UNDERLINGS

　　Irena's POV

　　We all turned towards the scream, I smelled it first but soon it covered the room, the smell of blood, it was quite unsettling.

　　"Oh fuck, this will get the young ones ravenous," Shiva said through lips downturn, but the old shrew was right, a rarity to rival the winter solstice.

　　Within an instant, I was at the source of the scream, and vampires were standing over the detective's corpse. Pompeii and his idiot loyalists, the bastard ripped out the detective's heart

　　"You will pay for this, you lizard-" I roared as his men cowered behind him, "-Your childlike actions have gone unchecked for far too long!" I continued outraged by the scene that lay before me, but Pompeii the cocky prick in his hubris and ignorance had no worry or fear for consequences on his face.

　　He looked eerily fulfilled as he sneered at me "Your day has come Irena, the day you meet your end at my hands,"

　　A threat, a mistake that should've never crossed his lips, in all his centuries, Pompeii had never done anything quite as stupid, and then he topped one feat of stupidity with an even greater one as he lunged at me with a shriek, in a desperate and frankly foolish attempt to catch me off guard, I am never off my guard.

　　I stepped to the side as he missed and before he could level his head and turn to charge at me again, I grabbed his head from behind, fingers wrapping around his face and claws digging in as I ripped his head clean off of his shoulders with my bare hands and his cold dead vampiric blood spewed everywhere.

　　His men immediately knelt in submission to beg for their lives, as their fates were sealed, but I had no time for these trivial things.

　　I turned to face the council, blood running down my face. "Is there any opposition to the Pompeii's being dispatched at my hands?" I questioned ensuring to have my authority worn firmly on my facial expression

　　"Nay!" They all echoed and thus the end of what was an unnecessarily long life for an unnecessarily annoying man.

　　"What about the police?" A voice inquired from the room, "I guess we'll just have to clean it up" I directed.

　　Just then the detective's phone began to ring, I picked up and saw on the screen that it was his superiors calling for their scheduled check-in.

　　"Hmm, what to do?" I puzzled all the while trying to ignore the ring of the phone and the annoying chitty chatter of the council with their silly whispers until I could no longer take it.

　　"Would you all just shut up while I think!" I bellowed at them as a sudden hush fell over the room until it was only the ring of the phone left and suddenly an idea!

　　I answered the phone and frantically began to speak in a scared out of breath manner.

　　"Hello? I found this phone on the body of a dead cop in this museum, he was attacked. The men that did it got away in a Black Chevrolet Truck with a girl in the trunk, please send help!"

　　I immediately hung up and turned to Pompeii's spineless lackeys and snarked with a wicked smile on my face "Looks like there's use for you fools yet" they seemed confused but grateful, as I instructed them In their role in covering up these murders and getting the trail of the police off of the council and I. And after I wiped off the memories of the police officers I had put to sleep, I made them carry their unconscious bodies to a secluded area where they would wake up and have no memory of how they got there and the events before that.

　　As Pompeii's dogs packed up the bodies in their vehicle to go off and set the scene that'll lead the police on the wild goose chase brought upon by my carefully constructed plan, the meeting of the Council went on smoothly with a few glares from a few of the council members as a result of my choice to keep the blood-stained clothes on throughout the rest of the meeting a lot of them must have forgotten why I am called The Vampire Queen.

　　"Now, back to what we were talking about before the lengthy interruption," I smiled widely and looked among them.

　　"Yes, we were asking a question, reasons why the council wasn't informed about the activities that went on at the party held in your club and the death of the humans there." Countess Shiva answered.

　　" How were they able to get past your security measures with a weapon without anyone's knowledge, and most importantly, how were you able to get shot?" Sigurd the slaver asked.

　　Sigurd was a wise and silent man. Like a few others, he had quietly watched the unfolding of events and would mostly keep his judgments to himself. He used to be the king of the ancient Viking king of the far north, once the king of plundering and slavery and rum. He was never a typical Viking though. He was a wise man, even though he used his wisdom for his selfishness sometimes. But gone are those days now.

　　I sighed and looked at them once more, mentally tired of the conversation, even before it started.

