Blaine smiled brightly to everyone he passed down the corridors towards his office while taking a sip of his favourite morning coffee from the paper cup he'd picked up from reception. Normally, Blaine would take the detour across the city to his favourite coffee shop to pick up his coffee before heading off to the office, but since they hired Linda, a freed human, she made sure that Blaine had a steaming cup waiting for him every morning. His secretary, Freya, would then follow that cup with a hot mug of blood for lunch and another around four in the afternoon.

He smiled warmly at Freya as she stood to hand over the mail for the day, which also came with the normal colourful array of post-it notes. Blaine took a quick sip of his coffee as he scanned over the notes, only half listening to Freya ramble on about a horrible phone call from one of the farms.

"I don't deal with the farms, Freya." Blaine arched an eye brow at her, enjoying the slight blush on her human cheeks.

"I know, sire-"

"Blaine." He corrected, "How many times do I have to tell you to call me Blaine."

Freya's cheeks only grew rosier, "I know and I'm sorry, it's just so weird, especially since I have to go home and call every one sire or ma-am. But about the farms-"

"Give it to Mr Clarington, I don't want to know." Blaine waved her off with a charming smile, calling back with, "Oh, and Happy Birthday, Freya. Did you get my present?"

Freya bit her lip to stop herself from turning her smile into a giggle she now felt too old to engage in, looking down at the small velvet box surrounded by the unravelled silver wrapping paper and black silk ribbon, "Yes, Blaine. Thank you, it's beautiful."

"I'm glad."

Blaine gave her one last smile before walking into his office and throwing the mail onto his desk, placed his coffee down and shuffled out of his coat. His office was the largest one in the entire building, but probably held less furniture than even the smallest of offices. Just a large wooden desk sat in front of the floor to ceiling windows with a green leather chair, a book shelf sat to the right filled with books and files and a coffee table sat in the middle of the room with two chairs against a corner.

"It's like you lie in wait for me to turn up so you can bombard me with all your worries for the day." Blaine turned and leant against his desk, crossing his arms over his grey suit and crossing one foot over the other to stare down his invader.

"I find you very willing to be bombarded first thing in the morning with your morning coffee in one hand and having just finished your vile flirting with Freya." Wes teased with a sly smile from his seat in one of the chairs, files piled on the lap of his black suited trousers.

Blaine shrugged, "She has a pretty smile, even prettier when she blushes, warming her blood and giving off this gorgeous smell."

"I'm just glad she knows you're gay, otherwise I may have had to fire her." Wes mumbled, organising his files.

Blaine picked up his coffee to take another sip, "I think that's why we flirt so much; nothing comes of it. So, what brings you here this morning? Another strike? Another ball to host? No, it won't be that." Blaine chewed his bottom lip and creased his brow as he thought hard, "Oh!" Blaine clapped his hands together in triumph, "Are we out of muffins in the breakfast bar at the hotel?"

Wes closed his file to laugh, mock applauding Blaine who bowed in response, "You're so right, Mr Anderson, that's exactly why I'm here." Wes reopened the file, "No. I just wanted to go over these figures you wrote up during your monthly review."

"Oh yeah, something come up?"

Blaine threw his now empty cup into the waste basket, picking up his pile of letters and flipping through them. Every month was the same, there would always be something that would come up from Blaine's review which required Wes and him to talk through the discrepancies; unfortunately it normally meant someone either went through disciplinary action or were fired.

Even though Wes was Head of Boarder Control, he had a keen eye for figures and would dedicate a few days to go over Blaine's reviews to make sure everything was in order. He did all he could to help Blaine and take some of the pressure off his shoulders as Governor of this city. Put in the position by his father, Blaine had reluctantly pushed aside his ambition to join the theatre and delegated his time between learning the laws of the land, co-ordinating the vast array of departments within the city and putting on his best smile when meeting with dignitaries from this city and those within the state.

