Music Recommendation: Turn Hell Hound- Jed Kurzel
Eve felt a familiar discomfort in her legs while she sat on the ground.
The weakness started spreading from the top of her legs to her ankles. Continuous walking from earlier to hide from the guards' sight had reduced the strength in her legs. On noticing the scales on one of her feet, she quickly pulled her feet under her beige inner dress.
Deacon, who was staring at Vincent, glanced at the human before looking back at the pureblooded vampire. He mustered a smile and asked,
"Are you talking about this woman?"
"I am sure as hell not talking about you," stated Vincent. The heels of his shoes clicked against the ground as he made his way to where Eve was.
Vincent Moriarty knew this woman? Questioned Deacon before he tried to clear his doubt with the pureblooded vampire, "Sire, this is the woman who murdered Mr. Fowler."
"She isn't. I am taking her with me," deadpanned Vincent.
Before Vincent could get closer to Eve, Deacon came to stand between them. He said, "Forgive me, but this is something only the assigned councilmen will decide. She was found near the murder scene and was captured. Until the trial gets over, she stays here."
"How dutiful," Vincent taunted the head guard with a sly smile forming on his lips. "Or has the position of being the head of something so negligible turned you stupid?"
"I am only doing my job," Deacon slightly bowed, while his eyes didn't move away from Vincent.
The head guard had never opposed or interrupted a pureblooded vampire, but then he thought, right now he could leverage it in the name of her work. Not to mention Vincent had nothing to do with Mr. Fowler's case as it wasn't under his charge. "Mr. Cripps is yet to interrogate her. But more importantly, she tried to run away from here. You know the rules, Mr. Moriarty."
Vincent's eyes shifted away from the grubby head guard, falling on Eve. He could hear her heart beating loudly.
"Never heard that a guard's job is to unbuckle his belt and remove his pants during duty. I thought it was only the prisoners in here who did that," Vincent's words were calm, and Deacon lightly laughed.
"I don't know what you are talking about, when I have mine just in place," responded Deacon. He said, "I was going to impose some discipline on the woman so that she doesn't dare to think about running again. She would have waited for the trial to come and not escape like this if she wasn't guilty. Now, if you will allow me to take her back to her cell," he offered a polite smile before turning to Eve.
Deacon went to grab Eve's hand, ready to pull or drag her, whichever was the most degrading way. But before that, Vincent caught hold of the head guard's wrist and punched the guard's jaw.
"What part of my words was not clear?" Vincent looked at Deacon with annoyance and came to stand next to Eve while Deacon staggered a few steps away from them.
The lowly vampire shook his head, hearing a ring in his ear after Vincent's punch. He warned, "You are making a grave mistake. Hand over the woman and we can then discuss if the woman is really innocent or not."
Deacon turned irritated when Vincent ignored him and instead turned to look at the woman.
Apart from the wounds on her skin, Vincent noticed Eve tremble with her fists pressed against her lap to stop herself from shaking. He removed the black overcoat that he was wearing and put it around her shoulders, covering her body. Eve's eyes widened at his kind gesture, which she hadn't expected him to do. Her blue eyes caught him staring at her raw wounds. When her eyes met his, the usual humour in them was absent and they looked back at her with a hollowness in them.
At the same time, a couple more footsteps echoed not too far from where they were, and soon, the other two councilmen and two guards appeared in view.
"Evening, gentlemen," Vincent greeted the fellow councilman.
Mr. Cripps's eyes hardened and demanded, "What are you doing here, Vincent? I don't remember Fowler's case concerning you."
Vincent offered a polite smile, where the smile didn't reach his eyes. He replied, "I am here to pick something that is mine. If you don't mind, you can get back to your work, while I get back with mine."
For a moment, Mr. Cripps turned confused until he heard the head guard's words, "Mr. Moriarty wants to take the offender with him."
Mr. Cripps's eyes narrowed before he questioned Vincent, "Don't you know that this woman is under the suspicions of murdering Fowler. Let the guard get her and put her back in the cell she belongs to. If you need to speak, we can make arrangements for it. But the woman isn't going anywhere else."
