Commotion at the bureau

"Why did you do that? We could've interrogated him," Olivia looked at the decapitated head in dismay.

She side stepped the detached head and walked closer to Alexander who was standing before the rest of the man's body.

"Perhaps we could still get more information using…" Olivia paused for a moment before finishing, "my magic."

But before she could attempt to try, she noticed the body dissolving at an alarming rate. Not long after, only a pool of blood was left behind leaving Olivia speechless.

Alexander took out a handkerchief from his breast pocket, using it to wipe off the bloody remnants on his hands, "He wouldn't have any relevant information. He was just being used."

"Used?"

"Why would they allow one of their members to openly walk around, especially with those masks on? I'm guessing that they wanted to test whether anyone knew about their organisation and now that we've killed this one, it'll certainly alert them."

Alexander then added on another speculation with narrowed eyes, "It's either that, or they're using this chance to flaunt that they have enough power so they're not afraid of being known."

"That does seem logical, but why does it sound like you know exactly who these people are?"

Alexander, having finished cleaning his hands, dropped the dirtied handkerchief on to the pool of blood, "A hunch."

Olivia watched Alexander walk away. She took a glance at where the body and head once lay, before hurrying after him.

A few days had passed since the encounter they had with the masked man.

According to Edgar, once again, another half-vampire had committed homicide. Except this time he took the lives of 6 families, all in the same night.

"It's not that it isn't normal for vampire's to commit these crimes. The problem lies with the frequency. Once or twice a month, for about the last 8 months, we've been getting these consistent killings. On top of that, none of them are any less gruesome than the other," Edgar grimaced as if he was witnessing their corpses in front of him.

He then looked at Alexander who was currently reading the report, "Usually when these things happen, most vampires take the time to cover their tracks, but these recent cases all seem to be displayed for the public to see."

Olivia thought about Edgar's words. Indeed, it was peculiar that they would leave the corpses of their victims in prominent places for all to see.

If Olivia was to commit murder, she thought that she would surely hide all the evidence as much as possible in order for nothing to link back to her and so, she truly could not fathom what these vampires were doing.

"Hmm, interesting indeed," An amused voice came from behind Edgar's shoulder.

Edgar flinched from surprise, then furrowed his eyebrows from seeing who it was, "Mr Cromwell, please conduct yourself."

Eli ignored Edgar, knowing that the man maintained his uptight decorum at all times, "Alexander. Miss Olivia."

The last time Olivia had seen Eli was during the Annesley household's dinner party. Only seeing him now, had she noticed that it had been a while since they had last met.

Looking at Alexander only give a low hum at his greeting, Olivia had a soft smile grace her face, "Hello, Eli."

Alexander's eyebrows scrunched for a moment. He could not help but feel slightly uncomfortable at Olivia directly addressing Eli.

Edgar had also heard Olivia's address, his eyebrows rising for a moment before maintaining his neutral expression again. If anything, it was not his place to say a thing.

While everyone was dwelling in their own thoughts, a loud commotion was brought to their attention.

The sound seemed to be coming from the reception hall.

Alexander was the first to walk off, while everyone else naturally followed his lead.

In fact, it was not only their group that had heard the commotion. Once they had arrived at the scene, a lot of others working from the bureau, had also gathered around to see what was going on.

"My daughter! My poor daughter! Who will bring her due justice?" A woman hysterically cried, standing in the middle of the hall.

In fact, it was not just one person. Other people had also come along with her, all seeming to have the same complaints as each other.

Olivia observed them all, noting that they were all commoners.

"Are the people's lives less important than those of nobles?" A middle-aged man bellowed, his voice reverberating between the beige walls.

One of the nobles, working at the bureau, could no longer bear to hear their incessant wailings, "How audacious for you to barge in here and cause a din! Do you not know what building you are standing in?"

"You have failed to protect the people from those vile creatures and now you wish to turn a deaf ear to our words?" The first woman berated. It seemed that her emotions were at an all-time peak as Olivia could see her body trembling.

The noble began to stutter for he couldn't answer her question. Not because he was stumped by her words, but that he knew it was not only humans who worked at the bureau as vampire's also held positions. As such, the man's eyes unconsciously gazed over to the various vampires who currently stood in the room before visibly gulping.

Of course, in their hysteria, the commoners had failed to notice that those same 'vile creatures' stood in the room with them, hearing their words loud and clear.

Seeing that the noble didn't dare attempt to answer the woman's question, Edgar being one of the head officials, cleared his throat, "And what is your purpose here?"

Thinking that they were one step closer to achieving their goals, one elderly man stepped forward. It seemed to be that he was their spokesperson.

