Whispering Verse

"Sit down quickly! It's not that I won't give it, it's that I don't have cash right now!"

Seeing the decadent man yelling, Professor Higgins hurriedly took the other man's hand and asked him to sit down, obviously worried about attracting too much attention.

"Don't even think about it!"

The vampire threw away the professor's hand and even raised his voice:

"Pay the money now. I won't believe your words. If you take the train when you leave home, where will I find you?"

"I really have no money for the time being, but someone will send money tomorrow."

The professor also wanted to persuade the other party, but the other party did not appreciate it at all:

"I'll come back to you at eight o'clock tonight, if you run away"

He leaned over and whispered something into the professor's ear, then stood up and walked out of the hotel. But after walking a few steps, he looked back at the suitcase carried by Professor Higgins, and waved to the professor, gesturing for him to follow.

The two walked out of the Sikal Hotel together. Shade did not follow immediately, but thought about drinking the apple juice in his hand before leaving. If he couldn't find anyone, he would give up his interest in this matter.

But before he could finish the drink in his hand, another person came down the stairs. It was Armand Bernhard, the uncle of the vampire uncles and nephews that Shade had saved in the narrow realm of life and death. . .

Similarly, when Shade saw him, the blood-colored mist on Mr. Bernhardt's head also condensed into a small bat. Compared with the down-and-out vampire just now, Mr. Bernhardt was clearly an upper class person at a glance.

He was probably attracted by the quarrel just now, or he had been paying attention here, so he came down from upstairs after the two left the hotel and followed them.

Shade still sat still, as if all this had nothing to do with him. He waited until he finished the drink in the cup before leaving.

From a distance, I could see Mr. Bernhardt walking along the east street, but he didn't go far before he turned into an alley.

Shade hesitated for a moment and did not follow. Instead, based on the terrain he checked nearby, he made a large circle from the other side of the alley, passing through the narrow alleys between dense apartment buildings, trying to take a detour. Go to the front and see where the professor and vampires who came out early went.

During this period, he saw few people on the street, so he "pulled" a new coat out of the inner pocket of his coat and put it on, "stuffed" the hat on his head into his pocket, and then "took" out a new hat. The hat is on the head. Finally he hesitated and even put on a mask for himself.

But the result was very unexpected. In the end, Shade met Professor Higgins and the vampire in the garbage alley behind the Sikal Hotel. He appeared from the east side of the alley, while Mr. Bernhardt, who was walking leisurely, appeared from the west side of the alley.

The two of them saw the scene in the alley almost at the same time. The old professor fell to the ground, and the downcast blond middle-aged man with his mouth full of blood was holding the suitcase that originally belonged to the linguistics professor Kasenlik. He was trying to flee the crime scene with a wallet that clearly did not belong to him, as well as a handgun.

"this"

The down-and-out man noticed people appearing at both ends of the alley almost at the same time. After seeing Armand Bernhardt on the west side, he almost did not hesitate, turned around with a look of horror and ran to the east side. Shade holding down his hat.

"Get out of here!"

While running, he waved his pistol and shouted loudly. The look with blood on his mouth was indeed very scary.

Shade raised his head, and the vampire also saw the mask on Shade's face. But before he had time to think about it, he saw Xia De's two hands clapped together and then separated instantly.

A silver arc of bright light was pulled away from the two palms, and ejected in the next second, splitting the overcoming vampire into two neat halves. But after the body hit the ground, it only left a mass of blood on the ground and dispersed into a small group of flying bats.

The group of little bats flew towards the west end of the alley, and after passing over Professor Higgins on the ground, they only flew more than twenty meters before they were forced to gather together again, and transformed back into the appearance of a blond and depressed middle-aged man in a cloud of blood mist.

"Is it the racial talent of vampires? I remember that they are very good at the power of flesh and blood."

Of course, although the opponent avoided death this time through the vampire's racial talent, when he returned to his human form again, he could hardly move due to serious injuries:

"Help me, Mr. Bernhardt!"

Lying on the ground with difficulty, the blond middle-aged man reached out to Armand Bennhardt on the west side of the alley. But the latter's face was very gloomy, he walked over silently, and then unexpectedly stepped on the middle-aged man's head with his boot:

"I was kind enough to introduce you to a job. Is this how you repay me? Do you know how much trouble you will cause me? Don't you know what mission I have to shoulder when I come to this city?" ?"

It wasn't lingua franca, or even any language Shad had ever heard, but luckily he understood it. There was not much emotion in Bernhardt's voice, but for a well-dressed upper-class gentleman to do this, he was obviously angry.

Shade also walked into the alley from the entrance, first picked up the suitcase, pistol and wallet in the blood, then continued to walk forward, squatting down to check the condition of the gray glove agent "Professor Higgins".