"You don't appear to be a man who seeks peace, do you?" Vincent questioned the councilman, who glared at the pureblooded vampire.
Mr. Cripps didn't like Vincent trying to interfere and meddling with their case. He turned to Deacon and said, "I order you to take the woman and put her in the cell right now."
Deacon was more than pleased to complete the order. It wasn't every day where he got to humiliate a pureblooded vampire, and he called his guards attention. The subordinate guards, who were nearby, quickly appeared. He ordered,
"Capture the woman at any cost and put her back to the cell."
Two guards complied, bowing their heads and making their way to where the escaped woman sat on the ground.
Deacon was riding high on his position in the dungeon, and Mr. Cripps, who didn't know what Vincent was capable of, waited for the guards to capture the offender. But the other councilman, who had tagged along with Mr. Cripps, leaned toward his partner and spoke worriedly,
"I don't think this is a good idea. It would be better to sit down and solve the matter."
Mr. Cripps softly harrumphed and replied, "This vampire thinks he knows better than us. The case is ours to handle, a little damage to him wouldn't be that bad."
"That is not what I am talking about…" replied the other councilman with a tone of uncertainty in his voice.
When one of the guards tried to grab Eve's arm to force her to stand, Vincent's hand caught hold of the guard's wrist and crushed it.
"ARGHHHH!!" The guard screamed in pain while clutching his broken hand with his good hand, "My hand!"
The other guards, who entered the place, quickly left the head guard's side, ready to attack Vincent, who stood like a wall between them and the prisoner. Soon a fight broke out in the place, where the guards relentlessly attacked Vincent, and he dodged every one of them before handing the same attacks thrice the force.
One of Vincent's legs pivoted, while the other kicked the guards with a force that sent them flying across the place. Their bodies crashed on the walls or fell on the broken stones and bricks on the ground. He ducked his head and hit another guard's nose, which led to the guard's nose bleeding profusely.
Blood spilt on the ground, and it didn't belong to Vincent but to the guards who were being beaten one after another by the pureblooded vampire. The commotion in this dark place echoed, bringing the other guard's attention, who quickly joined in to fight Vincent.
"Get the woman!" Deacon ordered, unimpressed by the men who worked for him as not one of them was capable enough to leave a single hit or scratch on Vincent.
The other councilman came to stand behind and between Deacon and Mr. Cripps. He said, "Mr. Moriarty is not someone you can use violence on."
"Just because he comes from a pureblooded family doesn't mean he gets to break the rules set by the council or the inner circle, Gregory," stated Mr. Cripps, who was a man who followed the rules and anyone who didn't follow it would be punished along with the others.
They watched Vincent catch hold of one of the guards' neck before his fingers went straight into the man's eyes, gouging it out of the eye sockets.
But the other councilman shook his head, "No, that's not what I meant, Mr. Cripps. Master Vincent is known for his… gorey fighting skills, and if this continues, the dungeon will need to recruit new guards."
Eve watched the bodies that belonged to the guards fall one after another on the ground. Blood started to reek in the place, and some guards hesitated to get close to Vincent, fearing their plight to turn like the other guards who didn't move as they were no match for his strength and fighting skills.
The pureblooded vampire didn't hesitate in breaking, crushing or pulling out the hearts or eyes of the guards. The sight was chilling because Eve noticed that Vincent's eyes lacked emotions and looked colder than it often did. He dodged the attack with ease while beating the guards.
When one of the guards attacked Vincent with a blade, Vincent caught the guard's hand and twisted it for the guard to drop the blade. He then pushed the guard against the ground, where the guard's head cracked and soon blood pooled around the head.
"Pathetic that you aren't able to put one single woman in her cell," Mr. Cripps scolded the head guard's for his incapability.
"What do you think you all get paid for?!" Deacon spat at his underlings for being useless. Seeing Vincent occupied, he decided to drag the woman himself from here.
