THE AUCTION

Lester POV

My driver drives through central city to Tibo’s place. There are not a lot of people out this late at night in Central City. Humans stay away at night. The vampires come out and play in Central city and every one knows it. My driver dives slowly down Tibo’s street per my instructions. I want to see if there is any movement in his house or on his street before I get out of the sedan. I have to be careful. I know they are watching for me and I am sure they know that I am coming for my wife.

When my driver parks in front of the house, there is a light on in the house. Not a white light, it is a greenish light. Maybe someone is in business close by and that is the signal. My driver comes around, opens my door, and the light goes off, comes back on, flashes a few times, and then goes off again. That is strange. My driver shuts my door. I hear movement from the porch area and someone moving toward me.

“Tibo, is that you? We need to talk,” I say in the direction of the movement on the porch area.

“I know why you are here, Lester. Did you bring an army? You are going to need one,” Tibo says, looking behind me to see who is with me.

“Good, then we can cut all the bull shit and skip to the part where you help me get my wife back as quickly and safely as possible,” I say to him.

Tibo comes closer to me. He takes out a cigarette and a match from his shirt pocket. He lights his cigarette and throws the match down on the ground. The glow of the cigarette shows some recent damage to his face and he appears to be aging. He is not feeding properly. I wonder why?

“If you think I have your wife, Lester, the answer is no, I do not have her. I do not leave much anymore. I nearly feed enough to keep living,” Tibo says.

“I do not think you do, but I think you know where she is, don’t you? And I think you are going to help me aren't you, old friend?” I ask him.

Tibo continues to smoke. “Yeah, I guess I do know where she is at. Man, I do not want to get involved in all of this vampire bull shit. This vampire shit is why I do not leave the house much. I try to live off whatever I can catch. This is no way to live. Horace and those vampires are making life here hard,” Tibo says.

I walk closer to Tibo. “Listen to me, Tibo. The vampire authority ignores all of your gambling and prostitutes, don’t we? We only ask for you to help us out occasionally, am I right? So tell me where the fuck my wife is, or I will have some here to arrest your ass and burn this place to the ground with all of your whores in it! I will make sure we drop you off some blood bags or someone to feed on just tell me where the fuck she is!” I scream at him.

“Damn, Lester, you don’t have to be like that to me. We are old friends, right? I will help you,” Tibo says.

Tibo turns to go back to his house. “No sir, you are coming with me,” I say to Tibo.

"I do not want to leave the house. I am afraid to leave. Did you not hear me say that I do not even leave to feed?" Tibo reminds me.

My driver grabs Tibo and places him into the car. Tibo doesn’t put up much of a fight. He knows I will kill him if he pisses me off. I will feed him and get what I need from him and then bring him back.

I get into the car with Tibo. My driver hands him a blood bag and then rolls the glass up that is between us. I let him drink it. His face comes back to life. I smile at him and he smiles back.“Now, where are we going, old friend?” I ask him.

Tibo takes a deep breath. “Three blocks over there is an old abandoned church; the auction is in the basement,” Tibo says.

“Good boy. You can have another blood bag,” I say to Tibo.

I tap on the glass between my driver and us. My driver rolls down the glass.

“Sir,” my driver says.

“Hold me another blood bag and then take us to the authority building,” I say to him.

“Us? What do you mean us? Are you are taking me in?” Tibo asks.

“Yes, until I verify your information, you will be with me. At least I can feed you well and you can enjoy my company, old friend,” I say to him.

I take out my phone to call Draco and Tatina. I scroll down to his number and hit send.

“Hello, Lester, you find out anything?” Draco asks.

“Yes, Holy Cross, in the basement. My wife is there. Get her please,” I say to him.

“We will head over there now,” Draco says.

“Keep me informed of all developments please,” I say, then I hang up the phone.

Tibo begins to laugh. “ You think just anybody can walk in there and take out Horace?” Tibo asks me.

I laugh at him. “Not just anybody, you fucking idiot, Draco, and Tatina,” I say to him.

Tibo stops laughing. “Do not let that bitch near me. Do you hear me, Lester? Keep her away from me. She is the fucking devil. Take me back home, please. I will starve to death before I want to be anywhere near her,” Tibo says.

“Are you afraid of little Tatina?” I ask him.

“Fuck yes! Hell fuck yes I am scared of little Tatina!” Tibo says.

“You should be more afraid of what I will do if I find out you helped kidnap my wife,” I say to him.

Tibo begins to move around in the car. He tries to open the door to jump out, but the door is locked. He pulls on the handle and begins banging on the glass.

“Let me out of here, Lester. I helped you. I would never hurt your wife. She has never done anything to me,” Tibo demands.

