Christoph struggled against his restraints. After a few seconds of unsuccessful wrestling with steel, the boy's eyes widen as a single word from the man processed in his head: punishment. The teen despised that dreadful word, for it brought with it pain, sorrow, hatred, mixed feelings. He then growled, starting to feel his body temperature rising by the millisecond, matching his anger. With Christoph's eyes narrowed fiercely, he attempted to lunge at the lanky vampire, only to be yanked backwards, falling painfully on his spine with a pitiful yelp. In uncontrolled rage, the small boy had forgotten about the shackles holding him down to the cold floor. The demon's face flushed in embarrassment and fury, and then moaned from pain. The tall vampire laughed as the boy before him made a fool of himself. Artix grinned, his large canine teeth overlapping his thin, pale lips. The man then leaned his colorless forehead against the steel bars which held his captives in seclusion, looking over Christoph's features carefully, making the boy uncomfortable.

"Christoph, was it?" The question made the adolescent flinch, bringing a ghost of a smile to the man's lips. Artix reached inside the cell, sliding his arm through the bars. "You have a strong spirit, but your body isn't. A thing such as that is not nearly enough to beat me, let alone lay a single finger on my fabric."

Seeing the hand reach for him, the teenager scrambled to get away. The cell was too small to move around much, and the restraints limited his running ground greatly, so when he felt thin nails scrape against his skin on his shoulder, the boy shivered.

"Don't touch me!" Christoph snarled, knowing he could no longer move.

The pale vampire took his hand back, running his thin fingers through his grayish-white mane. Unfortunately, his hair continued to age unlike the rest of his young, healthy body. A human being would have assumed this man was near his early thirties and disliked the sun in fear of catching skin cancer at first sun ray. Despite him looking human from afar, if he were to smile, his canine teeth would show by their massive size; pointed ears would reveal themselves to the world if he shifted his hair; long claw-like fingernails stretched out from each finger.

"The old hag will probably die if I can't control myself when I punish her, so something simple will do just fine," Artix said as his emotionless irises glanced over to the other side of the cell, seeing the elder woman kneeling on the floor with her head down, her graying hair covering her beautiful features

Even though the woman was in her mid-forties, her skin was still pink and vigorous as if she wasn't a year over twenty; her hair curled beautifully at the tips; angelic eyes with long lashes. Saeth really did know how to pick his mates carefully. One was a beautiful woman, the other a strong-spirited, yet gentle, male adolescent. Artix wondered if the younger vampire was so broken hearted that he had to go with his own sex. Whichever the answer, it made no difference. Both were fine choices.

"I should start off with the beauty. She seems to be so lonely and depressed. I can easily change that," the man chuckled as he took hold of one of the steel bars, pulled open the small door, and walked swiftly towards Lucia.

The human woman glanced up in reaction to the clanking she heard from the cell door opening. Her eyes widened his fear as she saw her kidnapper walking towards her. In fear, she struggled to stand up, but found it impossible by the heavy chains holding her down. Lucia's thin brows narrowed, still tugging at her shackles.

"Now, now, lovely, don't try to resist because you might hurt yourself," the vampire said as he kneeled down in front of the woman, then rising his hand and taking a good grip of her long, beautiful hair

The woman shut her eyes to stop tears from forming as she winced, pain forming at the back of her skull, a small moan escaping her lips. Artix just smiled and yanked her up roughly by the hair to her feet, carrying all her weight by just locks of her hair, making her cry out.

"Stop it, you bastard!" Christoph spat as he attempted to reach for the two, struggling to make at least a small spark in his hands, "she's a human being! She's not like us and you'll hurt her!"

