"A vampire dying out of the blue," murmured the Elder vampire before shaking his head. "It is not possible until a vampire has been staked or been hit by silver bullets. If it was a rogue vampire, we would have had a corpse lying on the ground."

  Saying this, Luciano's eyes started to search the ground, pushing away the leaves and the dried twigs with his shoes so that he could take a look at the forest ground. Not too far from where he stood, he saw something sparkle. Walking to the spot, he bent down and picked up the bullet.

  "You see this here," said Luciano, "This is a silver bullet. We have an intrusion. Put the property on alert and check all the videos of the surveillance immediately!"

  "Yes, Sir!" replied the guards, who quickly dispersed from the spot.

  Griffin came near Luciano and asked, "Which vampire do you think died, Elder Luciano?"

  "Mostly a nobody," replied Luciano. His eyes narrowed. The question was, who was this unknown vampire doing on their property?

  Back in the infirmary, Julie watched Elder Remy while he was taking a close look at the antidote. He turned the vial which had held the liquid in it. He said, "Potions like these have only been in talks but no one could prove it. Because many have tried to hunt the witches, taking their hearts and trying to see if they could gain more powers."

  "Doesn't that only mean that Julie has to be careful?" questioned Olivia, and her maker nodded.

  "Indeed. Though most of the people aren't aware of it, and believe the existence of the witches are only a myth," answered Elder Remy.

  Roman asked the Elder vampire, "Will you be able to produce identical solutions from this one?"

  "I have created identical antidotes, but one that belongs to a witch? I am not so sure, but let me see if I can," said Elder Remy, without giving them any false promise. "Did anyone contact the hunters' children, ask them to acquire another vial of weapon from their parents?"

  "That would only end up in a disaster," remarked Roman because he knew the humans weren't as sleek as the vampires.

  Elder Remy sighed, "It does put us in trouble. Olivia," he called the vampiress, who was quick to come to his side. He instructed her, "Put this in box three of the petri dish. Temperature minus twelve."

  "Yes, Elder Remy," nodded Olivia, and she took the vial in her hand.

  Everyone heard footsteps coming from the corridor, and they turned their heads to catch sight of Donovan and Luciano.

  "Oh, look everyone is here and alive," commented Donovan, and Elder Remy didn't bother to ask what those words meant.

  "What happened?" Roman questioned his father, who looked entertained.

  "We had a near attack right outside the borders of the Veteris walls. Two vampires found in their ash form," chimed Donovan. "Our guess is the vampire was being hunted. Can you imagine how many hunters might come to wander while hunting the vampires?"

  "Do you think they are exploring the place?" asked Roman and Donovan shrugged his shoulders.

  "It is hard to say," this time, Luciano replied to Roman's question. "If the hunters were scouting, they would have entered the university and would have looked around. But none of us saw it."

  "That is because you were having a little pep talk with the guards," Donovan pointed out, and Luciano glared. "And frankly, if there was something up with the hunters, we would have got the information from our little birds by now."

  Donovan was referring to Melanie and Conner, Julie thought to herself. She said to him, "Melanie is under suspicion. She was made to sit out of this discussion, and she's staying at home now."

  "But we have the boy, don't we?" asked Donovan, raising his eyebrows, and Julie pursed her lips.

  "Conner hasn't replied and he's been busy. He didn't respond to mine or Mel's text," there was a hint of worry in her words. She could only hope that the hunters didn't catch him and was only busy with the discussion that was going on in one of the hunter's houses.

  "Oh well," commented Luciano. "You do understand that letting them live in the name of getting more information is only going to backfire soon? If the boy opens his mouth about what he knows here, there will be no turning back when it comes to having to kill them."

  "They swore not to speak about it to their parents," Julie tried to protect her friends. "They don't want Veteris being harmed or any vampires."

  "Let us hope that is the case," harrumphed Luciano, and he left the room while his cloak behind him flew parallelly to the floor.

  "I think our security has turned even worse than before," murmured Roman, not liking how things were going.

