Away from Veteris, a group of vampires started to make their way towards one far away town. They had heard about hunters being gathered and trying to combine forces to hunt and attack the vampires.

  The number of vampires being killed had risen, where the humans had started to outsmart the night creatures after years and years of their family or friends being killed.

  In one of the car's sat Roman, Maximus, Piper, and Griffin. While in the other car travelled the three Elders and Mr. Borrell, who sat with his back straight without leaning on the seat.

  The two cars were not loaded with any weapons, and they had come empty-handed as they were vampires, who had a higher speed and abilities, which the humans didn't hold.

  Roman sat next to the window with his legs crossed and his eyes looking at the trees that passed one after another. His mind was occupied by Julie, where he had left her in the infirmary.

  "You alright?" came Piper's voice, who sat next to him.

  Roman turned his head. His gaze turned to look at Piper, who was looking at him. He asked, "Why do you ask?"

  "It would have been better to get Olivia with us now, considering your current health status," stated Piper. Her eyes fell on Roman's shirt, where there were faint spots of blood on the left side of his shirt. "Why didn't you refuse Donovan from this mission?" she inquired.

  Griffin, who was in the car, his ears sharpened to listen to the gossip while his eyes fixed on the trees outside.

  "I wasn't in the mood to hear his whining," Roman's words were casual, and Maximus, who sat right in front of him, his lips quirked up. Piper could tell that it was more than that.

  "What are you even doing here?" questioned Roman, an expression of annoyance crossing his face, and Piper smiled.

  "I thought to be more useful than being just Dante's assistant and handling the delinquents in the university," the smile on Piper's face widened as she saw Roman stare at her.

  "The hunters are highly equipped. You have never come to one of these things until now, have you, Piper?" he asked her. He remembered when he had caught his brother, Tristan and Piper, sneaking out of the town to spend time with each other in the past.

  "I might have not got the chance to be your sister-in-law in full public, but I did promise Tristan that I would look out for his family," replied Piper, to hear Roman let out a small sigh.

  "I think more than looking after me, I will be the one looking after you today," stated Roman, his lips set themselves in a thin line.

  Piper rolled her eyes, "Don't underestimate just because it is my first time. I have carried guns before with me." In the group of the vampires, she was the only one with a weapon." How is Julie doing? Everything good?"

  "Good," replied Roman, his eyes shifted to look at Griffin, who was looking at Roman through the reflection on the window, and he averted his eyes. "You should watch your back today. Because I won't hold back if you are near and you will wish that you were in the dungeon."

  Griffin scoffed, turning back to meet Roman's eyes. He said,

  "Do you think I am scared? You are the one who needs to be admitted in the infirmary and not me, to be worried about being beaten. This is why you are weakling, a half-bred vampire."

  "That's enough both of you. You can show your manly vampire self in front of the hunters," ordered Piper, looking at Roman and then at Griffin.

  As if two wasn't enough people to argue, Maximus joined, "Griffin, you must be lucky that the warden called the Elders right on time. Else you would be rusting and rotting in the coffin now. Especially after what you did."

  "Hmph," huffed Griffin, "Always talking on behalf of Roman, looks like he likes to make you do his dirty work. A pity that even though you were once one of the Lord's sons, yet you take orders from a half vampire."

  "I think you should check about it with yourself rather than decide about me," smiled Maximus, playing with the pin that was pierced in his tongue.

  "What did you do to piss off Rome?" questioned Piper, who had not heard the details from the doctor nor the headmistress.

  Just remembering the fear that Julie had gone through because of Griffin's methods was enough to bring out the simmering rage back in Roman's eyes.

  "At least I know I am the Lord's son," said Maximus, before adding, "Looks like you haven't forgotten the way your mother was treated by your father. Pitiful, isn't it? You behave like a whiny little bitch."

  Griffin's hand turned into a fist, and he tried to punch Maximus, but instead, the punch landed on the seat, and Maximus laughed. "Get over yourself, Griffin. You should be lucky that if it weren't for Julie, Roman would have beaten you to death."

  "I think Moltenore has other concerns than me right now. Especially how Donovan hates humans. I don't even have to do anything, because that little human's days are numbered and sooner or later, she will die by Donovan's hands," Griffin smirked, looking forward to the day when Roman would crumble from his pride.

  The vehicles stopped at the edge of the forest, a few distances away from the entrance of the town.

  "I think it is time to split up now," informed Mr. Borrell, while the Elders looked around the place.

  Maximus and Ms. Piper were discussing something while Roman tried to pick up noise from the forest.

