Chapter 111 - The Hollow Vampire

Julie stared at the food that the owner of the motel had brought for her. There was something very suspicious about how the man had personally come to her door, and she couldn't help but wonder if the food was mixed with something. 

Not to mention, the place was mainly occupied by vampires rather than humans. She remembered how Veteris offered the best food for its students. It was the kind of food which was expensive outside Veteris but was sold at a lower price. Personally, Julie didn't find it too cheap because she didn't come from some wealthy family to spend money lavishly. 

But who was she kidding? She had spent her money mostly on food, and with that thought, she grimaced at herself. 

Her tongue peeked out of her lips, running at the corner of her lips as if she could taste the dessert without opening the lid. 

"You know what, I am going to eat you," declared Julie, her eyes narrowing at the food, "But, not now. I am going to eat you at night."

Julie looked around the room, noticing the Corvin wasn't there. 

"Can you return to the room, Mr. Corvin," asked Julie. The Corvin didn't appear until a few minutes later. The creature had its hands on both sides of its head as if its head was about to fall on the ground. "Where did you disappear to?" she asked in curiosity. 

'Sorry. Unstable body. Vampires make me sick,' the Corvin replied, and hearing this, Julie frowned. 

Was it the reason why it didn't enter the buildings of Veteris and only her dorm? But then, the dorm originally belonged to Roman and not her. The entire manor belonged to him, and as the thought crossed her mind, Julie realized Roman was not just wealthy. He was once a Lord's son, who would automatically turn into a Lord after his father. 

"Why are you so allergic when it comes to vampires?" asked Julie, making her way towards the bed. 

She removed her shoes and got on the bed, facing in the direction where the Corvin stood. She raised her hand towards the chair. But seeing the creature not react, she turned her hand to the space on the bed, and she still got no reaction. It felt strange that the creature didn't sit. It just stood there, and it made her wonder if its body ever hurt. But did it have flesh and bones? Would it be rude to ask what the rest of its body was made of? Julie questioned in her mind.

'I don't get good feelings from them,' replied the creature.

"Why? I mean, I doubt every single one is bad," said Julie, and the creature shook its head. 

'Naive to think so. They kill. Will kill anyone for blood. Even their own,' explained the creature. It walked towards the window, and right now, she couldn't see its feet anymore. It must have adjusted its robes, thought Julie. 'They killed our kind. Erasing everyone possible. They know we a threat,' it finished its sentence. 

Julie understood why the Corvin wanted her to stay away from the vampires, but at the same time, she didn't understand why the vampires would ever want to harm the witches and vice versa. 

"You don't have any recollection of the previous life you had when you might have been a witch, but you feel the vampires are harmful," stated Julie. 

'It is a feeling of uneasiness around them. The more powerful and harmful a vampire, the more is the feeling. Every single night creature gives its own emotions and feelings,' the creature explained, and Julie nodded her head. 'The four old vampires, they exude too much of negative energy. Blood and death on their hands.'

That was quite evident to Julie, considering how Donovan had killed Reese without any thought or remorse. And every time she thought that it could have been her in Reese's place, it sent chills down her body. 

"I should have gone and attended Reese's funeral. It was the least I could have done," whispered Julie to no one in particular in the room. Reese had died because of her, and if she didn't come to study in Veteris, Conner's girlfriend would have still been alive, and he would have been happy. "I should have applied to the other universities, isn't it?" The Corvin didn't reply to her, and it finally sat down on the chair in an awkward and uncomfortable position. 

'You would have still come. You were supposed to come here,' replied the Corvin, and Julie gave it a suspicious look. 

"What do you mean by that?" 

The Corvin's twig-like fingers made a crackling sound in the room as it stretched its fingers, 'I had to send you there. I moved your application so that you would come.'

"I don't get you," said Julie, a frown on her face, and she pursed her lips. "You want me away from the vampire university and at the same time you bring me here."

This was why she was late in her admission. The Corvin had given the needed push. 

'I don't like vampires. But the land is attached to Willow Creek, the town that went missing many years ago. Don't you see? You are the key to the lost town of Willow Creek,' said the Corvin. 'There are memories, lineage and maybe… past too.'

To Julie, the Corvin looked nothing less than a lost soul with half information, looking for answers just like her.

"Does that mean that you didn't know or meet my mother?" asked Julie because she had been too eager and curious to know about her mother. She had never come to know the other side because her mother had been taken away from her too soon. 

'Know her,' it replied, and Julie's eyes subtly widened. 'I met her. Met you before.'

