Before she could respond I heard screaming. I jumped to my feet. The smell of blood reached my nose. Something’s wrong! “Alek!” I raced toward where Alek was. The sound of walls being broken and glass shattering. Bodies hit the cobble-stone streets with wet smacks as people were cut down. A group of dead bodies stopped me in my tracks. Why are you starting at that family? The boy and his parents were covered in blood, their bodies mangled and broken. Bile rose to my throat. So did the desire to feed. Why, Why! Why do I want to feed like some vulture after seeing this? I'm disgusting. I'm a-I’m a monster.

I need… I need to keep going… I nearly reached where I remember Alek was when I heard laughter. A senior officer in a fierce battle with a vampire girl in a red half-coat with a manjuhage flower crest and very short trousers that hit her upper thighs. She had blunt-cut purple hair halfway down her neck. Her opponent was bloody, barely standing. Wildly shooting arcane bullets from a bayonet gun. Each bullet hit a building or street lamp while the girl dodged with flashes of light. Deep slashes appeared on the officer's body all the while she laughed. Then a glaive popped out of the officer's chest. He fell with a terrified look on his face. She licked the blood of her glaive. Her eyes filled with dark excitement lit up even more.

“Found you!” a childish almost look of glee broke out on her face. She blinked into the lighting. I can't see her. In a panic, I slipped into shades only to be forced out. I desperately unsheathed my sword. The glaive slashed through it like butter, shrapnel lodging itself into my skin. I reached into the shadow feeling something hard I grabbed it pulling out a scythe black and silver the blade black like obsidian. She flashed again before I could attack, I felt a harsh shock throughout my body paralyzing my limbs. The scythe clattered to the floor. 

“Master Otto will be so pleased!” she walked over to over to where I collapsed. She raised her glaive hitting me with the flat side everything went black. 

I woke up in a cell. My head aching. My hands are chained above my head. The girl approached me. Her hands grabbed at my clothes stripping them away I struggled to make her stop but nothing worked. I started panicking when her hands gripped my knickers. “No stop! Please!” I cried out. 

“Otto ordered it.”

Once I was stripped naked I shook uncontrollably though I saw no lust in her eyes. She reached up and attached a metal collar to my neck, undoing the chains binding me to the wall. Then forced me to follow her. I arrived in throne-like room. Men and women in maid and butler uniforms lined the walls. A man in a throne chair looking directly at me with an air of power and dominance surrounding him. He had ginger hair bound in a ponytail, in a fine suit that only the wealthy nobility could afford. He had a cruel yet calculating expression on his face. 

“Bring him here Louis.”

She's a man? Louis approached the man and handed the chain to him. He hopped on an armrest next to the ginger. 

“You did well bringing back the shadow mage.” “He grabbed Louis’s face cupping it in his hands. “Let me reward you.” He then kissed Louis deeply with his tongue. He pulled away. Louis looked disappointed “I’ll gift you with much more in the training room. But I have a business to take care of, love.” he looked back at me. 

“Kneel boy,” His confidence woven throughout his relaxed posture has a deadly sheen. Like he could end me with a single flick without a single hair falling out of place. 

“No.” A wave of horror washes over me as a realized my mistake. He yanked the chain so hard it cut into my skin choking the air out of me. 

In a flash, he pulled a dagger out of his coat pocket. Holding it against my Adam’s apple. 

“Tell me, boy, who do you hold allegiance to? The Hireath? The ones slaughtering your race?  Or the humans, elves that hate us?” the knife changed to touch the scar. “Perhaps this very old scar was caused by your human parent?”

I froze. My breath caught. “How-“

“I’ve been around for a long time, I’ve seen that look many times.” He yanked the chain forcing me to fall down. “Lick my boot.”

I stared him directly in the eye. “No.”

He kicked me in the groin. I fought back a cry. My eyes watering 

“Are you with those peace-loving fools? Labitule vampires are mad if they think we can coexist without bloodshed and cruelty. “ he paused landing a kick in my gut. My face fell on his boots.

“When I order you to do something you will do it.”

“And if I don’t?” The words escaped my mouth before I could stop them. Horror flooded me. Shit! What have I done?

He stood up, I could see Louis looking excitedly down at what was about to unfold. The man leaned down hands closing around my throat lifting me till my feet couldn’t touch the ground and squeezing so hard I couldn’t breathe. 

I coughed and choked. My hands trying to pry him away my feet kicking open air. I gasped for even a breath but it was all forced out of me. My lungs burned.

“I will let you go just agree to lick my boots.”

I kept struggling glaring at him.

“That’s unfortunate.” He squeezed even harder.

Spots danced in my vision. My head getting light. I can’t. I can’t take this anymore. I kicked him as hard I could but it hardly had any strength to it not even landing a hit. 

“You have one more chance, boy.”

“Yes-“ I sputtered. He dropped me. The stone bashed my knees as I struck the ground leaving bloody knee prints as I doubled over desperately trying to regain my breath. Once I did, I glanced up he looked expectantly at me. He brought the knife to my Adam’s apple again. 

“I’d suggest you follow through with that order, or I’ll punish you more for insubordination.”

My cheeks burning with shame I lowered my face to his boots. How did it come to this? Naked licking another man’s boots. I quickly stuck my tongue out before he could force it out. I lightly licked his boot. It tasted of bitter shoe polish, dirt, and human blood. He pinched me hard 

“You ought to do better than that.”

A jolt of fear ran through my heart. I lowered my head again, licking with my whole tongue on my hands and knees. I hated the feeling of my tongue against the leather. I hated being at this man’s mercy. It felt completely dried out after the first shoe. I moved on to the second one. Powerlessness and Shame creeping up my body latching unto my throat with a tight grip, choking me. What’s the point of this humiliation? Why did he order to have me stripped.? I thought as I licked. Then it dawned on me. He’s exercising his dominance over me.