The young blonde was used to being treated like an object. Even before she'd started her carrier as a working girl, she had watched the other girls, they'd taught her what she needed to know as well as made her clean up their rooms. She was everyone's servant as long as she was still considered a child. It wasn't until she'd bled the first time that the real training started. No one wanted their whore to be unable to satisfy them, so one of the girls had to teach her how to really please a man so she'd be ready when the time came.

Arya was still just a young girl, barely sixteen when she had her first visit from a lord. It wasn't uncommon for lords to seek out working girls when they wanted something on the side, though she hadn't been asked for before. The blonde had been nervous at first, uncertain of what exactly the lord wanted of her, though she did everything she could to please him. In the end though, she didn't really remember anything once he left her room. It was like he'd wiped the whole experience right from her.

The next time she had a higher born for a client, she knew not to be too shy. Arya had been sitting on her bed, waiting for him to arrive and stood up once he entered the room, walking over to him while slowly undressing herself. He was entitled to see what he was paying for if he planned on using her, and she had grown a lot more confident in both herself and her work in the year that had passed since Talbot had been to see her. She was no longer so naive about what she was doing and had learned to like it somewhat.

When she saw that faint smile on the man's face, she gently placed a hand on his arm and guided him to her bed. "How can I best serve your needs?" she asked, sitting down on the bed and looking up at the man. She need to know what he liked in order to please him properly. With her regular customers, she didn't have to ask what they needed, but since she didn't know him she couldn't just assume what he enjoyed. After all, it was her job to make sure he left her chambers a satisfied customer.

When Talbot had said the girl was young, Marcus still hadn't expected someone so fresh. The girl seemed so confident in what she was doing despite her youth. Or maybe perhaps because of her youth, he wasn't entirely sure, but it was evident in the way she undressed to let him inspect the merchandise without needing to be asked. And study her he did. At first he studied her face for a moment, turning her head this way and that before he circled her. When he'd seen all there was to see, he offered a slight smile as she would suit his short term needs at the very least.

"Just follow my lead and you'll do fine," he replied, leaning down to kiss her once they were by her bed. He was very gentle with her this time and made sure she was actually enjoying herself as well. He wouldn't be so gentle the next time, but he didn't want to scare her away right off the bat either. After all, Talbot had claimed she had potential and he wanted to see for himself if his former lover was right in any way.

Marcus had stayed with her for a lot longer than what was required of him after the act, just to try to get her to talk a little. It was only when he learned about how she'd been sold into the life and learned to enjoy it that he realized Talbot might be right after all. If a young girl could adapt to being sold into prostitution by her own parents, she might be able to adapt quite nicely to becoming a vampire. Only time would tell really.

After he left her the first time, Marcus made a point of not going to see her again too soon. He also made sure to send a servant to pick her up and bring her to his home. He'd rented her out in a manner for the whole night. There were just some things one couldn't do to a woman in a brothel. He didn't believe in feeding off of whores just because they were easy targets, he wanted her to want it. And convincing her of that meant he had to take his time and not be disturbed in the meantime.

Arya had not expected such a well built man to be so gentle with her, or to make sure she was enjoying herself as well. She usually did enjoy the pleasing others part of her job, but not like this. And he'd stuck around, which was a first. She hadn't wanted to talk, but he'd been very persuasive and in the end she'd opened up a bit. Though she didn't think she'd see him again afterwards, after all he was a lord and she wasn't naive about what she was doing.

When a servant arrived to pick her up, she had no idea what to expect or what was really going on. It was strange to be guided through the town like that by someone who was technically higher up in the social hierarchy than herself and brought to the lord's house like that. Arya didn't know how it had even come to that point, though she'd dressed in the nicest garments she'd got, and they were still more like rags compared to what the servant was wearing.

Once she arrived at the manor, she was humbled by the simplest of things. She'd never even seen a garden so beautifully managed before and all she wanted to do was walk through it and admire it, though she was brought directly to an atrium of sorts. There she couldn't help but run her hand over one of the sculptures and jump when she heard footsteps behind her. "You have a beautiful home sir, but why am I here?" She didn't dare look at him, in fact she was looking at her feet when she was talking to him as she had no idea why he had sent for her like he had.

