Blaine had double checked the position of each of the slavers' stocks before they left the mansion. The names of the three slavers were still in the same place they had been the previous night as were the discriptions that matched Puck, Quinn and Artie.

Akron was the closest to Westerville and so Blaine had decided to go there first and now, as they approached the entrance to the city, Kurt could see a sign written in bold, red lettering that gave the placement of the slave auction.

Blaine slowed down just long enough to make sure they were the same directions he had gotten off the computer before continuing on.

"Okay, you two, remember to let me do all the talking. Most slaves don't speak unless addressed by their master directly and they certainly don't give their opinions to a complete stranger."

The count roved his stern gaze over both of them to drive the point home.

Kurt couldn't help but smile a little bit as he remembered Blaine's lecture from earlier that evening. It was easy to tell that Blaine was a little miffed about having two opinioned humans on his hands now rather then just one.

Kurt's heart lurched as the scaffolding came into view and memories from his own auction rushed back to him. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and Blaine flicked his eyes towards him with concern.

Kurt gave him a reassuring smile and waved and comments the vampire might have away with a careless flick of his hand.

"Just remember to keep your eyes down and look meek and we should be fine."

Blaine parked the car on a swath of grass a little apart from the other vehicles outside of the place the auction would take place.

Kurt got out of the car first and opened the door for Blaine in case anyone happened to be watching. It would look strage if the count didn't make his 'slaves' perform such menial tasks for him.

Rachel got out straight after Kurt and the two humans flanked Blaine with bowed heads and the trio headed towards the hut-like building next to the stage.

Kurt felt his heartbeat increase as he heard the clamor of richer vampires eagerly anticipating increasing their stock or young vampires buying their first slave. He felt his hands begin to shake and he balled them into fists to hide both his revulsion and fear.

He glanced at Rachel and was glad to see that she was keeping her face impassive without much difficulty as far as he could tell. Blaine had told them that since Rachel could only remember fragments of her own auction, she would have a better time about blocking out her fear.

Kurt glanced at Blaine to see that the vampire was keeping a close eye on him. The count arched an eyebrow in question and Kurt offered him a small smile to try and convey that he was doing okay.

Blaine didn't look too convinced, but he let it go as they reached the building where the captured humans were being held. Blaine was not the only vampire who wasn't a slaver milling outside the door and it was easy to tell by their clothes that they were all rich.

This was prehaps the only good thing about the slave auction as no one would find it strange that Blaine had come to inspect the finest of the stock before they were led out to be sold.

Kurt just hoped that none of the other vampires gathered there would want to look at the human they had come to rescue--if it was even her.

Every one of the vampires had at least two slaves with them, all of whom were on leashes.

Kurt cursed inwardly. Why hadn't they thought of that?

A few of the other vampires gave them curious glaces but for the most part, paid them no mind.

Blaine reached into his pocket and pulled out the sheet of paper he had printed out that eveing with the highlighted description of whom they assumed to be Quinn on it. Blaine took on a smug expression as he scanned the paper, pretending to be happy about the new flesh he migh soon be acquiring.

After a few more minutes of standing there, the door opened and a beaming slaver stepped outside to greet them.

"Hello, my frineds, come in, come in."

The vampires filed inside with pervase smiles across their faces as they entered the dim building.

Kurt wrinkled his nose at the smell of unwashed bodies as he shuffled along beside Blaine.

"My good man?" asked Blaine. "Do you still have this peice of flesh in your possession?"

He pointed out the highlighted discription and the slaver grinned.

"Ah, you have an eye for the pretty ones, then, hu?" his gaze swept over Kurt and Rachel with a lustful grin.

Kurt suppressed a shiver.

"Right this way, sir," said the slaver, leading them over to the far, right wall where a cluster of humans stood.

"These are some of my best," he stated proudly, "not neccessairly good for hard labor, but more then capable of being a good fuck."

Kurt ground his teeth together and clasped his hands together before him to keep from punching the pervert's lights out.

"If you will wait here, sir," they stopped a few feet away from the group of good-looking humans. The slaver went over to them and grabbed a female in the back by the arm and pulled her over to them.

Kurt's spirits fell when he saw that he did not recognize the young woman at all. It was true that she held a similar resemblance to Quinn with her blonde hair and lithe figure and he almost told Blaine to buy her anyway just to get her out of there. However, when Blaine caught his eye he found that he couldn't bring himself to lie and shook his head the slightest of fractions so that the slaver would only think it was a nervous tick.

Nevertheless, Blaine was forced to go through the motions of examining her to make his rejection of her understandable.

"Hm, no, I'm afraid she's not quite to my liking. Thank you for your time, though."

"Wait, are you sure I can't intrest you in any of the others? Judging by your two there, I'd say that you might be more in kin to a darker-haired one and prehaps one with a stronger bone structure?"

"Thank you, but I really should be going." Blaine leaned in closer, "she was actually meant to be for a friend, you see, and he only likes blondes, which you seem to have only one of."

"There must be more to it then that, sir; otherwise I don't see how she couldn't be to his liking."

"He likes big girls if you know what I mean."

"Ah, well, he could fatten her up," the slaver laughed heartily and Blaine chuckled.

"Thank you, but no. Now I must be going. Good luck with your auction, my good man."

Blaine walked away with Rachel and Kurt following at his heels.

When they were far enough away, Kurt gave a fustrated sigh.

"Well that was a complete waste of time!"

