Eva considered telling Serena just how many vampires were around. However, they probably had super hearing or some other way to detect her words. Besides that, Serena should know. She was a vampire herself. Surely she had a way to detect her fellow undead.
At Eva’s side, Nel was shaking worse than a leaf on a particularly blustery day. It was almost enough to make her want to throw the girl off and just walk on her own. Even with the nausea, it couldn’t be much worse.
The thrall led them up to a table in the back of the room. A short distance away, Serena waved at them to stop moving while she continued up to the table.
“Lord Kuvon, I presume,” Serena greeted with a slight bow. “Serena, at your service.”
Four sat at the table, only one being a vampire. The rest hung off him like slaves. Of all the vampires in the room, this one wasn’t the largest or strongest looking. Neither was he the weakest. By comparing his body type with regular humans, Eva doubted that he appeared as anything more than an average person.
There was no illusion about who was in command. The bartender and the vampires at the other tables all had their eyes glued on him. Only the two guards at the door kept their heads facing forwards.
The vampire did not respond right away. He brought one hand to his mouth and proceeded to take a deep breath. He let it out, filling the air with fresh cigarette smoke.
“So you’re the Blacksky that thought she could make a feast out of one of my servants.”
“With all due respect, you failed to properly mark him. It is almost as if you wished for passers-by to fall into your little trap.”
One of the vampires, the one at the table farthest from them, narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. Someone that fell to the same trap? Or someone who didn’t like his leader being called a failure.
Potentially dangerous either way.
Kuvon’s eyes drifted away from Serena to search over both Eva and Nel. He looked back to her with a slight chuckle.
“I would call you a hypocrite, but I can see why you wouldn’t want your pathetic attendants associated with you. It’s a miracle that they can stand up on their own.”
Eva ignored the scattered chuckles around the room. None of them mattered. Her focus was on the vampires and their reactions. Any sign of threat from them and Eva would act.
She had several vials of demon and her own blood hidden beneath her jacket. Enough to target everyone in the room. She didn’t
Nel didn’t seem to ignore their chuckles quite as well as Eva. Her shakes doubled over while her grip on Eva’s arm tightened. She looked around the room, trying to find out where attacks might come from while avoiding eye contact with anyone.
“Then again,” he sniffed the air. “The delectable scent. I can almost taste it. No wonder she cannot stand on her own.”
“I prefer my servants able to think for themselves,” Serena said with a slight sneer towards his thralls. “Slaves to my blood might be loyal without question, but they make for such poor company.”
The good humor at Eva’s less than ideal condition vanished. Cold glares were directed at Serena from all corners of the room.
Which made sense. Most of the patrons in the bar were likely thralls.
But again, they really didn’t matter. Barely better than regular humans—and probably not mages at that—the only thing they had going for them was numbers.
The vampires had varying reactions. The one farthest away cracked a smile, but the bartender looked about ready to shatter the glass that he was cleaning.
Kuvon, however, burst out into a laugh. “I’ve thought the same on many occasions.” His laughter pattered off as he narrowed his eyes. “Worthless though they are, I cannot allow your actions against my watcher to go unanswered. It would make me look weak in front of my friends here.” He put on a smile once again. “I’m sure that you understand.”
“Of course,” Serena said. Her voice came out somewhat strained, but Eva couldn’t detect a hint of it through her blood sight. Possibly because the unmoving blood within her body was playing tricks on Eva’s mind. “I am perfectly willing to pay an equivalence of what I took.”
Kuvon leaned forward, completely ignoring the thrall hanging off his shoulder being knocked away. Clasping his hands together, he looked over Serena. “Just what did you have in mind?”
Turning slightly, Serena nodded at Eva.
Eva brushed Nel’s hand off her arm so that she could reach inside her jacket. She withdrew a single vial. Her own blackish blood.
Using her blood magic to help carry it through the air to her target, Eva flung it at the vampire leader.
She was somewhat nervous to leave her own blood away from herself. Doubly so given what she had done with Sawyer’s blood. Unfortunately, they really didn’t want to fight off a whole den of vampires. Not with Nel present and not with Eva ill.
