Claimed by the Prince of Darkness

Chapter 129: A Warning to All

The pungent smell of burnt hair filled the room and for a moment, no one in the den moved. Mouths hung open, eyes wide with disbelief at what they had just witnessed.

"No—no! Forgive me!" Kiera shrieked in panic as the last strands of her hair caught fire.

When Lucian finally released the vampiress’s neck, she stumbled away from him with a scream. Her hands moved to her burnt face and then frantically to the top of her head, only to freeze there in horror when her fingers found nothing but scorched skin.

Across the room, Orpheus tried to flee and as he rushed toward the doorway, the dark barrier that sealed the entrance remained intact. He searched for a handle, a doorknob but the black smoke had turned into a hardened wall.

Meanwhile, everyone in the room had grown eerily quiet.

When Lucian turned back towards the gathered vampires, unease and regret settled heavily among them. Many wished they had never come tonight.

"Lucian..." one of the vampiresses began cautiously, her voice betraying the unease in it. "Most of us had no part in this. Let those who did answer for it. The rest of us will leave."

Lucian looked as though the answer bored him. He spoke,

"If you wanted to be uninvolved, you would have sent her away." He bent slightly and lifted one of the iron stokers resting beside the fireplace. "Instead... you stayed to watch."

"Surely you cannot mean to punish everyone here," another vampire wore a strained smile. He gestured across the room and said, "Your quarrel lies with Orpheus, Bowen, and Alanna. They were the ones who wanted the girl."

Bowen rolled his eyes, unimpressed and undeterred by Lucian’s words. He shrugged and said,

"Belmont is not your property, Slater. Until someone buys her, she belongs to whoever takes an interest. That is the rule for every groundling."

Not wanting to face Lucian’s wrath, Alanna tried to reason by saying,

nothing unusual. It isn’t uncommon for elites to bring

slowly scraped across the floor, sparks flickering where it caught against the stone as Lucian

she

low in her stomach with her cheeks beginning to burn as she

chest. If Lucian would not become hers, then there remained another way to settle the matter. She

of amusement touched Lucian’s expression, which

as everyone’s eyes shifted to her with a frown. "I

the room, before people

feign innocence, but she

son you think you can do whatever you want, Slater? We

and threw it into the air. With a snarl, he went straight at

his fist came down like a hammer, Lucian stepped aside at the last second. The table crashed past him while Bowen’s blow struck the

Lucian blocked it with the iron stoker. The next moment, Lucian caught hold of his peer and landed him right on the ground

voice vibrating through the room while Lucian sat just above him with the stoker embedded deep into the

the iron stoker that the Halfling

and the vampire growled, "that anything under my roof and under my protection is not

to kill me?" Bowen sneered, though he remained pinned beneath Lucian, pride still blazed in his eyes. "I didn’t realise you were this

his fingers forced their way between the ribs. A sickening crack was heard in the room when he

gasps escaped from the lips of the spectators and some took a step back. Even the

broken rib in his hand, blood dripping slowly from

never seen violence like this before. Her pulse thundered in her ears. Earlier when Lucian had mentioned gathering people, she had

the doors, where Orpheus and another vampire scrambled along the wall,

in and out of

this makes you untouchable? If not me, there are