THE AUCTION

Tatina POV

Draco and I pull into the Holy Cross church; as we are about to go around into the basement, I notice a lot of activity across the street. They think they are playing us. Someone got some insufficient information to Lester.

“Baby, the auction is over there, not here. Someone did not tell the truth when asked about the auction,” I say to him, pointing toward the lights.

We both watch as familiar buyers go into the building. “Are you seeing this? Look, Tibo lied to Lester. That snake. It would be best if you let Lester know before they let him go, and he can warn somebody,” I say to Draco.

“Yeah, you are right. I will text Lester to let him know that Tibo lied to him, just in case he thinks about going soft on him. I doubt it, but you never know,” Draco says.

He pulls out his phone and sends a message to Lester. “Alright, let’s go,” Draco says.

I look over to see a familiar face as Draco, and I get out of the car. It is Dominque. I cannot let him distract Draco right now. Maybe he will not see him until we have Renae and everyone out. I want Horace, but I will not risk anyone's life for it.

We walk across the street and then down an alleyway. We go to the farthest back door of the building. The back will be the perfect spot to go in the building. I know nothing will be easy, but this part is the fun part. It is also the part Draco likes best.

Draco throws his black backpack onto the ground. He takes out his unique blend of vampire explosives. He hooks everything up to the back door. “Baby, go ahead and get under something now in case this blows too fast, please. I do not want anything to happen to you,” Draco says, pointing for me to move out of his way. He always worries about me. I think he forgets that I have done this without him, but I will let him be protective if he wants to be for now.

I do as he tells me to. I can actually set the explosive devices better than he can, but I let him be the man in this scenario. There is no way I would ever tell him that I am better at this than him.

I get down behind a dumpster about 50 feet behind him. I hunker down and wait for him to join me. It goes quiet for a minute while I wait for him. Then I hear him run and cover me with his body. He always feels like he has to protect me when we blow something up; he is such a good man. After a few seconds, the back door blows wide open. He checks to make sure I am okay, and then we run into the building. This is my favorite part. The part where we make them pay and rescue the women.

The key to shutting down the auction with minimal life loss is to be as quick as possible. We usually grab the auctioneers first, then free the prisoners; next, we arrest the bidders, and then my absolute favorite part, we burn the place to the ground. Generally, after we follow all of these steps, we call the vampire authority, and the vampire authority sends people to clean up the mess. This time is different. This time the vampire authority is backing us up in the raid. It is odd having them on our side and not trying to take over or accuse us of anything. The authority is a little hard to deal with sometimes. I expect this time to be no different, no matter how much they say they are backing us up.

Draco and I jump through the rubble and try to make it through the back door as quickly as possible. The faster we grab the auctioneers, the easier this will be on everyone involved, including the prisoners. It is hard to get the prisoners out if the auctioneers are still running loose. Once they see they are safe, they come quickly and willingly. They will trust us and know we are not trying to hurt them. These women have been through a lot.

I already can hear screams and panic as we make our way into the building and past the rubble. I hate going in blind like this, but we will manage. We usually have so much more information when we come into an auction house, but not this time. Hell, we did not even have the correct location. This means we need to check the church before we leave., I got a feeling there is something over there that Tibo wanted us to see. I am damn sure not leaving it up to the authority to check it out. I will never believe that they are out of the auction business.

As Draco and I make our way up the hall, I see a caged door. I look into the small window trying not to rattle the cage. “Draco, she is in here. I found Renae,” I scream to him as he goes down the hall looking for Horace.

One of the women with her run over to the window to talk to me. “I have been looking out for her. They have her heavily drugged, and she cannot move at all. Please, you have to help her,” the woman says.

“I will be back to help all of you. Just stay calm for me. I need to get more help to get you out,” I say to her.

“Please do not leave us behind. Please, we are afraid of him,” She says to me, crying through the small window.

I reach my hand up to the window, trying to reassure her. “I will not leave any person in here behind. Every person will get out of her today. You have my word,” I say to her.

“Okay,” she says. She is crying and sobbing as I release her hand.

“You all need to stay back away from the door. I will have to blow it if I cannot get the keys,” I say to the women in the room. They all move to the back of the room.

I go down the hall. I turn to my right, and I see the bastard opening the door right where I am standing.

“BITCH!” he yells at me.

Draco comes from the other side and knocks Horace off his ass onto the ground. “Don’t talk to my wife that way,” Draco says.

I kick the shit out of Horace while he is down. I step over him while Draco secures him. I go after Drea. Shee is quivering with the women who were in here bathing for their auction.

“Get up!” I scream at her.

