It was a long way from his palatial estate in Vicenza where he flashed through the forest, moving at speeds no mortal could comprehend. He was off to see to one of his many investments taking the form of a fine brothel in Marseille, the madam had not paid her dues on time, and tardiness was unforgivable, especially if she was found to be skimming a portion of his payment. There just might be a new lady of the house and a fresh bloodless corpse if such were the case and the woman thought to take him for a fool simply because he lived in a province far away. His flight was arrested by an anguished wail and he drew up short, his augmented vision seeing a bloom of heat and life huddled by a well. The figure was tiny and the warm red aura around her to his night vision was waning. His tall imposing figure stepped from the shadows, his long grey flecked sable hair swirling around his broad shoulders in an unfelt wind as he silently drew up to what he saw was a small shivering and bedraggled girl. His dark brows creased, giving his ineffably handsome marble pale angular features a demonic cast in the moonlight as he knelt before her. His long keen fangs bared, his eyes like polished onyx flashed red as he thought to make the waif a convenient snack, then he halted as the ragged apology escaped her lips. Severinus tilted her head back and pushed away the long tangled mass of her dark hair from her small round doll like features, allowing the moonlight to fall upon her, though he could see perfectly in utter darkness he had a certain particularity and high standards on just what he dined on and wanted to make certain she was suitable for consumption. She was certainly lovely enough, if you discounted the dirt and grime and for some reason somewhat familiar, then he scented the faint sweet metallic tang of blood, not the old, dead scent of menses, but fresh, from a wound the girl obviously suffered. Her eyes were glassy though, fixed and dilated, he had but one choice if he wanted to satisfy his curiosity, he bit the pad of his thumb with one keen fang and let his dark almost black blood drop into her partially open mouth, enough to revitalize her and halt her immanent expiration. “Look at me, child…tell me why it is you are out here and in such a state,” he murmured, his Italian accented velvet baritone a compelling husky purr.