Chapter 833: Yellow eyes
There wasn’t much time for settling down. The newcomers from the Cursed faction had already seen the whole castle, and also each had a room to stay in. This resulted in a slight divide between the two groups, as those that hailed from the Cursed ship had chosen to go live on the third floor, whereas the students all lived on the second.
There were a few exceptions to this though, as Erin stayed on the same floor as the students, due to her often going to train with them. Wanting to be near her, both Layla and Cia had also decided to select rooms on the second floor.
Of course, it wasn’t a massive problem, it was easy enough for any member of any group to just go up or down one floor.
Right now, the boys and Linda had gathered together in one room to discuss the recent events. Paul was no longer part of his group, as he had already been swept up by Leo to get familiar with his new knightly duties.
"So, how long do you think we’ll be here for?" Nate asked, addressing the question that was on everyone’s mind.
"I’m not sure." Logan replied. "Quinn’s situation is a little unique. It seems like vampires aren’t meant to have contact with the outside world. The only reason why we were allowed outside before was due to him having been given the special mission to search for the vampire agents that had been killed."
"Our return was sudden because of the upcoming situation with the current Vampire King. Right now, we still have no clue about what happened to the agents, so after this is all settled we might get a chance to continue our mission. I also think even if we never do find out what happened to them, the vampires will want to replace their agents. Who better than us former humans who have been living there for so long already? The bad news is that everything will pretty much depend on who they select as the new Vampire King."
"And why would that be a problem?" Sam questioned as he knew very little about the vampire world from what he had learnt from Quinn, it was the same for most in the room.
"Did you forget that pretty much all the other families hate us?" Peter scoffed, as he leant up against the wall with his arms folded. "Have you forgotten how ’many’ people actually bothered to show up earlier? A Vampire leader, who is one of the thirteen precious council members, is making an announcement... yet only us and those kids had bothered to show up. If that isn’t a sign of how they feel about us, I don’t know what is."
"Why do they hate you guys?" Wevil asked.
"It’s because of me." Fex interrupted. "Quinn tried to save my life before and doing so meant going up against all the other leaders. Depending on who becomes the next Vampire King, we might never get to leave this place. Worse, they might even try to get rid of him or us altogether."
The room went silent for a few seconds as they imagined a scenario of all the vampires going up against their small group. It wasn’t like on earth where they could solve this with a duel, or on the Cursed ship where they could call for help for more people.
They were on their own.
Suddenly, Nate started to laugh, making everyone else turn their heads towards him.
"What are you all so worried about? You saw me beat that guy easily, so if anyone’s against us, we can just beat them all! Quinn’s super strong and we’ve all trained under him, so doesn’t that make us super strong as well?"
"You really think that’s enough?" Fex raised his voice, trying to get the seriousness of the matter through to Nate. "That vampire that you defeated was just a regular vampire, pretty much a naive child. Erin wasn’t wrong when she berated him for having vastly underestimated you."
"There are vampires who have lived hundreds of years and have trained with the idea of doing nothing but getting stronger. They have abilities that even surpass that of the ones the humans have, so how can you think of this being a simple walk in the park?!"
"Fex, I don’t think he meant it like that." Linda tried to calm everyone down. "I’m sure Nate was just trying to cheer us all up. Of course, all of us understand that we can’t just wage war against all other vampires, but staying worried won’t help us with anything."
Fex started to walk towards the door leaving the room, before shutting it behind him he looked back at the others.
"You... you’re probably right. I’m sorry guys. I think I might just be a little bit more on edge with us being here now, but not being home.... Please continue without me."
"Not being home, what did he mean by that?" Dennis wondered.
"There is a lot you guys don’t know." Logan sighed and then started to explain. "Originally, Fex was the son of the thirteenth family leader. He left out the fact that he had tried to save Quinn’s and our lives to not get us involved in this whole mess. Because of that he got banished from his own family and was meant to be executed, but Quinn couldn’t just let that happen, so he ultimately went against the other family leaders."
"Imagine turning up here, forbidden from going back to the place you grew up in, or seeing the family that raised you. No wonder, he isn’t his usual self."
Meanwhile, on the second floor, both Xander and Amy had their own private get together. Xander was biting his thumbnail pacing backwards and forwards several times.
"And you’re absolutely sure you saw her eyes turn yellow?" Xander asked for the umpteenth time. "It couldn’t have been the light hitting her eyes strangely, you being sleepy and imagining things."
"How many times do you want to ask me that? I’m 100% sure that I saw them turn yellow, but I still don’t understand what the big deal is?" Amy asked, getting slightly worried. "I only told you because something felt weird when I looked at them, if I knew you were going to freak out about it like you’re doing right now, perhaps I shouldn’t have said anything."
"... actually you might be right. It may be for the best if both of us just forget about any yellow eyes. On the other hand, if they ever found out we were keeping such a secret, then...." Xander was murmuring to himself.
"Then what!" Amy shouted, now completely annoyed at the fact that Xander refused to be clear about what those yellow eyes meant.
"Then they could execute us." Xander stared right at her, his face filled with dread at the gruesome end they could meet.
Amy quickly emphasised why Xander had been acting so strangely, yet it also made her just the more curious what exactly Erin was. What had she done that made her so dangerous that just hiding this from the families would warrant a punishment such as death.
"You wouldn’t have learnt much about it yet, but I’m sure you’ve at least heard of their name. There is only one subclass of vampires who have those yellow eyes, a dhampir."
"A vampire hunter, those that were born to slay all vampires..." Amy mumbled to herself. "But that can’t be. Erin seems completely fine! She isn’t going off killing vampires left and right! Just cause she may be different we can’t treat her like a different subclass?!"
"I don’t make the rules." Xander insisted. "But, they are there for a reason."
"Do you think they know? I mean Quinn or even Erin herself?"
"I’m not sure. Reporting this to Quinn is probably our safest bet. At least that way it will no longer be our problem as we did what we were meant to. It will be up to him to decide what to do with Erin if her being a Dhampir is true."
Although Amy and Erin weren’t as close as she was with Layla, she didn’t want for her to come to harm. During their time at the castle she had seen a gentle side to Erin. Someone who always helped others in subtle ways. There weren’t many left in the tenth family after the attack, and everyone had grown closer than before afterwards.
With their families killed, it felt like the survivors who lived in the castle had become one big family.
’Why are they so scared of you, Erin?’’
In one of the thirteenth castles, where the vampire leaders usually resided, there was one sitting down patiently on their throne. The room was dark with shadows covering their face.
They waited patiently. Soon, creeping out from the shadow a large figure appeared before them. The newcomer had bulging muscles and gray pale skin. His breathing was heavy as he walked onto the red carpet leading up to the throne and entering the light it became clear it was a Bloodsucker.
"You may speak." The leader allowed.
"I’m here to deliver a message." The blood sucker did as he had been told. "You’ve previously asked why Rowa chose to attack the tenth family’s castle. It turns out Rowa discovered that they were keeping someone very important."
Usually Bloodsuckers were void of speech, but those that were part of Rowa’s group had been Bloodsuckers for a long time, and bit by bit they would get their sanity back and could converse just like this one.
"Oh, I thought he just went for the tenth because they were the weakest?" The leader commented, not at all perturbed by the explanation.
The Bloodsucker shook its head.
"Rowa found out that the tenth family are hiding a Dhampir amongst them. He wanted to convince them to join our side."
*****