After Hours (VAMPIRES PART 1)

Chapter 36

ROSEANNE

It's late afternoon, Lisa is still snoozing when Rowoon arrives at my bedroom door holding an envelope.

"Your mother, ma'am. It was delivered by her personal messenger." He hands it to me, I open it and sigh.

"Can you ready the carriage?" I say.

"Certainly." He bows his head and leaves.

Three hours later, Lisa and I are exiting the underground tunnels and making our way up the mountain to Mother's castle. It's becoming déjà vu this process of carriage to castle.

Lisa has been quiet since she spoke with her sister. She left for Jenevelle's funeral and returned, but she moved back to my spare room rather than sleeping in mine. Still furious with me for having compelled her memories away.

Which is why I still haven't told her the rest of the truth. Fuck, I wanted to. But the fury that was laced into her features last night when we told her about the night Minnie turned. I've never seen her so angry.

If she knows what I did, why I did it, I don't know how she'll react—especially if she's already distancing herself from me. I want to ask her, to pry her emotions from her so I can understand how she's feeling. But I don't know how. All I've ever done is push people away.

As we enter the ballroom, the atmosphere is thick, and we're hit by a wall of silence.

In the centre of the room there is a vampire noble. His hands are tied to a wooden pole. The type they used to use to burn witches millennia ago.

"Well, this doesn't look good," I mutter.

The ballroom has returned to the stage and tiered seating arrangement of the pairing ceremony. Though now, the segregation between vampire and hunter is even more stark than that first night. There's a physical gap between the two species. Shit.

My siblings are sat in the front row all together: Seulgi, Irene, Taehyung and Jungkook. On the other side of the gap in the front row are the hunters who paired with them. Mingyu, Ten, Triss and two spaces left, one for Lisa and one that will remain empty where Jenevelle should have been.

"And I thought we were making progress with reintegrating our kinds," Lisa whispers.

"Clearly not."

I glance back at the pole. Around the base, blood pools, deepening to the colour of dried wine.

Jennie and the Chief prowl around the vampire, circling like vipers ready to strike. The vampire whimpers.

"P-p-please," he says.

"Quiet," Jennie shrieks. "Confess. Or forfeit your life."

"PLEASE," he whines.

"Mother?" I call just as she swings back her fist. She falters and turns to us. "Ahh, Roseanne. I have unearthed the traitor in our midst."

"Traitor?" I ask.

Beside me, Lisa shifts on the spot, her body tenses like she's preparing for an assault and I'm not sure she's wrong. I scan the crowd of vampires and hunters in the stands. There are as many hunter guards as there are vampires. Security though, doesn't seem to be easing the unrest. There are people physically growling at each other.

"What's going on?" I say.

She swings around and grabs the vampire by the throat. "This vampire is responsible for the attack on the carriages as you were making your way to the amulet."

"He's responsible for the death of Jenevelle," the Chief says.

And here we have the real reason everyone is tense. He broke the accords.