Strange Owner

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 master's 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 a long time I fiddled with the handle until the water was hot.

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

"Alright." *What is 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 probably don't want to know.*

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 eat 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. But I won't kill you."

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 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 unless they caught the light.

"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.