Trade 3
Lights flared, the reflection angling down the corner and bring hellfire glints to the surface of Dracula's eyes. Nearly humming with pleasurable anticipation, he watched the glow at the junction of his short hallway and the main corridor. It dimmed, it brightened, it dimmed further...Abraham had brought a friend or two, to block that much light. The teeth flashed in the dim light as the vampire grinned even wider. Samuel shifted beside him, and he idly gripped the boy's arm, tight enough to cause the child to begin to whisper a plaint.
"Silent. The show is just starting."
As the boy obediently and fearfully quieted, he listened. They'd found the upstairs door unlocked, no doubt. And within moments, they'd find that the door that held HIM locked away, the door traced with bindings and silver and a good, solid bar, was open. He'd carefully left it just the slightest bit ajar behind him and his new toy when he'd shoved the boy out into the hallway. It wouldn't be visible until they were nearly to it, and he expected a few hearts to miss a beat when the men realized this. The boy hadn't been much entertainment at all, almost immediately trapping himself in a dead end, but his father might prove much more entertaining.
And the shouts and calls and near-panic he was now hearing fulfilled that wish. They'd found the open cage, the tiger missing, and the door to the home upstairs open. Would they hunt for him first, or race to check on Abraham's family? The rapidly retreating footsteps and the golden glow, now undimmed, told him which it would be.
Head tilted, demented grin stretched wide, he listened to the calls of terror above, the frantic shouts for Sam. Oh, the terror that must be racing through Abraham's veins right now! Delicious...and with an affectionate nuzzle at the lovely bait beside him, he listened to each enjoyable, panic-tinged call of the men above him.