Marcus had watched her ever since she entered his home, he just hadn't let her know that he was. He was watching her reactions to things, how every little detail seemed to completely mesmerize the girl from a simple home. It was refreshing really how little she knew of the world and how things worked. A clean slate, something to work with. He had been looking to finally sire someone himself after all this time as he could use someone who owed him everything. Someone like that would be loyal, but they also needed to be fit for the life he was offering and that was what he was trying to determine by his little experiment.

After finally approaching her, he was highly amused by the way she jumped and stopped being curious as a cat and rather turned into a meek little mouse. At her question, he gently stepped forward and lifted her chin so she'd look at him. "I'm looking for something in particular, so I brought you here to see if you have the qualities I'm looking for. I plan on continuing bringing you here until you either show me you've got what I'm looking for or I've determined that you don't." Simple and straight to the point without revealing too much. That was just the way it had to be, because he couldn't tell her more until she was ready.

Taking her arm gently, he brought her with him to the master bedroom. He planned on working up quite an appetite in the girl so he could gauge how much she knew about manners and proper etiquette as he needed to educate her if he wanted her to fit into his world eventually. So, once in the bedroom, he pressed her up against the bedpost and kissed her again. This time he wasn't as sweet and gentle as he'd been before, he didn't even put her down on the bed, he just undressed them both and had her right against the bedpost.

Burying his face in her neck, he bit down, only taking very little blood. When he was done with her, he carefully laid her down on the bed, trying to see how she was handling everything. When she didn't immediately run off, he was a lot gentler with her the second time before he just pulled her close and stroked her hair while she seemed to fall asleep. At the very least she got very quiet and her breathing was slower again. "Let me know if you just want to forget about all this and go back," he murmured and got out of bed. She needed to rest and he had work to do.

It was rather unnerving to not only be in the presence of a nobleman, but also to be expected to look at him and act like nothing was different. It was one thing when people came to where she lived and worked, outside of the brothel was a completely different situation after all. In a brothel people wanted to be anonymous.

What he was saying didn't make any sense to her at all, but if continuing to be brought to his home meant she got to see more of the beautiful things, she wasn't about to complain about anything. It was better than barely getting by, especially if she got to have a proper meal for once and not leftovers and what little she could actually afford.

The bedpost hit her back out of nowhere. She wasn't even aware of it being there until it was pressed into her back and the nobleman was kissing her again. There was no denying that he was a lot rougher than he'd been before but it was no surprise. After all, the girl hadn't really expected him to be so gentle before. It was oddly erotic to have the post digging into her back as she wrapped her legs around him and just followed his lead.

Being bitten like that was a surprise and it made her gasp slightly, but she wasn't afraid of the man, how could she be when he continued to be very gentle with her and just lay her down like that. And he proved once again he could be a gentle lover as well as a somewhat savage one. Arya didn't know which she liked more to be honest and she really did like that he pulled her close like that and just stroked her hair. It was an unfamiliar feeling to her as it had been too long since anyone had done that for her.

Arya fell asleep, though she caught what he was saying about forgetting about everything right before she finally drifted off. She wasn't out long, and when she awoke again, she was alone in bed. Wrapping the sheet around herself, she ventured through the house to find Marcus again and came to an abrupt half when she saw him pouring over some books. Not wanting to disturb him, she walked up to him quietly and and tried to make out the title of one of the books next to him but the letters made no sense to her.

"How could I possibly be able to forget all about this? You're not a magician or something are you?" Pretending like they were back on more familiar grounds to her, she ran her hands up his still bare chest, smiling some at him. It confused her when he groaned and stilled her hands by placing one of his own over them. "Please just tell me?" She asked quietly and tried to get her hands back, since he wouldn't budge she just stepped closer and leaned against him.

While the human girl was sleeping, Marcus had gotten some reading done. He loved his books, a sharp mind was the greatest weapon. He'd even gotten to write a letter to Talbot before he heard bare feet approach him. He turned to face Arya at this point and smiled slightly at what she had to say. Just as he was about to answer her question with one of his own, she started running her hands up his chest, making him groan slightly before he stilled her hands.

It was obvious she wasn't thinking straight from how loving she was acting after he'd been a lot more brutal with her than he'd intended. He hadn't wanted to hurt her or bite her so soon, but the way she just leaned into him, asking for him to just tell her made it very difficult not to tell her the truth. She was nothing like he'd expected her to be now that she was outside of her comfort zone. Curiosity and shyness weren't qualities that suited her line of work and she seemed to have put it all aside when she was working. Now she was almost like a completely different girl from the one he'd sought out a few weeks earlier.

