*Chapter 129 - Feast

Chapter 129 - Feast

Lady Noque Okt sat upright in her extravagant chair, adorned with silks and furs fit for a queen while sipping on spiced blood from a diamond studded goblet.  She was quite interested to hear what the three breeder girls had to say, as was her husband Lord Aktav Okt who sat beside her pounding a fist into the splendidly carved marble table over and over again while guffawing at the story the timid girls were telling.  Lord Okt was a tall vampire with many generations of the purest bloodlines flowing through him, having pale porcelain skin along with a healthy taste for blood.  He had sharp features with a strong jawline and long black hair that had been braided in the back, and he was always caught looking down on others.

“Those Ithisel SHEEP had what was coming to them!” exclaimed the redheaded Tenke as Furdom made an expression of agreement.

Calming down, Lord Aktav Okt settled back into his comfortable chair and leaned to one side to support his head in his hand.  “Osi, tell me what the new blood said again, what was the game called before you saw him light them aflame?”

“If I recall correctly,” said Osi with eyes cast downwards as she stood before the room of Okt vampires, “he said it was called the ‘How loudly you can scream before your limbs are ripped off’ game.”

Lord Okt once more started to guffaw and pound the table and there was an applause and cheers from the other fifty or so vampires present in the room.  “And DID they scream, breeder girl?”

Osi nodded, “Like squealing pigs my lord.”

Slapping the table once more with a bout of laughter, Lord Okt grinned.  “Very good, very good indeed.  He’s already performing well and I haven’t even had the chance to meet this man yet.  So far I am impressed with your find, Furdom.  Let us hope things continue like this.”

“Well worth the fines we were made to pay by the priests for those Ithisel deaths,” Lady Okt chimed in.  “Wouldn’t you all say so?”

Another round of applause as the well-dressed vampires of house Okt shouted out their agreement - raising blood-filled goblets to cheers.

Sighing loudly, Lord Okt closed his eyes momentarily and waved his hand to silence the room.  “Indeed.  Now that we have discussed the matter of the incident in front of the temple, we can start at the beginning.  Each of you will give me your impressions of this man.  Osi, you will go first.  Tell me everything you know about him.”

“Yes my lord,” said Osi with a slight bow, pushing her brown hair out of her eyes.  “The first thing I would say about this man is that he is definitely vegetarian.”

The other vampires laughed and one let out a yell, “If we recruit this Trey character maybe Yappa over here won’t be so lonely!”  The remark led to another series of guffaws as another vampire amongst their ranks haughtily pointed his nose into the air while they made fun at his expense.

“So he lacks good taste, if he wants to eat only animals then that is his call,” said Lord Okt as the room calmed once more.  “I had originally heard he was a cold blooded killer.  I feel like that puts it into question, wouldn’t you say so Furdom?”

Furdom nodded and rubbed his chin, his slightly elvish features contorting with a grin as he displayed his fangs.  “He seems to be sending mixed messages, this is true.  He has no problem killing people in the streets at random but won’t eat cattle.  Strange, isn’t it?”

“What else?” asked Lady Okt as she continued to sip on her spiced blood.  “Continue, breeder girl.  We do not have all day.”

Hurriedly Osi bowed even further.  “I apologize my lady, I will continue immediately.  Trey has some other strange… ideas.  I believe that this is in part because he is a new blood.”

Frowning and furrowing her eyebrows, Lady Okt leaned forward.  “What do you mean by strange ideas?”

“Well they may be strange, I’m not sure - that is for you to decide as I am but a mere human -”

“Enough,” Lady Okt said impatiently.  “You three were assigned to him and are supposed to evaluate him whenever we aren’t there, do not be afraid to tell us what you truly think.  If we end up recruiting him and he is not worthy of this house, it will be your heads it falls on.  So speak truthfully girl.”

Osi nodded, her brunette hair shaking with the motion as she kept her eyes glued to the floor in a bow.  “What I mean by that is Trey asked us what we thought of House Okt.  When we told him of the glory of House Okt he scoffed at us and told us to stop lying, that if he were in our position he would hate you for eating our friends and the cattle we give birth to.”

Murmuring could immediately be heard around the room as Lord Okt raised both his eyebrows.  “Was he trying to turn you against us?”

