Azrael

Only Fools Walk Where Angels Fear To Tread

"Whoever sent the tip about this place into the Council said I'd blend in better if I had a WerePet with me. Though God knows what the fuck this place is."

That very query was answered near absentmindedly as Azrael continued to peer through the windshield of the car as vampire after vampire streamed past, the occasional Hunter scattered amongst them. A plethora of Were creatures wandered through those parked cars in turn- trailing after their masters- else being dragged along unwillingly. All of them heading toward the giant steel warehouse of sorts. This was beginning to look vastly more like the sort of operation that needed an entire army of Hunters or at least....more then just one and yet it would take hours to get enough Hunters out here. Whatever this event was, it was likely to be over by then. His utter lack of knowledge on anything beyond its damn location equally as perturbing. For tonight, maybe, it would be better to simply blend in and see what he could find. He could do that right? It would hardly be the first time he'd disguised himself and yet Azrael was hardly the sort of being to come unprepared. His lack of supplies here and now distinctly displeasing. The Hunter so forced to settle for what he had within his car. A baseball hat and sunglasses for himself, a black scarf for Raven to act as some sort of collar and that line of black mascara beneath his nose in some attempt at a stylish moustache he was largely sure made him look like the type of men who should be on a Watch List somewhere. Azrael quick to attempt to silence whatever ridiculous comment he knew Raven was about to afford him. That wolfish grin on her lips hardly missed as he wound that scarf around and around her. That inquiry about names seeing him pause before uttering that soft sigh of annoyance. She was right. Hopefully no one would talk to them and yet there was every chance they might be asked to give a name at the door. That would be his damn luck. Names. Names. Creativity at short notice so hardly Azrael's forte. The Hunter's gaze running from the wolf to the car and back again.

"Fine. Your Fang and I'm.....Martin."

Alright, maybe it wasn't his best but it was something. Martin as unremarkable a name for a man as Fang surely was for a wolf. Something simple and forgettable. Raven leapt easily from the car then, Azrael moving to follow a moment later. The blond haired Hunter pausing to ensure the car was locked before tucking the keys into his back pocket. This was exactly the sort of crowd that would steal a car- he was assured of it. Raven, for once, actually seemed inclined to listen as she came to his side. The WereWolf attempting to mimic the posture of those around her as Azrael tucked his hands into his jeans in some effort to look casual before following that ever progressing crowd out of the lot and onto that dusty drive that led to that well-lit up building with its spotlights waving into the night. His senses were near burning with that close proximity to so many of the undead and yet the vast majority of those Vampires hardly seemed to pay him any heed at all. They expected no attack then. Whatever this was, Hunters were clearly not an unusual sight. Azrael's golden gaze lifted away from Raven as they walked then, his eyes running over those cars. The vast majority of them in the same class as his own beloved Aston Martin- if not higher. Sports car after sports car lining that lot. How many millions of dollars in cars did the vampire population have? Maybe it was better not considered. The pair very near having reached the door then before his gaze fell upon that jet black Lyken that had flown by them earlier on the road. The car parked illegally across two spaces and situated right near the door. Someone was a bit too fucking precious to walk.

His own features frowned ever so slightly. A veritable blur of speed resulting in a rather notable parking fine stuck to the window of that very car. A momentarily smug simper touching the Hunter's lips before he gestured Raven closer once more. Azrael hardly caring for his own pettiness in that moment as the pair finally reached those doors. Whatever the hell this was didn't seem to have any real sort of security beyond several vampires standing beside those doors merely watching that crowd funnel in. Either it was poorly organised (which it hardly seemed to be) or people simply knew not to make trouble. Azrael's hand reached down near automatically to allow his fingers to brush over the fine fur of Raven's head and assure himself the wolf was still there. Serafina would downright fucking murder him if he lost the creature- let alone got it killed and yet it hardly appeared he was at risk of doing either. That warehouse, inside, nothing more than a damn huge and well-lit....room. Was this some sort of....meeting? That crowd continued to move around them then. Azrael noting several tables scattered throughout and across the floor, groups of vampires milling about them. Each of those tables holding a number and facing a stage at the far end of the room.

"If this is some weird vampire speed dating nonsense I'm leaving."
Those words were muttered to Raven alone, the Hunter assured the wolf was capable of hearing them. Azrael continued to glance around them then. The man readily noting a second story above them now. A balcony of sorts awarding whoever was seated up there a view of the room below. The stairs to that upper floor were blocked off by a decidedly large vampire man. Curiosity alone prompted the Hunter to stride forward a little more. Azrael peering up to that balcony now. The space appearing relatively empty save for a handful of vampires standing either side of that verandah. One dark haired vampire woman stood at the very edge of that balcony and against the rail, her silver fingernails tapping at the polished surface almost impatiently. A vampire man with a silver-coloured chain around his neck appeared beside her suddenly then to whisper something into her ear Azrael could hardly hear. The pair of them suddenly turning to look toward the far end of that balcony where a blond vampire man lounged almost casually agianst a table. Two rather sizeable white dogs circling about him. Why those vampires were above the rest he hardly knew and yet he was hardly given the chance to find out. Another Hunter near colliding with him at that moment. Azrael reaching automatically to stop her from falling over Raven in turn. The woman quick to recover her feet. "Azreal!?" Well. This was the worst fucking disguise ever. The Hunter momentarily eyeing the woman before him before he seemed to recognise her in turn.

