---
Raka gestured once toward the back rooms. "You will get food. Water. A place to sit. No one here touches you unless I say otherwise."
He turned his head toward his men and spoke more coldly. "And if any of you drunks pick another fight with something Big Boss sent, I will beat the stupidity out of you one tooth at a time."
That one they believed instantly.
The lesser vampire stayed calm through all of it.
Interesting creature, Raka thought.
No swagger.
No waste.
No whining about respect after winning.
He could work with that for one night.
The rest of the hall shifted after that. Not back to comfort. To acceptance. Men reset benches. Someone dragged one of the worst-off drunks away to a corner where he could groan in peace. Water appeared. A basin. Clothes. Someone else retrieved Raka's discarded blade and wisely did not hand it back to him right away.
The rest of the night settled into something lower and stranger than either side had expected.
