"Steady," whispered a voice twenty feet above, on a nearby building.
Jasper's ear twitched at the sound, yet he pretended not to hear it and continued to be content with getting his master to England.
"Keep it steady." said the man, this time a bit louder than a whisper, a hint of annoyance in his tone.
The silver-haired butler kept his crimson eyes fixated on the cobblestone road and listened as the horses' hooves clanked against them.
"Aim," said the crouched dark-haired man, next to the prone one atop the roof with Jasper in his rifle's crosshairs' line of sight.
"Fire!" As the words left the man sitting next to the assassin's mouth, the assassin had slammed the trigger of his rifle, sending out the bullet and accurately striking the long silver-haired butler through his right temporal lobe, knocking him from the box seat of the carriage and to the cobble-stone ground.
The gun shot had startled the tawny-haired boy, not only that, but the abrupt halt of the carriage as well. Standing up from his seat, he stepped over to the door and opened it. Peeking his head out, he stared at his butler lying facedown on the grey ground and closed his eyes, drooping his head. "Don't be incompetent, Jasper; stop pretending and get your arse back to driving the carriage."
The butler began twitching slightly then twisted his head to the side and stared at his master. "Young Lord, it feels so nice down here; can I lie here for eternit-?"
"Jasper! That was an order!" Closing the door, Ezzelin sat back in his seat and sighed. Playing games is something I've never been fond of.
"Take care of them and then return back here!" he shouted.
Outside of the carriage, Jasper stood up as though an invisible force had gracefully lifted him to his feet. "What a bore these mortal weapons are; not even strong enough to kill a lowly man such as myself."
Bringing his right white-gloved hand up to the side of his blood-soaked head, the silver-haired man began digging out the long bullet with his pinky. Grazing across the cold metal of the intruding object, his eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "For the love of Satan; bring yourself the hell out of my head!" he shouted as the bullet immediately flew out and went straight through the brick wall of the building sitting next to the carriage.
"Who----what the hell are you?!" exclaimed a man standing at the entrance of the street, a small flintlock pistol shaking violently in his left hand's grip as he kept the aim on the butler.
Jasper swiveled gracefully around on his right heel and smiled at the man as the gaping hole in his head began sizzling and slowly healing up to where there was no longer a hole even there. The quarter round gap of locks that he'd lost had also grown back out to full length along with the rest of his hair. "Why?" he said as he bowed. "The name's Jasper Airaghi and considering the fact that I was just shot has utterly pissed me off; how would you like to die tonight?"
The man at the end of the street tightened his grip around the pistol and his hysterical blue eyes wavered with fear. "Y-you're . . . not human!"
Jasper chuckled. "A rather long time for you to finally take notice." he said as he took a step toward the man, a murderous smirk etched on his lips. "What was the sign you first noticed?" he inquired as he carried his blood covered pinky up to his lips and allowed his tongue to lick the crimson liquid from it, though his tongue was not in the normal shape that a person's should have been, rather the shape of a serpent's.
Suddenly, above Jasper, on the roofs of both the buildings on either side of the carriage and the silver-haired man there came nearly twelve men, armed with rifles, six on each roof, their crosshairs set on Jasper. Nearly four more popped up from either side of the lone pistol wielder, two on either side of him, who now was smirking nastily to himself. "You're outnumbered; what will you do now, butler?" asked the man as he took a step forward, his previous fear now replaced with arrogance. "Tell ye what: we'll let you live if you hand over the boy in the carriage. Whadaya say?"
Jasper's crimson eyes remained set on the dim-witted man. "I suppose were I normal nonsense human, such an offer might sound appealing." He closed his eyes and laughed lowly to himself. "However . . . being the loyal creature that I am; such an offering is rather ludicrous and irrelevant." He placed his hand over the golden hilt of his sword and smirked. "Therefore, the greatest gift I can permit thy master is your wretched innards and pathetic skulls." He unsheathed the sword from its gem embroidered scabbard and pointed it at the man as he opened his fuchsia eyes and smiled. "I shall bathe myself in your sweet blood!" he shouted as he raced toward them, his sword drawn back, ready to slice the man's head off.
"Fire!" shouted a man on the left rooftop. Simultaneously each of their guns, rifles and pistols, shot and precisely struck the man, yet his running wasn't phased as the bullets each landed in various places on his body. The ones on the ground with him that he was sprinting toward immediately whaled out and cried in fear as his sword's gleaming blade sliced quickly through the arrogant man's neck's spine, removing his head clean from his body.
Jasper smirked as the blood splattered all over his own face. "Ah! The excitement of slaying mortals---a feeling of nostalgia flows from committing such a thing that I haven't experienced since the Dark Ages of Europe!"
