Madam Wright was the owner of the ‘Gentleman’s club’ and in that particular afternoon brought the ‘new blood’ to the establishment. This was the day the trio was waiting for and it was the highest chance for the immortal Swan to appear. After receiving Jack’s message, Leo also arrived early, took a seat at one of the tables in the main hall facing the entrance and ordered a drink.
His initial idea was for Jack to have a word with the owner so she would hire him, but everyone had to agree it was way too risky. First of all the Blood lord might not show up. What then? He would have to actually work. And what if another immortal showed up and wanted Leo’s services? If he was an employee he wouldn’t have the right to refuse. The fact that the owner was an immortal, albeit a false one, complicated things considerably – there was no way he could go against her.
On the other hand, if Leo arrived as a customer, he could hang around as much as he wanted to and the most difficult task would be to attract the attention of the Blood lord. Fortunately he had visited the ‘Heart and soul’ many times and knew all the tricks a professional could use to attract the attention of a particular customer, thus he wasn’t worried one bit about that part.
Few things seemed out of place though. First of all the brothel was already open, but for some reason the girls were still in their rooms. Madam Wright inspected the unreasonably large amount of candidates for the position of waiters, but then for some reason accepted them all and left the further instructions to the supervisor, a woman of a rather large stature. If Leo caught her name right, it was lady Jade.
To Leo’s relief, madam Wright soon left, but lady Jade took the small crowd of waiter candidates and brought them away, probably to distribute uniforms and maybe let few of them clean up. After all Leo’s didn’t really notice the details since he was mostly focused on the main entrance.
Then there was a long, boring period when nothing happened, but as soon the sun set, one after another the customers started coming in.
Leo noticed another peculiarity. While often men came to brothels in pairs or even small groups, to this particular one guests arrived one by one. They each sat at their tables alone, intimately chatted with one of the waiters and after they had a drink, waiter brought them away. It did seem weird that they didn’t choose the girl first, but Leo assumed there could be was a special procedure for that – like a show room on the way upstairs.
But as the time flew by, Leo was forced to recognize he had made a mistake. At first he didn’t pay attention to few casual butt-slaps the clients gave waters, but it was impossible for the frequent inconspicuous touching and caressing to escape his eye.
Leo felt his hart skip a beat when the realization struck him. There was a simple reason there were no girls downstairs – there were no girls in the establishment whatsoever! The bunch of waiters were the girls!
After taking a couple of deep breaths, Leo calmed down and ordered another drink. So what if the young guys worked here? They were just like him – professionals. Sure, some were doing ‘the stuff’ with men, but it was not his place to judge. Each adult has the right to choose how they live their lives, right? For example, he – he was sitting here and waiting for a granny older than the universe so he could kill her!
The last thought cheered Leo up a bit and for a while his spirits were lifted. He carelessly observed the clients and the local professionals, reminiscing about his work in the holy city Avila and his one thrust technique he hadn’t employed for so long. Then he wondered – was it possible to kill an immortal in one thrust and a silly smile bloomed on his face. It was likely he might find out tonight!
“I want that guy!” Suddenly a voice that sounded like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together woke Leo up from the daydreaming.
He threw a glance at an old skinny creep talking to lady Jade and ordered another drink. But lady Jade’s words made his hair stand on end.
She said, “I’m sorry, lord Swan! He is a customer! I can’t …”
But the Blood lord interrupted her, “So?”
And then the worst possible thing happened. He slowly began to walk towards the table Leo was sitting at and each of the steps felt like explosions that took place in the very center of Leo’s soul.
‘How in the world this could’ve happened?!’ Leo’s whole being silently screamed, but he couldn’t move even an inch in shock and fear.
The young men who actually worked here in envy watched how the five foot short Blood lord walked over to one of the customers, put his thin and ugly palm on the guy’s shoulder and said in a screeching voice, “Let’s go!”
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Leo could swear he fainted for an instant, but then an invisible force lifted him up and he followed the immortal, not being clear it it happened against his will or not.
‘So this was the reason the guys were against me doing it!’ Leo finally realized the grave mistake he had made.
For some reason he assumed that the thousands of years old Blood lord Swan was an old hag and, truth to be said, no one ever said he was a dude! An old and freakishly ugly dude! But it wasn’t really Leo’s fault! He didn’t know!
Fortunately nothing bad happened yet. Lady Jade brought lord Swan to the top floor and closed the door after the two entered a large, tastefully decorated room. Leo sighed in relief since there were only a couple of sofa’s and a tea table that had a several expensive looking alcohol bottles on.