“No!  No my lord!” stuttered Osi hurriedly as she again pushed her brunette hair out of her face.  “I do not believe that was his intent.  I simply believe he does not yet understand the order of things here because he is a new blood.  He was not loved by Aktovan until just recently, and will probably have to adjust to things here in the city before having a firm grasp of the lives we lead.”

The eyebrows lowered as Lord Okt pondered this momentarily before dismissively accepting her answer.  “I suppose that is understandable.  Rusoe, what is your opinion of this man?”

Osi took a step back as Rusoe stepped forward to replace her.

“My opinion is the same.  He will have to adjust to our way of life here but I do think he would be an asset to the great name of Okt.  His display in front of the temple was undeniably pleasant, and if the house of Okt does not take him then another house will.”

Nodding once more and dismissing Rusoe, he motioned for Nothel to come forward.

“Speak woman, what is your opinion of this man?  Surely you have something to offer us other than copying the breeder before you as Rusoe did?” said Lord Okt with an eyeroll as Rusoe shamefully tensed up.

Nothel was a little more hesitant in her reply, and her fingers intertwined with one another as she fidgeted and thought of how to portray her feelings.  “... I believe he is a kind man, and would be an asset to the house of Okt as well.”

At this, Lady and Lord Okt both laughed.  Lady Okt turned to sneer back at the slave with an air of superiority.  “We do not care if he is KIND to you or not, breeder.  If that is all you have to offer then you were better off keeping your mouth shut.  Is there anything else?”

“Yes, my lady...” replied Nothel with downcast eyes.  “He is very invested in the pleasures of the flesh.  He indulges in intercourse many times a day with us breeders and is opening up to us.  He also has a taste for pastries-”

“Of that we can attest to!  We saw him carrying a basket full of pastries when we first saw him in Mobobe!” interjected a laughing Furdom who was hushed by Lady Okt.

“It is good to know he is enjoying himself… at least you three are playing your parts well.  Continue.”

“Yes, my lady.” replied Nothel once more.  “Aside from everything else said here there was one other item of interest.  He claims to be from the fourteenth realm.  It came up whenever he began asking us where we were from.”

“Do you mean to say he is Earthborn?” inquired Lady Okt as Lord Okt’s eyebrows rose once more in surprise.

“He claims to be, yes.”

Murmuring around the room became much louder as the vampires began to openly talk amongst themselves.  Lord Okt turned to Lady Okt with a keen look in his eyes.

“Surely you have heard the rumors of the three vampires who serve Maltetious?”

With a blank expression Lady Okt nodded deep in thought.  “Yes I have.  I was going to bring this up later, but now as the opportunity has presented itself I might as well show you here.  Tenke, can you fetch Trey’s weapon for us?  I believe Trey left it in our armory.  Hurry now.”

Tenke’s red head shot up to enthusiastically bolt out of the room.  Within a minute he had returned carrying Trey’s mace.  The large weapon was handed to Lord Okt who inspected it thoroughly, eyeing it up and down as a cook would a finely prepared meal before serving it.

The weapon wasn’t anything special, but Maltetious had imbued runes into the weapon that gave off significantly less powerful effects while maintaining the appearance of the real deal.  It’d taken a lot less time and investment to create, but after she’d sealed her mark upon the weapon and altered its status page - only the highest tier of identifiers would be able to tell that the runes were actually quite useless.

Because of this, as the vampires marvled over the craftsmanship, Ezdeath just snickered in the back.  She’d taken on the form of one of the female vampires, changing her face to copy it in exact detail and changing her hair from snow-white to a dark black.  She’d left the vampiress back at another place of residence further into the city in a basement, chained to a wall - and Edeath had been feeding on her regularly.  Vampire tasted quite good and they regenerated quite fast, so she hadn’t wasted the meal but instead kept the vampiress imprisoned.  Not only that, but keeping the vampiress alive was a good way to extract information in case Ezdeath got into a sticky situation.  If she didn’t know what was being talked about concerning coven matters, she’d simply snap off a finger and ask the vampiress and would continue to eat the woman’s fingers until she got the answers she wanted.