It was the fate of most of the children who attended Dalton Academy. They had their arts programme more as an extra-curriculum activity, while the main focus was educating the children to a degree which would see them take over their family businesses. Wes still remembered when they would have sleepovers and talk about what they would do with their lives. Blaine had always wanted to perform on stage, while Jeff wanted to put together his own band and Wes had wanted to become a conductor. Now here they were, where their fathers sat before them, following tradition. It wasn't what they wanted, but they were still allowed to work closely with each other and enjoy their passions in their own time.

Wes held out a file for Blaine, watching him flick through it before speaking, "You tallied up a count of the humans in the farms in your monthly review, and along with the gross intakes up to the date two weeks ago, everything seems fine."

Blaine sighed heavily, scanning the figures with disinterest. "Wes, why aren't you discussing this with Hunter?"

"Because it's Hunter's farm I want to talk about. I want to get your input before I confront him with my findings." Wes replied, his tone deadly serious.

Blaine sat a little straight at the shift in his friend's demeanour, eyeing the figures a little more carefully now, "So if my figures were correct, what's the problem?"

"David keeps a count of the humans coming in and out of all the farms in the city and to which vampire they are sold to and the price they go for. He also keeps a count on the newborns, those who turn of age and those who die. It would seem that one of Hunter's farms has been taking more money than it has humans for." Wes stood from his chair to flick through the pages in Blaine's hand and pointing out the stats for one farm, 'Harrods Holding'.

Blaine frowned as he took in the figures, indeed finding a discrepancy between the count of humans in Hunter's possession and the gross figures represented here. There were many theories to this which Blaine could allow for; Hunter could be adding extra charges to the clients who came in to sample the humans, but then why not acknowledge these in his paperwork? He could be transferring humans from one farm to another, but then where was the paperwork for those transfers? He could also be allowing clients to take more blood from the humans, therefore allowing him to charge more, but his figures just showed average sales.

"Do you think he's hiding new blood?" Blaine asked, flipping through the last of the papers.

"He could be, I can't think of another reason. He couldn't push his humans to produce this amount of blood without a suspicious death or two." Wes shrugged.

"I agree. What action do you want to take?" Blaine asked, handing Wes the file and walking round his table to turn on his computer.

"I want to schedule a performance review. Turn that place upside down, make him account for everything. Find out what he's hiding."

Blaine shook his head, "That would give him chance to hide what it is he's hiding. I suggest we do a surprise visit, off the books, if Hunter knows he's not going down on record he'll be more likely to share with us where this extra cash is coming from. I mean, he's not exactly hiding the money from us, is he?"

Wes nodded, "True, but I do want to do it quickly, before any of those humans do die."

Blaine smiled at his friend's caring nature, "We don't even know if that's the case, Wes. You always did have room in that big heart of yours for the humans, didn't you?"

"So do you." Wes countered, "So, when do you want to do this?"

"Get a couple of the guys together for dinner tonight. I'd feel better if there was more of us to cover those grounds... that place is massive. Then if they're up to it, we'll head over tonight."

Wes smiled with a nod, "Is that because you're busy the rest of the week?"

Blaine smiled, nodding sadly, "Unfortunately. It's going to be a long week."

"You need some more of that pixie blood. That stuff got your reviews done in double time and kept you buzzing around this place for a week. Freya and I couldn't keep up." Wes laughed at the memories of walking in on Freya, hair dishevelled and desk piled high with reports and post-it notes, face bright red in her desperation to get the person on the phone to hurry up and do as Blaine had demanded.

Blaine looked off into the distance as he thought back to that night, to Kurt, two weeks ago. He had been entranced by the half pixie all evening, enjoying his shy yet observant nature before the drug took hold of him, and then becoming intoxicated by his sultry, alluring manner once the drug took over. What he didn't like though, was how the drug stole that beautiful flicker from those cerulean orbs and took away the shine from his smooth pale skin. He wanted to suck the drug out of him to bring back the light to his mind and sit there for hours getting to know the pixie.