　　"As a result of some technicality issues, they were able to sneak weapons into my club, but then when I think about it, I do not owe you detailed reports of how it happened, do I? I do not know how he was able to shoot me or how I wasn't able to dodge the bullet and I'm looking into that. This is something I can handle myself and I am close to finding Fabian Ruiz's location,"

　　A few people gasped in unison. Did I say something weird? I racked my brain for whatever I had said that had bad implications and then it hit me!

　　"He escaped??!" Countess Shiva exclaimed standing up while slamming her hands on the table at the same time.

　　Would this fuck face calm down?

　　"Calm your balls down, grandma," I snapped annoyed.

　　" You let a human escape?" Stone asked, clearly annoyed too.

　　"I was shot with a fucking silver bullet, how the fuck would I be able to do anything about it while I was fucking unconscious?" I answered in awe, how illogical could these people get?

　　"And your men? Your workers? Your security men? They couldn't do anything? They didn't see him escape?" Countess Shiva thundered.

　　I swear this woman has to be the most annoying person I've met.

　　"These are all too many questions, the deed has been done, I am taking care of it and everything will be fine in the end. I never saw the need for this meeting, and I still don't. It's nothing to be too worked up about. We haven't heard humans talking about our existence, have we? No. So it'll be good, for now. I'm close to finding Fabian and I'll deal with him. " I said using the most assuring tone I could muster. I had decided to not be rude about it as they were right.

　　"You know they're right," Valek asked.

　　"I know, which is why I'm trying to reassure them that I have everything in control," this whole thing began in my club and I wasn't able to prevent it, I would try to deal with it on my own.

　　He hummed in reply.

　　I remember what Kjov had said about rumors spreading among vampires about the present human generation being weak.

　　"That reminds me," I said loudly, ending the chatter among the council members. "I hear that the latest talk among vampires is that taking over the humans would be easy."

　　They looked among each other, "We don't know who's spreading such an idea in the head of the people, but we have to do something about it, and fast," Sigurd answered on behalf of the rest. They all nodded in agreement with him.

　　"There's nothing we can do," Valek stated.

　　I nodded slightly, "I agree with Valek, we can't control the thoughts of these people, I mean I can, but you all can't" a few people chuckled. " But then that would be against their will, that would be controlling them we all agree that it doesn't work like that,"

　　"So what do we do?" Homer asked.

　　"There's nothing we can do about it, but to be careful about how we condone it; the rumor I mean. We could advise our subjects against it and see how it works," Munster replied.

　　" I don't think that would work either," Magnus spoke up for the first time.

　　Munster's expression changed to a bland one. "You're not a member of the council, I wonder why you're here even,"

　　" I wanted him to come along, it's not against the rules," I instinctively defended Magnus. A rule among the council members is that trusted royalties can join the meeting for a better information supply, external knowledge, and external advice.

　　Muster scoffed but didn't say anything.

　　"Why did you say that, Magnus?" Countess Shiva inquired with a gentle voice, which always surprised me, she felt pity for Magnus.

　　"It is common knowledge that the more you try to stop people from acting a certain way or doing a particular thing, " I could tell that it was more than the rumors from the way he stared at his father, "they become even more curious, resistant and see anyone trying to stop them as the enemy preventing them from reaching their goal," yup, it is more than the rumors.

　　Most of us nodded in agreement, "so we wait and hope it doesn't get worse?" Another council member asked. It was Vulcan the barbarian, he used to be a Greek king. A handsome man that I've had a few flings with.

　　"There isn't much that we can do about this situation. Fingers crossed that it wouldn't get worse, and it'll just be rumors," I said in conclusion.

　　" We'll take your words for it, Irena, find Fabian Ruiz and end this. If you want our assistance, we are ready to help. We don't want this escalating," Munster informed.

　　" Alright then, I'm guessing this meeting is over. "

　　Countess Shiva rolled her eyes as she stood up after waiting for Magnus to come to me. I stood up too and we left the council hall.

　　My clothes were stained with blood, I wanted a bath and something delicious to eat.