I pull her out from behind them. They give her up with no problem. I drag her across the floor, kicking and screaming like a little bitch. I throw her down beside Horace.

“Call Lester to come to get these fuckers,” I say to Draco.

"I am a victim," Drea cries out to me.

"If you are, then you will have to explain it to the authority, okay," I say to her. I am not sure if she is a worker or a prisoner, but it is not for me to decide. I will let the authority figure it out.

“There are two more auctioneers here,” a little voice says from behind me.

I go back to the women cowering in the corner. All of them are naked, wet, and terrified. I grab some towels to cover their bodies. “I will see if I can find you all some clothes to put on that does not look like hooker clothes. For now, wrap up in these towels,” I say to all of them.

“There is some stuff in that closet that we can wear,” one of the women points to a closet in the other corner.

I bend down to her. “Why don’t you go over there and get clothes for everyone and help them get dressed. It would help me a lot. I would appreciate it very much,” I say to her.

She walks over to the closet and gets several outfits out for everyone. “Well, it is clothes, but we will all look like tramps,” she says to me as she starts passing out the only clothing she could find.

“When we get you settled, we can get clothes for you. Don’t worry about that. You will all be taken care of, I promise,” I say to her.

“Where are the other auctioneers?” I ask the women.

One of the women gets up quietly and points to a small door on the other side of a tub. I go over to the tub. I inspect the small door. There is no handle; it must be a secret room or something. I begin to push on the wall panel, trying to get it to open. As I am fumbling with it, the most petite woman comes over to me. She touches my shoulder but does not speak. I move back out of her way. She points to places on the wall panel then moves away from the panel. I begin to tap the panel in several areas, and the panel opens.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here? I think there are rats in the walls. I am the exterminator here bitches,” I say.

The small woman smiles at me but still does not speak. Draco comes over and grabs the other two auctioneers and puts them with Drea and Draco.

“What’s your name?” I ask her.

She opens her mouth to reveal that her tongue was recently removed by one of these bastards. The stitches are fresh. This enrages me even more. Why? What is the reason behind something so horrible? They have to pay for this. I do not want her to see how upset I am. I close my eyes for a moment to fight back the tears.

“Can you show me who did this to you?” I ask her.

She shakes her head yes. She takes my hand and walks me over to Horace. She points at Horace. “Thank you,” I tell her.

“Hey, come here,” I yell across the room to the woman that helped me get clothes for everyone.

She walks over to me. “yes,” she says so calmly.

“Find me some scissors,” I say to her.

She goes to the cabinet where the clothes are, grabs a pair of scissors out, and brings them to me. She places the scissors in my hand.

“Tatina, do not even think about it; the authority wants information from him. You cannot cut his tongue out before they talk to him. Maybe after but not before,” Draco says.

“He can keep his tongue,” I say to Draco.

I hear Lester and some other authority members coming in the back door. I grab Horace by his pants. I unbuckle him and unzip him.

“What is she doing?” Lester asks as if he comes into the room.

“You might want to back up; it is about to get bloody in here,” Draco says.

I pull down Horace's pants. “I remember a long time ago when you were dying to take off your pants and take advantage of me, you pig bastard. Now you are cutting out tongues and playing with these women. Now you will pay for what you have done,” I say to him.

“What does it matter? They are all whores, and that one would not stop screaming when I fucked her. I had to shut her up. Ask her what else I did to her? She was sweet,” Horace says.

I grab him by the balls and make one quick cut. I stand up. I do not want to get blood on my shoes. “He is all yours, Lester,” I say as I throw the scissors down on the floor.

“Did she cut off his balls?” Lester asks. I am not sure if he is impressed or upset. Either way, I do not care really.

“Yes, I did, and I do not want to hear any bull shit about it either. Got it! Look what he did to that girl over there with no tongue,” I say as I go back to help the women out the door. I motion for all of them to come on. They do not need to be in the middle of all of this. I usher them down the hall and direct them to the back door.

“There will be people waiting to help you when you get outside. Do not be afraid, okay,” I say to them.

The small woman with no tongue comes up to me and hugs me. I hug her back. “I am sorry this happened to you,” I say to her.

“Do you know if Renae is here? Have you seen here?” Lester asks Draco as I come back into the bathing area.

“Yeah, she is in the room down the hall locked in. Two women are looking out for her. She is paralyzed and comatose. They gave her a lot of drugs. Lester, she is in bad shape,” I say to Lester.

“I will get her,” Draco says.

“I will help,” I say as I follow Draco out of the bathing area.

I can hear Horace screaming from the room as we walk down the hall. I smile. He deserves everything he gets. I hope the authority chops his dick off. Hell, I will do it if they let me. Maybe I will even if they say NO.