Abel rose gingerly from his seat when the tattooist was finished, feeling very faint and wobbling slightly as he made his way forward to join the others before him.

The vampires treated him a little more carefully now, one of them escorted him as he walked through the fence to the next area, keeping an eye on him as he went in case he were to fall.

‘You will be treated well’ the vampire escorting him spoke out of the blue. ‘As long as you remain submissive you will be treated to a privileged life…but I wouldn’t push my luck if I were you, we can make things very very unpleasant for you.’

Abel said nothing.

The vampire smiled at that, please at his silence.

‘You will be offered as a gift to our young vampire lord’ he continued, ‘if he accepts, you will be his personal property. You are to behave yourself, any harm caused to the young lord will punished severely.’ The vampire paused then, bowing his head. ‘We would never kill you, your rare blood type is too valuable, but we can make you suffer.’ He fell silent then, walking through the camp quietly, Abel walking slowly a step behind him. ‘There was one human a long time ago with a rare blood type like yourself’ the vampire continued. ‘He was disobedient, he tried to escape, he harmed one of the vampires guarding the lords manor.’ He paused then. ‘That was many many years ago, he has not been allowed out of his cell since that day.’ The vampire smiled then. ‘It is a hard life for him. He is….pinned to the centre of the room, his arms and legs bound into place. Do you know how an ant queen is trapped in her cell, her soul purpose to continue to produce more ants for the colony, more ands to look after her?’

Abel glanced towards the vampire then, his eyes widening slightly.

‘He has never been visited directly again by any of the royal family’ the vampire continued, ‘tubes connected to him allow his blood to run directly from his body and into the room above. His fresh blood is taken through a tap, and given to the lords.’ The vampire smiled with cruelty. ‘The human is very well cared for’ he added almost as a sarcastic joke. ‘He is very well fed; his body is kept clean.’ He smiled again, eyes shining as he stared at Abel, his attention transfixed.

Abel breathed a sigh of relief when the vampire faced ahead again, from then on he continued to walk in silence.

Abel was taken to a barracks, while the other human prisoners were organised by another group of vampires, gathered outside as more paperwork was filled in, Abel was taken inside.

‘This one is your bed’ the vampire told him, indicating the bed closest to the door, there were many lined up on either side, and nothing else inside the barracks which were otherwise empty.

‘Your registration and paperwork are being filled out’ the vampire said to him as Abel collapsed onto the bed, his head swimming. ‘You will be brought to the manor when the lord returns.’ He paused then, considering him. Abel only stared ahead.

He thought the vampire would speak again, but he didn’t, instead he turned and stormed out of the barracks, without a backwards glance.

Abel let out a breath, shoulders slumped. He lay back on the bed, closing his eyes.

The sheets he lay on were clean, but the mattress felt a little hard, the pillow a little thin.

Abel opened his eyes again, thinking about the vampires, thinking about his imprisonment.

The humans would be cared for, unless they caused trouble, unless they were not needed. The humans would cost money for the vampires, who had created their own currency. This world was truly the vampires now, there were vampire political parties, vampire police and vampires involved with healthcare. There was even an organisation that managed vampires who were ‘listless’, that’s what the vampires called them. Humans called them many things, ‘students’. ‘unemployed’, ‘disabled’, ‘elderly’. These were the vampires that could not care for themselves, ones that were too young or too old, ones that had been permanently damaged during the war. This was truly their world now Abel realised, and they were settling it.

‘This is going to be hard’ Abel mumbled to himself. How can we get this world back to our own…?