Khalissi practically threw herself at me, her well-endowed figure crashing down on me as if getting hit by two giant balloons.

"Master~" She squealed as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Khalissi? What is it?"

"Can I sleep in your room tonight, pwetty please?! hick*"

She seductively trailed her finger up my chest with a teasing smile on her face. Her nightgown was just flimsy enough so I could get a peek that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. It was quite the convincing act.

"Come in," I said, guiding her into my room and closing the door behind us.

The moment she entered my room, she sprawled herself onto my bed, not caring how revealing her clothes were.

"Master, would you like to have fun with me?" she giggled, putting on a shy act.

"Actually, I would," I said as I released a bit of my bloodlust.

My ominous killing intent wafted through the room and wrapped itself around her, and at that moment her entire body froze stiff. Her seductive act disappeared in an instant.

"W-What are you doing?"

"I don’t know your reasons for coming here, but it was a careless act on your part."

"Master, I—"

She tried to speak, but her throat clamped up. Her entire face went pale as if all the blood had been sucked out of it. Her mind hadn’t caught up but her body knew she was trapped in a room with a predator. Her natural instincts screamed at her to leave yet she couldn’t move an inch. Her entire body trembled in fear and her breath hitched as if she was afraid to even breathe in my presence.

I slowly paced around the room, looking her up and down. Her appearance to Khalissi was uncanny, down to the wings on her back and the antennae on her head. Only thing different was their mannerism.

"Why did you decide to come here?" I asked.

Her lips remained silent as she tried to catch the words like a mouse trapped in front of a dangerous animal.

"Speak."

"I just wanted to see you, that’s all!" she sputtered out.

"You’ve been eyeing us ever since we entered the inn. Why? No, before you answer, remove that disguise, Ivy."

Her eyes widened.

"You knew it was me?"

Of course, the person following us was none other than Ivy, the shapeshifter I met at Allison’s university. The girl who looked and dressed as if she harvested organs for a living.

Slowly, she returned to her true form, her skin melting off with a glossy sheen that looked like silver. The moment I could see her true form, I suppressed my bloodlust a little so she could relax a bit.

Her body naturally relaxed and she straightened herself up.

"You’ve gotten more piercings and tattoos on you since the last time I saw you." I said trying to smoothen the heavy atmosphere.

"You have no idea."

She spoke in a calm tone but I could tell that she was still shaken up from experiencing my bloodlust even though I suppressed it quite a bit.

"Anyway, why did you come to my room?" I asked, pulling out a chair and taking a seat adjacent to the bed she was sitting on.

If I kept towering over her, she would remain afraid of me. I needed her calm and talking. Taking a seat and getting down on her level would help with that.

"I was going to rock your world... in exchange for a favor, of course."

"Do you normally exchange your body for favors?"

She rested her index finger on her lip, which was colored in black lipstick. She looked as if she was genuinely thinking about my question.

"Depending on the favor... depends on the guy," she responded, licking her lips, and I noticed three more piercings on her tongue.

"You’re going to have to do better than that."

"It’s better if you don’t underestimate me. My tits may be small, but they are perky and I’m good with my tongue."

As crude as ever, just like her appearance. This is the type of girl my mother always warned me to stay away from.

"That’s not what I meant. I’m not particularly interested in you in that way. If you want a favor, then you’ll have to offer me something better. And considering you risked your life by coming to see me like this, it must be a pretty big favor." I said.

" Sigh , You’re right. My stupid sister has gotten herself into some deep shit. I need your help to save that brat before she gets herself killed."

She said it as if it was no big deal but my sensitive ears picked up the slightest quiver in her voice and the unsteadiness of her heartbeat. Seems she’ll make me work for her honesty.

"What will you give me in return for saving your sister?"

She slowly crossed her legs and leaned in deliberately making sure I got a peek under her nightgown.

"What would you like?"

"Something more valuable than sex. You’ve seen the women I was with before right? You’re a gorgeous lady but you can’t exactly hold a candle to any of them. Find something else to bargain with."

