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Diel awoke to the muzzle of a gun being jammed into the side of his head. Before he could fully come to his senses and realize where he was, two thugs grabbed him by the arms and lifted him to his feet. His eyes met the face of utter eurotrash named Valentino. Not a nice face to wake up to. The clock on the wall said it was three in the morning, what kind of sick fuck wakes a man up at three in the morning?

"You know," Valentino began, "I had to sit through that whole cacophony you call music. You are just as brash and vulgar as ever. Plus, you told me to fuck off. Not very nice, now is it? I told you not to forget who your benefactors are, we bought you a long time ago and now you belong to us Mr. legendary dhamphyr."

"Fuck you, Valentino."

"That's Scourge, Valentino to you."

Diel lunged at Valentino but stopped short when he came face to face with the wrong side of two .45 caliber Python revolvers that got between him and his victim. Valentino moved the two thugs infront of him out of the way and stepped right up to Diel.

"You know, I was only told by the prince that you needed to be conscious in a few days. The way I see it there is at least an hour before daybreak, plenty of time to mop the floor with you," Valentino gave a big fanged grin, "In fact I think I owe you a few licks. Let's take this outside hmm?"

Valentino exited the room and the thugs shoved Diel right behind him. The shoving was superfluous, Valentino deserved a good beating, that cocky little fuck. When they reached the alleyway behind the club, Valentino handed his coat to one of the thugs, revealing an expensive looking vest and tie ensemble that definitely set him back a couple of hundred dollars.

Diel wasn't stupid and knew that there were two things that made this jackass so damn tough. Two vampiric disciplines named Potence and Celerity. Celerity is basically the ability of a vampire to use his blood to allow super human feats of speed. This was usually not a problem, since Diel could simulate the discipline by dispersing yang chi throughout his body. It was Potence, or the ability to make one's vampiric blood more potent that is scary. This use of blood enables Valentino to become superhumanly strong; a feat which Diel could not fully imitate.

Diel took a good look at Valentino to size him up. He kept staring as if he was trying to look beyond Valentino until he could find what he wanted, Valentino's life aura. Aura reading is the first lesson taught to those who learn the discipline of yang prana and it comes in handy. It told Diel a few things; A. Valentino was still 100% vampire, B. Valentino was still a total jackass, and C. it tipped Diel off to whenever Valentino was about to use one of those nice little abilities of his.

Diel switched to a stance where he was on the balls of his feet so his footwork could be as quick as possible. If he was going to make Valentino lose his cool he will have to be a little showy to do it.

Valentino made the first move by charging Diel and trying a blind swing. Diel just ducked under and caught Valentino with a fist to the chin that sent him stumbling back a few steps. A yellow energy diffused throughout Valentino's aura: Celerity. This time Diel made the first move, but was easily side stepped by his quicker opponent. Diel's attacks, however, were not as ill placed as Valentino's and left little time for Valentino to get a strike in.

He continued to dodge Diel's punches until they started to land dangerously close to their mark. With a grunt of frustration, Valentino started to block attacks until he had to focus all of his energy into keeping himself from getting hit. Diel capitalized on this by feigning a punch, switching to a more solid footing, and catching Valentino right in the jaw with a kick. This time, Valentino was sent stumbling until he fell into a puddle.

A diffusion of even more yellow energy and now black energy through Valentino's aura meant trouble. This time, Diel was caught mid thought as Valentino lunged with demonic speed and smashed a fist right into Diel's chest. Diel flew back a few feet, bounced off the pavement, and eventually slammed into a dumpster, leaving a dent in the side of the metal bin. He was out cold.

Valentino tried to brush the dirt off his suit when one of the men who was not occupied carrying Diel off to the car interrupted him and handed him a cell phone.

"Did you do as asked?"

"Yes, sir."

"I knew you would have no trouble. Now I take it you have handled the situation that developed around young Mr. Duncan?"

"Yes sir, as far as anyone knows Duncan Mathews moved away with his family. No one will come looking."

"Perfect, Mr. Wagner would be useless if he were indisposed. I hope you did a thorough job, I'm not going to see a news report about a slaughtered family, now am I?"

"N..No sir"

"Good and for your sake, let us hope that you are right in this matter. You know how important this is to me."

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