Sold To The Alpha
Blood L**t Chapter 24

Everyone congregated in the banquet hall, Carter bringing through food and drinks as the large group

themselves around the table, Viktor at the head, Justin and Leo to his left, Halle and Jason to his right.

'Auriele is trying to slow the antidote to Vallance's venom as we speak, but there is a traitor within the castle, someone has been helping Agnes to get close to him. I don't know who it is or how they managed to help her as this Castle is enchanted, no-one enters or leaves without permission To my knowledge, only Vallance and Halle have left the premises without escort in the lifetime of my reign to whoever has betrayed us is still here' Viktor growled, his eyes flashing a deep red as fury emanated from him. 'Gather up all the servants, I want everyone here'.

The other vampires immediately rose from the table and left the room, searching out every worker and bringing them back to the banquet hall where they lined up along the wall fearfully. The castle had only twelve servants including Carter, who had already lined up with his colleagues and was staring at the floor reluctantly.

Viktor rose from his chair and marched over to the twelve mortals, some avoided his gaze, others wer Stepping in front of Carter, Viktor forced the werewolf to look into his eyes, 'did you betray me werewo 'No your Majesty' Carter replied without flinching, 'I would never harm the Prince.

cally shaking from the feel of his penetrating stare. hissed, his eyes glowing as he studied the old man's face.

Nodding immediately, Viktor let him go before turning to the silent group still situated around the table, Carter did not betray me' he said quietly and with unwavering conviction as Vaya let out a slow breath of relief. Moving along, Viktor asked the same question of the three fairies, two elves and five vampires that all worked for the Vampire King, each meeting his eyes and uttering that they had not betrayed him. Finally Viktor stood before Iris, who was physically shaking as she stared anywhere but at the glowerin pire in front of her.

'Did you betray me Iris?' Viktor hissed, placing his hand under her chin and forcing her eyes up to meet his own.

'n .. n .. no your Majesty' Iris stuttered, 'I would never...

'Lies!' Viktor hissed, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her away from the line, 'this is our traitor' h

ed in anger.

Halle jumped up and tried to stop the furious vampire as he lifted the human girl off her feet by her hair, shaking her from side to side as he extended his fangs, Iris screaming in terror as she struggled against him. 'Stop Viktor!' Halle pleaded, hanging on to Viktor's arm as he hissed, Justin had hurried to the other side and was trying to release the girl from the raging Vampire.

Viktor looked down at Halle, 'she has killed my son, and our entire species with what she has done.. e deserves to die!'

Halle met the Vampire King's gaze, 'but we don't know why Viktor? Surely we should know why' she begged it might help us replace Agnes!

Placing Iris back on to the ground, Viktor forced her into one of the chairs, snapping his fingers, causing

'Please sir, I didn't betray you' Iris begged as she hiccoughed through her tears.

'I can smell the lie on you human' Viktor growled angrily.

'I'm not lying! I promise' Iris cried, staring at Halle in desperation, her eyes begging the teenager to help her.

chair to mould around Iris's wrists and secure her in place.

Halle stared back at the stricken girl before carefully placing a hand on Viktor's arm, 'Maybe Auriele has something we can use to get her to tell us what happened' she suggested slowly.

Taking a calming breath, Viktor gave a short nod, his eyes not leaving the terrified girl's who couldn't meet his gaze.

'Go' he ordered to Halle before raising his voice to his other servants and barking out, 'you are all dismissed, return to your quarters!'

Halle sped out of the room as fast as her legs would carry her, taking the stairs two at a time and thundering her way down the corridor into Vallance's room. Without Looking up from her Cauldron, Auriele murmured, 'what you need is on the table child.' Looking around wildly, Her eyes fell on a small vial of bright yellow liquid that almost had the look of a mist moving within the bottle.

'She must drink it all child' Auriele added as Halle grabbed the vial and flew from the room, racing back toward the banquet hall.

Hurrying back into the room, Halle held up the vial to show Viktor, 'she must drink it all Auriele said' Halle gasped, as Justin reached over and took the small bottle and walked over to the now silent young woman who eyed him warily. 'You need to drink this Iris' Justin said softly as he unstoppered the vial and tipped it toward her lips.

Opening her mouth, Iris drank the liquid, her eyes widening before her eyelids drooped and she fell forward, her chin resting on her chest as she breathed heavily.

'Iris?' Justin called softly, 'can you hear me?'

'Yes' breathed back Iris, her eyes still closed.