When the immortal took a seat on one of the sofas, without thinking much Leo sat in the one across the table, afraid the Blood lord would order to sit next to him. Fortunately lord Swan didn’t take it to the heart, on contrary – he seemed to be amused by it. With an ugly smile on his thin, dark blue lips, he opened one of the bottles and began to drink directly from it, at the same time observing Leo as if he was a predator playing with a pray.
Leo, of course, didn’t have anything else to do, but to observe the immortal as well. While avoiding the penetrating stare of the two murky eyes, Leo confirmed that the guy definitely was old and ugly. He couldn’t get his head around why in the world a super strong immortal like lord Swan would not simply recreate a new body. It was rather easy even for him, a person who just stepped into the Nascent soul stage, but for a genius runemaster it had to be a piece of cake! Why would he run around the world in this hideous state?
Then Leo’s thoughts turned to the inevitable. It was clear the Blood lord didn’t invite him for a chat – after all they hadn’t really said anything to each other yet. What was he supposed to do when … well … it was time? And how do the men actually ‘do it’?
Leo’s feet were cold since the moment he saw the ugly face downstairs so they couldn’t get any colder after he realized that there was an orifice he was supposed to ‘assault’. It didn’t make sense from the moral point of view, but looking at it pragmatically it was the only way. Of course, the positive part was that he could shove his most precious possession up to the immortal’s dantian and kill him as planned, except this would become a story he could never tell his grandchildren.
While Leo planned out the technical details of the assassination, the immortal leisurely emptied one bottle after another. Apparently through the many millennia he had become immune to intoxication, so he mostly enjoyed the taste.
When the last bottle was empty, he got up and said the same words Leo heard before, “Let’s go!”
At first Leo was caught by surprise as the thought passed his mind that the immortal brought him upstairs only to have a company while he was drinking. But then lord Swan pushed a leaver at the wall and it partially opened like a sliding door, and a view of excessively large bed made Leo’s knees weak.
Leo took a deep breath and said to himself, ‘Ok, this is the burden of a true professional! I have to do it for Jack, Alice, for the Alliance and for the world!’
But what happened next made all his plans evaporate in an instant. The immortal didn’t kneel on the bed as Leo hoped and didn’t even give a chance to put him in that position.
He stepped towards Leo, coming face to face and put his two skinny palms on Leo’s shoulders. Of course, to describe it ‘face to face’ was not proper since the Blood lord was at most five feet tall, but a split moment later Leo realized he was looking the immortal directly in the eyes, then at his chin and then the wrinkled turkey neck. It was like he was sinking in a swamp of nightmares, except everything that happened was real.
It came only to stop when Leo’s knees actually hit the floor and his face was at the level of the immortal’s chest. He was baffled what this sudden expression of power was for since no one in their right mind could imagine that a Nascent soul stage cultivator could go against an immortal.
But right at that moment a memory from many years ago resurfaced of one of his clients actually getting on her knees before her husband came in. The load of Qi Leo shot in her face knocked the poor girl out and because of that there was this awkward moment … but the problem was he was not at all willing to do what the girl did back then! He would rather die! For f*ck’s sake – the whole universe could implode – Leo didn’t care!
Unfortunately the sight of the young cultivator’s struggles only served as arousal for lord Swan and in a creepy voice happily laughing he held Leo’s shoulder’s in an iron tight grasp while continuing to press him downwards. He had seen too many young boys like this one in his day and moments like these were the few rare things that still provided some amusement.
Leo, of course, didn’t find the situation amusing at all. Ignoring the piercing pain that assaulted his mind after his shoulder blades broke, he continued to try to stand up and when a cracking sounds began to come from his spine indicating it was fracturing as well, in a complete panic Leo began to simply push away from the old creep.
The worst thing about the situation was the helplessness and the realization that his own foolish idea was what brought him here. Leo couldn’t wrap his mind around where the earlier confidence came from – he was going against an immortal! How idiotic was that?!
When his spine finally broke, with the last ditch effort Leo summoned all the power he had and instinctively directed all the Qi reserves into his arms which were the last barrier between him and the old pervert. The excruciating pain didn’t allow him to faint and he loudly roared in despair only to suddenly find himself on the floor, lying at the Blood lord’s feet. Somehow he managed to escape the deadly grasp of the two thin, bony hands, but it didn’t make sense even if that was the thing Leo wished for the most.
His head bumping against the floor slightly dazed him, but when the vision cleared, Leo realized that lord Swan was behaving in a strange way. The immortal was still standing with his two hands stretched out as if they were still on Leo’s shoulders, but his murky eyes seemed lifeless and empty. After few moments the immortal began to slowly sway back and forth and the last thing Leo remembered before passing out was the old bastard falling right on top of him.