Teaser Thursday: Introducing the Vampire

It's been a little while since I posted a teaser from the urban fantasy novel, so here's a new one! Work is going pretty quickly on it, and I'm anticipating having a first draft within a month or two. I'll keep my blog readers posted.In the meantime, here's the scene introducing another major character. Enjoy!

The room was suddenly quiet. The buzz of conversation, the clinking of glasses, the occasional laugh rising over the din - all of it stopped as soon as Gerad Hightower spoke.My escort didn’t miss a beat. “There’s been no mistake, sir. The documents are all here.” He took a sheaf of papers from the inside of his jacket and passed them to Hightower, a small smile on his lips. This was rehearsed, I realised. He had known Hightower would react that way.“I didn’t bid on this girl,” Hightower said, after glancing at the papers. “As I said, there’s been a mistake.”“I’m sorry, sir, but if you entered the wrong number on the form-““I did not enter the wrong number.”The entire room must have felt the intensity of his anger. I saw the other vampires lean over to whisper to each other. A few of them even stepped back in alarm. Whoever this guy was, he had a reputation.A female vampire left her place at the bar and walked up to stand beside him. Her green eyes swooped over me, taking me in at a glance. “Gerad, my dear, is there some problem?”“Yes. Someone is trying to fool me into thinking I bid on this human.” He thrust the papers at her. She flicked through them briefly, then turned her gaze on my escort.“What do you know of this?” she asked, softly.“Only what I told Mr. Hightower, matriarch. His bidding form had the number for this human written on it.I’m sorry if he made a mistake, but all bids are final.”“And this would be according to whom…?”My escort grinned. “According to the patron of this event, who wishes to remain anonymous.”