章節 9: Chapter 9: A Bad Solution
Oksana
Oksana and Yulia moved at a brisk stride, as they followed Dimitri up the stairs and down the hallway that led to her parent’s room.
Now that Dimitri had found them, they had decided that this news needed to be contained for as long as possible. If her parents were truly murdered in the heart of their clan seat, it would send a weak message to not only their own clan members, but the countless rivals clan Khvostov had made over the centuries.
After ten minutes of walking, the trio came to the door that led to her parent’s chambers. There were two guards posted outside and with a wave of his hand, Dimitri sent them on their way. Dutifully, they saluted and quickly marched away from the door in front of the room and out of sight.
Once gone Dimitri turned to Oksana and Yulia, “I must warn you, the scene is quite…..graphic. Prepare yourselves.”
Oksana mentally steeled herself for the scene she was about to see. Dmitri opened the door and they all walked in. The first thing Oksana processed, was the smell of blood. The moment the door was opened and she crossed the threshold, the coppery sweet smell of blood invaded her senses. She shamefully began to salivate despite the situation. She couldn’t help her natural instincts.
Her appetite dried up though the moment she beheld the scene before her. Her parent’s private chambers were larger than some people’s entire houses. It was furnished with a bathroom, a small dining room, a study, a bedroom, and even a large fireplace that even now had the dying embers of a fire smoldering away. The dying light of the fire, just gave the room a more horrifying look as the luminescence washed over the wall.
The living room walls were covered in blood splatter. Some of the blood even reached ten feet above the ground and even now slowly oozed down the walls. The expensive furniture in the room was overturned and torn apart. Glass decorations were shattered and strewn all over the floor. What looked like chunks of flesh were intermingled with the debris. Oksana looked around in shocked disbelief at the scene.
“How could this happen?! This is the house seat, protected by hundreds of guards and servants! Where were they when all this happened?!”Yulia cried out in a mixture of shock, fear, anger, and sadness.
Oksana ignored the comment though. She was too focused on the room itself to think about how yet. Instead, she pulled her eyes away from the blood-splattered wall and turned her attention to the larger and darker trail of blood that led through the door leading to her parent's dining room.
Without comment, she walked slowly, almost in a trance-like state following the blood trail through the door. The dining room was in just as bad a shape. The strong oak table was crushed and its splinters littered the floor as well. Blood was splattered in a similarly horrifying manner all over the floors and walls.
Oksana only had attention for the bodies that were lying prostrate in the middle of the wreckage. The bodies were too mangled to recognize by sight alone, but mixed with the numerous smells permeating the room, Oksana recognized the scent of her parents. Oksana slowly moved towards the bodies and knelt down. She just knelt there in shocked disbelief as she processed the fact that her parents, ancient and powerful sanguine vampires had somehow been murdered in the seat of their own power. She wanted to scream, cry, hit something, but found she wasn’t able to do any at that moment.
The next thing she felt was a light grip on her shoulder. She glanced up and saw Uncle Dimitri staring down at the bodies with a similar look of shocked sadness. The look in her Uncles eyes is what snapped her out of her shock. Her calculating mind reasserted itself in a flash and she abruptly stood up.
“We need to keep this secret as long as possible.”
“What?! Why?!” Yulia asked incredulously, as she stared at Oksana bewilderedly.
“No, she is right,” Uncle Dimitri said as he faced Oksana. “The implications that your parents’ murder will present can be disastrous for our house. Can you imagine how the rest of the clans will view us when our clan leaders were slain and in their own home no less? No, we need to handle this internally until we have the culprits in hand.”
“But how are we going to do that?” Yulia asked incredulously. “This is bound to get out despite our efforts. Our parents were very active participants in clan meetings and always attended the monthly gathering of clan heads. We are Clan Khvostov, one of, if not the most powerful vampire clan in existence. There is no way we can investigate this while keeping it under wraps!”
Oksana pondered the situation, as she tried to figure out a solution to the problem. If she led a massive investigation to find the culprits, everyone in the clan, soon followed by the entire blood lands would know of her clan’s sudden weakness. They needed a way to investigate relatively quietly, while still maintaining the day-to-day business of the clan.
Oksana’s shrewd mind quickly came up with an idea, “This is what we will do. We shall announce to the clan that Mama and Papa are testing my competence to manage all the clan affairs. They are taking a step back from their family business and are delegating all their work to me. I am their chosen heir, so that shouldn’t be too suspicious.”
Dimitri nodded along and added, “We can also use your success in the negotiations with the Tereshenko’s as a reason for their allowing you to take full control over clan business.”
Yulia, always quick to find problems in solutions said, “Yes but what about these rooms?! We can’t hide this. The guards outside must have known something was wrong. If we want to investigate the scene, we need to do it as soon as possible while it’s fresh! Also while sister you are an accomplished politician and powerful in your vampiric gifts, you are no investigator, nor are you uncle. Who can we trust to examine this scene? This can’t have been done by a humanoid. The amount of blood splatter gives the impression of some sort of animal. How did they get such a beast into our estate unnoticed? There are so many things we don’t know!”
