The Blood Rose Lady
Chapter Eighteen

Ludwig was still frozen in his seat.

The Blood Mistress has told him to replace the Amalgam-an entity who is a half vampire and a half werewolf.

He is no fucking Amalgam or werewolf detector. But, the bitch has threatened his life and his family if he's not going to comply.

Dusk already beckons him to go home, to where his adoptive daughter Vivien is having a bed rest.

Ludwig has no choice but to follow the order or else he'll be the one to be served in the Blood Mistress' table as an order. And so, he drove home.

***

"To which circle of hell have you freaking gone, Romaine!"

Hemera's voice echoed in the walls of the Zadzisais' cozy home.

Romaine, whose casual red dress was wet from her own sweat, replied as she handed the woman a lily of the valley flower.

"It is said to soothe the effect of a Black Peruvian Rose, according to one of Eku's journals," she stated while she changed her dress at the nearby walk-in closet.

"You should have told us! At least we knew your whereabouts, considering that all our vampire and werewolf abilities have been negated by the essence of that shitty black rose!" Cyrill, who's spoon-feeding a cream of mushroom soup to the newly awakened Rozelyn, bellowed at his adoptive mother.

The doorbell rang, making all of them quite nervous to who the hell would pay them a visit at twilight.

"I'll get it," Hemera volunteered. Her breathing was uneven, probably because of the sudden and brief loss of her powers.

A turquoise-eyed woman was standing by the threshold. Her charcoal-black hair was now straight and attractive. Making anyone who sees her alluring beauty crawl on their knees. "What happened to your dreadlocks, Anaztasia?"

"I got bored of messy hair so I switched back to my original style which is being a straight-haired lady."

Romaine brought all of them a beverage derived from the boiled water from the lily of the valley flower.

"So smart of you to make the flower's juice into a punch, Romaine."

Anaztasia praised. She then looked at Rozelyn. The latter seems to still be processing the current occurrence.

"You're quiet, Roz. Any problem?"

The green-eyed vampire didn't yield a voice or even a whisper for a minute.

"I'm just discerning what the hell the black rose thingy has shown into my mind..."

She answered suddenly, making Anaztasia wonder about her uncanny actions.

"Avril's currently looking for the person who has that flower," Anaztasia declared as she calmly drank a glass of punch.

"If a lily can negate a black rose, then we can use the lily as a shield then. Am I right, Romaine?" Hemera asked, her firm gaze looking straight at Romaine.

"You are right. But-"

"But what?"

"That is the last lily here in Shamrock. We were lucky that Thalia had kept a single one of that flower..." Romaine responded sorrowfully.

"That flower that we just drank is not just an ordinary lily of the valley. It is one of the Mighty Five." "The Mighty Five?"

Rozelyn finally unfastened her tongue.

"According to Eku, the Mighty Five consists of the most powerful and dangerous kind of flowers to ever bloom in the earthly soil. These formidable five are so rare that a bunch of supernatural creatures guard these trinkets," Romaine explained thoroughly as she showed them one of Eku's journals that contains the valuable information.

"Then we're fucked up!" It was all that Cyrill could say.

"How long will it take before our powers start flowing again in our veins?"

Rozelyn queried, her tired eyes already shutting on their own. She felt as if she plummeted into an energy-siphoning black hole. Her entire energy was drained and nowhere to be accessed. It was only a sliver of her stored energy that kept her entire body responsive.

She was utterly powerless right now. All she wants is to plunge again in a tranquil sleep.

And that is what her body exactly does no longer than a minute later.

***

Romaine was still debating if what she saw earlier at Thalia's garden were real or just a phantom caused by the black rose's influence.

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A dozen of black-colored roses identical to a Black Peruvian Rose were growing in Thalia's rosarium.

