Lucian walked into the underground room with his hands perfectly tucked in his pockets. Unlike before he went into isolation, his skin was pale and looked a bit sunken in. Not everyone would notice that but Gabriel noticed that immediately he stepped into the room since it also affected his aura.
"Your Highness, do you need blood? We can get it for you immediately." Gabriel quickly said. Although Lucian couldn't go out of control, he needed to be on the safer side. Anyone who gets on his bad side can become vampire food in an instant.
Lucian waved him off before walking over to his seat, the holographic screens immediately popped up and a lot of notifications blinded his screens. "What's the issue?" Lucian asked with a raised brow and he went through it all.
"A family is messing with the order of the humans and vampires. I don't know how they did it but a family is managing to turn humans into vampire ghouls. Although from reports from the men, they are only able to turn a very few humans into ghouls." Gabriel explained.
Vampire ghouls weren't dangerous but having someone break the pact between the creatures was the issue here. Vampire ghouls were minions to higher-ranked vampires and had to obey their master no matter what.
There was only one person who Lucian knew could turn as many humans to ghouls and he was in Dante Van del Turo's custody so he knew it wasn't from him.
"So what else have you done about this?" Lucian asked as a maid walked over to him with a large jar of red liquid and a glass cup which she immediately poured him.
The sweet scent of human blood reached his nose and his fangs immediately elongated. He had starved himself purposefully in a way that he wasn't only starving for food, he was starving for blood also.
"Human blood," Lucian said, looking down at the cup filled with blood.
"The doctor came while you were away. Some of our men needed human blood to recuperate from not having one for a long time so we asked the head of the human race for supplies from their hospitals. Fresh blood. No need to worry about going against the pact, Your Highness." Gabriel assured and in the blink of an eye, Lucian gulped the entire content of the glass, some Rollin down the corner of his lips.
After downing four more glasses, he finally let out a satisfied sigh before licking his blood-filled lips. "That tastes nice and refreshing." He chuckled gently and his color started to return to him gradually. His sunken face had returned to normal and his eyes were no longer red.
"What should we do about the ghoul issues, Your Highness? The person behind it might be going after you and wants something from you because no one was worth turning humans into ghouls for except you and your men." Gabriel explained.
He wasn't wrong. No one would waste the privilege each family had by creating ghouls to fight against each other.
"First it's the invisible bullets, now the ghouls." Lucian frowned as he swiped across the screen, trying to get information but he didn't know where.
"What should we do in case they attack the people?" Gabriel asked with a raised brow.
"As you said, no one would ever turn humans into ghouls unless they wanted to face me or any other four clans. But it is happening in my clan, I know it has something to do with me." Lucian replied, his gaze not leaving the screen before him. "And besides, that would only lead them straight into my territory where I can get them easily and know who sent them."
"I just need to find out what they want or who is behind this nonsense. Make sure no word spreads out about the humans turned into ghouls." Lucian ordered and Gabriel nodded and just then, Naomi walked out of her lab.
"Oh, you finally decided to come back to do your job. Isn't that nice?" Naomi said in a mocking tone as she traced the scent of blood to his glass and as she was about to pick it up, he grabbed it, gulping it instantly. "At least save me a drop. I've been in there working my butt off while you went into isolation because of your girlfriend."
He tried ignoring her taunts but she still won't let go of the matter. "What? Is that a lie? Weren't you in isolation because of what happened between you guys?" Naomi asked and she was nudged by Gabriel who asked her to shut up instantly.
"Fine, so what's the new issue?" Naomi asked.
"We have a ghoul situation," Lucian replied, sending one of the holographic screens to her so she could go through it.
"No, this is bad. We don't know the classification of ghoul they are and we can't just charge into battle with them without knowing how dangerous they are." Naomi said and Lucian nodded gently. at least she was of help.
"Your Highness, I think we have a problem here." Someone rushed over, handing the hologram tab which had the drawing of the entire landmark drawing of the house they were in and miles surrounding them. "There's something strange coming in this direction. It's not human and it's not complete vampires."
"Ghouls!" The three exclaimed. "Well, that explains it." Gabriel shrugged before heading into the weapon room to get rid of those coming from afar.
"How close are they?" Lucian asked.
"If they're able to get through guards, they should be here any minute."
***
Seraphina walked down the curb in the garden with a sigh as she plucked out flowers. She hadn't seen much of Lucian the other night and she wanted to go over to him but she stopped herself. "And he probably might be busy." She mumbled.
Suddenly, she could feel the air on her skin rising. She felt a strange presence around her and it was nothing she had felt before.
Slowly, her head turned towards the direction of the words. In there, stood a figure, staring in her direction and despite the sun just setting. She could see a predator looking at her.
Before she could move, a scream escaped her lips as she covered her mouth. It was right behind her, its teeth buried into her leg. "LUCIAN!!"