They heard heavy footsteps approaching and Vael sighed.
"Get ready every one." Joel said.
Mamon adjusted his necktie. " We're fucked... we're really fucked."
"You crazy bastard." Vael muttered.
"Master is coming. Prepare yourself." Joel said and the angels of death rose while the mixed vampires knelt as the door swung open and Levi, the Master's secretary walked in first before the Master did.
"Rise." The Master ordered as he took his seat and the vampires rose with their heads bowed.
"The General executive meeting will begin shortly." Levi said and turned to The Master with a bow.
"The rebellion will soon start and after that day, everything we ever desire will take place, but how is it that you guys haven't retrieved the pureblood's heart?" Master asked and hums and murmurs rose immediately in the hall.
The atmosphere wasn't good, Vael thought to himself. They must have thought that the 0101 project would fail and he couldn't blame them. Three angels of death had died trying to retrieve the pureblood's heart.
Mamon turned to look at them, a stern look on his face. "Quiet. Where do you think you guys are?" He asked and one of the vampires raised his hand, surprising everyone as no one had ever done that in the presence of the Master.
"What do you want?" Joel scowled.
"There is something I want to ask The Master."
"You bastard. You sure have some guts. We are facing The Master right now so if you interrupt as you please, you'll be dead..."
"Shut up." The Master said before he turned to him. "Let's hear it."
"Shit." Vael heard Mamon mutter under his breath.
"I'll go straight to the point. The angels of death current empty spot...give us a chance to claim them. If you let us, we are ready to put our life on the line for the sake of loyalty to your command. Three angels of death has died right now only because of a single pureblood. Then what about us, the mixed vampires? What will happen then?...so Master, please give us some of your blood as well." The man said.
"Is this little son of a bitch belittling Master?" Mamon asked.
But the problem was that, the other vampires agreed with what he said.
"Fine..." Master said as he rose to walk down the steps, directly to the man who had raised his hand.
"It's not that I'm ignoring your complaints..." The man broke into a cold sweat when Master walked up to him and there was a smile on Mamon's lips.
"Except for this guy, is there anyone who wants to be an angel of death?"
"Give it to me too." A woman said.
"Me too."
"What do I have to do?" One asked and the Master raised his hand to subsidize the noise. "You don't have to do anything."
Almost immediately, the four vampires who had spoken suddenly grabbed their heads and started yelling in pain. The other regular vampires were shocked to see what was going on as that was the first time The Master would ever displayed his power in front of them.
"Help..."
"My head..."
"Make it stop..." They kept screaming as their bodies kept swelling and their eyes, going back and forth into the eye socket and a few seconds later, their bodies burst dying along with the murmurs.
Master clicked his tongue as he rose up to walk back to his throne.
"Too bad. No one is still fit to hold the angels of death seat." He suddenly turned to the rest and asked. "Is there anyone who wants the seat of an angel of death?"
They hurriedly lowered their heads, afraid to look Master in the eye.
"Dumb fuckers. If you knew what was going to happen, then how courageous were you just now?" Mamon whispered.
"Is the next phase ready?" Master asked.
"The preparations are complete. Whatever your order is, we will disperse it as soon as possible." Mamon bowed.
"Good. Greater power is needed to rule this country. You know what I need, right?"
"I shall make the move immediately." Mamon replied and the Master turned to head out of the hall accompanied by Levi.
What was the bastard thinking? "So confident? Even after you've seen what the pureblood can do?" Vael asked, once the Master had left.
"I wouldn't make a move if I didn't have something tucked up my sleeve."
"You could die."
Mamon slipped out a bubble gum from his suit. "I risked my life because I know the result is worth it." He replied and Vael shook his head.
"Greedy jerk."
"Do you think those words have worth coming out of your mouth?" He frowned.
"Rub your foul mouth, then speak about others."
Vael frowned as he looked up the Master's throne. It was odd, no matter how he thought about it. The Master only sent them one after the other to deal with the pureblood and that only made her get stronger. Did he have another motive?
He sighed. Well, it wasn't his problem, as long as he got his reward.