  "I couldn't agree more on it," agreed Olivia.

  "Why don't you try getting back there and see what's going on in the hunter's house. It might save us time too," advised Elder Remy, wanting the lot of them out of this place so that he could focus on his work.

  Roman's face turned sour at the mention of it, and Donovan looked at the wall. This had made the others give them curious looks.

  Roman stated, "Donovan's ability doesn't work anymore. It was probably the last bit. When we were getting back, we got stuck in the middle of nowhere."

  "Now now, let us put it behind us," Donovan tried to brush away the subject. "Julie dear, why don't you try contacting your friends again, hm?"

  Roman and Julie left the room, carrying their phone to the spot where they could catch a network. Conner's phone didn't ring, "It is switched off," she said to Roman.

  "Call Melanie, I will call Simon and see what's going on," they called their friends.

  Melanie, who picked up Julie's phone, said, "Julie, I am not able to contact Conner. I don't know what's going on there."

  "Yes, I tried to reach him, but his phone is switched off," replied Julie, and she asked, "Did your parents return yet?"

  "No, they haven't," came the worried voice from Melanie. "Did you make any progress with the magic?"

  "No, but we did solve the question on what the potions do. And Luciano found ashes of two vampires. They were shot by hunters outside Veteris."

  Hearing it, Melanie turned quiet as her thoughts only started to unreel wildly. She then said, "I just heard the sound of a vehicle. I think my parents are back. Hold on."

  An hour before…
In the hunter's house, Conner stared at his phone, where the battery had run out. How did his phone die so soon today?! He wanted to contact Julie and Melanie to pass the information on what he knew, but there was no way for him to send a message to them.

  Unless…… he used someone's phone in here. But the worst part was that he didn't remember their phone numbers. Curse technology!

  "Hey, do you have a charger?" he asked the house owner. "I will be super quick."

  But before the person could answer, the oldest hunter in their group appeared back in the room. He held a grim expression on his face. He came to stand in front of everyone, watching everyone, until his eyes fell on Conner. He said,

  "Our men have confirmed that there are vampires in or around Veteris."

  The room broke into a collective murmur, and they started to question how they had missed it. Conner tried to keep the colour on his face intact while the old man's gaze was fixated on him.

  "Has the boy been compelled to forget things that he has seen?" questioned the old man, and others' eyes moved to look at Conner.

  "What? No!" Conner rejected the idea. "I have been regularly consuming silverwater to make sure I don't get compelled," he lied.

  "How did the vampires get away with it?" came the surprised words from one of them. "I thought the Davis had got it covered. To think that you have been hoodwinked," the man clicked his tongue.

  Mrs. Davis's face turned bright red because she had always done her best when it came to hunting and killing the vampires. She replied, "I guess there are more than just one or two."

  The older man nodded, and his eyebrows furrowed in thought. He said, "This is not good. If there are more than two or three vampires. A dozen of them, then the humans are being affected by it and we need to take action right away."

  "What do we do? Shall we go and kill them right now?" asked one of the women.

  "Yes, that is good!" agreed another person. "This way we kill them quickly and end it."

  "Let us get our weapons—"

  "Hold!" commanded the old man. "We aren't going to do things in haste. I have already asked some of them to go and cover the perimeter. To keep a close eye to make sure that none of them leave, and if they do, they will be followed. Tonight we shall plan, and we shall attack tomorrow," he declared.

  Holy crap whispered Conner in his head. This was something he hadn't expected.

  "What do you say, Conner?" questioned the old man.

  When everyone's eyes fell on Conner again, he could feel the pressure wearing him out. He nodded, "Yes, I think we should do it." When the stares continued, he added, "Those damn leeches deserve to die!"

  "Yes!" came the chorus replies from the others.

  More than a charger for his phone, he needed to sit down to digest what was going on.

  "Come Conner, let us go home and prepare for the fight," said his father, and Mr. and Mrs. Davis left the house like the other hunters to prepare for tomorrow.