Sorry for the late submission...this is the penultimate chapter...already finished the whole story woohooo!!!! so shall be submitting both chapters! Thanks an awful lot for all the glorious comments that I've gotten so far...both positive and negative. And please don't forget to vote and comment.
Happy Reading! :) xoxo
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
As Sebastian got ready for the meeting that was to take place in a few minutes, Damien and Drake sat at the dining table and stared at him with restrained excitement in their eyes.
'Are you sure about this, Seb? I mean, what if a vampire is truly behind Annette's cocked up capture? Are you truly going to fry him?' Drake asked.
'Without a doubt. This is my queen, their queen, all our queen. And by attempting to put her life in danger, they show disrespect for me. And I must act accordingly.' Sebastian replied grimly.
He had thought long and hard about how he was going to approach finding out who wanted to hurt Annette and he had come to his decision. Whoever it was was going to pay, and pay hard.
'Come on guys, let's go downstairs.' He said and walked out of the room.
On getting downstairs to the main hall, he saw the room filled with confused vampires milling around. He could understand their confusion. This was an impromptu meeting. One that should not be taking place as they had had their monthly meeting. He smiled grimly to himself.
'Ladies and gentlemen. I am sure we are all askance as to the purpose of the meeting. All would be revealed in due course. Please, I ask of you, sit.' Sebastian said in a loud voice and all the vampires silently sat, waiting patiently for what he had summoned them for.
Sebastian sat down and looked at everyone. They stared at him patiently. He sighed to himself sadly. For all his bravado and anger, it would truly hurt him to find the betrayer in their midst. He had lived with most of them for decades, centuries even. And to find that one or some of them were unhappy with his choice in queenship and chosen to kill Annette rather than inform him of their unhappiness...that shook him to the core.
'This is a meeting of grave importance as something...shocking has come to my attention.' He started in a grave tone. 'It seems that there are some people here who are unhappy with my choice of Annette as your queen.'
A murmur broke out as vampires looked at one another in surprise.
'So now I ask, and I beg you to be honest in your answer. Remember, we are brethren first and foremost, and your council is something I will not take lightly. Does anyone here disagree with the choice of Annette, my soulmate, as your queen?'
No one said anything.
Sebastian looked round as everyone stared at him with stoic expressions. He smiled to himself; these were vampires. They put the expressionless in expressionless demeanours.
'I see that no one here disagrees. And I am glad of course. Yet it amazes me as someone here dared to go to my soulmate's home to harm her.'
This caused arguments to break out among the vampires as they reacted with shock, anger and fear.
Sebastian raised a hand and they all fell quiet. 'Yes. It's shocking is it not? And yet it saddens me, that someone here did not deem it fit to tell me that they were unhappy with my choice. Instead, they decided to take the decision of harming...of killing my queen into their hands. Truly saddening indeed.' He bowed his head for a second letting the tension in the hall to rise to almost boiling point. Then he snapped his head up with his eyes blazing in anger. Some of the vampires sat in front of him shrank back in fear unconsciously.
'Well, as no one intends to admit to harming my queen, I shall give you all the benefit of the doubt. This is simply because I trust you all. I have lived and learned and been with you all for centuries. I have been your Master for centuries. We have all been through thick and thin together. And I believe that if anyone had had a problem with my choice they would have come to me, have told me about it, whether in confidence or not. And we would have looked for a way to sort things out. Since no one here confesses to it, then I believe you. But in order to ensure that such a thing does not occur again; in order to...shall we say not put my trust and faith in you all to the test, then I un-announce Annette as queen.'
A gasp went through the hall at his statement.
He nodded, albeit sadly, 'Although it hurts me to do this, it seems I have no other choice. I think it's for the best this way. I shall comply with your harsh yet secretive demand of letting Annette go, no matter how much of a sacrifice this is. The only thing I ask of you, whoever you are, is that you let her be. Your wish has now become my command. This meeting is adjourned.'
With this he got up rather abruptly and swept out of the hallway and back to his room ignoring the mutterings and whispers that commenced immediately he left.
He did not have to wait for too long; soon the room opened and Damien, Drake and another Vampire, Samen walked in and shut the door quietly behind them.
'Your plan worked perfectly. We know who it was...well one of them anyway.' Drake said excitedly.
Sebastian nodded grimly and looked at Samen.
Samen nodded in the affirmative. Samen was a vampire with an added ability. He was like a walking lie-detector. With him in the room, he could detect liars by what they said, how they spoke, how their postures were, even by how they breathed. He was exceptional amongst humans and lowly or normal vampires. Unfortunately his system was wonky amongst the higher vampires and he said as much.
'Of the vampires, I believe Malachi is the culprit. When you asked the question, his heart rate sped up and he looked to the left before looking at your table. He is definitely up to something. However I am not sure about the elders as I cannot read them. Plus there seemed to be something, or someone that Malachi looked at when he glanced at you but I could not tell who exactly he was looking at as I was reading his pulse. He is working with someone else and that someone is an elder close enough to sit at your table.' Samen said in his soft tone.
Sebastian nodded, 'Thank you Samen. You have been most helpful. You can go.'
Samen bowed and made to the leave the room but was stopped by Sebastian's words.
'I need not tell you that this conversation goes no further than this room.'
Samen nodded immediately, 'You can trust me with your heart, my Lord. I would never betray you.'
He left the room and Sebastian sighed to the twins, 'I really hope he wouldn't as that would definitely be the death of him. Literally.'
Drake shook his head, 'I do not think Samen would betray you. He has stood by you even before you knew us.'
'Yes, I know. But so have the other vampires. So has Malachi. So have the elders. But one of them is against me. I can trust no one but you two right now, Drake.'
Drake nodded and sat down with his twin brother. He could never betray Sebastian. Neither he nor his brother could and he was pleased that Sebastian was aware of that fact.
'Now that we know Malachi's one of the people behind Annette's near capture, what do we do?' Damien asked.
'We question him, that's what!' Drake said, 'and then we kill him. I never liked the thuggish fuck anyway.'
