3 Vampire Nobility

After searching through her memories concerning the books, Lyla gathered that there was mention of Lyla's assistants--plural not singular--but never about a secretary. But the original had gone from handling her assistants herself to letting her secretary supervise them instead.

Horrified, her knowledge might be misguided. She compared all of the original memories with what she knew, relieved that only the part about the secretary did not match. Still, one difference also meant there could be more.

This discovery led her to spent another few hours searching the public domain for any information to measure the accuracy of her knowledge. After a thorough analysis, she could not find another flaw. Still, this wake-up call was welcome. Now Lyla would be more careful with her plans. She couldn't risk them going awry because she didn't think to check for deviations. She would also have to keep an eye on her secretary.

As she stood up, Lyla could feel how stiff her shoulders had become. A look through the window told her that it was already pitch black outside.

On the way back to the kitchen, she spotted Kylie watching the news on TV.

"Shouldn't you be in bed, young lady?" She asked, and there was the pang of sadness again, for missing parents she didn't even know.

Kylie looked up and just watched her for a moment. When Lyla was about to give up--what right did she have to play parent--Kylie nodded and stood up, "Okay, good night."

Lyla barely managed to respond with a stunned "Good Night." herself. As soon as she had recollected herself, she made her way to the kitchen for the glass of water she had wanted.

After the cold liquid went down her throat, she remembered that she had not eaten all day. She wasn't, however, hungry. Her first day here had been a rollercoaster, and the horrible experiences she'd had weren't exactly helping her appetite.

She went to her bedroom after concluding that sleep was her most rational option. Only when her head hit the pillow did she realize just how tired she was. She was gone a moment later.

~~~

Questioning eyes, cracks, blood-red eyes--

Horrified eyes, cuts, bloody marks--

Panicked eyes, rips, bloody pieces--

A scream, shattering, bloody limbs--

"... Lyla, wake up! Lyla!" The scream stopped, and only now did Lyla realize that she had been the one screaming. Her breathing was ragged, and it took her a moment to realize that someone was beside her. Kylie was holding her hand, her eyes opened wide, and a horror mirroring Lylas in them.

"Nightmare?" The brave girl asked. Lyla nodded and didn't even need to ask. Kylie had also had a nightmare, though most likely a silent one.

"Come here," she said, lifting her blanket and scooting over to give the girl more space.

Kylie joined her in the bed, barely any space between them. When Lyla pulled her close, she did not resist. The warmth of the girl was soothing, and it must have been the same for Kylie, as Lyla could feel her relax immediately.

~~~

It was early morning when Ronin reached the university. There were no signs of any students or professors yet. That did not matter to him. He had come here hoping to find any clue that could lead him to where Meika was. Unfortunately for him, there was nothing he could pick up on. Any scent trails were long gone, and so were any physical traces. A quick look confirmed that circumventing the security cameras was easy if you knew how. Though Casey had most likely already hacked in there and found nothing.

While he considered if there was any other avenue of research, his phone went off. The sleek device--strapped to his upper arm with a special contraption--was displaying a callsign he recognized to be their leader.

Although he was currently not on shift, he didn't even hesitate before accepting the call.

"Intruders, Wolf-border, 3rd region." The voice was so quiet if there had been a human or vampire right beside him, they wouldn't have heard more then a whisper.

"I'm on my way," he ended the call. Then his body morphed, hair growing on his skin, his stature changing, and his clothes ripping apart. By the time it was over, a big fox was running back from the university towards his territory. The only tell to identify him as Ronin was his fur and the contraption holding his phone, as it had survived the transformation.

When he reached the part of their territory, his leader had pointed him to he could already hear high and low pitched growls. There were two groups, foxes on one side, wolves on the other.

The only beastkin still in human form was their leader and the wolves alpha. Ronin joined his leader. The moment he did, the alpha focused him for a fraction and addressed the woman, "Since your last guardian has joined us, we can talk now. Don't you agree, Kiara?"

Calling their leader by her name got the alpha another round of hissing.

"Please do Chase, I would very much like to know what exactly you think you're doing invading our land right after we gave you so much, your appetite must be enormous. Don't bite more than you can chew." Kiara answered with a sickly sweet voice, though the wolves weren't actually in our new territory, though only a step from it.

"Yeah, that was a great gift. However, it's not why I am here." He waved it off. And pulled out a piece of paper, balled it up, and threw it at her.

She caught, opened, and read it, "Where did you get this?" Her voice was dripping with ice.

"It was sent by an anonymous source." "Cut the crap, who?" Chase didn't seem to mind Kiaras attitude. "So I guess it's true then. It was sent to us by a vampire noble, duchess Leyla Reyes."

Ronin had an incline of what the text was about, but that threw a hard suspicion. Then the alpha spoke up again, confirming what Ronin had guessed. "So, since when is she missing?"

"Why do you ask?" "Damn it, Kiara, we might be the stronger predators, but we aren't heartless. If you are missing an innocent packmate, basically still a kit, we can help you." Kiara didn't answer immediately.

"How can we trust you? You've been encroaching on our territory. It would be no wonder if we'd started a fight."

"You know how this works. You're not strong enough to hold the territory, so we take it, that's how the beastkin world works. Kids are different if one is missing even if she is nearly an adult, we are still willing to help you."

All was silent after this sentence. The foxes knew they would do the same. And even with all their aggression till now, the wolves hadn't done anything out of line.

"Cross us on this, and you'll be sorry." Kiara finally said, the chill still in her voice.

Chase only sprouted a chilling grin. "Let's hunt then." After those words, he and his wolves ran off.

When they were out of earshot, one of the foxes morphed back. And a naked Casey joined Kiara, who gave her the paper. "I can't believe that did not raise a red flag, no it makes sense." She furrowed her brows. "This is on me I did not even consider something like this."

When Ronin looked at her quizzically as did most other foxes, Kiara explained. "It's a mail informing the wolves that someone kidnapped a young changeling in `their` territory. And that the perpetrator is a powerful and high ranking vampire." She looked at Casey sharply. "This is our best lead. There is no way the duchess has no connection to this. Find that connection and hack every high ranking vampire while you're at it."

Then she turned back to Ronin. "Cooperate with the wolves on this, investigate all the high ranking vampires."

Ronin nodded. He was not looking forward to it.

~~~

Waking with Kylie still by her side hat been comforting, so comfortable actually, that Lyla had dawdled with getting up and had nearly been late.

With Kylie's help, she had still managed to be on time, but she had cut it close. So she had been slightly on edge in the meetings.

She had tried to let no one in on it and was pretty sure she had done well, but the meetings had exhausted her anyway.

When they had finally been over, she had returned to her office to go over the documents she had not managed yesterday, when her video phone chimed. With a call code displaying her competitor, the one she had sent the proposal.

"Glad to see you, so shall we talk about it?" She said as she accepted the call. Displayed on the video was a striking beauty, Ellen Avery, the heroine of the very first book.