Unfortunately, Ezdeath hadn’t learned too much about what her master had asked about.  Those god damned priests were very stingy and kept to themselves, just getting access to the domed temple in worship of Aktovan was something she’d not accomplished yet, even with her minor shape-shifting powers that allowed her to change various aspects of her face and body.  It was frustrating beyond belief, and she was half tempted to just tell Trey that they should summon all his minions and storm the temple by force - though she knew that at least most of them would die if that happened.

But as long as she and Trey lived, she wouldn’t care too much.  She liked some of the other demons, true, but the less competition she had to deal with for Trey’s affection the better… and if some of the other women just happened to die off then she’d have more time with her master in turn.

“Splendid weapon.  There seems to be an incredible curse upon this weapon of a variety I cannot make out, but that alone is testimony to its power.”  Lord Okt paused to examine the mark of Maltetious embroidered upon the handle of the mace before handing it back to Tenke.  “I would not handle that weapon for very long, Tenke.  Put it back in the armory immediately, we don’t know what type of magic it contains and an unfamiliar wielder may trigger unwanted results.”

Furdom eyed the weapon closely as Tenke turned to put it back where he had found it.  “That weapon must be worth a fortune.”

Again, Ezdeath tried not to snicker in the back.

“Without a doubt it is,” stated Lord Okt bluntly.  “I don’t know where you would find enough material to make a weapon of that caliber, but whoever forged it did a splendid job.  Aside from that I wouldn’t worry about the marking.  Maltetious has never been one to make an enemy of Aktovan or our kind, and Trey did just recently turn after all.  He may have been a cult follower before, but we will lead him down the true path.  Even if the rumors of their deeds aren’t fictional in nature after all.”

“If the rumors are true then he may have powerful friends as well.  What of the others the rumors speak of?  We should ask him of this, after all it would be a good catch to get all three to side with us.  Good battlemages are hard to come by outside of the pureblood lineage...” stated a female vampire with her back against the far wall.  Her peers nodded in agreement as did Lord Okt.

“It is a good idea.  We will ask him at dinner as we feast!  Tell Trey to come to the great hall to eat with us within an hour’s time!”

A roar of applause echoed throughout the room as the breeder girls were dismissed to attend to Trey.  Cooks were ushered into the room as the top tier of the hierarchy left to attend other duties.  Behind the cooks were slaves being dragged in kicking, screaming and crying.  One by one the slave-cattle were placed upon blood stained marble tables and butchered in front of the others.  As the blood ran down onto the stone, it could be seen filling up small canals that had been carved into the table tops to collect blood in troughs below.  Many of the cattle stopped their crying to have panic attacks or vomit before being placed upon their own granite tables to be chained down to the corners.

Nothel had come back to the hall for a pan... only to see a mother and child being separated, put onto their individual granite tables and killed in front of each other.  Their throats were slit open and left to look at each other from across the room.  Nothel didn’t even wince and kept going.  It was not the first time she had seen a sight like this and was definitely not going to be the last.

***

Trey was slightly horrified at the sight of dead children but kept his cool as the elite of the vampire class sat around the room making jokes to each other amongst the bloodbath.

“We have all varieties of cuts for you to try,” stated the naked male breeder as he took Trey on a tour of the buffet.  “We have grey goblin here which is a favorite dish of many of our noble house.  It is a rare cut and we have to import it from nations in the east, it would be a hard find in the market here.  Next we have cuts from black men and dwarves.  Here we have a cut of infant, child and adolescent.  I am told that infant is very tender though I obviously have not tried it myself.”

“... yeah.  Me neither.”

The pompous-looking breeder turned to look Trey up and down.  “I had forgotten,” the breeder said with almost a look of disgust.  “You are vegetarian aren’t you?  We have chicken and tarts in the back… I can fetch them for you if you would like.  I am told by your attending breeders that you prefer tarts, is that true?”

Trey squared up with the smaller man, immediately irritated.  “I was thinking I was going to break off one of your arms and eat that instead.  That ok?”

The smaller cocky man quickly turned pale.

“Just kidding.  Go get me those god damn tarts and no more attitude from you, little boy.”

A chuckle from behind brought Trey to look at a vampiress sitting upon a stool not far from where he stood.  The woman was licking her bloodied fingers one by one as she eyed him up and down.  Orange hair hung just past her shoulders and a red dress adorned her small lean frame.