  "Some parts in the forest ground has hunters' traps, while they have made sure to plant from which the silverwater is made. The air can be prickly. They have been too smart and have been drinking Silverwater to avoid themselves from being compelled," explained Mr. Borrell.

  "At least the pathetic humans know what they are up against. But I doubt they are expecting us Elder vampires in here today," remarked Luciano with an air of authority. "I cannot believe that you brought an injured vampire, Donovan," he commented, looking at Roman.

  "Luciano, it seems like you have a short memory. Roman is one of the best. It is better to have him here instead of some weakling, I prefer quality over quantity," Donovan's words were proud, his chin up. "Let us go in a pair of three per team."

  "Maximus," Castiel called his nephew, wanting to make sure to have the boy next to him to help while at the same time protect him.

  "Roman," Donovan said in an obvious tone.

  "Griffin and Borrell" Luciano selected his discipline, which left Ms. Piper.

  "Piper," said Roman and the three teams had been formed.

  "Let us go now," said Donovan and they split up in different directions so that they could catch and kill the hunters. Donovan moved forward, as he was here to take a stroll while knowing not bothering Roman as he knew the boy could look after himself.

  The vampires carefully walked in the shadows of the forest, trying to catch the scent of the humans in the dark and quiet place. While Roman and Piper continued to walk, their eyes and ears alert, he asked her,

  "I thought you weren't keen on harming the humans. If I remember, spilling blood is something you haven't enjoyed."

  "You worry for nothing, Rome. I am a vampire remember—"

  "You know what I mean," Roman interrupted her words.

  "And what about you?" questioned Piper, raising the gun in her hand, ready to pull the trigger at the slightest movement. "Have you thought about turning Julie into a vampire? There are people in Veteris who follow Donovan's words and she's there without you?"

  "I am hoping she will be able to stand her ground," muttered Roman, knowing the Corvin was around her. Right now, only Donovan had an issue with her and not the others. "Donovan gave his word that he wouldn't touch her."

  "I find it hard to believe," murmured Piper under her breath, and one corner of Roman's lips pulled up.

  "By the way, I forgot to thank you," said Roman and Piper's eyebrows raised.

  "I wonder if I turned deaf. What is it about?" her eyes briefly moving to look at Roman with curiosity.

  "For helping Julie that day," he was talking about the play on the stage. "And also for being there here. I know you want to run away from Veteris."

  "I didn't know it was obvious, but somewhere, I think I like bossing the children," she chuckled before her expression turned serious.

  "Both of us have lost our family, we have seen blood… on our hands. I was a human when that happened, and maybe the shock and trauma I felt tried to wash away when I turned into a vampire. But it won't be the same for you, Rome. I don't want you going through the same loss of what I felt in the past. Not even remotely."

  It had torn her from inside. She was one of the few humans who had quickly turned into a vampire without any trouble. And that had allowed her to see Tristan's dead body with a wide hole in his chest, watching him put into the casket.

  "I won't let anyone harm her," promised Roman, his words firm. "I won't let it happen."

  Piper nodded her head, "I know you won't. I wonder why I didn't come out of Veteris during these times to hunt before, it feels much more refreshing than being cooped in there. Reminds me of all those good times that happened in the night."

  "You mean the time when you and Tristian used to sneak out of the mansion to meet each other?" deadpanned Roman, and Piper had a grin on her lips.

  "They are the sweetest and wonderful moments of my life," said Piper. When they continued to walk, Roman's ear picked up the slight sound that came from above in the tree, and he quickly pushed Piper to the side, and soon a gunshot was heard.

  A second later, more gunshots were heard, and the hunters started to make their appearance known by jumping down from the trees and aiming at the vampires, who had entered their territory. Roman quickly got hold of one of the humans, holding the person's hand while the hunter tried to punch him.

  The Hunters were smarter than the average humans when it came to dealing with the vampires, and they had the ability to stand their ground for a long time because of the intense training that they had received to be a hunter.

  [Music Recommendation: Warehouse Smack Down]

  "There are more vampires! Bring backup!" shouted one of them, and Roman realized the person wasn't speaking to his companions present here, but he was talking on the phone.

  Donovan apparated from his place to come and stand right behind the hunter. "Who do you think you are speaking to, when you have guests to entertain?" asked the Elder vampire by getting close to the human's ear.

  The human ducked down before Donovan could take a bite into his body and rip his head off. Another human threw gas like bombs at the vampires, and the forest was quick to fill itself with a light tinge of green smoke.

  "What the fuck is this?" Luciano questioned in annoyance as his skin started to burn and melt.

