the life of humans.

The horror made me recoil. I couldn’t allow that to happen but I wasn’t sure I had any control.

The incident with Thane hadn’t been my fault and it hadn’t mattered. I wasn’t being punished because I did something wrong. They wanted to punish me because Thane couldn’t accept he had lost me to Silas. It was that simple.

I hadn’t done anything wrong, so how was I supposed to make sure I didn’t end up back in front of Rowen. A new fear hung over my head like a guillotine. Not only was my life on the line, but those of my parents hung in the balance as well.

The fear that no matter what I did, I would end up facing Rowen again settled in me for the long haul. There would be no easy fix.

How I wished I had never been subjected to any of this? Why couldn’t this have happened to someone else? Why had it happened to me?

All I had was questions, no answers. I couldn’t even remember what happened to me, I didn’t even know who was responsible for my current predicament.