Dept Paid In Blood

The Bet

With only a moment's notice, Kaveh was escorted roughly to another chair elsewhere. He couldn't exactly tell due to his limited vision, and the cloth tied over his eyes.

He could only feel cold hands gripping his arms as he was dragged out to another chair. Strapped down he felt the cloth be removed, only to be tied back around his mouth as a gag. He faced large wine-red curtains, the ends dipped in silver and gold.

Turning his head just slightly to the left he could see a stand with a microphone, a woman wearing a denoting dress stood directly behind this stand. Waiting patiently for the curtains to open. In just a second they tore, and bright warm light flashed upon Kaveh. Sharp red eyes stared at him like dogs discovering a slab of meat. His eyes widened suddenly, his heart ran through his ears as he began to breathe heavily.

His eyes narrowed down to the bright lights, upon adjusting he searched the crowd frantically. There were too many, and he was unable to find Alhaitham. Women's eyes fluttered heavenly, whispering about Kaveh's golden beauty. Some ran their mouths like rotten fruit, discussing how wonderful it'd be to stab their fangs into his throat. He could feel the painful burns of those sore open bites scattered across his body.

"Fifty-eight thousand!"

"Sixty thousand!"

The room was filled with auctioning men and women, righting for the prize sitting in front of them. Kaveh's arms raised up as far as he could, he struggled and groaned. This only raised the interest of many vampires, they hadn't realized that they were given a show to look at!

Kaveh's brows furrowed deeply, he lurched his head forward and stared down at his legs. Conquering a plan, before he could manage a single thought, a deep voice rumbled the room like an Earthquake. Everyone became silent.

"One hundred, thousand, mora."

No one had even reached 70k, yet, this man, in particular, was able to silence everyone in the crowd. Kaveh slowly lifted his head, and immediately spotted the culprit. His eyes widened terrifyingly, just before they narrowed down into fury. No not this man, Kaveh would rather die than be bought by someone like him. A pompous top vampire,

"Ah, Alastair Vlair, sir. This one, is that correct?"

The host asked nervously just to clarify, it appeared that nobody intended to try and fight this particular vampire with his option. There were chartered whispers all in the crowd,

"Vlair almost never pays his money at auctions. He must really like this one."

"This is only the first subject, and he's already interested? Shocker!"

"If this catches his attention, the quality must be top!"

The host cleared her throat, smiled gently, and gestured off to Kaveh who appeared restless even with the lack of blood in his system. You could consider his eyes to flash like a bull,

"I suppose then we have a buyer–"

The host picked up her gavel and was about to pronounce Vlair to be the owner. The man's lip curled into a devilish smile, with a closer look Kaveh could see he had long wavy hair up to his shoulders.

He wore silver glasses, and long black robes with the hilt of his sword sitting at his waist. It was apparent he could make anybody hold their breath in his presence. He lightly took two of his fingers, pulling his glasses back to his nose.

Only then would Kaveh notice the sharp man's elastic gloves, it reminded him of the ones detectives often used to ensure their prints wouldn't be recorded over evidence. Kaveh, about to accept his fate, but was stopped by a shivering voice, and the sound of glass shattering.

"A hundred and ten thousand mora!"

He demanded, it wasn't necessarily an offer, for if it was he would've been calmer. But his tone showed no mercy. Kaveh lifted his head, and a flash of green burning eyes enlightened his face, Alhaitham wasn't staring at the woman, nor at Vlair who he just challenged.

But directly at Kaveh himself, he noticed that Alhaitham's hand was covered in blood, glass sticking to his skin gruesomely. He appeared to be the one who shattered the wine glass. Kaveh's gaze traveled back to Vlair, who appeared at ease. He wasn't offended, or aggressive. But his calm demeanor simply ordered up again.

"One hundred fifteen thousand,"

He demanded lightly, his voice deep but humble and sincere. The woman was about to announce the exact owner with her gavel, but Alhaitham battled this again.

"One hundred twenty thousand!"

The woman was now at a complete loss, Vlair and Alhaitham were both battling, ranking one another with hundreds of thousands of mora. Everyone in the crowd watched, this of which included Kaveh. Each time his gaze landed on Vlair, Alhaitham would appear even more ambitious and shout a larger number in the challenge of Vlairs.

This would force Kaveh to stare back at Alhaitham. Each time their eyes locked, his eyes would soften. Kaveh could sense the irritation each time he looked away from Alhaitham, people were already grounded the instant that Vlair had raised his bets on Kaveh.

But now that there was an unheard challenger in the arena how could they not watch? Eyes that were once directed to Kaveh, were now focused on the two challengers. Kaveh during this hour began to strain himself, attempting to leave his restraints. He could hear the bicker of Vlair and Alhaitham in the background as he struggled.

"You realize I can bet a million, and still continue to fight with you? I know who you are, and I know for a fact that you can't bet forever. Amusing as this is, I'll offer you a duel. Come up here."

Vlair demanded, of course, this wasn't an option for Alhaitham. He created this fate for himself anyway. His shoulders relaxed slightly as he made up the steps of the crowd to the private area Vlair had purchased.

Kaveh realized exactly what would happen next, there were two types of duels. Physical ones, with battle and weapons. The second was an illusioned challenge. All vampires had the ability to enchant any human, but if their magic was even more powerful.

They had the ability to manipulate other vampires. Kaveh understood well enough that these two met nearly the same levels of magic, as far as he knew. Only when Alhaitham faced Vlair head-on did he realize that the man was slightly taller than Alhaitham, although that didn't disturb him a single bit. Kaveh still felt chills go down his spine.

"A magical duel, the winner takes home the prize."

His elastic sharp hand gestured off to where Kaveh was kept strapped, Alhaitham took a second longer to stare at him before facing his opponent. He didn't give Vlair another second notice before his eyes flashed a deep red.

Targeting his pupils he fought entrancement with entrancement. The atmosphere was intense, and at times Kaveh thought that Alhaitham was losing himself in thought to even notice how he was losing his mind.

Kaveh found himself wanting to shout Alhaitham's name to help him continue, he strained forward and struggled violently in an attempt to leave his chair. This one is not as stable as the last one he was seated in.

It rocked back and forth, and only when he felt a burning pain in his neck did he eventually stop, his eyes wavered down slowly. Alhaitham was too focused to notice how Kaveh was injected with a syringe into his neck, it caused his vision to blur before he was knocked out.