Each man attempted to flee, but they couldn't outrun such a beast as Jasper. One-by-one their heads were removed from their bodies; their abdomens were sliced open---spilling out their internal organs to the ground; some even losing their appendages as Jasper liked to tease humans with false hopes that they could crawl away and survive, however, he'd finished them off by stabbing through their chest and right through their erratically beating hearts.
Jasper scoffed. "Tch . . . such pathetic beings you humans are."
He quickly leapt to the nearby rooftop and smiled devilishly at each of the men, his face, hair and black tailcoat all drenched in the blood of his victims from the ground.
"It's too bad that I am not as merciful as my counterpart." he said as he shrunk the distance between himself and the six men cowering backward to the edge of the roof. "Angels are actually not as merciful as you beings would like to think---which is why I am not one; however, still not as merciful, I like to give my victims a glimpse of hope at living once they encounter me, then rip it away by ending their life immediately."
"W-What . . . are you?" asked a man, his blonde wavy locks tied back in a low ponytail, his face paled and brown eyes widened with fear.
Jasper sighed and took another bow. "Jasper Airaghi; I am a demon, ordered to rid my lord of a burden such as the each of you. Were he to have given me the choice to play---I would have, sadly he did not. Your death must be swift and your life not taken into any consideration for the pain you are about to experience at the hands of the elegant Fina."
Each man's eyes widened as the butler seemingly appeared before them and slashed each of their heads from their bodies. "My excitement is about to come to an end." he said with a sigh as he leapt over to the building adjacent to the one he was on and stood before the group of men. A quick death, for my lord is awaiting my return, he thought as he stepped closer to the trembling group of men.
"Wha--who are yo---?!" Jasper hadn't even given the poor sap a chance to finish, he'd already sliced off his head.
"Wait, no! I have a famil--!" Another fell to Jasper's blade, death by spilled innards.
So tiresome, Jasper thought as he splattered the last pints of his last victims' blood on the roof. The butler yawned and sheathed his sword, then glanced down at himself. "I am in need of a cleaned suit now." He sighed and stepped over to the roof's edge and stared down at the ground before bending his left knee and leaping down, next to the carriage. "Young mast-"
"Looking for someone, butler?" asked a familiar voice to Jasper's left. Glancing over, the butler's now crimson eyes widened as he spotted the man he and Ezzelin had encountered from earlier, Lord Edmondo. The elderly man had the young tawny-haired boy held firmly in his grip, a flintlock pistol stuck up to Ezzelin's head.
Jasper took a step forward, a worried expression on his blood-painted face. "Young master?" he whispered.
The boy stared angrily at his butler before closing his dark brown eyes and sighing. "Do not just stand there, idiot---"
Jasper flinched as Edmondo jerked at Ezzelin's beautiful brown locks of hair and neared his dry lips to the young boy's ear. "I wouldn't try to pull any sudden movements, young Earl. I could end your life right here and your damned butler couldn't prevent it."
Ezzelin grit his teeth and glared at the elderly lord. "That's what you think." he said, deftly removing the glove on his left hand he raised said hand up and pointed the symbol on the back of it to his butler. "Kill this man; that's an order, Jasper!"
The butler smirked and subtly nodded, placing his right hand over his left breast. "I could do no less, my lord."
"Call your butler off or it shall be the end for you, Lord Ezzelin!"
The boy scoffed. "Tch, you aim a pistol at my head and still honor the title of Lord toward me? Such gall for an aged man near death's doorstep."
The words had slightly distracted Edmondo from Jasper. As he looked up, the silver-haired man was no longer standing in front of him, but behind. "Fortune leads to arrogance and such arrogance leads to death, Lord Edmondo." said Jasper as he clutched both of his gloved hands on either side of the elderly man's head; giving him a fright and sending his heart into overdrive---he suddenly released Ezzelin, unexpectedly, causing the boy to fall to the ground.
Edmondo clutched his chest tightly and began straining for air, all the while Jasper's hands were still on the man's head. Ezzelin looked around at the man now on the ground as well, his hands over his heart and face blue from lack of oxygen. "What's happening with him, Jasper?"
The butler glanced over at his master and frowned. "I believe his heart has given up on him, young lord."
"End his life!" shouted Ezzelin as his butler twisted the elderly man's head to a sickening angle, immediately killing him.
"It has been done."
Ezzelin stood up and dusted his dark brown pants off and closed his eyes. "Let us depart quickly; we can't afford another interruption." he said with a sigh as he walked back to the carriage and stepped in. "I've had enough of this disgusting atmosphere."
Jasper smiled at his master and closed his eyes. "However willing he may be to bring about death, he still fears the scent itself."
The butler drove the carriage to a nearby water trough for animals and removed his clothes, quickly cleaning the blood from them and sticking them back on. This will have to suffice until we arrive in England, he thought as he closed his eyes and placed himself back on the box seat and set off once more, hopefully without another distraction, in the proper direction.
***
This chapter was kind of short and it stopped a little abruptly, but forgive me; I will make the next chapter more lengthy.