"What is the purpose of your visit?" the guard couldn't help but scan at the woman next to the pureblooded vampire. 

The guard was a half-vampire who was turned from human to vampire, he wondered if the woman was brought here to be sold as she appeared to be human. It wasn't the first time people brought in possible slaves before being sold to this establishment for the sake of money. Most of them often conned women and men, misusing the trust by swindling lies and false promises to only throw them here to get a good amount of cash. 

After all, money was something that stood above all of the relations. 

It wouldn't be a surprise if the pureblooded vampire was going to sell this girl here today, but he felt pity that the man wasn't going to keep such a beautiful woman with her womanly curves. 

Penny glared at the guard when his eyes reached her neckline, "My eyes are up here, mister. Not on my chest," she said to have the guard quickly look up at her eyes. Yes, the girl had good eyes too, thought the guard to himself. Strangely she appeared to be familiar but he was sure he would know her if she was a former slave. 

Damien fished something in his pocket and gave a black card to the guardsman whose eyes widened, "If you want to keep those two eyes of yours you better stop looking at her," he gave a wide smile to the guardsman.

The card was something that only the higher pureblooded vampires carried. A card that meant to not to be questioned of their ident.i.ty as the little card was enough to speak for them. 

"Please come in," the guardsman bowed his head, "Would you want me to call the warden for you so that he can a.s.sist you better?"

"Yes, that would be lovely. How is he here today? I thought he must be shaking some woman in his home," Damien's blunt words made its way out of his mouth. 

The guard didn't look stunned. Rather he was used to the language, much more coa.r.s.e that was used on the slaves and the guards themselves who guarded the establishment. 

"Let me take you in," the guardsman took the privilege to take the highly esteemed elite inside the building, let them pa.s.s as well as he motioned his hands towards the other two guards. Two guardsmen had to push the gates, to let them pa.s.s. Penny looked at the place, the feeling of nauseousness returning to her sense as she remembered the little time she had spent here. 

She could hear the screams coming from somewhere that echoed back from the tall walls, without letting anyone from the outside know what was going on in here. They pa.s.sed through the many cells which had slaves imprisoned. 

"How do you feel?" Damien whispered for only Penny to hear when the guardsman used the rod to hit the bars of one cell which had a slave crying and begging for his attention. 

"Nauseous," Penny answered him.

"Don't worry. You have me here. If you faint I will take you away from here, I won't leave you here," Damien promised that gave solace to her mind. She knew that. She was already aware that she had Damien next to her and it made her feel braver than the last time she was in here. 

It felt like a faded memory which she didn't want to remember and had tried to erase it. How funny, thought Penny to herself. There were some memories she didn't want to remember while there were some that had been made to forget. Only if she could trade and get back the right ones. 

"Have you been here before?" she asked him curiously as she didn't ask him this question before. 

"Two times, this being the third time. The first time I came here for council business with Lord Nicholas. The next time I came here with a friend of mine, her name was Meredith," Penny remembered this piece of information as she had also heard it from Maggie, Damien's elder sister.

"I am sorry about her," Penny responded back for him to run his hand through his hair. She wondered if the memory hurt him, "Maggie told me that you despised slaves because of it."

"I did," he replied as they followed the guard who was way past in the front and they were walking behind him with a good distance between them so that their words didn't spill out to reach his ears or anyone else's, "Meredith was Sentencia's cousin. She was younger than us. Maybe by four years? She needed someone, a slave, in particular, to listen and love."

"Sometimes we pure-blooded vampires envy the middle and lower-cla.s.s families, Penny. I don't speak about me as my parents gave us more attention than we asked but there are some who are busy with their pride and egos, feeding them to the society without giving a dime of time to the children. These children are often neglected and very lonely. Some cope up while some cannot. Sentencia had sent me along with Meredith."

"Were you the one who picked the slave for her?" she asked him, wondering if this was why he hated the slaves before meeting her. 

"I merely accompanied her here to the establishment. I wonder sometimes if it would have been different if I had picked the slave for her, to choose the right one than she picking the wrong one who was responsible to kill her," came out Damien's response, his voice had not lost its essence as it continued with the same tone without falling down or rising up, "Of course, there's no one to blame to. After all, I wasn't the one who suggested she buy a salve. Spoilt children are adamant and don't listen."