Marcus knew very well how hard it could be to handle the truth.He'd loved a human once before and she had killed herself to get away from him after learning the truth. He didn't want someone with such potential to throw it all away because she'd rushed him. "When the time is right, I will tell you everything, I promise. Right now we need to get you dressed and fed, you must be famished," with a slight chuckle, he picked her up, sheets and all and brought her back to the bedroom and helped her pull her tunic over her head. She didn't need anything else, though he sat her down on a chair and braided her hair to get it away from her face.

"We will eat in the gardens, since you seemed so fascinated with them earlier," he mused, clearly wanting to see her reactions to everything to learn what he had to work on more than anything with her if she should truly prove worthy.

She knew there was more to the story than he was telling her, but when he promised he would tell her when the time was right she didn't pry further. If he didn't want to tell her yet, she would have to just observe and try to work it out on her own while waiting for him to either tell her or leave her alone again. Sooner or later he was bound to lose interest and she would go back to her old life of never really leaving the work place.

Arya had to admit, it was rather nice to be treated differently from the way people treated her normally. Sure, she was still just property, but he almost made her forget it when he was busy braiding her hair like that. What had she ever done to deserve this? And when he said there would be food, she looked up at him and smiled, especially at the fact that they would be eating outside in the garden.

For the remainder of the day, they talked about nothing in particular. Nothing important anyway. Once night time came, she didn't quite know what was expected of her and she just looked at Marcus for answers. It was surprising how quickly she'd grown comfortable around him, especially considering he was still just a customer really. A very demanding one at that.

What was his purpose with all this? Why did he think he could make her forget everything just like that, and how on earth was she supposed to know what he wanted when he kept changing the rules of engagement from what she was used to?

Marcus had a lot of work ahead of him in order to prepare the girl for the truth. He also had a lot of work to do to prepare her in general, not only for what he needed of her, but so she could fit in when it came to the others of his world. She needed to be educated, and he couldn't educate her if she was still living where she was. He needed to make her stay with him and think it was her own choice. Even then, he needed to see her more before he could even ask her to open up for real.

Nighttime meant their day together was coming to an end. He knew she was sore from before, so he wouldn't sleep with her again, not tonight. Instead, he brought her back to his chambers and undressed them both before casually slipping under the covers and gesturing for her to do the same. She would stay in his room that night and sleep safely. Though he did slip out of bed in the morning hours before she woke up.

Marcus wasn't used to sharing his bed with someone who wasn't his in a sense, and he still had to make the girl his in order to get what he truly wanted. Their time was over for now though and as soon as she awoke, he had his servants feed her breakfast and take her back, with the promise that she'd see him again.

Before he could make another trip to see the girl, he had to see some friends of his and hang out with them for a while, so a month passed before he brought her back to his home again and insisted she spend the weekend. This time he would get her to talk more about her life and try to win her over to staying with him for a while. If things didn't work out, she could always just go back to her old life.

"Do you enjoy your line of work?" he asked her when he was done with her for the weekend.

Arya returned to her normal routines after their night together, not really expecting to see Marcus again. After all, a lord had no business taking an interest in a working girl like herself. At least not for more than sex, and she wasn't delusional about what she did after all.

The month that passed before she heard from her new-found client was the longest month she could remember. It lacked excitement. It was back to regular routines and seeing people she couldn't stand but had to see because they paid. It certainly made sure she wouldn't be able to decline his request as far as trying to prove she had what he was looking for. Whatever that was. Any chance to get out of her current situation was a risk worth taking.

"It's not so bad, it keeps me fed," she said, which was honest enough. It wasn't the answer he was expecting from the looks of things as she was refused to leave. Didn't matter if their time was up, he insisted they talk more about the matter. When she reminded him that she did have to work after all, he let her go. At least go back to her workplace.

Marcus was there when she was ready to get back to work, asking her again if she enjoyed her work. He was much more persuasive this time, convincing her to be honest and she couldn't help shaking her head and biting her lip at the question. No, she didn't enjoy it. Not really. It paid, but that was about it. And he seemed to accept that answer as before she knew what was happening, her stuff was packed up and she was set up with a room of her own at his place. "Why me?" was all she could ask as he sat her down by a desk and brought out a simple enough book. "I can't read, why are you giving me a book?"