David and Trent had warned him not to let the pixie get into his mind and a part of him did wonder whether Kurt had... until he collapsed and the need to take care of the man remained. He worried that he'd taken too much of that smooth, spicy yet sweet blood, but a pixie was known to recuperate its blood quickly so once Wes had checked him over, he'd put it down to the strain of the slow release drug.

Blood hadn't tasted the same since then, even at the party they attended the other night, Blaine feasted on at least five different humans and none of them fulfilled the need the pixie had left behind. Is this why Wes was so impatient for the drug to take hold of Kurt that night? Had he missed the succulent taste of a pixie that much? Blaine could understand it now. A part of him wished he'd visited the inn they'd stayed at to greet Kurt in person and with a clear head, to talk to him and try to get him to stay a little longer, but a call from the Count that morning could not be ignored.

Wes smirked at his friend's distant look and patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry, the next time a pixie walks through the boarder, I'll make sure they attend our party."

Blaine hummed in response before coming back to the room and looking to his friend, "Where did that pixie go after he left?"

Wes leant an arm on the desk, creasing his brow in concentration, "I see so many, Blaine, it's been two weeks... I think they were heading south... You want me to check the file?"

He shook his head, sighing in defeat. He knew it was useless, human tribes travelled fast from city to city, only spending a night or two in each, that pixie could be anywhere now.

"Don't worry about it. Call the guys and let me know the time. I should be out of my meetings around half five, so anything after that works for me."

"Will do. Don't go working too hard." Wes waved him off, leaving the office and giving Freya a small smile as she relayed a couple of messages for him. Wes rolled his eyes; he couldn't even hide away from the hounds of war in his friend's office.

Blaine turned to the windows, leaning an arm up on the glass and resting his forehead against that while staring out over the city. He scanned the park, smiling at the children racing around the trees and jumping across the jungle gym, his eyes then wandered to the high street, his sharp vision able to pick out the groups of women, human and vampire, gossiping about the newest scandal while already laden with shopping bags so early on in the day.

Blaine was proud of his city, he'd worked hard to make it an equal setting for vampires and freed humans, and even for kept humans he made sure that they were fairly treated... but even he couldn't stop the horrors that occurred at the farms. An evil necessity to allow this illusion to exist. Blaine just hoped that whatever Hunter was up to, he wasn't making the humans' hopefully short existence there anymore torturous than it already was.

Nick stood from the table, shaking his head as David threw the offending peanut back at Jeff, sniggering as it landed in his beer. Blaine and Wes hid their own sniggers behind their hand as Jeff used and failed with his fork to retrieve the peanut. Once he'd disposed of the peanut by stuffing it in his mouth, Nick leant over to give him a tender kiss, patting his cheek as he straightened up.

"I'll see you when you get home."

Jeff pouted, pulling on Nick's arm, "Stay a little longer, please."

"No, I told you my appointment was at eight. I've got ten minutes to get across town."

"Fine. Go, leave me with these monsters!" Jeff's pout only protruded further.

"You love these monsters, because you're one too." Nick smirked, prodding Jeff in the shoulder.

"You wound me." Jeff whined, clutching his chest.

Nick shook his head, waving to the others, "Bye guys, see you later."

"Be careful, Nick." Thad called out, waving him off with Blaine, David and Wes.

Jeff twisted in his seat to watch Nick walk out of the bar, his eyes catching sight of a couple of vampire's leering after him. His growl sought out the vampires, gaining enough of a glance for them to take note of his protruding fangs. He turned away to his table when they didn't follow after Nick, noticing how serious the table had become.

"We should order a round before heading to Harrods Holding. I find it easier to concentrate around those farms on a full stomach." David spoke as he beckoned over a waitress and ordered for the group.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Thad asked, sitting back in his chair.