They were all silent for a brief period of time until Uncle Dimitri cleared his throat, “I….might have a solution to much of what you are bringing up, Yulia, but….I don’t think either of you will like it.”
Oksana impatiently waved her hand at him, “This is no time to mince words Uncle. What idea do you have?”
Dimitri looked between the two women, before replying, “There is a monster hunter who works in the lands outside the blood lands, who might be convinced to investigate on our behalf. His skills are perfectly suited for this task in particular. Though I warn you, if what my sources say in the outside world is correct, it will not be easy to convince him to help us.”
Yulia frowned at her uncle and retorted, “I do not know why you think we wouldn’t like that. It actually sounds like a good idea. Though I’d rather not have to deal with these warmbloods, they wouldn’t have much interest in feeding information to the other clan. If you are worried about him accepting our offer, let us just offer him an exorbitant fee. Surely any hunter would leap at the chance of making his fortune in one fell swoop.”
Oksana though saw the uneasiness in her uncle's eyes and asked, “What else is there that you haven’t told us? Though I agree with the thought of working with a warmblood as distasteful, that wouldn’t make me dislike the idea. What else is there?”
“Well as you know monster hunters do not live long lives, this hunter, however, is their most senior member. My sources do not know how long he has been a hunter, but they have heard reports of him traveling through many continents to take on contracts. And they are not easy ones. I have looked at his records before in the monster-hunting guild's records. He has a one hundred percent completion rating with the guild and has a brutally efficient reputation.”
This information while interesting didn’t answer her question and she hissed in impatience, “Uncle, get to the point!”
Dimitri looked between the pair and hesitated for a moment, before responding, “As you know all members of the monster hunting guild are assigned the title of their most impressive kill. This hunter is specifically known for his efficient killing of Vampires. In particular, blood-crazed vampires. He has a record of over one thousand confirmed kills of vampires, and his title is…..Sanguine Hunter. He is the only current active guild member to have ever slain a blood-crazed sanguine. And if what my sources have gathered is true, it was in single combat.”
Oksana and Yulia looked at each other incredulously. Just killing such a large amount of vampires was impressive alone but the fact that this hunter had apparently single-handedly slain a blood-crazed sanguine was disturbing.
Oksana looked at her uncle and asked, “Is there more we should know?”
Once again he hesitated, but sighed and announced, “He has dedicated himself to hunting our kind since he is…,” He paused again, and then said, “He is a half-blood.”
No one said anything for a few moments. Oksana and Yulia were just too stunned at that revelation to say anything.
Finally, Yulia spat to the side and asked, “You expect us to work with one of the tainted ones? It would dishonor our clan’s reputation! This….thing, you want to work with would be like bringing a wolf into our homes to kill a rat. He may get the job done, but he will become a far larger problem! We trade one evil for a greater one!”
While Yulia argued with their uncle, Oksana processed what her uncle had suggested. Could they really convince a man who obviously hated and hunted her kind to come to the heartlands of his enemies and work for them? Plus Yulia was right, half-bloods were considered perversions of the purity of vampiric nature. What most vampires also didn’t like to admit was that they were dangerous. They couldn’t be turned by another vampire anymore, they were immune to a large amount of vampiric powers and even had some of their own. It made them perfectly suited to hunting her kind. Thankfully, the other races distrusted half-bloods just as much. So they didn’t have to worry too much about half-blood hunters. Though the idea did disgust her, she had to admit, her uncle's logic made sense. This hunter wouldn’t have any qualms about hunting a vampire that was killing other vampires. In fact, he might see it as an opportunity to get rid of more of her kind. They wouldn’t have to worry about him defecting to another clan too. He probably would have zero interest in getting involved in vampiric power struggles. Still, she knew that he would present with his own dangers as well.
Having decided to adopt her uncle’s plan, Oksana bared her fangs and hissed for silence. Dimitri and Yulia fell silent and looked at her.
“We will summon this hunter. Uncle, make the necessary arrangements.”
Yulia looked floored by her words and opened her mouth to protest, but Oksana slashed her hand through the air, “Do not argue Yulia! This is the best-bad solution we have for this situation. Though the idea of relying on a half-blood offends me, it is our best option. I am clan leader now and this will be my decision. I will hear no more opposition to this plan!”
Oksana’s voice cracked like a whip and Yulia fell silent before her sister’s commanding presence. She bowed her head and said, “By your will sister.”
Dimitri looked at Oksana, then knelt down before her and in a formal voice said, “Long live clan Khvostov! Long live, Lady Oksana, new head of Khvostov!”
Oksana placed her hand on her uncle’s head and said, “I accept your pledge uncle, now do my bidding. Bring this hunter to our home!”
-- 收到的禮物 
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票