I couldn’t feel the cold anymore.

Maybe it was the fear. Maybe it was the bitter stone floor under my knees, numbing me until I couldn’t tell the difference between being alive and simply waiting to be owned.

The underground auction was everything I imagined hell would be. Lavish, loud, and lit with too much gold. Not warmth. Not kindness. Just excess. Vampires lounged like kings on velvet-draped balconies, shadows of other creatures snarling beneath their masks. Some humanoid, others... less so. All of them hungry.

And I was tonight’s delicacy.

A spotlight burned down on me like a curse. I kept my eyes lowered, but I could feel the...