Serpent Kings Headquarters Pt. 1

She was hungover, bored, and somehow more enthralling than ever before. Perhaps it was the unusually frigid aura emanating almost violently from her pores, or it was simply the new faces who, try as they might, could not remove their eyes from her face and the revealing outfit she had on.

— — —

Violet had, true to her musings, slept two hours, awoken with a splitting headache and no other desire than to return to her dorm when Shou's emergency message had come buzzing for the hundredth time into her phone.

It had taken her sleep deprived brain a few minutes to register the information typed out.

The scheduled meeting to the Serpent Kings headquarters has been moved forward, they were all to have me at the tarmac about two hours ago and several people had already been knocking on her door.

Shou had, surprisingly,in Violet's opinion, come to her rescue. He had told them all that she had left for an emergency and had told their head teacher. Shou's message had continued, with an incredulous tone, that Kuznet had stepped forward and claimed his excuse as truth.

Shou's next few messages were solely focused on verifying her safety and reminding her that they were still expecting her to join them at headquarters as soon as possible. Violet had backtracked and found several matching messages from Kuznet, a few missed calls and annoyingly, even more from Kieren.

Still laying on the floor, she typed out a quick message to Kuznet, scrolled through Kieren's messages with a snort and then closed her eyes. Several options were forming in her head and Violet had to admit that the timeline was shifting. If anything, the Ruenen moving the meeting up was proof; today, tomorrow, soon…

Violet had, after several more minutes of curing herself, and the world out, risen off the floor and sauntered to the closet only to let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh fuck me."

She had went through the trouble of setting up a few different safe houses, each equipped with medical necessities, and a bed. Enough for a crash landing and a reevaluation, she had not, prepped for low profile missions at all of her safe houses and by the state of the wardrobe, this place was used to outfit her "making a god dammed entrance" schemes.

She rubbed her pounding head and leafed through the options, "well we've got, whore, and whhoooreeeee…" she chuckled dryly and upon settling for a low V cut oversized white shirt and the least offensive short shorts she could locate (ass still hanging out) she stepped over to the shower.

Twenty minutes later, with a piece of toast in her mouth she disappeared only to reappear in the closest town to headquarters. Violet ignored the open mouth gazes and hailed a car service to drive her to the main gate.

Her driver, an older woman with pasty white skin, shot disapproving glances in the mirror all while commenting that the world was going to shits. Violet forced the toast down her throat with a low grunt and shot the lady her best "shut the fuck up" glance.

The shower had done her wonders, and while she no longer looked, or smelled hungover, she did look like she had passed through a rough night. Thinking back to Shou and Kuznet's excuse that would play to her advantage. The outfit, that would not.

Violet stood in front of an enormous gate, thirty feet tall and surrounding a fortress in every direction, looking into an even bigger building. It was an old castle, rebuilt and fortified. Violet fought the urge to roll her eyes, of course the Ruenen had taken every opportunity to show off there vast wealth. "Dick swingers," she muttered.

Pasty face had opened the door for her, muttered that even rich people must pay for pussy, and huffed back into her car.

To her disdain Violet had leaned back over into her window and murmured an inch from her face. "Baby, both you and these people, could never afford me."

Her driver had driven off angry and cursing up a storm, much to Violet's satisfaction. Preparing herself to face her fellow dragons and their endless teasing, Violet could only comfort herself in the knowledge that at least it was only her classmates and Kieren and his troupe wouldn't be there.

As if.

Violet had been led up an ornate staircase by a starry eyed man, who was all but drooling, and into a cavernous meeting room in which stood at least ninety people.

Shou gasped out and stepped forward in shock, "Violet!"

All eyes turned to her and in a moment of most deserved karma, Violet realized that the Ruenen had called upon the two best teams in every magical school in the entire nation.

Incessant murmurs erupted in every corner and ignoring them all Violet pranced loftily towards Shou's group. He met her halfway with a concerned expression, whilst hiding a small blush. "I didn't know you had tattoos, they're un..umm… nice"

Violet patted him on the back carelessly, "didn't have the best closet possible this morning."

The rest of Shou's group surrounded them with accusatory glances, "they said you had a family emergency, why are you dressed like you just left a club."

"I thought you were an orphan, how could you have a family emergency?"

"Were you sleeping with James again?"

Violet listened to the their questions noting that every single ear, from her school and otherwise was listening.