"When was this?" Julie asked in surprise, and the creature turned its head to look outside the window. The clouds in the sky had turned heavier and darker, gathering together to pour the rain. 

'Little,' replied the creature. 'You were little when I met you. In the park and near the lake. Some of us are reborn as birds. Birds who cannot take any other forms, but can converse with the other witches. Some of them turn into pets, some into guardians or lost. She was good, and kind. Kinder than most of her other siblings.'

"I have more relatives?' asked Julie, the conversation intriguing her. 

'All dead.'

"Oh okay," replied Julie, a little sad. 

With the amount of dislike the Corvin held towards the vampires and how it called the vampires the enemy, Julie guessed that the death of the witches was linked with the night creatures. 

"By the way," started Julie, who already had the Corvin's attention, "What do you feel about Roman? Same as the Elders or the vampires?" 

'Nothing,' replied Corvin, and Julie raised her eyebrows. 

"Can you elaborate on that?" asked Julie as she didn't understand its answer. 

'I am not able to pass through his energy. It is as if there is nothing but emptiness in there, hollow. People who have that kind of energy which is hollow are mostly the dead. Even vampires are not like that,' came its raspy answer. 

Julie wondered if it meant something, but then she remembered, "Roman has a beating heart. Maybe you are unable to pick his energy?" she tried to reason. 

'Don't know.'

In the Rose Veil's motel, most human customers had been given the quality and delicious food to consume so that their taste of blood could be enhanced before the vampire's dinner time arrived. 

And though Julie had taken the food from Mr. Nottingham, the food continued to rest on the side of the table as she was busy talking to the Corvin. 

While Julie was in the motel, in Veteris, the classes continued, and the teachers resumed teaching the syllabus for both the humans and the vampire students. Griffin sat in the last row of the classroom, enjoying his time, as the person he disliked the most was not in the class. The other students discussed it with each other. 

"Do you think Moltenore is going to be punished more for killing Jackson? Staying in the dungeon seems to be quite a little punishment for him," commented one of the boys. 

"What do you think caused the issue? I thought killing a vampire equaled getting killed," said one more student. 

Griffin tried to add more fire to the situation and commented, "The Elder is quite impartial when it comes to Moltenore. There should be equal punishment for everyone, don't you think so?" 

"It is apparent that Elder Donovan prefers Moltenore more than the other Elders. It makes me wonder what he sees. He's nothing but a half between human and vampire, and what a shame," said the first one who had asked the question earlier, "To think that he killed Jackson, but over what?" 

"It was the girl whom Moltenore hangs around with. She must have tried to flee last night, knowing she's going to be next on the death list if she stayed here," laughed one of them. 

Hearing this piece of information, Griffin scowled. Because of these dimwits, he had tried to speak to Elder Donovan, and in return, the Elder had done nothing but looked down on him. 

"The girl is dead," Griffin sent a glare at the two boys who sat in front of him. "Stop spewing shit which is not true. She was punished along with Moltenore."

One of the vampire boys turned to look at Griffin with a small scowl on his face as he didn't like Griffin that much. But that didn't mean he didn't forget who was whose favourite in Veteris. 

"I know what I saw. Who knows, maybe she was looking for some blood after getting turned and they let her free to hunt. They must have made some exception. Maybe Moltenore begged to save her similar to how he was saved?" the boy laughed before looking back at the blackboard. 

Griffin's eyes fell on Simon, who sat at his regular seat, twiddling the pencil between his fingers as he rotated it while looking at the notebook in front of him. The seat behind him was empty, which belonged to Roman Moltenore. After spending a few more minutes in the class, he got up from his seat and made his way to the infirmary. 

On his way, he made sure not to get noticed by the teachers so that they didn't send him to detention. 

Reaching the building, he made his way to where Doctor Isolde was working behind the computer. He offered her a small bow and then said, "Elder Luciano has sent me on an errand here."

The woman raised her eyebrows and asked, "How can I help the Elder?" 

"He's asking for the information about the girl's blood group, who recently died," replied Griffin with a serious face. 

"Why is he looking for such minor information?" asked the woman while getting up from her chair. She walked to the drawers that held the files of the details of the students.

Not wanting to make it seem suspicious, Griffin answered, "Elder Luciano didn't tell me why, but he said he wants to verify something. Maybe to check if her blood was special."