"I don’t have anything." Her armor cracked and I was getting an idea of how much her sister actually meant to her. "We’re barely scraping by as it is."

"In that case there is nothing you can do? I suggest that you forget about this sister of your, whatever happens, happens."

"I can’t!"

There it was. Her truth revealing itself to me.

Her heartbeat spiked at the mention of abandoning her sister. From the look on her face I got the feeling that the very idea was inconceivable to her.

"It may be hard but some times you have to let go of the ones you love. Move on," I said, dismissing her.

"Please wait! I can’t give up on her!"

"Hmm? Why’s that?"

"Because it’s just the two of us! We might not be related by blood, but I raised her as my own. If I lose her, I won’t have anything." Her voice trembled, a far stretch from the calmness she was trying to portray just moments ago.

She grabbed hold of my hand almost throwing herself at my feet in her desperation.

"Please, I’ll do anything. I’ll become your slave, your mistress, whatever you want. Just please save her! I’m begging you!"

Tears flowed down her face as she begged on her knees. I got a glimpse at just how terrified she was for her beloved sister. When it came to broken people my sense of smell was uncanny. That’s how I found Isabella, Sylvie, Selthia and Khalissi.

But compared to the girl in front of me, they felt nothing. They didn’t know what true suffering was. But Ivy, she was different. Her whole existent seemed to be covered in pain and suffering. But there was a small flicker of light in her eyes. Light that must’ve been a product of the sister she loved so much.

"Tell me, how much does she really mean to you?"

She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at me as if I was her last hope.

"My parents used me and discarded me as if I was nothing but trash. Before her her I’ve never know love. It seemed all but a fantasy to me."

"But your sister changed that?"

"Yes, I thought that I would always be alone, but then I found her, thrown away inside a dumpster. Not better than me. We were the same." She said and through her tears, I saw a small smile. "She became my light. She was tossed away and scorned her all because she was a ghoul but I never cared about that."

Her voice was laced with hate and resentment when she talked about her sister’s suffering. More so then when she talked about her own suffering.

"She was just a baby, and I was thirteen, but I thought that if it was the two of us, then we wouldn’t be alone anymore. That even if no one wanted us, we would still have each other. That’s why I raised her and cared for her, and since then we had each other."

I didn’t care much for her tearful story. Maybe if she was a part of my pack I would’ve cared but right now, she was nothing but a tool to me. A tool that may prove to be valuable. There was something she said caught my attention.

"Why would her being a ghoul cause her to be tossed away?" I asked.

Seeing that I was showing a bit of interest, she wiped the tears from her eyes and quickly explained.

"In Purgatory, ghouls are at the bottom of the social hierarchy. That’s because they are the only race that possesses the slave quality blood. For that reason, they are ostracized and forced to live in the slums, barely surviving on scraps every day."

Interesting...

"Ghouls are some of the most commonly found supernatural groups in Purgatory, are they not?" I asked, to which Ivy promptly nodded.

"They have a population size similar to vampires. Yet they are treated far worse, all because of their blood. They are also weaker than vampires and most other supernatural creatures, which is why they can’t fight back."

"So they are basically like werewolves here."

"Yes, very similar to werewolves actually." She said, her voice dropping to a low whisper. "To combat their weakness, werewolves formed packs, but for ghouls they create gangs. Gangs that rule the underworld. They call themselves the Bocarruta. Every nasty thing that goes on inside of Purgatory, they are somehow at the bottom of it. But their biggest criminal enterprise has to be the black market, where they sell all sorts of illegal goods, ranging from exotic meat to cursed artifacts."

Seeing the pattern in her explanation, I already knew where this was going.

"I’m guessing your sister got caught up in this in some way."

She meekly nodded her head, looking somewhat ashamed.

"...She stole from them. It was foolish on her part, I know that, but still..." She grabbed hold of my hand once again, holding it firmly in her grasp even though her hands were trembling. "Please, I can’t afford anything to happen to her; you have to help!"