  "It is a bomb that has the extracted properties from the Silverwater," Mr. Borrell promptly educated the Elder vampire.

  "What a bunch of idiots. Why wasn't this mentioned earlier?" demanded Luciano before he got hold of one of the hunters and tore the arm. If Mr. Borrell wasn't someone who had the patience of a monk right now by dealing with the delinquents of Veteris for years now, his nerve would have popped up in his forehead over the Elder vampire's words.

  Gunshots were fired, and the arrows were released in the air, but the vampires did their best to dodge the weapons. Though they had initially expected to face not more than twenty hunters in the forest, there were more of them. It was as if the hunters had already expected the vampires to attack them.

  The gunshots echoed deep in the forest while the fight between the vampires and the hunters continued. On one side, one of the hunters was looking for the vampires, looking back and forth when Castiel jumped down from a tree. The hunter was young and was startled. He aimed his gun at the vampire to kill him, but Maximus bent the nozzle of the gun with a pleasant expression on his face.

  "It isn't polite to point your gun at your Elders," stated Castile and the human pulled out the silver daggers, attacking the vampire. But Castiel kept dodging it by moving backwards or sideways.

  "What are you doing with him, Uncle?" questioned Maximus, who was in the middle of the fight with one of the humans.

  "I thought I would keep him occupied for sometime, maybe later give him an offer to change himself into a vampire," said Castiel, because the hunter seemed quite capable in his style of using the daggers. "I think I am quite enjoying this."

  On the other side of the forest, Piper used her guns, shooting two hunters right at the back of their heads, and Donovan turned to look at one of the hunters falling on the ground. "An impressive skill you have in there," he complimented her before he got hold of another hunter, tearing the person's head, where blood dripped on the ground.

  Roman tried to look for the person who was the main person in this group of hunters while he fought one of them. The Silverwater gas made it hard to look around, as it felt nothing less than suffocating, pricking not just his skin but also his insides as he breathed the air in.

  His hand went right at the person's neck, but at the same time, someone used a metal rod to hit his head, and he lost his grip on the hunter in front of him.

  "How many blood sucking creatures are in here?!" questioned the hunter, who held the metal rod and took the chance to aim his gun at Roman's heart.

  "Looks like they came here with their coven. Our men should be here soon!" shouted the other hunter. Before the person could pull the trigger, Roman caught hold of the human's leg, pulling him down.

  When the other person tried to shoot the vampire, Roman turned his back on the ground while using the human as a shield. This ended up with the human getting shot by his own man. Even though the hunter got one shot wrong, he didn't stop himself and continued to fire while aiming it at Roman.

  The human, who Roman had been using to block the bullets, threw up blood before he died because of the continuous bullets hitting his body. Using the same dead person, Roman threw the body at the other hunter, who took out another gun right now. This time the gun was much more advanced, and not wanting to take the risk, Roman used his fire ability at the man.

  Thanks to the green gas, it camouflaged the person who was using the fire, and the hunters turned confused as to where the fire came from.

  "Use the stakes!" shouted another human, and soon the sharpened wooden stakes came flying at the vampires. "Where is the fire coming from? Jonathan?!"

  "How pitiful," scowled Luciano, who let Griffin fight the hunters all by himself, as he felt the boy needed to learn to be good at something at least. While occasionally, the Elder threw the pests from one corner to another corner of the forest. "Are we going to fight the entire human population today itself?" came the sarcastic words from the vampire.

  "There are many Hunters here, and if we don't get rid of them all, one of them will inform the other. Actually they must already know," stated Mr. Borrell as this was not the year of eighteen hundred, but they were in the two thousand.

  While the fight between the two groups went on, Roman dealt with two other hunters, who were more persistent than the ones he had come across until now. They didn't seem like the usual humans, and somewhere he started to believe that these were vampires. And he was right. Though the two hunters didn't show their true identity right away, Roman took note of their dead hearts.

  "Working for the humans, who wants to kill you?" Roman's face was without an expression as he questioned.

  "What a smart vampire, it is very hard to find ones that have decent brains," said one of two vampires with a chuckle.

  "Sadly it looks like some lack in that aspect," remarked Roman, and the one who spoke turned irked by Roman's words.

  "It will be satisfying to kill someone like you," said the vampire, who looked like they had sided with the hunters.

  Roman didn't bother to reply to them, and he blocked the vampire's hand, ducking down from the first vampire and twisting the persons' hand. From afar, Donovan turned to look at where the young boy was, and his eyes shone as if a diamond was shining in its brilliance.