"Ah, but you see, I can't keep my hands off of her," Artix purred hungrily as he glanced down at Lucia's lean neck

His fangs throbbed in his mouth as he resisted the urge to feed on her. The vampire wanted his hostages alive, not dead or an undead like himself. To satisfy his malicious purposes, at least, he swiped fiercely at her neck, leaving five painful cuts from the nape of her neck to below her collar bone. He exhaled sharply when the woman's cries filled his ears, adoring the shrieks. Every vampire becomes aroused by their victim's screams and begging for freedom, as if it was genetic in vampirism. Artix was not satisfied enough, and stroke the woman once more, soon appearing five more cuts on her neck. The scratch marks intertwined each other in an X formation, each bleeding mildly. To avoid turning the girl into a meal, he threw her to the ground, the smell of blood filling his nostrils. Lucia's tears stained her pink cheeks, the agonizing pain in her neck unbearable. Her fingers curled around her wounds, gripping her neck tightly to reduce the bleeding. The human female moaned as she lay on the floor, noticing her shoulder and hip was bleeding from the sudden push.

"A few scratches and she's crawling around as if she's dying," Artix said as he grimaced down at the woman

He reached down and took hold of Lucia's silk shirt, hearing small rips from the fragile fabric. The vampire reduced the space between their faces, mumbling a "shut up" and tossing her body roughly against the wall. The wails started to take a toll on the man's ears. The sudden cry and sound of bone cracking didn't help, either.

"Stop hurting her!" exclaimed Christoph as he tried helplessly to escape from the shackles' grip

The boy could not stand up, his steel restraints made sure of that. All the demon could do was kneel down, and that was barely, and with his wrists being pulled down to the floor, it resulted in pain from the struggling. Artix's cold, ice blue eyes shifted towards the teen's direction. Since the first second the man brought the boy, he hadn't stood still nor kept quiet. His eyes seemed to grow fiercer, colder. The demon's silence would truly be golden.

"Seems like you've been bitten, my friend," muttered the vampire as he took a few steps towards him

He knelt down before Christoph and took a handful of his thin, long hair, jerking his head backwards to expose his neck. Artix grinned, seeing two small puncture wounds from, obviously, a vampire. The boy wasn't a vampire, for it was just a love bite by his new mate. The man would change that easily. Christoph flinched from the sudden tug, taking deep breaths since his head was pulled back too far for comfortable breathing.

"Damn it let go!"

"I'm not willing to do that, little Chrisi. You see, you're not a vampire, which means you will die and your little boyfriend will not. Look at what happened to the girl; she's going to die and leave little Saeth all alone. But, don't worry, I'll make sure you're not replaced the same way you replaced her," Artix hissed hungrily, his eyes becoming wild like a beast ready to pounce on its prey

The vampire peeled back his lips, his massive fangs dripping saliva, desperate for a feeding. Ignoring Christoph's screams and constant struggling, the space between the man's throbbing canine teeth and the boy's fragile neck decreased. Soon, the sharp fangs scraped eagerly at the teen's flesh. In a sudden, swift movement Artix sank his canine teeth into one of the four pairs of jugular veins in his victim's neck. With the vein punctured, blood gushed from the bite as it spilled over the vampire's clothing as well as the demon's and onto the floor. The taste was pure bliss as the sinful liquid teased Artix's taste buds. Warm, delectable blood trailed down his throat and into his empty stomach. To avoid draining the boy completely, the now full vampire had to pry himself off his prey. In an attempt to clean up his mess, the man's tongue flicked out between his lips as he licked away the splattered blood around the attacked area, also cleansing his fangs and lips from the delicious liquid. He smiled a ghost of a smile inwardly, pleased with his work. Christoph lay limp, his glazed eyes wide with tears running down his cheeks. He felt no pain; his breathing started off as gasps, now there was barely oxygen in his lungs; his body limp as his fingers lightly twitched in desperation for movement; the shrieking from Lucia muffled in his own ears. Nothing moved.

"You're going to be my little vampire, Chrisi," Artix whispered as he tore the skin at his wrist with his fangs

Vampire blood trailed down to his lean fingers as his hands hovered over Christoph's thin mouth, slightly ajar from the previous gasping. Droplets of blood splashed onto the boy's tongue, instinct telling him to swallow, as he did. The old vampire was satisfied with his new creation. He took the blood so willingly, but that could have been the result from him being half conscious. Either way, all Christoph needed was to feed on a human, just a drop, and he will be a full fledge vampire; Artix's new son.

He then said, as he grinned, "I'm now your master."