"No wonder my ears keep tingling. How fortunate for to walk in just in ti to hear you talking about ," ca the amused laughter of a woman, none other than Cordelia, accompanied by a few group mbers who looked like they had rged two teams together, Princess Zora among them.
"You made a new friend, Lady Dagon. Two losers, how lucky of you two to et each other," Cordelia said as her eyes turned to the blonde human who now stood to her feet, looking at them with suspicion in her hazel eyes.
"What brings you here?" Belle questioned Cordelia calmly, as her hazel eyes drifted around the vampires who had now surrounded them. She had a feeling why the woman was here, but she would rather handle things calmly before it gets out of hand.
"What do you think brings here?" Cordelia snorted arrogantly, her red eyes glowing in the gloomy morning weather.
"So she is the next prey we plan to get rid of, Cordie?" laughed a young man among the group who was resting his back casually against the tree, a cigar burning between his lips where his fangs were in sight, a faint bloodstain on his lips and jaw like he had just fed, and the sight of it alard Belle and Evenly.
"She is. An easy one, isn’t she?" Cordelia snickered.
"An easy one, indeed." They laughed together, each of them holding a weapon, and the two among them with swords had blood sared on the blades like they had killed people with them.
Belle heard their words but did not let herself panic, though her fingers clenched into nervous fists. Just yesterday, she had heard Princess Zora telling her group mbers that she planned to help a friend get rid of an enemy, but not once did it occur to her that she was that enemy and Cordelia was that friend. But it seed she had forgotten that the vampiress had never truly liked her and was only pretending.
This hunting ga was a place where people got rid of those they did not like. Just because she hadn’t made an enemy out of the vampiress didn’t an the other woman hadn’t—and Belle had sowhat overlooked that fact.
"I will pretend I did not hear that, Lady Cordelia, if you take your friends and leave. The Duke is not far away from here and will co by at any ti. He won’t be happy to find you all here disturbing us," Belle said calmly, but there was nothing calm about her nerves.
She had no power to fight vampires who had decided to co in eight to get rid of her. She could never outrun them even if she wanted to, and the only way she knew was to scare them off with the na of the man they all feared the most, even though she knew he wouldn’t be coming now.
Belle watched Cordelia laugh as she clapped her hands in amusent at her words.
"If you don’t know already, Isabelle, my cousin is being taken care of as we speak. If you think he will co to your rescue, you are dreaming. Rohan has stepped on a rotten nail he shouldn’t have, and he will suffer the consequences."
After what Rohan did to Cordelia that day in his art chamber, she had taken him as her enemy as well. He insulted her because of this pathetic human and even threw her out of the castle and ordered her things to be burned.
After her family’s downfall, Cordelia had already decided to plan for her future in two ways: she had trapped a rich human man in her gas to co out of poverty while she tried to convince her cousin into seeing that they were a perfect match. And since convincing him had failed, she had decided to take her other route.
Rohan already had too many enemies that she did not need to do anything to teach him a lesson. And had he taken her as his, like she wanted, she would have cautioned him of what was to befall him today and beco his greatest ally in Nightbrook.
Belle, who heard what Cordelia said, suddenly felt an uneasy feeling in her heart.
"What do you an he is being taken care of?" she demanded. "What have you done to him?"
"Why are you chatting with her, Cordie? Shut the bitch up already," snarled Princess Zora.
"How about we beat so lessons into her first? I have always wanted to do that." Cordelia smirked. "Beat her up!" she ordered her lackeys.
---
Back in another part of the forest, Rohan had just finished feeding on the twelfth human and was still not satisfied with the blood, as his throat was still itching so badly that breathing was becoming harder for him. He was looking and trying to focus on a direction to follow to find more prey to feed on when he sensed sothing that made him stop in his tracks.
He did not have to look around to know what he sensed in the atmosphere. He listened without moving, his sharp senses picking up a movent that any normal person or vampire wouldn’t have been able to detect. It was faint, the sll and the snapping of the twig from the trees, but it was there.
His teeth clenched as his darkened eyes drifted in the direction.
"How about you stop fucking trailing and show yourselves?" he snarled, a lace of irritation in his voice.
Imdiately after he spoke those words, there were rustling sounds in the trees and footsteps, the mist in the forest scattering at the movents. And before he knew it, he was surrounded by Gaggers—the most powerful creatures among the vampires. More powerful than even a pureblood.
The Gaggers were another ancient species of vampires. They were bred with werewolves and purebloods for experints, as a way to create powerful armies for the royals of those tis.
The experint had been successful enough that no creature on earth had ever overpowered a Gagger. They were used for wars then, one Gagger could overpower ten pureblood vampires with ease.
However, through ti, they beca extinct. But there were rumors that they hadn’t truly died out, only put to rest in coffins, as no recent war had co to happen in the land that normal vampires couldn’t handle alone.
The Gaggers were to be awakened only when Nightbrook was faced with a threat beyond the capacity of its current rulers or warriors to handle.
Even Rohan, with all his knowledge, had never encountered one in the flesh. He had only seen their depictions in ancient books and worn-out scrolls as a boy. But as he now stood, surrounded by five of them in the dense fog of the forest, he knew those illustrations had failed miserably to capture the srizing reality of what these creatures look like.
Though they look as pale as any vampire, their height towered over him, and they were built like mountains, with large muscular arms, hard features, and dark red eyes with a mix of gold in them. Those eyes pinned him down as they began to circle him like predators.
Rohan couldn’t help but admire them despite the danger he sensed. He had always been fascinated by their depictions, how much larger they looked compared to normal vampires and humans.
It seed they had just been awakened recently, as they still wore their ancient attire: vests and breeches, their wild hair untad. They were as hairy as apes, and the hair stuck out starkly against their pale skin.
Who let the Gaggers out of their coffins? Those thoughts couldn’t help but cross Rohan’s mind, even though he knew who was behind it.
Only the rulers have control over the awakening of these special creatures.
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