"We want to suggest some laws," The elderly man voiced with a croaky tone.

The other nobles in the room started to sneer and snicker.

Commoners suggesting laws? What a joke.

Edgar, however, felt that if he didn't hear these people out today, the situation would escalate to surely give him an even bigger headache.

"Go on," Edgar encouraged, ignore the laughter behind him.

"All vampire's should be given an appropriate curfew. We suggest from dawn to 4pm in the afternoon."

The laughter had quickly died down. Everyone's eyes widened at the ludicrous words coming out of the old man's mouth.

Olivia, too, was stunned.

Subconsciously, her head turned to observe Alexander who stood to her left. On his face was… nothing. He seemed to have no reaction to the man's words. In fact, as she looked around, she found that the other vampires all held similar expressions.

Seeing them so neutral and indifferent, Olivia turned back around to the front.

She then thought about the suggestion the old man spoke of only to shake her head. Are they out of their minds? Who could attempt to give vampires a curfew?

Because no one had said anything after his first recommendation, the old man thought it was best to continue with his words, "Vampires who commit crimes should be hung, drawn and quartered. In public."

Once he had finished his words, someone somewhere, took a sharp breath. The atmosphere in the room had also plummeted.

Edgar felt the sweat trickling down his back.

As the old man began to once again open his wrinkled lips, Edgar hastily interrupted his nonsense, "Cease and do not say more!"

The old man widened his mouth before pursing his lips at being stopped while the others stood behind, had displeased expressions.

Eli was the first to break the stifling silence, his voice playful, "Those are quite hefty suggestions."

"Indeed. I wonder where they got their ideas from," A vampire spoke up. His tone seemed to sound neutral yet Olivia could sense a deep warning. She noticed that he was the first vampire to speak during the whole ordeal.

Because he stood slightly at the back, one of the women standing behind the elderly man, looked around to find the owner of the voice before her eyes landed on him.

Instead of first looking at his face, however, her eyes had inadvertently been attracted to the man's scarlet coloured pupils.

Her body shook, while her hand covered her mouth. Her eyes widened in fear.

"Fay? What's wrong? You look pale," A man, around the same age as the panicked woman, worried over her after seeing his wife's expression.

"L-look over there, there's a… there's a…" Fay clutched her husband's arm in a tight grip before her trembling finger pointed at the man she was talking about. Fay couldn't even bring herself to utter the word 'vampire'.

Because the group of commoner's heard Fay's words, curious, they all looked towards the vampire.

Soon, the expressions on their faces dramatically morphed into something else.

"It's not only him. T-there are others too!" Another man pointed out, stuttering.

Of course, vampire's working at the bureau was not a secret. In fact, some well-informed commoners, who had the appropriate connections, had long known about them working there. Except, what did that have to do with them? They were only lowly commoners and wished to cherish their lives. Actually, anything relating to vampires or even witches, were taboo amongst humans.

And so, the commoners in front of them had seemed to not have known that vampires were present during their tirade against them.

While their initial reaction when first finding out was fear, this soon shifted into anger and rage.

Seeing that Edgar was the only one to talk to them the most, they took him as the bureau's spokesperson, glares and looks of indignance finding his way.

"You… you…" The old man's body shook, in what seemed to Olivia, to be pure rage.

He took a small breath to calm down before continuing, "Must've thought of us as a joke, hearing our suggestions when you have the very people under your roofs!"

The woman who first caused the commotion also perked up, "No wonder the vampire's face no retribution for their wicked deeds! You're the ones shielding them!"

Olivia looked at the whole façade in amusement. She could not understand what these people were talking about. Shielding? What would the bureau gain from shielding them? It seemed that the group had left their common sense behind.

Actually, weirdly, Olivia felt that they came to the bureau particularly riled up.

While she was mulling over her thoughts, her eyes unconsciously roamed over the raging group, landing on one of them standing at the back.

The woman, feeling Olivia's gaze, looked back at her.

As they continued to stare at each other, Olivia felt that the woman's gaze was extremely unsettling. Enough that Olivia was the first to break her stare, opting to look away.

On the other side of things, the commoners continued their ranting.

As things started to become heated, Fay's husband spoke up in a loud, foghorn like voice, "No wonder The Order warned us about the blood of vermin! They even wormed their way into the bureau!"

Olivia could feel Alexander's mood plummet after the mention of The Order.

"Only The Order can protect the people's lives!"

"Long live The Order!"

Soon, it seemed to become a rally for The Order. Not just Olivia, but everyone watching had become bewildered at the sight.

"Who gave you the courage?" A very deep and dark voice, injected to the brim with aura, came from Alexander's mouth.