High Class (part 2 of a job)

Guests. Now that had been something Mordred had been expecting today. Especially not when he heard who one of his guests was. If Yuuki was coming here something was definitely wrong. There last few interactions had been far from pleasant and the gang boss couldn’t imagine the boy would willing go to The Bloods bass unless he truly needed something. At the same time the ancient vampire had to wander who the guest the boy had decided to bring him him was. It’s was all so odd and an uncomfortable feeling had begun to arise in his gut. Yet if one of his estranged children was coming home it was a reason for celebration.

Nothing big of course since the boss was almost certain Yuuki had just revived for business but at the very least he could set up a family meal. There wasn’t much time to set everything up but Mordred contacted as many gang members as possible and invited them for a meal. The main dining room was quickly filled with actions as servants went about setting the table, cooking the food, and bringing the blood up from storage for the vampires. The gang members already at HQ were quick to arrive at the table. There curiosity had gotten the best of them. After all Mordred wasn’t the type to call together a family meeting so suddenly. They knew he liked to have a plan set in advance so as many people as possible could attend. As such as they all looked towards their boss in an attempt to read him as they took their seats at the table.

When Ozaki and Sharaku finally arrived two of the human gang members would open the front doors for them before gesturing for them to hurry inside. The mansion would be eerily quiet and in the front section there wasn’t a single person in sight besides the two members who had showed them in. The front section was decorated luxuriously with a fancy red carpet spreading across the entirety of the ground. A number of paintings lined the walls and with them were a number of mannequins dresses up in a variety of armors from different regions and time periods. Directly across the room from them was a pair of large white doors that sat between two staircases that curled around the sides of it as they led up to the second floor. It was this door that two doormen began to walk towards as they talked to the new arrivals.

“Right this way. Father and the rest are waiting for you on the dining room.”

“Yea and it’s best not to be late. Arriving fashionably late is fine but if we push it you’ll come across as rude.”

“More importantly you’ll be signing yourself up for one of father’s notorious lessons in manners”

The two guides shuddered at the thought of those lessons. Mordred was pretty harsh when it came to raising all of his children to be proper gentlemen and gentlewomen. Within a moment the guides where at the door and threw them open to reveal the large dining room inside. A large hollow round table filled the center of the room with people sitting on both the inside and outside of it. It was a strange set up to say the least but for Mordred himself it had a level of symbolic meaning that he never shared with anyone else. The table was was filled with all types of different vampires and people. While Mordred himself was dressed formally as always a majority of the gang members where not. This was a family reunion, not something that required the strict dress code a business interaction with one of the Bloods allies, enemies, or associates would’ve required.

Two empty seats had been left open at the table clearly left purposefully untouched with no seats set up directly across from them. Instead the seats where set up in such a manner that the people sitting in them would be looking directly at Mordred from across the table. To make it even more evident that the gang boss intended Ozaki and Sharaku to sit their he had certain maid sitting directly next to one of the chairs.

“It seems you two have finally made it. Take a seat and join us for dinner!”

Mordred voices echoes throughout the room and with it all eyes would turn towards the guests that had just entered.

Ozaki had of course been joking about the hotel bit… Kind of.

Mordred had set this up for them? That was… Weird. Why did he have the impression that any such a thing would be welcome? Then again Ozaki had been the one to come over. He was just surprised that the woman who had brought them hadn’t given Mordred more information or context.

Ozaki looked down at the floor when Mordred mentioned the gang member. Honestly the kidnapping Mordred part? He’d have likely done that stone cold sober. Either that or started investigating him before making a move if he was not spotted before hand. Though… It was harder to follow or track a true hunter without being noticed. Odds were even his bats may have been caught even if they were careful. He did woefully regret attacking the maid though.

He had been hesitant to outright turn down the offered hospitality, worried that it might ruin their chances to get any information or… Really this whole thing was pointless probably. But Sharaku had already busted in the door for that. He wasn’t the type to beat around the bush.

