Beast of the Night

Payment - SIX

The words the announcer used sent a chill down Vee Elrod's spine. What did he mean by that? This name was familiar to him, as it was to everyone, but he could not think of the face to go with it. Vee's mind was too hazed to think. The pain made his cheeks flush red and his breath uneven.

Every single being in the room bowed their heads, not daring to look up to where the announcer gazed.

"I will not be... sold..." Vee muttered quietly before his eyes closed again to the pain in his back wound; his cage was then carried backstage by the same two security guards, their noses flaring at the smell of Vee's pouring blood.

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Continued

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The raven hair stood up from his throne, dropping his stick to the table with a tap. He walked calmly out of the loge, almost like the irrational amount of money he now owed was only a shilling. Down the winding wooden stairs, he stepped to the ajar entry of the auction room. The pale being passed the standing crowd with ease; everyone made a large path through the packed people, staring fearfully and staying silent, as they would never want to anger the man in the red mask. It was quite refreshing for Ennard to be reminded of his stature. It excited him; how every vampire would blindly step out of his way.

As they brought Vee behind the curtains, Ennard Ambrogio appeared in the same backroom with a lit cigar. He leaned on the glossy wall by the velvet curtains, his suit a slightly darker shade of red than the drapes. The vibrantly clothed announcer walked through the curtains closely to the concealed man, jumping with a startle as he suddenly saw the quiet figure. He regained his composure and gave a worried smile, ear to ear. "My lord! how honored I am to make your acquaintance! I was astonished to see your bet; pray you have the payment?"

Just as the extremely chubby man extended his large hand to shake the pureblood's, the coachman, covered in his long grey beard, arching his back forward with age, walked in with a weighty black bag of coin sterling. The raven-haired man neither moved nor replied to the announcer's lifted hand: he only puffed out a heavy cloud of cigar smoke into the horrid man's face. The announcer coughed silently and retracted his hand, the masked male crossing his legs and grimacing. This silent war between the two vampires continued for a moment, as Ennard was visibly disgusted by the man fiddling with his fat fingers. The stubby man trembled and backed his feet, greedily opening his hands, and clenching them again, as if there were coins to be caught from the sky.

"H, have you the money," asked he, "ten million pounds?"

Ennard's greyed eyes peered over to the man in the cage, who was staring back with dazed, fearful eyes. The raven hair sighed quietly and lifted a pale hand to his face, taking off the crimson mask that covered his eyes and handing it to the old servant behind him, in exchange for the heavy black bag. He threw it to the announcer with ease, growling in a deeper tone than any of the others could ever hope to threaten, "ten million, now be off, before I change my mind."

The announcer nodded, stumbling at the impact of the bag. He grinned sly, getting all that he had wished for and stomping off with the heavy leather bag.

The tall, slender being covered in red velvet threw the half of the brown cigar under his heel like a cigarette, narrowing his eyes to the boy's cage, "wait just a moment," the announcer winced as the man called him back and turned around, clutching the thin bag.

"Yes, my lord?" he replied to the inscrutable male.

The callous pureblood walked with narrowed eyes to Vee, whose wound was only dripping slowly from the overall blood loss. Where he laid in the cage was now covered in crimson crust, the button-up shirt he was forced to wear now stained with his pain; the small but gaping hole in the boy's back was deep and almost to the bone. Ennard stepped around the cage to the back of the human and growled loudly as his fangs shot out three centimeters longer than the other vampires, "you touched what I own?"

The announcer dropped the bag from his arms, not walking any closer with his instant fear. Everyone knew of the ruler's obsession with keeping his property to himself.

"Faith, I would never, Sir Ennard! I had no knowledge of your sudden buy-" just before the bag hit the floor, the announcer's tongue was cut out within a moment.

Ennard had no visible movements but the two stands of his long black hair, fluttering from its rightful place in the top bun. As Vee looked down, he noticed the ridged man's black claws were now dripping with a light red liquid. He had no interest in hearing meaningless excuses, especially when it was his property as a victim.

The announcer fell to his knees with a bloodcurdling scream, Vee flinching as he tilted his head backwards weakly to see the earth shake with the weight hitting the ground. The man held his lower face with a cupped hand, blood dripping to the floor through the cracks, "vhat th hell ish wronh wih y-?!" ("What the hell is wrong with y-?!")

The raven hair stepped towards the screaming man and pushed his Italian leather dress shoe into his head, crushing it against the ground with a cracking sound.

The lifeless and now silent vampire lay flat on the glossy black floor, the room filling with the stench of iron, a pool of crimson liquid sliding around the corpses head. One of the women hidden in the back of the room ran up and grabbed the bag of money with two shaking hands and bolted out of the building to give it to the head of the auction house.

"You," The raven-haired male covered in a splattered blood turned his indifferent face to the hunter, "let him out," he said almost inaudibly to one of the men in the room.

The man who had dragged Vee into the backrooms ran to the cage quickly in understanding.; he had a shaven head, a dull green eye, and a sturdy, tall figure. He undid the rusted locks, opening the bar door and reaching his hand out for Vee to take. Sir Ennard growled deeply, his eyes turning a dark threating grey when he saw the man's extending hand. The wide-eyed man backed up in reply with a tremble, letting the raven hair past him.  

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