The Realm of Truth (Book 1) [In the process of editing]

Chapter 22: Doing Your Dirty Work

"You have an uncle?" Damien asked me with his arms crossed. He was standing there looking like a whole boulder dropped on him and he just barely missed it. "You never mentioned an uncle."

"No, you're right." I agreed silently. "I'm rogue." I faced Ambrosius after we had our own little meeting from the sidelines. "Who are you, really?"

"You might not remember me." Ambrosius answered, and I listened carefully to him. "But I am related to you by blood, and I took care of you when you were a child. Your mother's family extended out here and she knew that you would be able to find us when things have gone...south." We didn't say anything, but took it all in as he spoke. Have I really had a family all this time? I'm sure I was right, but something to me feels a little bit off. However, I can't put my finger on it. When he spoke to me and Damien, he explained it as simple and as smooth as possible without me deciding to kill him on the spot.

I turned to look at Esme, who still had said nothing since we entered the ballroom. I was curious if this will end up being a trap for me and Damien, so I took Damien's hand in mine and intertwined my fingers with his. When I touched him, he looked love-struck by it and I focused on his heartbeat for a quick moment...which was palpitating pretty quickly, I might add. He snapped out of it though and squeezed my hand just to let me know he was also aware of what I thought about this situation already.

Should we run? Should we leave?

Was Ambrosius evil? Can I trust him?

All of those questions floated around my mind consistently, and Damien was the only one I trust so far in this room. It was an uneven match between us and them. A horrible combination of a vampire and a witch, and Esme looked prepared to take out Damien if needed to get rid of dead weight.

"Anything else?" I asked as I played everything safe. "And is it just you? Or can I meet any other family members that "work" here?" I looked at the witch. "Esme, you say there's a conclave of vampires, but there's only just Ambrosius. So...unless you're lying to me, and my uncle - or whoever you are - really is an evil bloodsucker, then I'll gladly eliminate you, too."

"Don't worry, Odette." Esme said, sending me a sweet smile that could be deceiving. "Victoria wouldn't lead me astray if that were the case."

"Victoria?" Damien wondered. "Your mom's maiden name?"

"How would I know?" I asked, as if that rung any bells to me. "Like I said, I don't know anything after I turned. I barely remembered much in the last century except being able to starve."

That made Ambrosius look very intrigued. "You must be hungry." he cut in, after he stroked his beard. "Come, Odette. I have something here in the kitchen for you to have a...little taste test."

I was very hesitant on his offer, but after a while, Damien led me along with them. We walked across the room and through a door to the kitchen area. There were a couple other waitresses there, and they both looked at me. Ambrosius asked them to leave and come back afterwards. The waitress' names were Hazel and Claire, who were a couple years older than me. I was going to have a full introduction with all of them later.

As they walked past me, they didn't pay much attention to me but narrow a glare. Then, they directed their attention to Damien who they were more interested in. I noticed that Damien started drooling from the side as he noticed how exquisite they looked in their attire and I stomped on his foot out of jealousy. "Excuse me, Mr. Googly-Eyes." I said with disgust in my voice. "Really?"

"What?" he asked annoyed. Damien let his foot stand on his knee and he bent over to rub it. "Now you want to give your attention to me?"

I scoffed. "You're the one giving me googly eyes. How else was I supposed to react? Hello, I'm the one who's supposed to act like I wanted to be human. You know, with a normal life to have a boyfriend and to supposedly fall in love?"

"Yeah, well...Can't fall in love with me if you deny every single chance you get." Damien mumbled, setting his foot back down.

I was taken aback, and took back my hand from his. "Forgive me for wanting to show a little bit of humanity." I said, crossing my arms. I was starting to fume a little more, getting aggravated over something so small. Ambrosius and Esme seem to be both enjoying our little dispute and I stared at them hard which made them stop smiling.

"You? Feelings? You're kidding, right? You're the one to talk."

Ambrosius coughed, to make us stop arguing before I could wag my finger in front of Damien's face. "If I may have this dance with Odette..." he said.

"What is this, the 19th century?" Damien mumbled, looking away.

I shook my head in disappointment and let Ambrosius lead me away from him. From there, we faced a huge fridge, bigger than the one back at Damien's cabin. "Well?" I waited for Ambosius to say what needed to be said.

He opened the fridge and there I saw some individual blood bags, like you would see in hospitals. My jaw dropped from the amount of it. "Holy-" I started to say. "Is this all blood?"

"Yep," he said, "We're...harvesting them, you could say. Every week, we hunt to find some of these packs and place them in the fridge."

"Out here in the open?" I asked, pulling a cold one out. "Someone should've known by now, don't you think?" I eyed the temperature on the fridge to the side of it, and it was set to 35 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2 degrees Celsius. Any lower, and those red blood cells could clot.

"Well, who do you think monitors the entire kitchen as manager? Go on, have a taste." Ambrosius said, and I exchanged a look with him, then Damien who nodded in agreement. I nodded back and popped open the tube and started to drain the bag slowly. I could taste the iron from the blood, but after getting past that, it's like sweet nectar to me. It was fueling my body with strength and all my abilities enhanced even more. It was totally different than the ones I've had in town. I could sense my eyes glowing as I craved for more blood bags in the fridge, so I started to quickly grab another one. I inhaled the sweet scent of it as I suckled on the tube.

Everyone watched me unfazed - and well, the more I take on another blood bag, the more my body urged for an additional. I stopped suddenly, and felt my fangs growing out from my gums. I tossed the blood bag away and I just turned around to grab another one, but Ambrosius stopped me.

"There's more where that came from, Odette." he said, softly, and I couldn't stop snarling. "But, here's the kicker. I have a task for you...If you want more, and if you want to stay with me - considering I'm your only family left in the clan, I want you to bring more humans to us. Kill anyone in your way that stops you from taking these and we'll use theirs too." As he spoke, it felt like I was in a trance and I couldn't move for some reason. Time slowed down, and I only focused on the sound of his calm voice. "We need more of these, and we're running low on numbers in our family as well as these things."