"Anything out of the norm. Jeff, you did the last search of that place three weeks ago so your knowledge of what's in that place is the most fresh. David, you did the last count of the humans there on Friday; I want you to do another count and check every corner, every closet. Thad, you'll need to check the levels of blood stored and check on any humans showing signs of fatigue, both the blood bags and the women and children in the maternity wards. Blaine and I will check out the client rooms, make sure no rules are being broken with the paying customers and interrogate Hunter, see if we can't just get him to come clean." Wes instructed, pointing a coaster at each of them and banging it down on the table in turn.

"I'm sure it'll be something small with all the other records holding up, but I need to be sure. If it is something illegal and it gets out, it'll make a mockery of what the Count has set up here." Blaine reminded everyone, waiting for their nod of approval, his shoulders relaxing as everyone agreed.

"Hunter usually plays by the books, but I also know he's not afraid to blur the lines if there's money to be made." Jeff added, sitting back as the waitress arrived.

Placing down the five steaming cups of blood, the waitress took her leave and left the men to gather the cups in their hands and take tentative sips or sniffs. Blaine took his time finishing his drink, not at all looking forward to the night's proceedings. He stayed away from the farms and left their dealings to his colleagues, preferring to instead work on improving the standing of the city and standard of living for those within the city boundaries. The less he had to think about the dealings on the farms, the easier his heart and mind rested, but if anything came of tonight, Blaine was certain he'd have to become more involved... he really hoped Hunter wasn't hiding anything.

Harrods Holding sat on acres of land with two separate buildings only joined by a cobble stone path between them. The building to the left stood tall with ten floors, all housing windows covered in iron bars, held together by concrete slabs, with a small garden to the rear fenced off with barbed wire. Cries of babies and toddlers could be heard from the ground and first floor, while cries from grown men and women in anguish carried down from the upper floors.

The building to the right could not be more different; a brick built manor with only two stories but which stretch over two thirds of the grounds with its lancet windows, white column framed doorways and creeping vines weaving over most of the frontage. Chandeliers could be seen swinging through the stone arches of the windows, while others were obscured by the velvet drapes pulled together for privacy. A water feature stood proud in front of the manor and around it were parked an array of expensive cars, some belonging to the estate, other belonging to clients currently partaking in the activities available within.

Blaine spotted a flutter of a curtain on the ground floor of the manor and turned to the others who stopped just behind him, "Okay, Thad, David and Jeff, take the farm. You've got your paperwork, if anyone gives you any trouble give Wes or me a call. We'll go see Hunter in the manor."

"We'll meet you out here by the car once you're done, if we don't bump into you earlier." Wes added, placing a hand on Blaine's shoulder and leading the way towards the manor.

With only a few feet between them and the main entrance, Blaine and Wes made way for the gentleman leaving with a human collared and leashed. He looked to have been freshly washed and shaven, dressed in clothes supplied by the vampire even down to the diamond encrusted collar and leash, instead of the standard black leather given out by the farm. Hunter followed behind them, shaking the hand of the vampire once more and thanking him for his business before waving them off as they headed towards the Bentley parked up.

Blaine nodded his greetings to the vampire as he acknowledged them before turning to Hunter who was approaching them with a pleased smile at having been caught closing a transaction, dressed in one of his finest suits; navy in colour with a grey tie and pocket square.

"Blaine, Wes, wasn't expecting you guys here. Come straight from the office?" Hunter greeted them referring to the suits they were still dressed in. "Has something happened? I didn't get a call from my department."

"Nothing of that matter, Hunter. How's business gone today?" Wes asked.

"Good, Mr Robins, who you just met, bought that human for a generous sum and will be picking up two females tomorrow. We've sold another three today, we had five births – two female, three male – we were able to ship out six pallets of blood bags and have ten of the thirty rooms currently occupied with that looking to increase to twenty three in the next couple of hours." Hunter stood tall and proud as he spoke of his success here, it was no secret that Harrods Holding was the most successful of the farms.

"Glad to hear it, how are you looking for reaching your targets this month?" Blaine asked, catching the smug glint in the smile that followed his question.

"I'll reach those targets by the end of the week, with a week to go."