Zuriña looked up at the cloudy sky as it rained that morning. Luckily for them, they had managed to take shelter while traveling,at a bus station after they had parked under a tree.
"Seems like the rain won't be stopping anytime soon."
Kaiwan looked up to the sky. "It's just a drizzle. It's probably going to subsidize shortly." he said before he turned to her. "Zuriña, when the world is back to how it was, what do you want to do the most?"
"Huh?" She exhaled as she looked out, to nothing in particular. "Ah...I'll probably go to an amusement park with my siblings or go on an outing with a friend."
"How about traveling?"
"Hmm...that's..." Her voice faded.
Actually, she'd never thought of it before.Ever since she had started hunting down the angels of death, she'd never thought about life after dealing with vampires and she wasn't sure she deserved to dream about a wonderful future like that.
"I still don't know, but maybe someday, I'll try that."
"Danger." Someone suddenly screamed and they jumped up, ready to attack, only to see it was an old couple riding a bicycle.
"Hey, didn't I tell you not to go there?" The old woman was saying.
"Sorry, I thought it has a bump."
"You son of a biscuit." The old woman said and Zuriña resisted the urge to laugh. What kind of swear word was that?
"I thought it was a vampire." Kaiwan sighed as he plodded back to the chair.
"Today, I've prepared an eel for that old woman."The man said and his wife frowned
"Do you wanna get hit?"
Zuriña smiled as she sat down. "Lovely, isn't it. It would be nice if everyone would grow old like that." She said and turned to look at the detective who didn't look amused. "Why? Isn't it nice, elderly couples who can still ride a bicycle together?"
He raked his fingers into his hair. "Ah, I thought..."
"I know. When the world is back to normal, rather than doing something, I want my siblings to see the world they never thought was possible...What about you, detective?"
"Um..." He turned to lock eyes with her. " I also want to show that kind of world to you."
They both stared at each other, a moment of awkwardness between them as they pondered on what he'd said.
He suddenly panicked. "Ah,no...I mean... because your eyes were blurry."
A smile crossed her lips. "I don't have eyesight problems."
"That's good." He cleared his throat as he rose. "Now that I think about it, I haven't been smoking lately. Is there a smoking area around here?"
Had she heard that wrong? There was no way the detective had thoughts like that. What was she even thinking? She was probably going nuts.
The rain finally subsidized after a while and Zuriña was glad to hit the road again.
"Finally, it stopped raining. Let's go." Kaiwan said and she mounted her bike and started it, only to be rewarded with a funny sound.
"Detective, my bike is making a weird noise." She said and he raised his eyes to her.
"It's probably because it hasn't been serviced in a while. When we get there, I'm going to look for a repair shop... Anyway, who do you want to meet?"
She slipped out a page of an article that had been torn off from a newspaper from the pocket of her jacket and passed it to Kaiwan, who examined the picture of the guy.
"He looks like someone I remember from my childhood and their names are similar."
"Yiannais Peterson." He read out.
"Even their appearance is the same. I figured if I meet him, I may probably remember part of my memory, even if it's just a tiny bit."
"Hmm." He frowned and she turned to him.
"Is something wrong?"
He shook his head. "No, it's nothing."
"Alright, let's go."
A grandma was waiting in front of the town when they arrived and when they'd showed her Yiannais' picture, her expression was grim.
"Why are you guys looking for my husband?" The grandma asked and her dog growled on sighting them.
Zuriña was particularly confused."Husband? This person is your husband?"
"Are you trying to steal someone's else man?"
"Steal? Grandma, we didn't mean anything like that." Kaiwan replied.
"Don't you dare think of it. My husband and I are inseparable. We do things together and even go to the sauna together."The woman ground out.
"Looks like we're in the wrong place." Kaiwan sighed.
"We have to save time, so we better head for the pharmaceutical company first." Zuriña said.
"Oh dear, my sweetheart. What took you so long?"
They turned to see the old woman running toward an approaching Yiannais who had a hand over her shoulder.
"Hi, is there something you need?"