Marcus wasn't really pleased with her answer to his question. It wasn't completely honest, he knew that much. And he was determined to find out the truth. If she enjoyed her work, she'd be fine where she was. So he went to her workplace after sending her off, using his powers of persuasion to get her to answer him truthfully. It didn't take long from he learned how she didn't really enjoy it until he'd bought her free. He'd take a chance and try to teach her what she needed to know so he could have a companion that would be loyal to him above the rest.

At the question, Marcus couldn't help but chuckle. "You have nothing to lose," he said highly amused before he brought her a simple book. Her second question was a fair one. "Then the first thing we need to do is teach you to read. To be of use, you'll have to learn to read and write Greek as well as Latin. And speak properly, no offense." There was nothing wrong with the way she was speaking, but he needed her to be able to fit in among his own friends, and for that, she needed to speak like a someone born and bred into the higher ranks of society. For the remainder of that day, they were just working on the basics of reading. He even had her spell out the letters as she learned their names.

It really hadn't been a surprise to Marcus that Arya couldn't read. From what she'd told him, she'd been sold into her lifestyle at a young age and her parents hadn't had the time to teach her either. It wasn't like she really needed to know either to be able to do what she did. She was just required to be able to please her customers and beyond that anything was just an added bonus really.

The next few days they were hard at work, from getting up in the mornings until going to bed he was busy schooling her and making sure she remembered what they'd already gone through. By the end of the week, her writing had improved immensely and she could speak more proper as well as read simple texts. He couldn't even begin to teach her Latin until she understood her own language perfectly.

Marcus was right that she didn't have anything to lose. If he hadn't gotten her out of her current lifestyle, she probably wouldn't have lasted very long after the few tastes of freedom he'd given her. Sure, she'd been good enough at her job to earn her some money, but it wasn't really rewarding as far as her self image went. She'd been degraded into an object and she kind of liked the idea of being a person again. So she immersed herself in the lessons he was giving her.

They were hard at work until she could read the simplest of texts and her writing had improved. They'd even worked on her speaking so she'd be able to blend in more with Marcus's crowd if it came to that. Eventually it was time for her to read the book he'd brought her. She was to read it aloud from start to finish so he could help her or correct her if she made any mistakes. Since she was still a rather slow reader, they would take their time and when she felt like she couldn't read anymore because her voice was tired, she distracted Marcus from teaching her for a few hours by bringing up simple questions that required Marcus speak for a while and she could just listen. She liked to just listen to him talk, she would do it all day if she could.

After about a month of hard work, he seemed satisfied enough with her speaking at the very least to dress her up and take her to one of his friends. It was probably a good thing she didn't speak Latin at the point as Marcus was quick to pull the host aside and have a quick word with him before returning to her side and being all gentle and kind with her.

Marcus had to make an appearance at Tolbot's party, because his friend expected him to be there. They had share too many nights together for Marcus to just completely disregard the others wishes like that. Whenever they were in the same area and the other was throwing a party, it was more or less expected that they show up. So he had to bring Arya as he didn't want her to sit at home all alone with the servants in case they told her anything he didn't want her to know, it had only been a month since he'd freed her after all.

Once they arrived at the party, he was relieved that they hadn't gotten to Arya's Latin lessons yet as it gave him and Talbot a chance to exchange a few words without her understanding without leaving her alone with the other vampires attending. He impressed upon Talbot the importance of not letting the blonde know the truth just yet about why she was there or what they were. He wanted to be the one to tell her when the time was right.

Gently placing a stray hair behind the blonde's ear, he smiled at her and brought her to meet some of his friends. They all seemed to understand that he wanted to see if they'd accept her as one of their own one day since they could easily tell she was human. She looked and acted like she belonged on his arm though, the lessons in posture and speech seemed to have worked wonders on her really. No one would know of her origins if she kept working on how she portrayed herself and that was what he had intended.

After the party, he was satisfied that she would be warmly welcomed when the time was right and decided to let the blonde have a day off from lessons. They had come so far in such a short time because of her determination to prove that she belonged with him and wanted to make him proud.