Doctor Isolde lightly laughed, "Every human's blood is almost the same, nothing varies. Except the count of iron content, but yeah. Anyways, let me check it." She pulled out a file and started to run through the lines before saying, "It is O negative. I did run the tests yesterday when the body was brought in here. Found nothing, and there wasn't much to do as we already knew the cause of her death."

"O negative?" asked Griffin.

"Yup, that's the blood group of Reese William," confirmed Doctor Isolde, closing the file and ready to place the file back in the drawer. 

But before she could, Griffin quickly made his way to where she was and snatched the file from her hand. A deep frown marred on his face as his eyes stared at the name. 

"This is not the person I am asking you about, Doctor Isolde. I was asking about Julianne Winters," he looked up from the file, his eyes meeting the eyes of the doctor who wasn't pleased with his rude behaviour in the place where she was in charge.

The vampiress snatched the file back in her hand, and she said, 

"Yesterday morning, the body that was brought in here was of Reese Williams. I didn't have any other student's body enter in here unless Evans or someone else decided to take it directly to the forest, which can magically appear later this day or sometime in the night," the vampiress' words were sarcastic as she said it. "You can tell the same to your Elder." 

No, thought Griffin in his head. 

Even he knew how many bodies mostly turned up in here. There was no way there could be confusion, or was there confusion? He questioned himself. He asked her, 

"This girl, Reese Williams, is she the same girl who—"

"Yes, the same girl who was killed by Elder Donovan and her body was later dumped in the forest," replied Doctor Isolde. She walked back to her chair, sitting down, and she said, "Now if you don't have anything more to question on behalf of Elder Luciano, I will be getting back to my work." Giving him a look, she turned her eyes to the computer's screen. 

Griffin stepped out of the infirmary, a deep frown on his face, which slowly turned into a scowl as he realized the mistake that had taken place. No wonder that bastard had not batted his eyes when he had mocked him this morning. It was because Julianne Winters was still alive, and someone else had died in her place. 

His hands clenched, and he quickly made his way back to the mansion where the Elders were staying in Veteris. Stepping inside, he looked around for the Elders, but none of them was there. Noticing a servant walking outside the mansion, he questioned, 

"Where did Elder Luciano and the others go?" 

"Elder Luciano left the mansion just a few minutes ago. He didn't tell anything on where he was going," replied the servant, holding hedge shears in his hands while wearing gloves. 

Griffin's face turned into a scowl in anger, as he hadn't expected something so ridiculous to happen. He looked around the place where he stood and asked again, "Did you see which direction Elder Luciano went?"

The servant turned behind and raised his hand in one direction of the forest, "That way." 

Griffin quickly ran in the direction, trying to look for the Elder to inform him as soon as he could. He knew that Luciano had told him to not bother about these silly matters. Still, he also knew that his maker would be happy to know how Azazel Donovan had been turned into a fool when identifying and killing the wrong human. 

He continued looking for his Elder, and after a while, he found the old vampire standing near the lake, away from the centre of Veteris. The older vampire held a dead man in his arms, where he was still sucking blood from the man. 

Hearing someone's footsteps from behind, Luciano Sterling retracted his fangs from the man and dropped the human as if he were of no use to him anymore. He then turned to see his disciple in front of him, looking at him with narrowed eyes. 

"What are you doing here?" 

Griffin bent on one of his knees, bowing his head in respect to the man who had turned him. "Elder Luciano, I come here to you with news that might interest you." 

"Speak," prompted the older vampire, staring at the younger vampire with his red eyes.

Griffin then started, "It is about what happened the day before yesterday. The girl whom Elder Donovan killed—"

"You have been having this unhealthy obsession about this girl of Moltenore, Griffin," Elder Luciano looked utterly bored and disinterested with the same subject being brought up in front of him by the boy over and over again. "Now it makes me question if you were perhaps attached to that human or if it is Donovan's boy who has been making you run in circles." 

Griffin turned red by his Elder's words, and he quickly said, "It's not that! The girl whom Elder Donovan killed was not the right one. He mistook it for another girl."

Elder Luciano raised one of his eyebrows in question, "He got the wrong person? How unusual. And what do you expect me to do with this, Griffin?" There was a sharpness in Luciano's words, and Griffin wondered if he had stepped too far on the line with the Elder vampire. But then the Elder questioned him, "Are you sure about this?"

Griffin nodded his head, "Hundred and one percent. Before coming to you, I just dropped by the infirmary to make sure the information was right. I have seen the girl, and I know her name because of Mateo. The girl is still alive."

