The priest hesitated for a moment because he knew he would be in a vulnerable position once he disarmed himself.

"You think I'm playing around? Well, I'm not," Dmitri snarled, his face contorting with growing irritation. He lightly nicked the boy's neck with one of his clawed fingernails to prove he meant business.

The priest had a look of defeat; his hands were tied. He knew his son would surely pay the price if he didn't do what Dmitri wanted. He had lost, and Dmitri had won.

Clatter!

The priest let his weapon slip from his fingers and collide with the ground.

"I did as you asked. Now let him go!" the priest demanded.

"That's more like it; that wasn't so hard, now was it?" Dmitri replied in a sarcastic tone.

A coldness formed in Dmitri's eyes in a split second as he declared, "You know, I actually don't think I am. To be fair, I'm gonna show your son the same amount of mercy that you priests showed my boys in my gang. I'm sure he misses his mommy anyway. Why can't you all just crash and burn already, you damn pests."

Snap!

The priest gasped as a sickening crack broke out from the boy's neck as it was turned in the opposite direction. Dmitri let the boy's body slump to the ground.

The priest screamed, "NOOOOO!" in a completely distraught state. He sank to his knees, consumed by hopelessness, and sobbed before pounding his fist into the ground.

In an instant, they were gone. The priest lost the two most precious things that gave his life meaning, for which he would go to any length, even if it meant laying down his own life to save theirs.

The priest picked up his spear as tears blurred his vision. He pointed it directly at Dmitri before he swore upon his life, "I'm going to put an end to you even if it kills me so that you can never harm anyone again!"

"Are you now? You really have me fucking shaking," Dmitri sarcastically provoked the priest. "That's one hell of a threat from someone letting their emotions get the better of them. If you're gonna go through all the trouble to make a statement like that, you better make sure you can actually follow through with what you say you're gonna do."

The priest released a battle cry as he charged at Dmitri with full force.

"Oh no, you might actually kill me," Dmitri admitted, pretending to be taken by surprise.

"Or not," Dmitri's expression shifted to one with malicious intent in the blink of an eye. With lightning-quick reflexes, he reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out three knives. He threw them all at the priest at once with extreme precision, making them nearly impossible to dodge.

The first claimed his left eye.

The second pierced through his heart.

The last struck him in the juggler.

The priest was no more.

Dmitri let out a disappointed sigh. "Figures. Turns out you're no different than all the other priests I've come across after all, weak!" Dmitri spat at the priest lying dead at his feet. "I did warn ya, didn't I? I'm a force to be reckoned with."

"Man, I'm starting to think that there isn't a single opponent out there who's on the same level as me, not even Lucian himself," Dmitri boasted while conversing with himself.

"Wow, time sure flies, doesn't it? I'm almost done here; there's only one loose end that I need to tie up," Dmitri chuckled loudly before playfully whistling.

"HAHAHAHA, and look who's probably the only one about to make it out of this dump in one piece! That's right, me!" The asshole of a man laughed out loud like he had hit the motherload, and someone was loading his hands up with wads of cash. "Serves everyone else right for not seeing things my way. They probably would have been right here with me if they had."

"When I get home, trust me, I'm going to celebrate like it's no tomorrow. There's a ton of ice-cold beers nicely chilled in the fridge with my name all over them, and I think I still have her number," he muttered under his breath while licking his lips, practically salivating since he could already taste sweet victory.

The only thing keeping him from making his great escape was a metal chain link fence surrounding the vicinity of the carnival.

The asshole nearly choked when the last voice he wanted to hear in the whole entire world spoke to him.

"Oh, there you are. I've been lookin' all over for ya. You didn't think I forgot all about you, did ya?" Dmitri mocked while cracking a crooked smile.

"AAAAH, somebody, please help me! There's a bloodsucking manic on the loose, and he's about to murder me! I'm too good-looking and young to die, and there are so many women I haven't met yet! Get the hell away from me! Do you even know who the fuck I am!" the man screamed at the top of his lungs while kicking wildly with his feet while clinging to the chain link fence, hoping to hit Dmitri at least once in the face, but he wasn't successful and missed each time.

"You bet I do; you're a dead man walking, now get down here and come see what I have in store for ya, and quit fucking embarrassing yourself, sheesh," Dmitri cackled.

"I swear if anything happens to me, you're going to be sorry!" the man warned while clinging onto the fence with one hand and whipping out his phone out of his pocket with his other. "Everyone will know what you've done, and you'll be locked up for good once I get this live stream going!" the man confidently announced.

Dmitri simply looked at him without batting an eye as if he were a crazy idiot. He already knew what was coming.

"You don't think I will, huh! Well, guess what, you ugly motherfucker huh, you're wrong about that, you're as good as toast!" the asshole screamed out while having difficulty pushing the record button because it was hard to accomplish with one hand.

With a shaky hand as sweat dripped down the bridge of his nose, he held out his phone, and his eyes widened when the worst thing that possibly could have happened, happened, 'no wifi signal."

"Whatsammata, no wifi service; what were you saying about wanting to snitch and turn me in to the authorities? And what did you just call me? Who the hell are you calling ugly when ya ain't nothing to look at? You know what happens to the people who piss me off, right?" Dmitri sarcastically declared while menacingly getting a bit closer.

"Are you seriously kidding me right now? Stupid piece of technology, when I need you most, that's when you decide not to work! What a hunk of junk," the asshole angrily screeched before throwing his phone as far as he possibly could, causing the screen to crack when it hit the ground.

"Me what? I never said that. That's not actually what I meant; I was only just kidding, really? Can't you take a joke!" The man tried to save his ass with the lamest excuse he could possibly come up with at the moment before taking a huge gulp.

"AAAAAAAAAAAH," the asshole man screamed as Dmitri began tugging at his leg, but he refused to let go of the fence he was clinging to for dear life.

"Fine, if you won't come down, then that means I'm gonna have to go up," Dmitri sneered before leaping up on the fence next to the asshole. "Hi there, this is going to hurt like a bitch; I can guarantee that."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH," the asshole man screamed at a level that was so high-pitched that it could've been heard across the globe.

*****

Blood, there's so much damn blood, the young man named Lucian, with hair strands as lustrous as silver, muttered spitefully under his breath.

The night was disturbingly silent; not a single soul was in sight to utter a word. The corpses of those who could have spoken lay quietly against the cool, hard carnival grounds.

Lucian was adorned with a white cloak with gold lining along the edges, fastened at the center with a golden cross clasp. The back of the white fabric was embroidered with a large golden cross with a ruby in the center.

A soft sigh left his lips when the putrid scent of iron tainting the air assaulted his nostrils when a gust passed by him as he approached the corpses before him.

Ghostly white, limp, and lifeless bodies strewn across the cold floor, drained of all their blood, sent shivers up his spine and made his blood boil in anger. They were carelessly thrown wherever the vamp saw fit as if they were nothing more than mere ragdolls.

The eyes of those whose hearts no longer thudded within their chest were fixated on an unseen horror. Their mouths still hung open, their silent screams frozen in time, leaving an eerie and unsettling stillness behind. Their futures had clearly been robbed from them in the blink of an eye by none other than a cold-blooded killer.

If only I'd gotten here sooner, Lucian thought to himself, temporarily squeezing his eyes shut, disgusted by the sight of it all.