Chapter 375 – Coven Ⅱ

With peace now restored, every vampire's head turns towards the front of the round table. There sitting at the tip of the round table is a very wrinkled, elderly vampire with a silver widow's peak. The eldest vampire only lived to be two hundred and fifty years old. And among all those in attendance, this elderly vampire was over two hundred years old, the eldest among them. The vampires remain silent waiting for the Pontifex Maximus, the head of the Coven, Ambrogio Sangria to speak.

"Welcome Pontifex's," Pontifex Maximus, Ambrogio Sangria rasped as his stark white hands with dark blue veins rested on his chair's armrest. "We have all gathered here today to speak on a wide variety of topics. All I ask is that you deliberate with care before I will turn the time over to you all, and request that we finish an hour before sunrise to allow the servants to finish preparing the guest bedrooms, before retiring to rest for the day."

There is a faint sound of rustling as the various Pontifex's throughout the chamber glance at each other waiting. "Then I shall be the first to speak," finally said, a middle-aged vampire with rare brown colored hair. "I am sure that all of have read the Daily Prophet and are aware of the changes that have occurred within the wizarding world."

"Out with it already, Nikolas," snapped a rather impatient silver-haired vampire.

"I was just getting to that, Dario," Nikolas growled in frustration. "If the werewolves join, this new A.P.D. then how will we fare?"

Dario sneered and said, "What is there to fear? They are nothing more than mangy wolves no longer feral but domesticated. It's as though their teeth and claws have been removed; they cannot hurt us."

"Oh, you think so?" Nikolas arched his brow. "You forget they are wolves. They can still scent us in their wolf form and what would happen if they found our scents on the Blood Houses? What then? How will we eat?!"

There are surprised expressions on various faces as the vampires uneasily glance around. It surely couldn't be that bad, could it?

"Calm yourselves," said Luther. "The Blood Houses are owned in a joint enterprise with the wizarding purebloods. The purebloods will not allow for their brothels to be closed and as such we shall not lose our staple source of food."

"Exactly," Victoria preened having been a former, very popular member of one of the said places.

Victoria flashed Hecate a triumphant grin, before adding, "The purebloods will do anything to keep that which they fancy. And if it becomes dire, we can always move the Blood Houses elsewhere."

"Either way, we must be prepared," Nikolas interjected earning a pouting scowl from Victoria. "It has always been difficult to hunt among the humans and with each passing era even more so. We cannot afford to lose the Blood Houses, or we will all be at risk."

There is a nodding of assent from the vampires as Hecate wisely says, "Worry not, with the latest influx of immigrant humans among the humans, we can always feed from there. Their desperation though exquisite to taste makes them ever the easy prey to catch."

"Well, some of us would rather avoid eating from such cheap humans," Victoria said with a loud sniff. "I for one, only want the best. But if such cheap humans are to your taste, Hecate, you are more than welcome to feed them. No one will judge your unique tastes."

Hecate flashes her fangs at Victoria in anger. "We have always survived how we can, child. Not all of us had the luxury of a choice to survive."

Victoria opens her mouth to speak, when Ambrogio Sangria roars, "Enough."

Victoria quivers and bows her head in apology. She could not afford to anger the Pontifex Maximus. He was their King, their ruler in the Isles.

However, Ambrogio Sangria was not appeased by her actions. "I have tolerated your childish ways, Pontifex Victoria for some time now, and I have grown weary of doing so. You shall serve as a feeding vessel to the childes until I say otherwise."

"No, please, Pontifex Maximus!" Victoria begged as she fell to her knees in fright.

To serve as a feeding vessel implied, she would help newly transformed vampires learn how to feed and control their hunger. They would feed off of her and doing so suck out some of her vitality. All those that were punished as feeding vessels aged ten to twenty years within a period of a single year! She could not bear the thought of growing old so quickly, she could not!

"You disagree with my decision, Pontifex Victoria," Ambrogio icily asked as the rest of the vampires sucked in a breath. The Pontifex Maximus was not pleased, not pleased at all. And the Pontifex Maximus was not one for mercy.

"I do not, Pontifex Maximus," Victoria stammered. "I merely wish to request leniency. I shall mend my ways and never commit such a fault again."

"You shall not serve as a feeding vessel," Ambrogio icily said causing Victoria to slump down in relief.

"Nor there will be another second chance," Ambrogio added causing Victoria to gaze at him in confusion.

Those older and wiser vampires pale, a ghastly shade that should not be possible given that they are already impossibly pale. Victoria stares at the rest of the Pontifex's bemused by their reactions. Why even her rival, Hecate, is unable to meet Victoria's gaze and guiltily glanced away.

Ambrogio held out his hand and turned his thumb down as in Roman gladiatorial tradition. "To the stake with her," Ambrogio ruthlessly proclaimed.

"Wait, what?!" Victoria screamed in panic but suddenly finds her hands pinned by two other Pontifexs. Another places a gag in her mouth, before binding her hands and feet.

With tears of dread and fright, Victoria pleads for aid, but not a single Pontifex dares gaze up at her, while her captors carry her out of the chamber, before the door slams shut behind her in her final death sentence. There were no second chances when it came to the Pontifex Maximus.