"Macy?"

It had been....years since he had last seen her. The shock clear in his own voice. The young, brunette Hunter woman having left the Council after a decidedly...messy raid had gone wrong. Azrael long since having suspected she'd simply gone rouge and yet seeing her here and now was alarming all the same. Whatever questions he'd been about to ask abruptly cut off. "What are you doing here? Are you still with the Council?"

"Yes, we got some tip off about this place. What the fuck is it Macy? This is, er, Fang by the way."
"Oh, Az, you don't know what this is?"

Her voice sounded almost pitying as she said it. Azrael's own features frowning once more as he glanced around again as if searching for some outstanding clue he had somehow missed. Raven appearing equally as baffled before Macy reached to hand him the catalogue she had been holding. His gaze turned to that glossy page first page. "Its a livestock auction, Az. Only here, the word livestock means people. Weres, Warlocks and Witches, Humans by the truck load and once in awhile something else." Those words so barely seemed to sink in, at least, not until his mind seemed to make sense of that first page of pictures before him. That page entitled 'Weres' before listing picture after picture of a different caged Were-Creature, a number listed beside them along with just what sort of creature it could shift in to, any know powers that might prove dangerous, its blood type and a reserve price. Several more pages followed the first before that category shifted to Witches and Warlocks before nearly half that booklet was taken up with humans. Several off them children.

"There bidding on fucking people!?"
"Shhh, jesus, Az."
"Don't shhh me! What do they want them for? What the fuck are you doing here!?"

That booklet was abruptly thrust downward for Raven to view in turn. Macy flinching once more at the volume of Azrael's voice. Several vampires turning to stare toward them then and yet Azrael was near assured he didn't care. The man already reaching for several off his own affinities. Maybe he didn't.....care about those supernatural creatures as much as he did those human lives and yet still they hardly deserved to be sold like cattle. "Bounty Hunters like me come here for the ones wanted by the Council, if we can buy them cheap enough we can sell them back to the Council to make a profit. Judge me all you want but I have to make a living too. As for the vampires- they're here to buy livestock for their bars, business, personal use or god knows what else. They buy them, they bleed them, they sell the blood in their bars."

"And you never thought to tell the Council this was happening!?"
"So you can do what, Az? There are hundreds of vampires here tonight plus more than one Hunter who has no interest in seeing you again. You'd be dead before you made it to the door and you know it. The Council doesn't have the numbers to stop this and the organisers will just move it. If your here to save someone- then save them, get out and go home. Just don't break the rules."
"Rules, what rules?"

Macy's hand lifted abruptly then, directing Raven and his attention upward to that verandah above where he had spotted several vampires lingering earlier. Her voice quiet then in an effort to keep that conversation between them alone and away from the sharp ears of the Undead that surrounded them. "Most of the Vampires down here are small timers. They might buy one or two, dinner for themselves, a new pet, not much more. Those ones up there on that balcony? They are the big money. The real power. The big bars and business. They'll buy hundreds here tonight. The Abel sisters who run Night Train, that casino outside the city, Risque and her boys from Syn Bar, Cade Mitchells from Blue Moon Lagoon, he's the dude with the White Swiss Shepherds. Tybalt from Haunt. If they bid on anything your bidding on, pull out. Call it quits. A bid from one of the big bars means back off to anyone else.If you keep bidding you'll find a knife or a bullet in your back before the hammer drops. They'll buy most of what they want before the auction even starts anyway."

"They murder other bidders?"

Macy shrugged as if that murder was commonplace. Rules within that vampiric world apparently distinctly limited. Azrael's mind still very much attempting to understand just what was going on here. Where were they getting all these people from? Who the hell was capturing them to begin with? Who ran this operation? "Look Az, I have to go, I can't be seen here with you, stay out of trouble alright?" His very effort to stop the woman only saw her afford him a pointed look. Several vampires staring towards them more directly now as Azrael simply watched her go. His golden gaze falling back on to Raven then.

"Whatever you fucking do, don't walk to far away from me, I'm not bidding on you if you end up in one of these catalogues."

How long had this been running for? That distaste for vampires rising within his throat like bile. The notion that Bounty Hunters had been buying people from this....market only to sell them back to the Council (at a probably exaggerated rate) was equally displeasing. The sound of a roller door to the back of the room opening up managed to draw the Hunter's attention once more. Several vampires beginning to wander towards it now. A voice echoing over some sort of speaker system informing that gathered crowd those lots were available for inspection. Azrael glancing back down to Raven then.

"Come on, we might as well go and look. Maybe then we can help the poor bastards."

Somehow....he doubted it.