Laina had never been to a daytime slave auction before. Usually she came at night, needing the darkness outside to keep her from being in pain, but now that the sky was always darkened by those hideous storm clouds, day and night were not so different, and the vampiress could survive either without difficulty. Today was a particularly grim day, especially in Taeliya, which Laina was honestly quite glad to be away from for a while: the thunder had been so loud this morning that it had woken her from what she had hoped would be a long and comfortable lie in, and she hadn't been at all pleased about it. Her home city got the worst of the storm, she was convinced, and there was only so much of it that she could take before she found it quite a depressing phenomenon.

For most people, there would have been no logic at all in trying to avoid depression by coming to Elier. But Laina was not like most people: the slave city did not upset her. She cared nothing for the innocents being led to the auction houses, condemned to lives of imprisonment and misery; cared not at all that parents were being torn apart from their children, and lovers were being divided forever: she had lost her daughter and her husband, so everyone should have to suffer the same pain: it was only fair. Rather than hate it for the agony it caused to so many, she was glad of the slave trade, because having slaves to pamper her and do almost everything for her made her life both very easy and very enjoyable. And didn't she deserve that, now that her lovely Nagi was King of the World, and she, his invaluable Demon Lady, had helped him to succeed in his cause?

It was because of Nagi that she was here today. She personally owed the king several replacement slaves now (well, it wasn't her fault: they had looked so inviting, and their blood had been positively calling out to her – how could she not have caved to the pressure and drained them of every delicious crimson droplet?) and she had decided it was time to repay him, especially since she had been looking for an excuse for a day out anyway, even somewhere as grim and unscenic as this. She had just arrived in the auction house to see what spoils she could get her hands on, both for Nagi and for herself, since she had an absolute fortune at her disposal, when she had overheard a slave trader talking about a convoy of children being brought for sale today, and listening in discretely for a minute longer had told her to look for them around the back of the auction house, where she headed without delay.

Of course, she wasn't going to steal them, but if she got to see which ones she wanted beforehand, she could easily persuade their owner to hand them over to her without having to risk being outbid at an auction, whether with a small tip or a quick favour in the back room. Laina was used to getting what she wanted, and everyone knew it, but at least she was prepared to half earn it with a bit of give and take. She was particularly keen on the idea of buying some younger slaves: they were more responsive to training and manipulation when they were younger, and the younger they started, the more years of service they had to give. They would be well worth anything she invested in them, and she was more than ready to do whatever necessary to make sure she got them. Avoiding attention, so that no other interested party would get the same idea and follow her, the vampiress crept stealthily around to the back of the auction house to get a look at the little slaves on offer.

At first, she thought the woman standing by the convoy must be one of the workers at the auction house. But her rapid heartbeat caught Laina's attention. It was the heartbeat of someone who was afraid of being caught... and the way she was dealing with that lock made it clear that she had no intention of buying one of the slaves. Laina's eyes narrowed: she didn't like it when people tried to get in the way of slavery (they would do themselves a better favour by just learning to live with it!), and she had a mind to put this foolish woman in her proper place for such a sickeningly noble display of disregard for the law. "I wouldn't try that if I were you," she said quietly, with the faintest trace of a threat in her voice. Who did this woman think she was, trying to set slaves free? Didn't she understand anything about the way the world worked now? Perhaps it was a lesson Laina would have to teach her... and that wouldn't be fun at all. Not for Desirea, anyway.

With her enhanced hearing, Laina overheard the whispered promise of freedom, and her eyes narrowed further: she didn't like this at all. Slaves were just that, and they were, definitively, not supposed to be free. Perhaps it wasn't fun for them, but it was the way things were supposed to be, Laina was convinced of it, and they had to respect their place in the food chain and the right of superior beings to dominate them. Perhaps the little slaves-to-be did understand it, certainly better than the woman trying to set them free: they had seen Laina watching, and they hadn't run. She wondered if they knew who she was, or if they just saw her as one of those slave-dealers who would be furious if they got away. Either way, they would be afraid of her, and she liked that.

They would be right to be afraid. They would even be right to wish they had never been born.

Then their rescuer turned to look at her at last, and Laina's reddish-brown eyes connected with the blue ones now fixed upon her, conveying her anger without words. Who was this poorly-dressed rebel with so little regard for the laws of slavery? She had a scent of dog about her: the sort that Laina recognised as not unlike the wolfish scent she had once associated with herself, and that she noticed now on her deeply-desired Derek every time she was lucky enough to get an excuse to go near him. Perhaps this woman was some sort of canine demon, too... either that, or she spent a lot of time with a lot of dogs. Which, Laina thought, as she examined the tramp-like attire the woman was clad in, wasn't actually as unlikely as all that.

Desirea's comment about the number of slaves Laina must have amused her. From looking at her, someone would certainly think it to be true. But anyone who knew who and what she was knew the infamy of her slaves' mortality rate. "Oh, but darling, I am short on slaves," she replied. "I suppose they blame me, but what am I to do? They don't realise how easy they are to break... how satisfying I find their blood..." Yes, Laina killed a lot of her slaves, and a lot of King Nagendra's slaves, too, and clearly she had no problem with admitting it. She maintained throughout that she just couldn't help it: that if anyone deserved the blame, it was Kariyu, her fellow Demon Lord and loathed but needed lover. After all, it was he who had bitten her and turned her; he who had made her into the bloodthirsty murderess that she had become. It was all his fault.

Even though she had asked him to do it.

Desirea certainly had guts, and in a twisted sort of way, Laina admired her for carrying on trying to free the would-be slaves. She was going to be fun to break, and Laina was glad she could be the one to do it. The vampiress watched, without moving or saying another word, as Desirea began to pick the second lock. She knew what she was doing, Laina would give her that. But that just made her a potential danger – what would happen if all these slaves escaped? – and Laina knew it fell to her to intervene and stop the catastrophe Desirea was planning. She moved like lightning: one second she was standing motionless and watching; the next she was standing right beside Desirea, and her hand was clasped in an iron grip around the woman's wrist. For a moment she was caught somewhat off guard: this woman's skin was far warmer to the touch than Laina had ever come across before. Perhaps she had been taking her too lightly: she clearly had some sort of power. Although, Laina suspected, Desirea was taking her too lightly, too.

"It is a good thing I'm not you," she agreed, and there was an awfully sinister edge in her voice as she leaned towards Desirea and whispered into her ear: "I would hate to endure the punishment for trying to free slaves..." Was Laina going to be enforcing that punishment? She hadn't decided yet. She was more interested in seeing whether this woman would back down and stop her little act of heroism, or whether she would carry on despite the warning - threat, even - that she had been given. Either way, she would end up suffering for it.