~Posting an extra chapter from the promised 8 mass release~
To get the man speaking, Damien twisted his fingers further to hear a snap which only he heard and the man who the bone belonged to realized with the pain.
"Ahh, it hurts!" cried Penny's uncle.
"Are you going to willingly tell them if you were involved in selling your niece to the slave establishment or do you need the motivation for it?" Damien asked him.
Previously the people who had been looking at Damien and her uncle as the attraction shifted their eyes to look at Penelope who was standing near the door. With the girl who was absent for many days, not a calculation was required but the question was how far it was true.
Seeing the man not speak as he was in a high amount of pain with one of his fingers broken, he turned to look at the woman who looked back at him in fear. The woman looked in fear of what was going to happen. They had never thought that they would be exposed, at least not like this. When her husband and she had spoken to the man who was going to take Penny with him, they were told that there was no reason for them to worry and they would only have to take the money after the girl was taken into their hold.
The shame of being caught and exposed in front of so many people, people whom she knew made her worry in fear. Patting her husband's back as he groaned in pain, she looked up at the pureblooded vampire in hate.
The magistrate not wanting to infuriate the vampire decided to take his side by asking the woman, "Speak, unless you want to face the worse consequence," he ordered for the couple to start speaking.
Selling people to the slave establishment wasn't considered a crime in the higher-ups, if it was then how would one get a slave? Unless they involved people who were close to them, the higher council didn't look after this part of the issue. The lower society took matters like these in their own hands instead. Fighting to justice like the way they burnt the white and black witches when their hands found the other creatures.
"Yes, we..." the woman's voice trailed down where the crowd who had gathered tired listening to what the woman said.
"What?" questioned the magistrate. The woman closed her eyes, her head bowing in shame to respond back with, "Yes, we sold out niece...Penelope to the slave establishment," shocked gasps erupted through everyone's lips. Unable to believe that fellow men of the village could do that to their own kin.
Damien hearing this broke the remaining four fingers before letting go of the man's hand who wailed in pain, "AHH! My fingers!!" he cried. The vampire pulled out the handkerchief from his pocket, wiping both his hands before dropping the cloth straight down on the dirty ground which was muddy in nature.
"I hope it sets a decent example to not only not repeat things that have happened also but to have the villagers show some respect," or in this case, fear, thought Damien to himself. It didn't matter which one because any would do. Fear sometimes was necessary. A child without fear could grow up thinking the world was his, disregarding people and their feelings. Rectifying things were necessary in Damien's eyes, "My work is here is done. Penelope," called Damien where she was in shock.
Penny looked at her uncle who cried in pain. His fingers were positively broken which she wasn't sure if it would remain that way or if it was possible to fix it. With the way it looked broken backward, she doubted if anything could be done.
She wondered if her relatives understood the depth of what they did. Of how miserable her life could turn out to be if Damien wasn't the one to buy her. If it was one of the other vampires or humans whom she had seen being mistreated. Even after so much happened the look of disgust and hate her aunt threw at her broke her heart a bit. She felt her eyes prickle and she blinked back quickly. Taking in a deep breath to go stand next to Damien.
Damien asked her, "Do you have anything to say?" she shook her head.
"Nothing. Can we leave?" she asked in return for him to give her a small nod.
"Magistrate, it has been a lovely day. I hope you do the right thing. I am sure the other families would not want you to let them off so easily," Damien patted the magistrates back making the man stagger from his stance. As they started to walk, Damien paused his footsteps to say to the magistrate, "Fix your behavior before I personally come and fix you," he smiled at the man before walking from there with Penny following him.
Once they were far away from the eyes of the villagers, Damien slipped his hand in Penny's hand. Holding tight enough that in a blink of an eye before Penny could realize they were back in Quinn's mansion, in Damien's bedroom.
"Are you alright?" he asked her to say, "Spilling tears for people who don't deserve it, I would call you stupid."
"They were my family." Still were if she counted it.
"Who are family and who is not, it cannot be decided by blood. That would be naive to consider that they wouldn't betray you. I have a lot of instances to speak, a common on would be the corpse we met in the council laboratory. Brother will kill another brother. A man will betray his wife in the name of a rendezvous affair."
"Do you mean to say I should trust none?"
"When did I say that? Not all people whom you think you know are the ones you can rely on. Do you want some space?" asked Damien.
"What for?"
Damien grinned, "Just in case you decided you wanted to cry for those pathetic humans."