  When Donovan heard a sound from behind, he turned his face to the side.

  "How many of you are in here?" questioned the hunter, ready to pull the trigger any moment.

  "What a funny thing, I had the same question in my mind, gentleman," replied Donovan, and the next second, the human lost sight of the vampire who was in front of him.

  Donovan appeared behind the hunter, catching the human's head and said, "Now, where were we? How many of you are here?"

  But the Elder vampire didn't stay in the same spot, and he stepped away as another hunter pulled the trigger, ending up shooting his fellow hunter. The man screamed in pain, "AHHHH!"

  "What a melodious sound," said Donovan.

  Away from him, at a distance, Roman continued to fight the two vampires. He kicked one of the vampires away from him, whose body hit hard against the tree. He caught hold of the other and pushed his fingers through the vampire's chest.

  The vampire, whom he had earlier kicked, came back, attempting to pierce his vampire nails into Roman's back to get to his heart. Roman felt the piercing pain. He used his leg, kicking the person from behind, and tackled him down.

  "I don't think I noticed it before, but your heart seems like beating too fast—"

  Roman didn't allow the vampire to speak as he first crushed the vampire's fingers before pulling the person's heart out. "So fucking noisy," he said, annoyance in his eyes.

  The vampires continued to clean the forest from the hunters, while the green gas of the Silverwater didn't wholly disappear. The vampires were scattered around, trying to kill the hunters.

  Once when they killed almost every hunter they had met along with the few vampires, who had joined with their enemies, the place turned quiet.

  "What would you like to do with the human dead bodies?" asked Mr. Borrell to the Elders.

  "I don't think I want to ride with them back in the car. They barely seem presentable," remarked Donovan. Castiel nodded his head and said,

  "I think it would be better to have all the bodies burned, unless we have a few more coming to deal. Though this was needed as we discussed, this is going to create an uproar and more hunters are going to come sniffing. Everyone will need to clean up our tracks wherever you go."

  "Wonderful," remarked Donovan, with a smile on his face. The fewer the hunters, the easier it is for the vampires. "Let us get this over with so that we can get back. The scent of Silverwater is irking me."

  Still in the forest, Roman moved to the side, coughing some amount of blood as if his body was going through what he felt a few hours ago after taking the bullet.

  [Music Recommendation: Light of the Seven- Ramin Djawadi]

  "Did Isolde tell you how long it's going to take for the silver to flush out of your body?" asked Maximus, coming near to where Roman was.

  "Probably two days," Roman wiped the blood that had smeared over his lips.

  "Do you want to go somewhere else after this? Probably the diner?" asked Maximus, knowing Roman needed blood and not canned ones. Fresh blood.

  "Where are you both planning to go?" asked Piper, making her way there, and she placed the gun to hook it behind her back.

  Roman looked at Piper, who only had a few bruises on her forehead and arms. And though he didn't say anything to her, Piper could tell that he had been worried about her, and she smiled.

  "I saw you fighting with that one hunter, and I must say I liked the punch you gave him," Maximus openly praised Piper.

  "I used to be a badass when I was a human too, very brave. I knew I could do it," replied Piper, raising her hands to emphasise it. Her eyes fell on the blood that was on Roman's chin. "We should hurry back to Veteris. I don't know what that damn old bat was trying to do by pushing you into this."

  Roman rolled his eyes, "You're annoying, do you know that, Piper?" he asked her. Being Tristan's brother, the vampiress had always looked out for Roman, like they were family. And maybe they were even though the opportunity to announce Tristan's and Piper's relationship had never come.

  "Yes, you have told it several times," chuckled Piper, and she came to stand in front of him. "Time to get back to Veteris so that you can rest. Julie must be waiting for you," there was a warm smile on her face, glad that they had got rid of the hunters.

  While they were speaking, suddenly, out of nowhere, a gunshot was heard, and Roman winced at the tear of his arm's muscle. Maximus' eyes fell on Roman's arm where the bullet had grazed.

  They looked at where the last surviving hunter of the group stood. Donovan was quick to appear in front of the human and pulled his heart out. And while everyone's focus was on the human, Roman noticed Piper smiling, where she didn't move.

  When he looked down at her chest, he noticed red liquid starting to spread-

  [NOTE: Physical copy giveaway revision:

  Top 10: Hardbound of LTR and slipcase, 'The Crown's Obsession' of Vol1 and Vol2, bookmark

  Top 11-40: Softbound of LTR

  A few LTR copies will be handed out to readers out of the list for their support…… The list will be taken tomorrow at reset.]