They’d just made Mordred mad. He doubted that he was going to be in a helpful mood. “I uhh… We… Were looking into a recent increase of vampires going temporarily feral and… Ummm…” Should he use Sharaku’s real name? What if some of the people here recognized it? He almost doubted Sharaku would put any effort of hiding his identity. If he didn’t come outright and say it should the opportunity arise where it was valid to mention.

Mordred’s tune might possibly change considerably if he found out who Sharaku was… This coldness was likely still… Since he felt scorned and all. But If Sharaku had a chance to avoid this gang he had and should continue to take it. Mordred could be obsessive about those he considered “family.” But not obsessive enough to remember them or make sure they didn’t end up homeless in the first place. Both he and Sharaku had been homeless for a time as a direct result of the Bloods actions.

That thought alone was enough to assuage any inkling of guilt he may have possibly had for rejecting the hospitality off hand. Every inch of this place stank of obscene opulence and wealth. But even with that it’d have been better than the places he had had to resort to to hide from the sun as an idiot kid with no knowledge of how to survive on his own as a human, let alone as a vampire.

But… Frankly he was likely better off by being forgotten by such a man for years. Even for the hardships it had caused. He was a better man than he could have been had he actually factually been taken in by this crime syndicate after he was turned.

“My friend here was thinking that it might be someone causing it in order to incite panic around vampires and maybe increase the number of hunters focused on us. I mean us vampires.” Not us as in us as a unit. Friend also might be a bit of a stretch… He wasn’t quite sure Sharaku would call him that. But Ozaki wasn’t going to reveal anything that might expose his identity. If Sharaku did that, that would be up to him and him alone.

Any how Sharaku might have explained it better. It was his theory after all. But wow had things gotten frigid real fast. This was a dumb idea. So dumb. They never ever should have come here.

WC: 613

How impulsive, stupid. He thought Sharaku was smarter than this, but he wouldn’t take the fucking hint. And yet… He hadn’t even gotten a scratch on him. Mordred may very well seem scary… And hell if he wasn’t. But if Sharaku was doing anything right now he was incidentally setting an example. A bar of how far he could go without anything unsavory happening to him…

But then again… Since when had Ozaki shied away from pain as a vampire? At any given moment he would literally take a bullet for any one person in the academy and shrug it off as nothing. Not that it didn’t hurt but… The pain was inconsequential. And also if he really wanted to he could quickly numb it with any number of his pain killers. If Mordred were going to kill him it would have been during their “sweet reunion.”

Anything less than that? Getting locked up in Meggi’s room would suck but… Hell if he couldn’t endure that too. Ozaki was tried of running away like some meek mouse. He usually lived his life under the policy that it was better to appear a coward than a man who could loose his temper.But he wasn’t doing anyone favors with that policy right now, least of all himself.

There was a brief moment of light in Mordred’s eyes in hearing the news that Sharaku was part of his “family.” That light, however, quickly caught aflame and was set upon his goons.

So while people were distracted with Mordred’s snarls, Ozaki would turn part of the ancient vampire’s blood wine into pumpkin spice, as well as a few other gang member’s for the hell of it. If there was one good thing about this talent, it hardly had any tells when it was activated, and the color of the blood wine itself had only just barely shifted to a lighter hue with as much as he had altered. With as tense as everyone was, they wouldn’t notice until it was too late.

He had initially thought of spiking the wine with a bit of holy water… But that would likely be going too far, even if none of them actually swallowed.

“Gosh Mordred…” Ozaki would begin to say, mischief causing his previous frown to warp into a gleeful smile. “Seems there’s all sorts of things this family of yours hasn’t told you. Like the time your Right hand man chased me off fifteen years ago knowing exactly who I was. No of course not. He did warn me not to tell you after all… Which is funny, because before that I hadn’t even remembered what he looked like, nor assumed it was because he was intentionally trying to make sure I stayed forgotten.”

His smile would fall as he continued, bitterness beginning to curl into his voice like barbed wire on a hare’s foot. “Though now I think about it… You do have one good point. Your memory is shit… But if he knew you changed me that means others did too… Gotta wonder why they neglected to remind you too… Actually I can answer that for you. Probably weren’t interested in sharing a roof with the son of a vampire hunter. Better that I sleep in the streets than anything like that happen.”