Damien's eyes looked at him sharply, his eyes following the crowd that had gathered. Searching for a person, in particular, he finally caught a man who stood not too far at the end of his right-hand side. The man cowering and hiding behind another village man. It was easy to spot as the magistrates were comparatively well off compared to the other people in the village. Be it with respect to clothes, house, or the way they lived. Though he wondered why the man was hiding. 

"Mr. Magistrate, why are you hiding behind. Please come forward," Damien greeted the man looked older than Damien in appearance but in truth, Damien was decades older to him which even the magistrate knew. But that wasn't all that the magistrate knew of.

When he heard a complaint filed at his office on a vampire breaking through into the village showing off his fangs which were nothing less to an indication that he was seeking to kill one or more people here, the magistrate had approved of the village men going to chase or kill the vampire. 

To his bad luck though, he didn't know this was the vampire who had intruded or stepped into the village. A lot of villagers and townsmen never knew the officials who worked in the council. The maximum they were acquainted with were the lords of the four lands, the Dukes and the magistrate officer who was a.s.signed to that particular village. While some weren't aware of who he was, a lot of them knew about Damien Quinn because of his quirky character of work. But that wasn't all. The magistrate had the opportunity to visit the Winter's ball once where he saw this man who wasn't just a councilman but also a higher pureblooded vampire of the second generation. 

There were a lot of things which were not known by there lower cla.s.s people but the pureblooded vampires had generations where the first and second generation were the oldest and closest to being in the purest form of vampires. 

Now that the vampire had caught him, he gingerly stepped out of the crowd, his head bowing down at the man which confused a lot of villagers on what was going on, "Councilman Damien Quinn," he greeted the man. 

"You're the magistrate of the village. What are you doing standing behind there while you are supposed to front here," asked Damien in a casual tone as if he were neither being disrespected by the villagers nor was he on the verge of breaking Penny's uncle's fingers.

"Pardon me, Councilman Damien. I only arrived here at the scene after hearing the scream," the magistrate was a blonde-haired man who was short in stature with his hair spiked out in all different directions. He realized that a lot of magistrates were short he had met until now.

The human stood nervously, his hands folded in front of him to hear the councilman say, "Am I imagining or did the people here decide that it was alright to stake and hunt a vampire. That vampire being me of course." 

Penny who stood behind and away from them near the door of the house saw the way the magistrate wrung his hands together in urgency and nervousness, "They must have been very worried about him. He did scream to alert the villagers," said the magistrate, slight about the amount of perspiration forming on his forehead even though it was cold, "They are a protective group of folks," Damien nodded his head as if understanding who instead then said, 

"They must be very fast to come running in less than a minute on hearing this irresponsible man scream," Damien shook the man's hand through his fingers which made the man groan in pain. Wanting to scream but being forbidden to do so, Penny's uncle tried to hold back his screams that itched through his throat, "We should probably turn them to guards. I doubt even the current stationed guards here are that quick. What do you say?" Damien was being sarcastic knowing well what had transpired. 

The land of Bonelake majorly consisted of vampires than humans. Leaving very few villages to have only humans reside in them. 

The council and most of the councilmen were working on maintaining the peace between humans and vampires. Though witches weren't in the equation at the moment, the future held promise that the councilmen along with the public would work on making the lands much more harmonious. But then came people like these who didn't follow the orders which were given directly by the higher up's of the council. 

Seeing the man in pain, the magistrate took the brave step to question Damien, "Councilman Damien, if I may ask, what has the man done that you are punis.h.i.+ng him for?"

Damien tilted his head in confusion, "Punis.h.i.+ng him? I am only playing with him. Punishment is yet to be handed down by you and not me. After all, you are the man in charge of this village. Right?" 

"Yes, councilman," bowed the magistrate making him look even shorter as he did it. 

"How many of you have daughters here?" asked Damien to the crowd that had formed in front of them.

Upon hearing that this vampire was a councilman, a lot of them had lowered their fight stance making them look humble. Many new how powerful a councilman's words could be if one pa.s.sed at them. But at the same time, it was a vampire and they were all agitated by the fact that this vampire had come to cause havoc where they lived. 

Some of them murmured for an answer to say 'Yes, we do' 'I have one' and the questions of why arose. 

"What would you do..." Damien paused for a second, "If I said that I found our that this man right here along with this woman you see, has decided to sell all your daughters. One by one. To the slave establishment?" confused murmurs arose in the crowd which was replaced with anger. 

"That can't happen. They have been living here with us for years."

"You are telling it to flame us against each other!"

"That's right! People of this village would never commit such a crime." 

"So much trust. I don't think even a woman has that trust when she buys the vegetable in the shop without checking its quality." 

"You are only trying to get us to stand against one each other," said another village men, his hand still holding the fire that was burning brightly. 

"I have other important things to deal with than play puppet here. Why don't you ask him yourself?" Damien offered the people who looked at Penny's uncle.

Skeptical on what the vampire was speaking about. Though there were a lot of things the villagers were ignorant about, one of the things they weren't ignorant about was the existence of the slave establishment. Even during the carnival that took place in the nearby villages or near the forest, they often made sure not to stroll to the end as that was where people were bribed or kidnapped for young girls and boys.