'Did you betray Viktor?' he probed

'Yes' Iris replied quietly.

'I told you! It was her!' Viktor roared, grabbing for the human girl as Daniel, Leo and Vaya moved to restrain him.

'Calm down Viktor, we still need to replace out why?' Justin growled as the Vampire shook off the werewolves and took a seat angrily.

'Iris, why did you decide to betray Viktor?' Justin asked carefully.

'Iris was not aware of her betrayal' Iris whispered as Viktor's eyes widened.

'How can she betray me but not know she betrayed me' Viktor demanded.

'Can you explain to us what happened?' Justin pushed gently.

'When Iris was outside the walls, shopping for the Vampire King, she was approached by a witch named Agnes, who recognised the smell of the King on her and asked about her life. Iris told her that she worked for him and Agnes was intrigued, I could sense her hatred for the Vampire King, it matched my own and I pushed forward, locking Iris away so that I could speak to the witch myself! Iris mono toned. 'You keep speaking about Iris in the third person, who are you?' Justin asked hesitantly.

'I am Ashley, the other half of Iris, where she is weak and submissive, I am strong and capable, when our family was murdered by that blood sucking fool I was born, I am her protector only coming forward when she needs me, at all other times I remain back giving silent warmth and encouragement knowing that if I am allowed to remain at the surface that I would end up getting us killed.

I remained quiet within our mind until the witch found us, then I knew that a chance had appeared that could allow me revenge on those who took Iris' brothers from her and left her alone and vulnerable' Iris hissed angrily.

'Ashley, you are the other personality of Iris?' Jason suddenly asked.

'Correct werewolf' Ashley replied.

'What happened Ashley? What did you do?' Justin asked softly.

'I spoke to the witch, Agnes, I told her who I was and that I could help her but it had to be in a way that Iris would not know as she was not the type to turn on the Vampire scum even after he murdered our loved ones. Agnes gave me a potion, it would allow me to take control of our body when Iris was asleep and she would not remember anything that we did whilst I was in control' Ashley mumbled.

'What did you do?' Justin prompted

'Firstly I was just feeding information to Agnes about what was happening within the castle, I was throwing notes over the wall attached to rocks which she would collect. We had a synchronised time that I would exit the castle to meet her. The castle does not recognise inanimate objects so never raised an alarm that things were leaving the boundary. I told Agnes about the search for Vallance's match, that they had not been found, Agnes said she had a plan but she needed the King to come to her for information.' The next time Iris went to the village, Agnes slipped a small bottle into her pocket without her noticing, it was a potion to make the Vampire King susceptible to suggestion. I found it when I awoke that night, I injected it into his blood pack that I knew he would consume the next day.

The next night I sat outside his bedroom door and whispered through as he slept that he should go to Agnes and ask for help in replaceing the Prince's match.

As we had planned, the Vampire King decided to visit the only witch he had any kind, of what he thought was a good relationship with not knowing that I had coerced him into it.

This started the ball rolling, and Halle came to us, whilst she was bathing, Iris spotted her phone, I blocked her momentarily from our mind and took the phone, hiding it outside in the corridor before coming back and giving Iris control again. When I awoke that night, I returned to the hiing place and collected it, now I could talk to Agnes and pass information on much easier. I hid the phone and the last note I threw to her contained the phone number that I had copied from her contacts.

I switched the phone off to save the battery and to stop any of Halle's family being able to ring and have the phone discovered by others.

At our usual meeting time, I turned the phone on and Agnes rang me, this is how I continued to tell her what was happening.

Finally the night that the Prince and Halle decided to leave arrived, it was what Agnes and I had been waiting for, I watched them step through the boundary and immediately rang the witch, informing her of their location.

As you know, she soon arrived, and completed our plan, revenge was complete, the Vampire King will die and our loved ones can rest in peace'

Ashley fell silent at the end of her narrative as the room stared at her.

'I killed your brothers because they helped kill my wife!' Viktor finally growled out.

'No!' Ashley growled back in anger, 'Iris' brothers did not kill the Vampire Queen! They tried to help her, as the villagers attacked they got in the way and got beaten for their attempts, then you came to our village and wiped them out with everyone else' she spat. 'This is why Agnes came to her, she saw what happened that day, she knew that Iris' brothers had tried to save her sister and they were murdered for their actions, you and your kind deserve to die, you are no better than those villagers who killed an innocent woman who was out shopping!