“That breeder really thought you were going to do it,” she stated cunningly.  “And so did I.  I was actually looking forward to it.  Too bad you’re vegetarian, would have been a funny ordeal to witness.  That one is a house favorite, and he lets it get to his head sometimes.”

Trey looked for a place to sit amidst the ‘dining room’ that wasn’t pasted in blood and didn’t find one, so he remained standing and became disgruntled with the lack of clean furniture.  Then he managed to reply and turned to face this new woman.  “Never seen anyone with orange hair before.”

The vampiress laughed, putting a hand over her mouth as she did under the torchlight.  “Is that what you’re going to say to me the first time we meet?  How unromantic.”  She stood up to put a hand forward after wiping it down with a cloth.  “My name is Nami.  Nice to make your acquaintance.”

“Trey,” he replied while taking her hand as he bowed to kiss it. “Nice to make yours as well.”

“Oh now the manners are showing!” Nami said feigning embarrassment.  “My hair is orange because I dye it that way.”

“You use dyes?  What color was it originally?”

She smirked.  “That’s for only me to know and you to find out.”

Grinning and rolling his eyes he looked over to see Nothel, eyes cast downward in reverence while standing up against the wall to Trey’s left.

“That breeder girl is taking care of you well I hope?” said Nami as she interrupted Trey’s gazing.

“Oh yes, quite well.”

“Good to hear.  I questioned her privately about you and she has many good things to say.”

Trey looked back, eyeing the vampiress questioningly as another vampire nearly knocked Trey over after drunkenly stumbling into him.  “What kinds of things?”

“Hmmm.  Maybe I’ll tell you eventually,” she replied winking.  “But enough about that, I want to know more about you from your own mouth.  Tell me about Earth.”

Tell her about Earth?  That was rather vague.

Rolling his eyes once more Trey shook his head.  “I get that all too often.  I’m tired of talking about Earth.  Let’s talk about something else.  What do you do for fun around here, Nami?”

“Fun?” she paused.  “Well I do like going to the gaming pits.  It’s always fun to see the fighters go at it!  Sometimes you get to see rivalries settled by deathmatch there between different vampires as well.”

“Is that common practice here?”

“Oh yes, quite common.  Quite fun to watch, it is a part of our culture here.  Something I’m sure you’ll come to like as well!  But I also hear you’re quite the warrior yourself Trey.  Let me be blunt, why do you have the mad numen’s mark upon your weapon?  Where are your other two friends the rumors speak of?”

Trey dismissed her questions with a wave of his hand.  “That’s for only me to know and you to find out!  But maybe I’ll tell you eventually.”

Nami put her hands on Trey’s cheeks and pretended to pout, ignoring his obvious jab at her previous comment.  “Whatever could I do to convince you to tell me?!”

Trey laughed and swatted her hands away.  “I’m sure you’ll figure something out!”

“Is Nami bothering you Trey?” Furdom said while crossing the room holding a plate of food.  Using a fork he picked up what Trey assumed to be brain and shoved it into his mouth to swallow soon after.  “She can be quite a nuisance.  I apologize for anything she says or does in advance.”

Nami sneered back at her colleague and scoffed in disgust.  “I’m merely making friends.  No need to cause trouble already, you spoiled brat.”

Furdom looked like he was going to retort, but never go the chance.

“Come now children!” exclaimed Lord Okt as he followed Furdom’s path through the noisy, crowded room to put a hand on Trey’s shoulder in friendship.  “Behave yourselves.  We don’t want Trey here to think that we are barbarians now do we?  Let me introduce myself, my name is Aktav Okt.  I am the coven’s head and have been wanting to meet you for some time now.”

Trey bowed courteously and then straightened up once more.  Lord Okt was certainly dressed the part, and the way the other vampires moved out of the way to make room for him said it all.  Here was the big dog on campus.  “It is an honor, Lord Okt.  Your hospitality has been most appreciated.”

“Of course!” replied Lord Okt with a self-important sweep of his hand through his black hair before resting his hands in the pockets of his gold-trimmed robe.  “Are all your needs being met?”

“They certainly are!” exclaimed Trey as he laughed and winked at Nothel who still stood against the wall.  “The three breeders you assigned me are doing an excellent job.”

Lord Okt nodded.  “It is good to know.”