"Kurt, please relax," Blaine said, "and keep your voice down, we're not in the car yet."

"I still don't understand why we couldn't take her with us either," Rachel stated as the limo came into view.

"I've told you, Rachel, if I could I would have freed all of those humans, but short of breaking them out with force, it is simply impossible for me to do. Now yes, in all fairness I could have bought that girl but then where would I be. I really have nothing for her to do at the mansion and for all I know, she might try to kill us all in our sleep. Her way of getting revenge I'm sure."

They got into the car and Blaine pulled away from his parking spot and out of Akron, heading towards Ottawa and, hopefully, Puck
////
Upon arriving, they discovered that they were already too late to look over the stock before the auction and so they were forced to find a place in the crowd and watch as human after human was sold in front of them.

"Oh this is awful," Rachel whispered to Kurt, her voice closing as she tried to hold back her tears.

"I know," Kurt agreed, "try to think of something else."

Finally a young man was brought before them and Kurt and Rachel knew it was Puck right away.

The boy held an arrogant look in his eyes that Kurt was glad to see as it meant he had not been beaten down. The thing that gave him away, though, was a strip of dark hair in the center of his scalp.

"That's him," Kurt muttered and Blaine nodded as the auctioneer began the bidding.

The bidding began in vigor, Blaine slowly jacking up the price until it was down between him and three others and then even they gave up.

The auctioneer slammed his gavel down the podium and announced that Count Anderson was the proud owner of a new slave.

They went around the barn next to the stage and, after exchanging pleasantries with the slaver, Puck was brought out.

Kurt's lips twitched as he watched the two vampries wrestling Puck out of the barn and over to the trio. Puck was gagged and Kurt wondered if he had been cussing out his guards.

The burly human stopped struggling with his captors when he saw Rachel and Kurt. Shock soon replaced every other emotion on his face and he quited down considerably.

"Good luck with this one, sir," the slaver said, "never had such trouble before. Would you like some help taking him back to your car?"

"If it's not too much trouble."

Blaine paid the slaver before leading the guards to the limo.

"Open the door, boy," Blaine said, shoving Kurt between the shoulder blades and making him stumble to the door.

Puck fought against his captors again as he witnessed this put on abuse. The guards forced Puck into the backseat of the car adn Rachel and Kurt slide in next to him.

Blaine slammed the door shut behind them and thanked the captors for their help before climbing into the driver's seat.

"Puck, calm down, it's not what you think!" Kurt and Rachel were both trying to talk the raging human down.

"You fuckin' pervert, what have you done to them!?"

"Nothing at all, Puck, they're here of their own free will," Blaine replied calmly.

Hearing his name fall from the vampire's lips caught him off guard and he fell back against the seat, panting.

Blaine continued, "Have you thanked Kurt and Rachel for helping free you?"

"Thank you, now what the hell's going on?"

Kurt laughed as he knew that Puck hadn't changed a bit. Rachel hugged Puck tightly before launching into an explanation of why they were there and who Blaine was.

"I thought all you guys were nutty assholes," Puck said, studying Blaine carefully.

Blaine smiled darkly, "Well considering you haven't had the best interactions with my people I can see how you arrived at that conclusion. I can assure you though; I mean none of you any harm."

"Hm, and now we're going to go and rescue Artie?"

"If it's him," replied Kurt, "we only have a description to go off of, but there can't be that many humans around here in a wheelchair, right?"
////
By the time they reached Cincinnati, the sky was beginning to grow pink and they were forced to find a hotel to stay at.

The first thing Blaine did was sit down at the hotelroom's computer and run a search on the slave auctions in Cincinnati.

"Good, he's still there."

"Why don't we just bust him out now?" inquired Puck, "there wouldn't be anyone here to stop us. It should be pretty easy."

"You'd have to find out where they're keeping them first," said Blaine, "and wherever they are you can be sure they have an alarm system set up. This is a pretty fancy place and it won't be that easy to break him out."

"Can we at least go and look for them?"

"That would be too dangerous. Just go to sleep for right now. They're not about to do anything to him and seeing as how we'll some of the first ones there, maybe I can pull some strings and get him out early. Then we can head home and expand our search for the rest of you colony members."

"Blaine?" asked Rachel, "What are you planning to do once we find everyone else?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you said it would be dangerous to let any of us go since our blood is in that machine, so are we just going live there in the mansion and go about our lives like nothing's wrong?"

"Yeah, and I'm definitely not going to be turned into one of you," declared Puck. "No offense."

"We'll figure something out," Blaine answered evasively.

Just then the count's phone rang and he answered it.

"He--wait, what? Thad, slow down, what happened? What! How! Oh my God! I don't know just, find shelter fast, there's nothing I can do from where I am. Okay, I'll see you as soon as possible."

Blaine hung up, breathing hard.

"What is it?" asked Kurt in alarm.

"Someone blew up the mansion!"

"What do you mean someone blew it up!?"

"Exactly as it sounds."

"W-well what are you going to do about it?"

"Blaine shrugged, "Nothing much I can do right, is there?"

"Is everyone okay?"

"For the most part," he answered, "Thadeous was a little too shaken up to form many coherent sentences. I'll call him back tonight."

"Uh, listen, I'm sorry you're basically homeless now, but we're still going to rescue Artie first right, fangy?"

"Yes, mohawk, we're going to get Artie back first. I made a promise after all and I intend to keep it."