Sadly, he is already dead, the bite marks on his neck being the fatal cause.

"Sir, is this your friend?"

Stepping on the head of the down-and-out vampire, Mr. Bernhardt asked Shade, who stood up, across half the alley.

"That's right."

Shade said softly that although the two had met in the narrow realm of life and death, Shade at that time was much more powerful than he is now. Mr. Bernhardt obviously did not recognize him now.

"Can I ask him a few questions?"

Shade pointed at the stepped vampire, Mr. Bernhardt nodded:

"sure."

"First of all, what did Professor Higgins entrust you with?"

"Psychic! We agreed on a price of 500 pounds for a corpse in the psychic police station! He paid 300 pounds in advance and promised to settle the balance of 200 pounds today!"

The weak vampire managed to speak.

This price is certainly unreasonable in Shade's opinion, but for ordinary people who have no access to mysterious power, they can only accept it no matter how much money it costs.

"What did he ask of the soul?"

"I don't know. I'm only responsible for channeling and sending away souls. I wasn't around when they were talking."

"Why kill him?"

"I owe a large gambling debt at the underground Rhodes Casino. If he doesn't give me cash today, I will be in big trouble. I saw that he has been holding the suitcase today, so I wanted to exchange the contents for some gold pound"

Just as Shade thought, the Gray Gloves agent used the power of extraordinary creatures to obtain information, and ultimately died because of this.

"How did he contact you?"

"I introduced him."

Mr. Bernhardt, who was stepping on his head, said in a deep voice:

"Your professor friend and I both live on the fourth floor of the West Carle Hotel, and we occasionally smoke together. The professor suddenly told me last week that his friend passed away, but there were still some secrets that he hadn't had time to tell, so I had good intentions. , I introduced this guy, but I didn’t expect that this would actually kill the professor.”

The boots were pushed hard again, and the vampire who was stepped on barely had the strength to moan.

"Sir, if you have no objection, I can give you some compensation."

Mr. Bernhar said politely.

It's not that the vampire in the middle circle is afraid of Sha De, but that in the eyes of the Orthodox Church, alien creatures such as vampires are more dangerous than the academy's warlocks. They definitely couldn't fight in a downtown area during the day like this, so it was worth paying some compensation in exchange for keeping the secret.

"compensation?"

Shade shook his head and pointed at the downtrodden middle-aged man he stepped on:

"How is this guy's life?"

"fair enough."

The boot crushed the head heavily, and the body didn't even have time to leave any last words. Bernhardt shook his head and took out a small bottle from his pocket. After sprinkling the powder, the vampire's clothes and body slowly "melted" into the soil:

"I am an outsider and I don't want to attract too much attention in this city. Since Coster broke the rules, I think he paid the price with his life, which is what he deserves."

Shade nodded and looked up at the sheets hanging on the clothesline above the trash alley. With a flick of his hand, the silver light cut through the clothesline and let the sheets fall down, just covering the body of Professor Higgins on the ground.

He pretended to squat down, folding the sheet repeatedly, then picked it up and rolled it into a ball, tied it into knots and carried it behind his back.

This is to prevent the other party from seeing the details of Thaumaturgy [Toy Making]:

"Then Mr. Vampire, I think you can also see that what Professor Higgins did is also unclean, so this matter ends here. I am not interested in you, and you should not disclose this matter to anyone. thing."

"That's fair."

Mr. Bernhardt nodded:

"I brought my nephew to this city, and I have no intention of conflict with local forces. This matter ends here."

But Shade reached into his pocket again, took out a roll of banknotes sealed with a note, and threw it far away. The rolled-up banknotes passed over the garbage alley and were firmly caught by Armand Bernhardt.

"I paid the remaining balance of 200 pounds for the professor."

Shade said.

In this way, he can regard the suitcase as his own with peace of mind, because he has already paid for it.

The middle-aged gentleman wearing a black top hat smiled and did not refuse the huge sum of money, but put it in his pocket. Then he took out a business card, held it between his fingers and flew it to Shade. This was an action accomplished with the help of the basic spell [Moving Object] and superb skills:

"If something like this happens, my nephew and I can no longer live here. We will move to live with the same race in this city who have forgotten what decent is. If you need it, you can come to me at this address. I think , no one would refuse one more friend.”

"Yes."

Shade took a look at the business card and found that it was a red winery in this city. The business card did not belong to Mr. Bernhardt, but belonged to a vampire living in this city. After putting the business card into their pockets, the two nodded to each other, and then left from both ends of the garbage alley in tacit agreement.

Except for the pool of blood on the ground and the sparrow standing on the clothesline, no one would know what had just happened here.