"What do you put that success down to?" Wes asked.

"The merchandise." Hunter spoke cryptically, "Come inside, no need to stand out here in the dark."

Hunter lead the way into the manor, blood red rugs lining the corridor as they passed the reception, two waiting rooms and the grand dining room to head into the back room. Hunter's office, though one of the smallest rooms, was still large and exquisitely decorated in varnished wood, cream carpets and antique furniture. The walls sunk back to create shelving fill with rows and rows of binders disguised as leather bounds books, creating the look of a library rather than an office.

Offering his two guests a seat, Hunter stepped over to the drinks cabinet, pouring each of them a small shot of whiskey. Handing the drinks over Hunter leant against his desk, facing both Blaine and Wes.

"So, what do I owe the pleasure? Come to sample some of the luxuries I offer here?"

Blaine nodded to Wes as he silently asked to proceed, "We've been going through your figures, Hunter, and have found a few anomalies."

"Oh. Go on." Hunter muttered, sipping his drink, seemingly unfazed.

"You're taking more money than what you can account for. With the count we have on your humans and the rules put in place to secure their safety, there's no way you could've accumulated this amount." Wes explained, "That's why we're here, to do a performance review of Harrods Holding, off the books, for now you understand. Jeff, David and Thad are over at the farm as we speak doing a count, while we decided to come straight to you, give you a chance to explain yourself."

Hunter shrugged with a slight smirk, "Well that's easy, our rules apply to the human condition, the rules are completely different for a pixie."

Wes and Blaine shared a shocked look before turning back to Hunter, "You have a pixie? That wasn't in your report." Blaine asked.

"I got him after I filed my monthly report, and we don't have a form for taking in pixies so I never got to inform David, but I was going to write out a separate form for you, Blaine, in my next monthly report. Plus I wanted to test him out, see if he was worth the hassle with how much of the drug I have to supply him with and if he wasn't, I'd toss him out. No harm done." Blaine held back a frown at the way Hunter dismissed the pixie so easily.

"And what have been your results?" Wes asked.

"Why? Interested in buying him? You'll have to get in line Wes, I have a list of vampires wanting this one and each time I add a name to the list the price gets higher and higher. I'm quite tempted to keep him here, but the price on his head is very tempting." Hunter licked his lips at the thought.

"So, this pixie, is the only reason your profits have increased this month?" Wes changed the subject, not wanting to indulge Hunter.

"Yes. With his recovery skills I can have him tend to three clients a night, every night and since he's a virgin, I can charge extra for the purity of his blood. Which I need because his recovery time from the drug is incredibly expensive. But the clients love him, they come back night after night for a taste of his blood and more than not bring their friends."

"Can we see him?" Blaine asked, his worries starting to build as he thought about the coincidence of having Kurt at the blood party two weeks ago and now Hunter having a pixie in his possession.

"Of course. I have him in a room upstairs. He was being kept on the farm but with his popularity I decided to just set him up in a room here instead."

Hunter reached into his desk and pulled out a key card, placing it in his jacket pocket and leading Blaine and Wes out of his office and up the twisting staircase to a long corridor which stretched the entire length of the building. Hunter took them right, each of the wooden doors numbers with electronic locks, a couple of them lit with a green light while the rest had a red light. Faint sounds of moans and cries could be heard behind the doors as they passed by, Hunter sending them a satisfied grin while Blaine just rolled his eyes.

They stopped outside a door just like others, numbered just like the others, with the same locking mechanism, however as Hunter slid the key card through the lock, a key pad was revealed within and he tapped in the four digit code before turning the handle but only cracking the door open as he turned back to the pair.

"Just to warn you, I'm sure you know pixies can be quite manipulative and devious, so I've had to restrain him and keep him heavily drugged. I know it goes against our policies with humans but remember, he isn't human."