"Just because I'm an orphan doesn't mean I don't have friends. Although, I suppose one less since he was hit by a drunk driver last night and killed." Violet continued her lie ruthlessly, "I got to hold his bloodied corpse in the hospital and you're right, I should have borrowed better clothes from the lost and found at the hospital when I was summoned here."

An awkward silence filled the air, Mika, who like Shou had remained silent moved forward to hug her, "im sorry."

Violet patted her back gently and whispered in her ear, "don't be, im lying."

Mika covered her face, hiding a laugh, which to the rest of the group looked like hidden sob, "glad you made Violet, this looks like it's going to be a pain."

They parted and Violet moved with them to take a seat in one the many chairs.

There were enough chairs to accommodate them and perhaps thirty more, placed purposely in a square, so that they could all partake in conversation.

Whilst not all eyes left her face or clothes, or tattoos immediately, the talk of other subjects returned rather quickly and Violet relaxed in her chair. She listened uncaringly to the gossip and theories as to why they had been summoned. Violet scanned the room, there were four doors, one at every wall and she could hear voices coming from the door directly opposite the one she had entered.

It was a beautiful room, ornate, the ceiling covered in a well preserved fresco depicting the original King and his subjects. Violet's gaze flitted through the rest of the room, temporarily stopping on the gaze of a breathless looking girl who was dying to make eye contact with her. The girl blushed profusely as Violet looked away.

She continued her scan only to frown as her gaze landed on a chair to her right, and in front. The chair was of better wood, stood taller, and was adherently reserved for someone of high importance.

An unbidden thought entered her mind and before she could turn to ask Shou her burning question, the door opened. In came at least ten Serpent King members, five Ruenen lords, Kuznet, Jace, and of fucking course, Kieren.

Violet tensed imperceptibly as his scorching gaze scanned the room and came to land instantaneously on her. She met his eyes coldly before turning away. Several other gazes turned in her direction misinterpreting his gaze for dissatisfaction at her appearance. Almost immediately a voice spoke out, asking if he wished for her removal.

"Not necessary." Was all he replied.

They sat down in their respective chairs as Violet fought the urge to bolt from her chair and the room entirely. Alex turned to her and smiled somewhat between amused and sad only to look confused when Violet did not return the smile.

The leader of the Serpent Kings, Commander Zet, stepped forward, she too shot Violet a disappointed glance before the talks commenced.

Violet was not listening, she did not want to be here, her fight of flight response system was fully engaged and despite Kuznet attempting to make eye contact, Violet was fully disengaged. Something in her bones was on fire, there was a deeper ploy here and despite the warning, the ringing voice in her ears kept repeating, "Kieren is marrying Julie"

Kieren, who was wallowing in full frustration was stuck, he wanted to get up and pull Violet out of the room, explain that he wasn't actually going to marry Julie, that there was a bigger problem at the moment and he only needed a bit of patience. This was of course impossible, because with every passing second the frost emanating from Violet's core was growing.

All of their attention was redirected, when Commander Zet cleared her throat and announced, "You have all been brought together because we need your help. As of this moment you are one joint task force. Information on the recent murders and the person responsible for the murders has been presented."

Absolute silence, for a moment, before a myriad of voices erupted, which were all quelled the moment Kieren rose to his feet. "You mean to say that someone has been aware of the identity of the killer and remained silent?"

Zet exchanged a consternated gaze with him, "Your highness, I have only been made aware of this myself two days ago. It would appear that the murderer was from within the Ruenen, they recently turned and with misinformation have begun hunting down innocent people whom they believe are guilty of treason. The killer is deranged and I have been informed that no words from their mouth should be trusted."

For Violet everything had gone silent, she was processing the words and the possibilities that came with them to the hundredth option.

Kieren spoke again, "that's bullshit, you mean to say that Silver or Jeremiah were innocent? You cannot be that blinded."

Zet frowned, "Lord Zordyk, this is merely the information I have been granted, but it matters not, I've been told that within half an hour someone who has actually interacted with the killer will be here to explain this to us directly."

Kieren glowered into the air itself before sitting down, "so we're gathered because with this information we will be cable of coming together to hunt this man down and kill him."

Zet gripped the back of her chair momentarily , "She… your lordship, It's a she, she's known only by her last name, "Evanora," and they want her brought in alive.