#*garreth thread*

"He actually fuckin' did it: She's here, my lord."

At the words, the giant hall, filled to the brim with the bustle of warriors and their women silenced immediately. Garreth looked up from the large broadsword in his lap, and the whetstone he'd been in the meticulous process of sharpening it with, to look at the warrior who'd spoken them. He smiled, a gesture that would look warm on most people, but only managed to bring the warlord's cruel streak to the surface. He usually took whatever the hell he wanted from whomever he wanted... but after decades of wreaking havoc, killing indiscriminately, conquering countless cities and expanding his power base, it had almost gotten too easy. At this point, most just gave up without a fight when his army approached. Forcing a man to give up his one and only child in exchange for his own sorry life though? That was a whole other kind of fun.

He nodded his head in recognition after a moment, and almost immediately, the large double doors leading inside the hall were swung open and she was dragged inside by two large warriors dressed in worn leather. All the way through the room, before then being thrown haphazardly on the floor before the large throne-like chair at the the very end. Right where Garreth sat, now casually looking down at her with sadistic amusement in his dark eyes. "Welcome home, slave."

Steady steps carried Garreth into the room, a set of hard hazel hues locked on the girl he kept there. She was unable to move, expertly tied ropes wrapped around her, keeping her body all but glued to the table he'd laid her out on. He'd strapped a wand to her thigh, the vibrating head of it pressed against her sweet little cunt. And then he'd left her there, on her own. By the time he returned to her, hours had passed.

He took his time, letting the sound of his footsteps be the only detectable change in the room. He rounded the table once, inspecting the result of his little experiment - his chosen punishment for her bratty behaviour - before coming to a stop beside her head, finally speaking. "Still enjoying yourself, hmm?" He reached out, brushing his thumb over one stiff nipple before giving it a firm squeeze.

As the two men stepped inside the humans' home, the vampire's senses reached out across the premises almost immediately. He registered Valentine's presence - there as promised - before her father had even taken a second breath, and the scent of her made his fangs ache; a dull, subtle reminder that he had yet to feed as planned. "Go on then, call out for her..." he commanded quietly with all the inherent authority of a man very used to being obeyed. He pushed the door shut behind the pair, his dark gaze travelling up the stairs in the direction of the room he knew she occupied. When her father did as bidden, her name ringing out clear throughout the house, Garreth took a step back into the darkness of a shadow, awaiting his first real look at the woman whose life had been so eagerly traded in. It wasn't so much that he couldn't have taken either one or both of them if he'd wanted to, really, but this was at the very least the most interesting thing to happen in the past decade or so, and he was bored enough to entertain the pathetic mortal's desperate plea... for now.