"Hmph, this will be something to look forward to. To think Donovan had lost sight of what the truth was," there was a satisfied glint in Luciano's eyes, and Griffin was glad to see that his Elder was finally pleased. 

When the two Elders who had left Veteris to visit the town returned after a few hours, Elder Luciano finally dropped the news on what he had found out. A subtle frown appeared on Donovan's face, but he didn't react to what Luciano had revealed. On the other hand, Remy Oscar stood at the side, not involving himself in the conversation. 

"Looks like staying in the casket for so long has turned you blind to not being able to see what was right in front of you, Azazel," smirked Luciano, as he had already decided that he would enjoy this until it lasted. 

"And whom did you confirm it from?" Donovan kept his calm and collected demeanour. "From Griffin? You should already know that both Roman and he don't get along and they are like cat and dog, who keep fighting like children. We shouldn't bother ourselves with it." 

"You should verify with Isolde about the dead girl, and see how you killed someone else," taunted Luciano. 

There was a hint of glare in Donovan's eyes when he looked at Luciano. He then turned to look at the servant working outside the mansion and said, "Go and fetch Isolde. Bring her here and also bring Dante. I want to inquire both of them." 

Soon the doctor and headmistress of the university were summoned to the mansion. Luciano didn't ask anything, as he wanted to enjoy seeing Donovan turning into a fool. He took a backseat while Donovan questioned the infirmary doctor,

"I have come to hear that the girl who died and the girl whom I intended to kill were two different girls. What was the name of the dead girl?" asked the Elder, his red eyes glaring at the vampiress. 

In the meantime, Dante kept a poised expression on her face that barely changed. 

The doctor was unaware of what was happening, but she answered, "The girl who died was Reese Williams." 

"And what about this Julianne Winters?" Donovan tilted his head, his eyes narrowing at her. 

Isolde shook her head, "I didn't receive any student's body with that name."

Donovan's eyes narrowed further, wondering how he had made such a mistake. He closed his eyes, recollecting the memory of the day when the football match had taken place—remembering the girl named Reese who had chatted with Roman. He opened his eyes. He remembered seeing another girl in the group, whose one side of the face was slightly swollen. 

It was that girl. 

Luciano sighed, "It is such a shame that a poor and innocent human was killed under your watch, Eloise."

Donovan's eyes then fell on the headmistress, who hadn't uttered a word, and the glare in his eyes intensified. He then smiled and asked, "You saw the body, didn't you, Eloise? Did you forget to point out and mention this?" 

"I don't keep an eye on things on which student speaks to which one. Roman has had multiple girls since he started studying in Veteris. Seniors, juniors," responded Dante, her eyes holding the same calmness as Donovan's. 

The glare in Donovan's eyes didn't reduce as he could sense that Dante knew it. He said, "Okay. If you say that. Mistakes happen to the best of us, but they can always be rectified."

Donovan raised his hand for Isolde to leave, and the vampiress bowed her head. He had to see someone else before the mistake could be fixed, and he walked from there, leaving others behind. 

A laugh escaped from Luciano's lips, mocking at Donovan's mistake. 

"There is something I would like to talk to you about," said Remy to Luciano, who turned to look at him. Dante was about to take her leave when Remy stopped her by saying, "I would like you to be here, Ms. Dante."

"What is it about?" questioned Luciano, arrogance in his eyes. 

Remy pulled out the papers from his coat pocket and held them in front of Luciano to take them. He then said, "It is about Griffin's involvement in the contamination." 

The latter vampire frowned, and he took hold of the paper and started to read it. Remy wouldn't have gotten himself involved in it, but when the contamination of the water took place, it would have affected him and the others. He didn't have anything against the humans, but he had always stood with the safety of the vampires, and he always would. 

Same time, far away in the dungeon, Roman was playing with his lighter when he heard the echo of footsteps coming from the staircase, and soon Donovan came to stand in front of the cell. 

"Enjoying your time here?" questioned Donovan, and Roman raised his eyes to meet his maker's red eyes that stared back at him. 

"Nothing new that I haven't experienced before," responded Roman, picking up Donovan's mood from the other side of the cell. "Looks like you finally found out." His demeanour stayed calm.

"I was wondering if you turned cold like me. But it seems like I just picked the wrong one.  She must be very special, that you didn't want to introduce her to me. I don't know if I should feel hurt or impressed," remarked Donovan, looking at Roman. He looked at the rusted iron rods that separated them, and his lips curled into a smile.  "She isn't here, is she?"

"No," responded Roman in a nonchalant tone.