Free Web NovelChapter 116: Worry (2)
"It couldn’t have been that many of them here last night. We didn’t spot anything suspicious and why place the body here? If the vampires are trying to send us a message, why not bring the body closer to the gates?" Carl wondered. He stood back and allowed Vincent to inspect the body.
"This is close enough to our community to be a message. It was only one of them and I smell alcohol," Vincent said after sniffing the air and catching onto the faint scent. He pulled the human male’s shirt away from its neck to see repeated bite marks which was why Carl believed it was a small group of vampires that did this. If they looked good enough, they would note all the tracks done were by one person.
Vincent continued to say, "It’s good for now this was just the work of a drunk vampire who dragged his prey here probably unaware of how close to us he was. Still, send scouts further out and be on the lookout for the vampire that did this. Drunk or sober, one getting this close is not a good thing. The new gates will start building soon. We must set up traps around the area while the gates are going up."
"Yes sir."
"You and the others must be slacking off at night if you can’t see a vampire at this distance. It appears there will be a need for an evaluation of all guards at the gates. I will also be putting guards back out in the forest. Get rid of the body and come back to the gates." It was time for a switch up since those with leader roles weren’t doing a good job. He had handpicked some of them but others were given the roles by someone else.
Leaving Carl to the task of getting rid of the body, Vincent ventured out on his own to look at the area he wanted to start building the new gates on. It would take them a couple of months to get the gates up the way he wanted. Higher and with more traps than the current one. As long as the vampires did not interfere or humans wandered too far where they shouldn’t, the gates could go up without a problem. However, Vincent knew things were never that easy and he had to prepare for the worst.
Vincent turned around looking back in the direction where the community was. Their eyesight was better at night just like the vampires and their hearing had always picked up on the smallest things. There wasn’t a way for the night guards to just miss a dunk vampire roaming around in their forest. The creature and its victim had to be making noise that the guards should’ve picked up on.
"These idiots," Vincent muttered, realizing they had been slacking off these few days because he had been busy with Aurora. Their slacking off could cause everyone their lives if they were to miss more than one vampire lurking around on the outside. "I’ve been too nice these days," he said to himself walking back to the gates.
Some of the guards only acted like they were doing something when he came around like they thought he wouldn’t notice. Their time of slacking off at night earned them the next couple of weeks of training under his supervision.
"All of you, get down here right now!" His voice thundered all the way up the gates to the guards. They looked confused for a moment that he was asking them to leave their post. "Now!" The second time got them moving as they started to come down to where Vincent stood.
They grouped together in seven lines waiting to hear what made Vincent so angry early in the morning. As far as many of them were concerned, no one got attacked last night and nothing got past the gates. They should be rewarded because of this but the tone of Vincent’s voice said otherwise. It was confusing when Vincent’s facial expression told a different story from his voice.
"Can anyone tell me what the message I received this morning was about? I’ll give the first person who can answer correctly a bonus but the first person who answers wrong will go into a duel with me. I’m pretty angry about what started off as a good day. I had the pleasure of being served breakfast by a beautiful woman just for it to be ruined by all of you. Start answering."
The guards looked among each other to see if anyone knew what Vincent wanted to know. They didn’t dare guess what it could be as no one wanted to go into a duel with Vincent.
"Come on. Don’t be shy. I’m not in the mood to bite any of you but excuse me if my claws itch to rip the answer out of one of you. If no one speaks in the next sixty seconds I will start pointing to someone from the group and have them answer me. I have enough time on my hands to do this until we get down to the last person. Come on," Vincent began to take off his shirt seeing that they had all chosen to do this the hard way.
His irritation had increased when none of them could tell him of the dead human in their forest. He was waiting for Carl’s group to step forward with the answer because the note came from Carl and his group should’ve been the one outside inspecting the situation.
"There’s a dead body outside of the gates sir," Steven, another one of the leaders for the night guards, spoke up. He was handpicked by Vincent for his skills. He knew Vincent wanted an answer about the vampire in the forests last night but he was letting Carl’s group dig their own grave. One of his own men had already tracked down the vampire and killed it.
"Bingo! Someone has saved all of you from getting your names called. Now, enlighten me why none of you could tell me there was a dead body out there? Do you not discuss with each other when you see things at night? I find it-"
"The human has been disposed of, sir," Carl interrupted Vincent as he made his way amongst his peers. He messed up by not doing this without Vincent having to tell him but the job was done now. He didn’t understand why Vincent was so upset when the vampires dared not to come so close to them again. It took one being drunk to do this.
Vincent couldn’t help finding Carl irritating the more he looked at him. Carl was put in this high position by his uncle when the man made a ruckus that more members of the Lawerence family should have a say in putting together the guards. Carls started off capable which was why Vincent kept him but then he grew to become lazy just because they didn’t have any attacks for a while. "Carl, who did you tell about the vampire? I asked a question but besides Steven, none of your peers answered me."
Carl looked at his group of men a little upset; they hadn’t told Vincent they knew there was a dead human out there and a vampire was here last night. Why did they have to let Steven be the one to break the news to Vincent? Still, he knew it was partially his fault. He did see the vampire but did not like going outside the gates at night.
When the night guards picked up on anything suspicious, they were instructed to go out in their groups and inspect the situation. Another group would take their post while they leave and jump in if something bad were to happen outside the gates to the group that had gone ahead.
"I asked you a question, Carl. Did you sneak drinks up by the gates last night and that was why you were too busy to go after the vampire? Don’t lie to me when you know I already know the answer. I didn’t judge you when you were first brought to me as a prospect to lead one of the night guards groups. Your father is someone still active in guarding this community but you are a shame," Vincent said, ready to cut the man from being one of the night guards. He didn’t like entertaining carelessness when it came to the gates.
"I can make it up to you by going on a hunt for the vampire-" frёeωebɳovel.com
"My group has already hunted down the vampire and killed it. Carl wasn’t paying attention when I sent two guards to hunt it down," Steven spoke up to make himself look better. When Vincent gave him the opportunity to lead one of the night guard’s groups, he took the job with all seriousness.
"You! You’re just trying to make me look bad like you do every fucking time. Vincent, I honestly did not think we had to worry about one vampire," Carl pleaded his case. What was one vampire going to do against a community of wolves?
Vincent found his answers to be foolish. "Really? Then let me show you the power one person can have."