Though there are black flowers that are quite popular here in Ireland such as the black dahlias and the Queen of the Night tulips, Romaine was still in doubt that the flowers she saw was in any way a Black Peruvian Rose. Considering that the latter has silver linings along the petals' edges, much like the flower she saw earlier before she left her neighbor's English-style house.

'Could she be in league with the Blood Mistress?'

Romaine pondered as she stared at Anaztasia, who was helping Cyrill carry the now-snoring Rozelyn to her boudoir.

She nodded at the two before treading towards the study the former study of Eku as well and to where a myriad of blood-in-bottles are stored.

She grabs one bottle and a champagne glass and wittingly drinks the red blood liquid.

Indeed, she was eccentric. Not only because of the black rose's influence earlier but also the awful truth that she discovered in one of the Zadzisais long-time family friends.

'Anyone can betray anyone.'

Her mind whispered to her as she slightly encircled the liquid inside the wine glass as if she was just drinking a normal red wine.

"Being a vampire is definitely stressful."

An ethereal voice from behind uttered. Romaine grabbed Hemera a bloody drink too as the latter sat on the dusty jet black couch beside the door.

"Are you gonna be the one to tell me what's bothering you or am I to be the one to spill the tea inside your brain?"

The wine-red-haired sexy vampire challenged her. Her eyes show not a bit of hesitation to challenge her supreme.

"How did you know something is bothering me?"

Hemera tilted her head, her face vibrant with her wry grin.

"It's not the end of the month yet, Romaine. You only drink blood at the end of each month. Besides, you also drink blood when you're in deep thoughts or you're somehow... contemplating." She replied as she sipped a bit of that sweet blood.

Her sapphire blue eyes are full of color. In a heartbeat, it is now golden-as gold as an Egyptian pharaoh's golden casket.

"You see now, Romaine. You now know on how blood changes a vampire and werewolf's eye colors into golden ones, much as when a person becomes greedy and her real attitude eventually unravels?" "What the hell are you talking about, Hemera?"

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Hemera bursts into a creepy giggle.

Romaine was engulfed with goosebumps. She never heard her second-in-command eerily act like this before.

"Perhaps you forget..." she looked at Romaine's russet eyes, full of fear and enigma.

"You forget that during the Thirteen Wonders, you cheated on me, you whore of a bitch!"

Hemera was about to slap Romaine when an invisible hand halted her in mid-air.

The hand was masculine in strength, the strongest one Hemera ever encountered so far. Stronger than that of Avril, the reigning alpha of the Irish pack.

"That's exactly the reason why you shouldn't indulge in bloodlust in the dead of night!"

Cyrill's tense and unyielding voice made the two ladies feel like two delicate doves being gawked by a huge basilisk. Anaztasia was now beside the slightly enraged Cyrill. She too couldn't believe what she just witnessed. Romaine and Hemera feel small when being compared to the beta werewolf, amidst the fact that they are much older in terms of being activated as vampires.

Hemera's apology reverberated in the cold walls of the room. So as Romaine's.

"You can sleep at the visitor's lounge, Anaztasia. Hemera."

Cyrill then waved a hand for them to pull themselves together and head for their respective chambers when an odd scent made his werewolf senses come into full activation.

"What is it?" Anaztasia asked. She too felt that ghastly presence within this house.

Hemera encountered this before. Still, it felt like this was her first time meeting this peculiar aura.

It always felt like this-a miasma that would utterly deplete the physical and spiritual energy of those who'd stay in its proximity.'

She thought as she unclothed her hidden fangs and claws.

And the four of them were already preparing themselves to bathe in blood. Soon, they saw in the corner of their eyes the dark-clothed and black-cloaked three entities standing by the foyer.

The door was wide open. No sign of forced entry was visible. Three mysterious entities versus four supernatural creatures of the night-consisting of two vampires and two werewolves.

Well, it is not so bad at all anyway. Cyrill suddenly remembered Rozelyn was sleeping upstairs when Romaine's words of warning bounced in the walls of their lovely home.

"The Death Summoners are here!"