With a nod from Wes and Blaine, Hunter opened the door and stepped aside to allow them in. Blaine's stomach dropped at the sight before him. The room was like any other in the manor; a four poster bed dressed with silk blankets with heavy velvet drapes tied back with golden loops around each post. The same drapes dropped to the floor around the lancet windows with a vintage dressing table with mirror sat between the two, a large wardrobe leant against the wall opposite the bed and a chandelier hung from the moulded ceiling.

It's what knelt in the centre of the room on the oak flooring that separated this room from the others. Long chains ran from the posts on the bed down to hold slender wrists up high above the thin form which knelt on redden knees with his ankles bond together behind him. The only clothing the boy wore was a black leather collar around his neck and the blind fold necessary with a pixie. A needle was taped to his arm, slowly pumping the clear liquid of the drug from a bag that hung next to him.

The boy was panting lightly and his skin was unnaturally pale with his chestnut brown hair limp against his forehead. His head lulled from side to side as the drug softened his senses and his body arched against the torrent of emotions the drug was throwing at the pixie. His skin was flawless, not a scratch nor scar anywhere to be seen and Blaine felt dread seep into his every pore. He knew this boy, this man... this pixie.

"Let me get you two a drink. You've never had blood like this before." Hunter proposed, picking up a needle and slipping it into the boy's other arm. The pixie gasped and moaned, his head resting against the arm he was taking blood from and arching up as if to look up to Hunter, pleading for something unknown.

"Blaine." Wes whispered, turning his back to Hunter.

"I know... it's-" Blaine felt sick.

"Don't give away that we know him. I need to go back through my files and see how this transpired, but if you give away that we know him, Hunter will make sure we pay big to get him out of here."

Wes turned back to Hunter with a strained smile as he poured a small amount of blood into a shot glass and gave one to him and to Blaine. Wes shot back the blood, handing it back to Hunter with a smile.

"Wow... that is good. I can see why your clients keep coming back. You can't get blood like that in bags."

"Or from normal humans." Hunter added, watching Blaine take the blood and took the glass back, "I can charge twice as much for this pixie and add a surplus each time they come back or for any extra time. I could charge more for sexual favours but he's worth more to me pure and the clients have made it known that they'd prefer him pure too, instead deciding to pay the extra to curb their sexual desires with one of the humans afterwards, again increasing their spend."

Blaine's eyes didn't leave Kurt, wanting nothing more than to take him in his arms and carry him away from this place, but knew that without the right paperwork, Hunter could just claim him back and would have him legally sold before they could hit back with the right documents. He didn't want to think about what treatment Kurt has had to endure on the farms and now in this manor, or how many vampires have fed from him or anything else he's been forced to do. He may be a virgin still, but that didn't mean there weren't other things he could be forced to do. He needed to speak with Kurt, to know that he was okay, to find out what happened and to give him hope, let him know that he would get him out of here... to hold on a little longer.

"Give me a room with him." Blaine blurted out.

Wes gave him a wide eyed look of confusion, brow creased while Hunter just smiled, chuckling to himself, "See, one sip of that blood and you're already hooked. I told you he was good. I can have him ready for you in half an hour, let me get you a room key. Wes, while our Governor enjoys my merchandise, why don't we go through my paperwork so we can get all this misunderstanding cleared up."

"Sure." Wes kept his eyes on Blaine for a moment, trying to understand what he was up to before smiling to Hunter and following him out of the room.

Blaine's eyes stayed fixed to the form that had plagued his dreams the last two weeks, watching as his head tilted in his direction and his full pink lips parted slightly as if to speak. Blaine wanted him to speak, wanted to hear that voice once more but more than anything he wanted Kurt to just cry out and tell him that this was a mistake, that he shouldn't be here so Blaine could take him away.

"You coming, Blaine?" Hunter pulled Blaine from his stupor.

He nodded, turning away from Kurt with some struggle and following Hunter and Wes out of the room. His heart sunk as Hunter locked the door again, but he held hope, for in half an hour he'd have Kurt to himself, alone in a room, and he prayed the drug would not withhold his speech and he could get Kurt to speak to him, to tell him the truth.