My driver stops the car. He gets out, comes to the door, and opens it. He grabs Tibo out of the back seat and slams him into the ground. My driver begins beating him until he stops moving. He picks him up off the ground and puts him in the front seat with him. My driver gets backs into the car and starts driving to the authority building again. Now I can ride peacefully back to the authority building. Tibo is out the entire ride back to the authority building.

My driver pulls into the authority building. He lets me out of the car first. Leaving Tibo in the car, bleeding all over the front seat. “I will take care of Tibo,” my driver says.

I pat him on his shoulder. “Good man, take him to the basement to be questioned. Try not to drop him on the way, but if you do there will be no hard feelings,” I tell my driver.

I walk up the steps into the building. I am curious to see if the interrogators got anything out of Jules. I swipe my key card and go down the basement entrance. I also want to make sure Tibo is questioned immediately. I want to know if he was involved.

I can hear Jules as I go through the door. He is just a little jackass. I want him to experience hell here on earth, and death is too good for him. After everything he has done, he deserves all the torture repeatedly until the interrogator is tired and kills him.

Samuel is waiting for me as I get closer to the screams coming from the interrogation rooms.

“I have Tibo with me, and I have a lead on where the auction is tonight,” I tell Samuel.

“Good. Jules is not saying much. I think we are going to drain him and pack him in stone. Maybe try again after he sits for a while,” Samuel says.

Samuel has a small area in the basement where he drains vampires of their blood and, in cases, the vampires in cement blocks. They will not die; they will suffer and be weak for eternity, or until the vampire decided to give Samuel what he wants. They always break eventually then Samuel will kill the vampire by setting them on fire. He calls it the roast garden. It is a twisted and beautiful thing to witness.

“He might not ever talk, Samuel,” I say to him.

“Well, if he doesn’t, I guess he can starve until I am tired of looking at him, then we will roast his ass. Or burn him a little at a time. Maybe Renae would like to be the one to roast ole Jules,” Samuel says.

“I do not care what you do to him; I only want my sweet wife back,” I say.

“We will get Renae back. No worries. You have good people on it, right,” Samuel says.

“Draco and Tatina are both on their way to the auction site,” I say.

“I will have some rooms cleared for interrogations then. How many are running the auction,” Samuel says.

“No need, Tatina will kill all of them. You know she has a policy. Kill now and ask questions later,” I say to him.

“Yeah, true. Do you think we could convince her to let Horace live? He could provide us with valuable information,” Samuel says.

“I doubt that. She will probably kill Horace first and drag his body through the city right back to our front door. We all know what he did to her,” I say.

My driver begins coming down the steps with Tibo. It looks like Tibo must have tried to run or something. Tibo is beaten almost beyond recognition.

“Where do you want this piece of shit?” my driver asks Samuel.

Samuel points to a room down the hall. My driver walks down to the room, opens the door, and throws Tibo inside.

“Do I want to know what happened to him on the way here?” Samuel asks.

“He tried to escape, so my driver decided to make him more manageable,” I say to him.

“What is his name? We need to move him into interrogations,” Samuel asks me.

“Hell if I know. I change drivers so much I do not learn their names anymore,” I say to Samuel.

“Hey, what is your name?” Samuel asks my driver, walking closer to him.

“It is Mark, sir,” my driver answers.

“Mark, I will get Lester another driver for now. Can you help us out with Jules?” Samuel asks him.

My driver towers over me. The big bulky vampire looks over at me, then back to Samuel. “I would be honored, sir,” Mark says.

Samuel opens the door to the interrogation room to let Mark in to help the other interrogators. He is so big he can barely fit into the room.

“I bet he can beat it out of him,” Samuel says.

“Damn, Samuel, I actually liked him. Now I got to find another driver,” I say to him.

“You can have mine,” Samuel says.

“Fine, I am going up to my office to wait to hear back from Draco and Tatina,” I say to him.

“Let me know as soon as they have Renae,” Samuel says to me.

I leave the basement. Jules's screams echo down the hall and up the stairs until I finally get to the steel door leading into the authority office area. He deserves every single thing he gets. The bastard should not have fucked with my wife. I hope Samuel does put him in the roast garden. Just so I can go look at him from time to time.

I go into my office and sit down behind my desk. I boot up my computer and wait for it to load. I need to look at my emails to see if Draco sent me the files from Jules’s phone. When my computer finally boots up, I open my email to see an unknown email address in the inbox.

I open the email. It is from Horace. The subject line reads, we have your wife. The body of the email is simple. We want a million dollars, or I will auction her into a whore house. She looks like she tastes sweet. Hurry before I sample her.

I am going to kill him myself.