Chapter 443: Found you
Damon arrived at the market and looked through various stalls. He tried to remain indifferent, but even his heartbeat spiked when his eyes landed on piles of herbs and ores, materials that would sell for fortunes in human lands, being pushed around here like common junk.
Spirit iron chunks, duskroot blossoms, and even faintly glowing rainstones lay scattered across crooked tables, sold for copper coins.
He forced himself to stay calm, masking the gleam in his crimson eyes. If he swept everything into his pouch at once, it would raise too many eyebrows. Instead, he bought carefully, one or two items at a time, pretending to haggle half-heartedly like any other passerby.
A bundle of herbs here, a pouch of raw ore there, he only bought a few things. He even rejected some offers to make it look like he wasn’t interested. The merchants didn’t care. They took his coins and barked for the next customer. But Damon could feel it, the eyes on him. Many people were observing him, mostly demons, some beastkin.
And still no vampires...
Damon clicked his tongue and continued walking. He hit up another tavern and enjoyed a few dozen demon girls. He then once again wandered exploring all nooks and corners of the city. He even ended up visiting a brothel, though he only ended up drinking blood again.
He tried to collect from information from the demon girl who served him but it was of no use. It was just a dead end. It was almost as if all of the vampires from the city had suddenly disappeared.
Everything looked a little too fishy.
Damon quietly continued his stroll until he came to the center of the city, a place no surprise dedicated to more brawls and street fights. Damon silently leaned against an inconspicuous wall and closed his eyes. He then activated his primordial senses.
It was not like a switch that he could flip on and off but it needed a great deal of effort from him to completely activate the senses, to get at their full benefit. Damon was definitely not doing his very best but he was surely getting better every time he practised the skill.
He slowed his breathing, pushing his awareness outward like an invisible tide. Immediately, the city blurred. The jeers of demons, the clash of fists, the clatter of coins, they dulled into a distant hum. His awareness swept over them as he got a vague idea, a blue print of everything going on in the city.
However, letting his senses go wild in the city was completely different from letting his senses run free in the wilderness. Here, there were more powerful entities living, beings who would become instantly aware of the fact that he was spying on them.
Damon was not naive enough to foolishly use his primordial senses to such an extent. He kept it limited, just to a few streets in and around the common city area where only the general population mostly roamed about, creating ruckus here and there.
He had a feeling that he was missing something and bingo, it turned out that he was correct. In just a few seconds, he could immediately lock onto a few bloody auras. Vampires. He had no doubt about it.
He sharpened his focus, narrowing his senses further, careful not to stretch too far and alert one of the bigger presences lurking in the city. He focussed only on the building that was on the far end of the plaza, the spot where he had sensed the vampires momentarily.
His awareness brushed over it lightly. Unlike the rowdy demon taverns or the smoke-filled gambling dens, this building was quiet. From the outside it seemed like just another abandoned building. But Damon could clearly feel the blood essence leaking every now and then.
His lips curved into a grin. Finally, the missing friends he had been searching for!
He didn’t probe further, not yet. Even at this limited range, he knew if he pushed harder, they’d sense him instantly and scatter like shadows. Instead, he slowly pulled back, letting his senses fold in until he was once again just another face leaning against a wall in the chaos of the city.
Damon opened his eyes, crimson glinting in the torchlight of the plaza.
"Found you," he murmured under his breath, already turning over how best to approach. Should he march straight to the door and announce himself like a noble vampire demanding audience? Or should he wait and watch what they were upto?
Damon silently pondered as he walked over to a nearby tavern and sat down. He continued acting normal and feasting on more demon women while calmly observing everything that was going on within the building.
Vampires kept going in and out but all of them clearly used various stealth mechanisms to remain under the radar.
That was especially a difficult task to accomplish, considering that they were smack dab in the middle of the city. They surely had the help of someone powerful, someone who could provide such skills or artifacts to help them remain invisible. This wasn’t a ragtag coven scraping by, they were organized.
He leaned back, letting the girl on his lap giggle and whisper sweet nothings in his ear, but his mind ticked sharply. Something was going down. Could it perhaps have something to do with the auction?
Damon stood up and left the tavern after some time. He did not want them to know he had sensed them just yet. There was a reason they were not including him in whatever was going down and he wanted to know all the details.
He returned to the inn still keeping an eye on the building every other minute. When he was not observing them, he practised using demonic fire and tinkering with his newly acquired demonic skills. The entire night went by just like that when the game time once again restarted and Mark and Kate returned.
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