Chapter 233 - Bedlam

The person who stepped into the doors was so obviously inhuman, he almost glowed with it. He stood couple heads taller than everyone else in the room, and another head of height was added to him by a pair of bejewelled antlers he had.

His face was that of a human, though—yet also not. It was eerie, but beautiful, with gentle features and huge doe-like brown eyes. Somewhat feminine, either, even with the short goatee. The man's ears, shaped like a deer's as well, stood out like cliffs in the sea of his chestnut hair that was plated into two thick braids below his chin, which fell on the man's chest.

The dress he wore fit the rest of him: outlandish and weird. All forest-green and full of elaborate details. The style looked like something a noble from fourteenth century could wear for a hunt. There was even a scabbard with a long knife on the man's belt.

"I will never sully myself by making deals with an abomination of nature's order. It's bad enough I had others to do that.. Enough of that! They can't even die properly," the uninvited guest's voice flowed through the silent hall as he walked through it towards the stage. His long stride was seemingly unhurried, but by the end of his speech he was already next to us and addressing Cornellio. "Give me the seal, master of this house, or I will gladly put you to the ground where you belong."

An eruption of whispers ran through the hall. Cornellio let go of the man who seemed to have been Staghead's servant and straightened. His face, so full of pleasant smiles before, now was a mask of icy anger, and his owl ruffled its feathers and glared at the intruder.

Without a word, JJ, keeping the cursed man in one arm, moved me aside with another. The guests, too, shifted towards the walls. "Shh, let Cornellio defend himself and his place. It's a matter of honour. We can interfere later if the situation calls for it," he whispered in my ear before I could say anything.

Mutely, I nodded and watched, turning away only for a moment to whisper a nearest server an instruction to call a doctor.

"It's very unexpected to see a fey in my auction house, especially since I didn't invite one. But it's less surprising to see a complete lack of manners on a savage who didn't move far enough from an animal to even drop his horns." Cornellio sneered. "You barged on my event uninvited. You became a reason one of my guests almost died."

He glanced at the man who wasn't cursed now, and even still alive, if barely. A doctor was already there, and doing what doctors did.

"And you have a gall to demand me to give you an item that already belongs to another of my guests. This, put together, is a big enough insult that only your blood can wash it. But since I'm, unlike you, a civilised person, I will let you go if you apologise and compensate me and my guests for the damages."

Staghead's lip curved in a show of carefully measured disdain. "In your dreams which you don't even have, abomination." He made a step towards Cornellio.

The vampire lifted the owl from his shoulder, and she fluttered away to sit down on its perch at the wall. All the while, Cornellio's eyes didn't leave Staghead. "Bold of you to believe you will be able to defeat me, in my own house."

To that, Staghead smirked. "I could've, but I won't need to sully my hands with your stolen blood. Your own nature will destroy you."

He didn't even do anything—didn't snap his fingers, said nothing more. There was just a pulse of power that swept through the room like a physical wave of spring wind, fresh and cleansing, that left a faint smell of rain behind.

AN invisible weight fell from my shoulders, so tiny that I didn't notice it until now. The oppressing cloud of Eve's spell wasn't there anymore, and when I realised what that meant, I froze with a feeling of growing dread.

"Oh, no," JJ whispered. His eyes were wide and terrified. His fear, must more potent than mine, was like a cold clutch on my heart. "We have to get out, now."

"My spell!" Eve shouted, making a step towards Staghead. "What do you have against my seals, bastard?"

This was like a trigger. In an instant, rage erupted in the air like lava from three dozens of volcanoes, accompanied by more angry shouts, accusations and attacks on each other. Cornellio snarled at Staghead and rushed at him, but the intruder had blinked away like he wasn't there in the first place.

I caught nothing after that, because JJ grabbed me and with vampire speed ran to the nearest door outside. It led to the garden terrace, at the edge of which he stopped and put me down. From inside, I could hear the sounds that could be only described as these of complete bedlam. Screams, crashes, clashes…

"This is the worst thing that could've happened," JJ said. He sounded just grim now, instead of scared, which was better, but only so much. "Now, I doubt the vampires inside will stop fighting until there's only one left alive. This fairy creature couldn't have come with a worse way to crash the event. The only consolidation I have is that deaths of any non-vampires would most probably be just collateral damage." He paused. "I have to go back there and try to pull out as many as I could."

A single glimpse through the well told me how great of an idea it was from the standpoint of personal safety. "I will do my best to help you from here with spells. To slow everyone down, or something." I paused. "If you can, please bring Eve out first. Maybe she knows how to reactivate the spell."