“Nami over here was also just telling me about how she plans to take me to the fighting pits for a showing.  Right Nami?” Trey turned while eying the vampiress from the side.

Nami stuck her nose into the air pridefully.  “I suppose if I must.”

“Ouch! And here I was thinking we had gotten off on a better footing!” laughed Trey in response.  “Maybe you can end up convincing me to let loose on those questions of yours while we’re there.  Depends on how nicely you treat me!”

“I’m the nicest...” retorted Nami with a cool look in Trey’s direction.

“I see you’ve already started.” stated Furdom boldly and with poorly concealed contempt, shoving his hands into his pockets and shaking his head.  “Here we go again.”

“Leave her be!” chuckled Lord Okt as Nami blushed in embarrassment and swat at Furdom.  “Oh look, the entertainment has arrived.”

Amongst the bustling crowd of breeder servants and vampires came a line of twelve slaves chained up in a row.  A chef had led the wide eyed group of terrified victims over to the middle of the giant dining hall and had - with the help of breeder servants - chained the cattle to rungs in the floor by the iron collars around their necks.  Their hands and legs were bound by shackles as well.  The slave bound nearest to Trey began to whimper loudly as tears rolled down his face in streams.  In unison breeder servants began to use knives to tear off what garments the cattle had - if they had any at all - and threw the clothes into a basket that was then carried out of the room.

“I want to see my mother…” whimpered the slave near Trey once more.  Upon closer inspection the slave was probably in his late teens and looked half starved as the tears came in droves.  The boy began to shake.

Lady Okt called for attention as she rang a large bell and proceeded to make her way to the middle of the room where the cattle were bound.  Holding up a goblet she began to speak.  “I am glad to see so many of you present here for this week’s banquet!”

A loud cheer met her greeting as the vampires of Okt rose to their feet and smiled back at her from around the room - many of them clapping and laughing to one another before quieting down to let her finish her speech.

“As many of you know,” she said while motioning over to Trey, “We have an esteemed guest amongst us!  Take time out of your schedules to come and talk to him and get to know him.  Make him feel at home while he is here!”

She paused to take another sip from her cup.  “Aside from that nothing much has changed!”  The vampires laughed in turn.  “Let’s cut out the small talk and have some fun!  What say you!?  Is it time for the entertainment?!”

Yet another cheer as she motioned towards the slaves chained next to her.  “For tonight’s banquet we decided that it would be a nice change of pace to use some LIVE food!”

Many of the slaves began to sob as they realized what was about to befall them.  Many of them dropping to their knees or hugging themselves to try to calm down.  Trey didn’t know what to do or say, and simply watched the scene as it progressed.

“After all!  I know some of you haven’t been out of the city for months!  Some of you have grown lazy and don’t even hunt anymore!”  Lord Okt grinned as Lady Okt glared at him with an obvious accusal.  “So we have brought them here to you instead!”

She was interrupted by a loud sob, “I WANT TO SEE MY MOTHER!”

The head vampiress turned to look at the teenage man shaking as he started coughing in between sobs.  He fell to his knees, still whimpering, and shook uncontrollably.

“We’ll start with this one!” exclaimed Lady Okt as she took a knife from beneath her robes.  Pushing the man over onto his back with a strength unlike what normal humans could muster, she began to carve out his liver.  Horror stricken screams followed the act as he tried to push her off of him, but he was much too weak.  Soon afterwards the other slaves fell victim to the hands of the vampires too.

It was the stuff of nightmares.

Trey watched and said nothing as he saw Nami casually walk up to one of the pinned women - the slave woman was having toes removed one by one as another vampires took a sharp curved blade to pop them into his mouth like candy.  Amongst the screams of the dying, Nami reached down to pluck an eyeball from the woman’s head.  At first she had a hard time getting it out, but within the next couple seconds she had ripped it from the agony-stricken woman’s face.  Turning around, Nami merrily skipped back to Trey’s spot where Lord Okt and Furdom stood talking amongst themselves.

“Open up!” said Nami flirtatiously over the screams behind her as she held out the eyeball between her index finger and thumb.

Trey returned with a slightly disgusted look.  “I’ll pass thanks.”

