Kenneth made his way directly to his master, not quickly but with a sense of purpose. Alessandro could read people by the smallest mannerisms and minutiae. The art was touted by the Sicilians, and Alessandro was a master, and a servant to one who practiced the art, one couldn’t help but learn the game and begin to play it.
He stepped up to the desk and laid the bulging portfolio on the desk. He didn’t take a seat but stood in a relaxed posture with his arms at his sides, giving away nothing.
Alessandro did not waste time opening the portfolio and grabbing the papers therein. He set up the papers carefully and with a speed that would have escaped mortal eyes, his master went through it all and placed them back in the portfolio.
“That is a much more appropriate picture of your transactions, Kenneth.” Alessandro began, “But I suspect that you are still not giving me the whole of your accounts.”
He felt a twinge of panic as his senses yelled at him to move, escape! With difficulty he pushed those feelings aside and met his master with a level gaze. Every tick, every eye movement, every muscle on his body was being watched. That moment of panic would not have escaped his master, no matter how good he thought he was. All he could do was control the damage. “Yes, as you say.”
His master’s eyes darkened and his hands tightened noticeably on the desk top.
“What is not in my portfolio is the work and money invested in the biological company, Advanced Cell Technologies. They specialize in regenerative cell research.”
Alessandro was stone. “And why should we care about, or invest in, regenerative cell research?”
Kenneth could draw upon his personal views, knowing that Alessandro shared them. “Master, these humans want life. The field of regenerative anything, is in high demand, everything from Botox to stem cells. Humans want to be younger, longer. If Advanced Cell Technologies find that breakthrough to revitalize cellular functions or improve cell migration in the form of cloned tissue this could make more money than we know what to do with.” He hesitantly added, “They will never know immortality, but they will pay billions for another decade of youth.”
This caught Alessandro’s attention. He lifted his hands to rest in front of his face, hiding his lip movement, “Why were you so reticent to share with me your plans or your expenditures?”
That was the question that he had spent all night trying to find an answer for. “As I told you yesterday master, I didn’t want to have to tell you just how much money I had lost if the investment fell through.”
“And yet here we are,” Alessandro stood up and walked to one of the wall windows. “Kenneth, high risk investments are what we do. We could rule these humans,” He turned around and stared Kenneth in the eye, “Do you have any idea as to why we do not?”
Kenneth had always wondered that. Why weren’t they ruling over the humans? The wolves could barely protect themselves, let alone all of humanity. Why hadn’t his kind made their play and subjugated them? He could do nothing else but shake his head.
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Alessandro didn’t move, “Because the risk outweighs the reward.”
Kenneth saw nothing as a cold hand gripped his throat and lifted him off the floor. Alessandro’s cold brown eyes flared as he flung his subordinate across the room.
Kenneth hadn’t been expecting such a harsh outburst from his master. He needed to do something, get away, to defend himself at the very least. Steel hands gripped his body again and he was feeling wind rush across him as he sailed through the still air of the enclosed office. He crashed, back first, into two metal chairs that tipped over with his weight and were now digging uncomfortably into his side and legs.
He kicked out one chair and pushed the other away from his shoulder. He had to do something…too late. His master had him in a grip again and this particular trip through the air was punctuated with a loud thud, as his head crashed into the huge majestic windows that framed the office.
He shook off the fuzzy feeling and kicked himself to his feet. If his master wanted to end his life, he wasn’t going to make it easier for him.
Alessandro came at him and Kenneth side stepped him, barely. A back hand to the older man’s exposed neck, sent Alessandro reeling. The older Vampire moved with impossible speed. His next punch passed through air only as he felt cold steel clasp around his leg and lift. Kenneth tipped; face first, to the floor. He did not remain there. His body was whipped to the side as his face made unceremonious contact with more chairs and the side of an aluminum couch.
He was breathing a lot harder than he should have been. He tried to stand up but his legs would not respond. Before he could struggle, both of his legs, simultaneously exploded with pain as an impossibly loud crack exploded throughout the office.
Kenneth twisted himself around to see his master slam his sickeningly twisted legs to the floor. This caused another explosion of pain that ripped through Kenneth’s body. He couldn’t do anything but focus on how hurt he was. The hot electricity of it shot through his body in pulses, completely incapacitating him. He had never felt anything like this before.
Alessandro quietly took his seat behind the desk.
Kenneth knew he wasn’t human and he knew that he would heal. But for now, those rational thoughts were rendered completely inadequate next to the shrieking pain that he was feeling. No rational thought could force its way past it. He couldn’t move and he couldn’t think. Pain was his world. He refused to cry out though. If nothing else he would hold on to his dignity.
“We are superior to those we would rule, in every way.” Alessandro said in a thoughtful voice. “What you need to remember, my childe, is that while you may enjoy superiority over humans, I enjoy that same superiority over you.”
Kenneth managed to roll over on his back. He stared up at the stainless-steel panels of the office. Everything about this office was sterile, even the ceiling. What he saw staring back at him was a grotesque, mutilated collage of what he should have looked like. His face was nothing more than a blob in the reflection. His leg was twisted in an unnatural angle pointed away from his torso. His arms stubs of tan proto matter. The reflection was probably truer to what he was than what his mirror at home showed him.
Alessandro could kill him if he wanted to. He raised his head to see that his master had taken his place back behind his desk. Kenneth turned back to his reflection. He closed his eyes and with a jerk he reset his arm, which had come loose in its socket. He raised himself onto his elbows and reached down for his leg. He grabbed his knee and swung it back into a natural position with a grunt. His vampiric body would only take minutes to heel but those minutes were an eternity of pain. It was like performing surgery on oneself without anesthesia. He almost blacked out.