712 An attack on the tenth castle

From looking around, the two of them had even gathered they had collected four out of five of the full set of equipment.

"It looks like they have been killed by a strange beast." Edward said, investigating the wounds. There were large slashes around their necks and parts of their bodies as if they were done by claws.

"It wasn't a beast. I can tell by the aura that was left behind." Leo replied. "This was the work of another vampire."

Edward also thought this, but he was too afraid to say it aloud for fear it would make it true. If it was a beast, it would have had to have gotten past all the vampires in the city, the guards and barriers. The only explanation was it was a vampire.

'An internal dispute perhaps?' This was wishful thinking on Edwards behalf. If there were any suspects for an internal dispute they were looking at them on the floor now.

Following the trail of aura, Leo could see that it led outside through a broken window in the back. Judging by the fact he could still see some of it, it was clear that it happened not too long ago.

Following the aura, Leo jumped out of the window and Edward followed closely behind.

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Edward asked.

"To find the person who killed them, there is a killer on the loose and they could kill more." Leo replied.

"I'm afraid this may be a trap." Edward tried to explain. "Remember what Silver said, there are many against us, but I thought that they wouldn't outright attack us. At least not like this. If they did, the king wouldn't forgive them. They would also lose favour with others.

"Right now I can't understand the reason for their actions, which is why I think we should wait."

Leo thought about it for a while. When looking after his own shelter he had founded, he was used to dealing with problems like these and his natural instincts kicked in. The problem was, this was not a city he was used to, nor were these normal people.

If he wanted to live and help out Quinn in the current vampire political mess, it would be best he did as Edward said. He was the one with the experience and patience.

Agreeing, they decided to call one of the vampires from the inner castle to guard the house, not allowing anyone else inside. They also called another one to continue delivering the rest of the blood.

They now had more important things to figure out. While heading back, Edward was trying to wrap his head around things.

All of these questions had greatly confused Edward. On their journey back, he could see that Leo had his hand around the hilt of his blade. It was now gripped tighter than before as they got closer to the castle.

"It looks like we might not be able to avoid a confrontation after all." Leo said. "The aura from the house leads back to here."

Edward had called those in the castle just moments ago, and they had reported no such disturbances. Two vampires had even left the castle and had said nothing to them.

But Leo had no reason to lie, and his power was mysterious. Trusting him, and unsure whether or not those in the castle were in trouble, they decided to proceed cautiously.

"We have to be careful, the vampires are not fools. They know both mine and your strength. There won't be many to take us on. If anyone has been mobilised, it will need to be another knight like ourselves." Edward said. This was why he felt like it wasn't one of the families.

When they finally entered, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. However, Leo knew they were in the right place. They were in the reception area, where the torches and light crystals shined brightly.

The doors at the top of the side stairs opened, and a vampire was there to greet them.

"I welcome your ret-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the man stopped speaking, a tingling feeling was felt around his neck. He raised his hand, but soon a thud was heard as his head hit the floor. For a brief second, Edward had seen the culprit.

It's large fangs were sticking out, it had no hair, and only had clothes on from the waist down. Its muscular dehydrated body was on full display, with its dark black eyes piercing against the light room.

"A crazed blood sucker!" Edward said. "What's it doing here?"

At that moment, the torches and light crystals were all smashed, and the room went into complete darkness. For both Leo and Edward it didn't change much, but the small amount of light was an advantage for the bloodsucker.

"Be careful." Leo said. "There's more than one."

Through his vision, he could see in the reception area there were six crazed bloodsuckers all around them and the one on top of the stairs.

'These have to be addicted blood suckers, otherwise how could they have so much coordination?' Edward thought.

Vampires who had gotten too addicted to blood forced their body to change forever while keeping most of their intelligence. In a way, these were far more dangerous than regular blood suckers.

Three on one side immediately went towards Edward and he used his ability to mist up. It was the only advantage he had. Then when they were busy trying to find him, he managed to get a hit in. Shoving his whole hand through one of the Blood sucker's chest, killing it in the process.

He planned to change back into the mist as soon as possible, but before he even could, another blood sucker had hit him with his amazing speed and strength. When hit, the mist would disperse and soon they were quickly following him.

However, it was not for long. A blood slash was created, and it had cleanly cut both of them at their ankles. They fell to the ground and only had stubs to move.

Turning around, they could see Leo looking down at them. With a stab of his sword, he pierced each of them right through the heart, killing them both.

"Watch out, there's more of those things!" Edward shouted. He knew based on the sound and the initial ones that had come after him there were more, but when the room was filled with silence, he realised something. There was only the sound of them two breathing in the room.

When he looked around he could see that all of the other Bloodsuckers had been defeated. Slashed in some way with the blade.

"It looks like someone was after our lives after all." Leo said. "What exactly are these?"

The blood suckers were faster and stronger than regular vampires. Edward had his ability and experience he could use against them, but facing more than one of them would prove troublesome to him. Yet, somehow Leo had been able to deal with them all.

'Is it because of their lower health?'

Another downside to the blood suckers was that they didn't have much health. If one was to damage them, they would die quite easily. So as long as Leo could keep up with their moves, then they were no trouble for him.

"I'm worried." Leo said. "If these monsters came after us, then it means they might send some more after them."

Leo worried for Erin and the others.

*****

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