“Oh come on you’re going to have to try it one day!  Might as well do it now rather than later, new blood!”  Nami took Trey’s hand and placed the eyeball in his palm.  “It isn’t so bad, the eyes are sort of chewy at first but when it bursts it’ll flood your mouth with juice that tastes pretty good!”

Trey seriously thought he was going to throw up if he tried swallowing it.  Not because he hadn’t eaten humans before, but it’d never been this… brutal?  No.  He’d been brutal himself, perhaps it was because none of these people deserved what they were getting?

He paused, taking a long hard internal look at himself.  Why did he seem to suddenly care all of a sudden?  Recently his morals had been coming back to influence him in ways that he’d thought long dead.  He’d fallen so hard and so fast over the past year… and now, he was having problems with something like this?

Looking around he saw Nothel once more standing silently against the wall.  Catching her gaze momentarily he gave her a pleading look.  Quickly Nothel made her way over to stand beside Trey.

“Is there something you desire master Trey?” asked Nothel softly.

Nami laughed with an eyeroll.  “He won’t eat the eyeball, he probably was wanting you to go get him some of those tarts again.  He is needing some encouragement for trying new things.”

Nothel briskly nodded, hands clasped in front of her and eyes to the floor.  “If it is encouragement you need, I may be of assistance.  I am told that my blood is high quality and tastes quite nice.”  Pushing her locks of brown hair to one side she leaned her neck over to let Trey have a good view of it.  Scars from years of vampires feeding on her riddled the spot she was exposing.  “Maybe this could be a small first step.”

“What a GREAT IDEA!” exclaimed Nami who excitedly tossed the eyeball across the room.

Lord Okt had been watching and smiled widely.  “Agreed.  We need to rid you of your previous eating habits Trey.  How many times have you tried human blood?”

Trey froze up.  Were they expecting him to bite into Nothel’s neck?  He didn’t have any experience with his fangs.  Well, he’d been able to make them come out once in a while with strenuous effort - but it was pretty pathetic how long it took.  “I... haven’t tried it yet I suppose…”

Astonished - Lord Okt, Furdom and Nami all gasped in unison.

“Well maybe that’s why you don’t want to eat like a regular vampire!” roared Furdom with both hands upon his hips and a laugh.  “This explains a lot.  What was your predecessor doing?  Did he or she not show you ANYTHING?  Give it a go!  I can attest to Nothel’s blood tasting quite well.  I use her often actually.”

The last statement definitely irritated Trey but he shrugged it off.  “Y’all are going to laugh at me for this but in part it has been because I’ve had a hard time… with my fangs.”

Confused, Nami patted Trey on the head several times.  “What do you mean by that?”

The others awaited his reply as Trey found the words.  “I… uhm… I’ve only been able to do that… uh… where the fangs come out?  I’ve only been able to do that a few times.  I don’t seem to know how to use the muscles properly yet.”

The three vampires around him erupted in laughter and even Nothel seemed slightly amused as she glanced up at him from her current awkward position with a slight smirk that quickly faded.  Looking around quickly Trey saw that most of the chained cattle in the center of the room had died, though a few still clung to life as various pieces of their bodies were cut out or torn off.  The blood from the mess was pooling at the center of the room as the floor sloped downwards to a basin, much like the tables collected the blood of the victims on them.

“I’ve never heard of that ever happening before!” exclaimed Lord Okt as he shook his head halfway with disbelief.  “Might as well learn now then!  Go on, try your best!”

Trey didn’t know what to do, and the other vampires waited in anticipation as he blanked.  He just… stood there.  He was fucked.  Truly and utterly fucked, and he felt his palms start to get clammy under the pressure.

After a while of waiting Lord Okt began to frown and folded his arms.  Nothel still waited patiently beside Trey with her neck kinked sideways.

“Let me see.”  Violently Lord Okt took his hand to open Trey’s mouth to examine the canines.  A surge of anger overcame Trey as his thoughts went to mauling the vampire lord right then and there for being handled so roughly - but he calmed himself.  Soon thereafter and under intense pressure, his teeth began to morph into long fangs that sprouted out from his two top canines.  He hoped he had done it successfully.  Had he?  He didn’t know.  He couldn’t see what his teeth looked like… he had only done it by feel.

Lord Okt smiled and nodded, removing his hand from Trey’s jaw.  “Well by Aktovan, you see something new every day.  It’ll be good to know in case I come upon something like this again.”