The next few weeks, they worked hard on getting her reading up to speed before they moved on to numbers and simple math. She picked it up faster than he'd expected, but he didn't stop tutoring her, even got her a private tutor for when he had to be out for whatever reason so she would really be working continuously. They continued working without him really explaining what he wanted of her or why she was there for close to a year before he finally revealed what he was to her. By that time she was indebted to him enough that she didn't freak out. So he got away with treating her as his primary food source from then on. He also explained how he wanted to reward her when the time was right. She would be his first fledgeling and he wanted to make sure she was ready to give up her mortal life before she would receive her gift of eternal life.

It was very clever really, how he had avoided to teach her Latin with for the sole purpose of being able to communicate with others in front of her without her understanding what they were talking about. He seemed hellbent on keeping some sort of secret from her and it was obvious by the way people looked at her and whispered behind her back they all knew what she'd been doing before Marcus had freed her. Now it was only a matter of not being in the way or making a scene. She was used to ignoring people after all, this was just more of that.

Arya wasn't really shocked when she learned the truth about Marcus, nor could she really run away from him or not accept his offer. She would work, learn and improve until he thought she was ready to be turned and then she would gladly accept his gift of immortality. It all motivated her to work that much harder to impress him and to earn his approval.

The first few times he tied her up, he was gentle about it and didn't cause her more pain than gently biting her neck. It progressed slowly from there until he would hurt her until she couldn't handle it anymore. She finally asked why he was torturing her and was surprised when she learned the answer. She would eventually learn his secrets and he needed to make sure no one could torture answers out of her once she was turned, which was why he needed to make sure she had a high tolerance for pain. So he was slowly building up her resistance so that he could trust her more.

Over the years she learned to tolerate a lot, especially when he got in the habit of rewarding her with great pleasure when she couldn't take any more pain. Slowly but surely she learned to trust Marcus completely and surrender all control to him.

Marcus could hardly believe that the confident, obedient, young woman he had currently hanging from the ceiling was the same scared girl he'd taken in a few years earlier. He'd bound her hands together tightly and used the rope to hoist her into the air and hang her from one of the beams in his room. She hadn't even asked a single question when he'd ordered her to put her hands out and keep them together. "You get loose, and I'll teach you how to be in control both of yourself and someone else," he said and left the room. It was none of his business how she got down from where he'd hung her, since he'd never specified how she was to do so. He'd be back in a few hours to check on her though.

While he had Arya otherwise preoccupied, Marcus went to write Talbot a letter. He wanted his friend to approve before he finally turned Arya. He'd never turned anyone before and so he also needed to make sure he had the facts straight so he didn't end up just killing the girl. The last thing he wanted was to kill his first real shot at a companion that wouldn't try to take something from him or hurt him. Sure, Talbot hadn't exactly done those things either, but there were other things that kept them from being able to truly be happy together.

Once he was done with the letter, he sent one of his servants to personally deliver the letter to Talbot before he caught up on some reading. Finally, he went to check on Arya and was amazed to find her sitting on the bed, all signs of her previous detainment gone, except for the forming bruises around her wrists. She certainly knew how to surprise him.

The next few months was spent making sure she'd be ready when he finally turned her. When she turned 21, he turned her.

For years to come, Arya never told Marcus how she got one of his pets to help her get down from where he'd hung her up. He'd never mentioned how she was to achieve the task at hand and she'd promised the servant a kiss if he would just bring her a knife. It had been a slow process to get herself free since she didn't really want to risk cutting herself in the process. She'd had to be patience and methodical, the moment the rope was about to give, she stop sawing at the rope and focus on landing steadily on her feet without making too much noise.

Marcus had made sure not to hoist her too high above the ground in case she did get free, but it had been far enough away so she couldn't stand on anything without swinging and making a lot of noise. Finally, she stood on a the floor with the knife in one hand and the rope in the other. Turning to the servant, she repaid her debts and kindly asked him to dispose of the rope as well.

She didn't know where Marcus was, so she decided to just sit down and wait for him in their room. He seemed surprised to see her and she was glad she'd managed to get the upper hand for a change. It was obvious he hadn't really expected her to find a way to get herself free. So, holding up his end up the bargain she was soon learning how to demand attention from others and how to control all sorts of emotions and not let them get control over here for too long.

Once she was turned into a vampire, she got use for all his lessons in control. Everything was so new and amplified it took a few tries to stop herself from doing something impulsive. Marcus punished her whenever she was out of line, and she found herself learning to control her instincts rather quickly.