Trey’s heart stopped as he tensed up and readied himself for action.  Then he hesitantly asked the question.  “What do you mean, Lord Okt?”

Confused, Lord Okt tilted his head slightly.  “It is the same as I said earlier.  I have never seen a vampire not be able to use his fangs properly.  I will make note of it and archive it for others to learn about.  For a moment there I was concerned.”

Nami rolled her eyes and nudged up against Trey cunningly.  “Well hurry up and try the breeder’s blood!  I’m tired of waiting to see what you think of it!”

Trey loosened up again and turned to Nothel.  She must be tired having to wait here like this for so long.  Trey approached her and awkwardly positioned himself with fangs near the base of her neck, then he stood straight up again.

“Won’t it be bad if I accidently kill her by puncturing her larger arteries?” asked Trey with an obvious look of concern.  He’d only ever eaten people with his demonic visage, and there was no room for leaving people alive when he ate people like that.

The three vampires all exploded with laughter once more as Nothel stood up to look at Trey.

“Master Trey,” Nothel said with a small smile, “I am truly thankful that you are concerned about my health.  However, it has been my experience that unless you are violent in your approach, your fangs should secrete a chemical that seals my wounds after you feed.  Just be gentle with it.”

“Be as rough as you would like to be!” roared Lord Okt as he forcefully yanked the breeder girl’s neck back to let Trey see better.  “We can always replace her!”

Nothel tensed up.

“Thank you Lord Okt but I would prefer to keep this one alive… I very much like her.”

Lord Okt rubbed his chin and let go of the slave.  “Well perhaps I give her to you permanently then as your personal slave.  That is, if you do end up joining the Coven.   Though that decision has not been finalized on our side just yet, I have yet to decide if you would be a good fit here.”

“It would be a nice gesture,” said Trey bowing before positioning himself once more over Nothel’s neck.  Slowly he took a bite into the woman’s flesh, taking care to be very shallow while concealing the depth by angling his body just right.  Warm blood began to pump into mouth as he felt Nothel shudder slightly.  Staying there for a few moments he tried to keep the wounds from opening up too much. Blood began to trickle out the side of his mouth and onto the ground.  It didn’t bother him, and surprisingly it actually tasted great - He just needed to be sure he didn’t seriously injure Nothel.  The other vampires around him seemed incredibly pleased as he pulled out of her neck with the wounds just slightly open.

“Fuck she’s still bleeding.  Better safe than sorry!” Trey said as he rapidly held a rag up to her neck and applied pressure.

The other vampires just laughed again.

“You should not care so much!  She’s just a breeder!”  Nami shook her head in apparent dismay.

Nothel slowly took the rag he was applying and held it for him, her hand briefly coming into contact with his, and then looked over to stare at Trey for a while before returning to her post with a bow.

“What magics have you studied?” asked a curious Furdom.  “I heard you used chaos magic in your fight earlier.  Do you have your second attribute yet?

“Yes actually, though which one is a secret.” replied a confident Trey who puffed out his chest with pride and a wink.  “So Nami, when am I able to see the fighting pits?  I’m excited to go.”

Nami perked up enthusiastically.  “We can go whenever you feel like it!  Are you free over the next couple days?”

“Well I think so, that depends on Lord Okt.”  Trey turned to the master of the Okt house.  “I do assume you have some sort of interview process I need to go through?”

Lord Okt yawned and wiped blood away from his chin.  “The process has already begun.  Go entertain yourself with Nami and see what you think of the fighting pits.”

“Let’s make it a date then!” exclaimed Trey as Nami laughed.

“We’ll see about that,” winked Nami as she led him over to meet some of the other vampires across the room.

After Trey had left, Furdom turned to Lord Okt.  “Well?  Do you think he would be a good contender for this year’s games?  If he can use different battle magics, alongside his obvious skill with that weapon of his, he might very well win.”

Lord Okt yawned one last time before nodding.  “It would bring our house great honor.  I will talk to him about the matter another time if I assess his skills to be on par with what I would want.  We also have to be careful that we do not publicly make a fool of ourselves by producing someone incompetent…. And he will have to deal with the reigning champion from House Quetile.  That is no easy task.  But I must take my leave now Furdom.  Enjoy the banquet.”