Seraphina had dealt with most of the hunters. But some of them managed to escape, she can distinctly remember that the leader and the young assistant were not in the mix. The rain was now pouring normally. There was no time to rest. Now that the threat was gone, something else was on Seraphina's mind. She had to know about the other two bases, the ones she and Sylvia heard about. With that in mind Seraphina moved towards the factory. There must be some clues about the location of the bases, maybe a map or a point of contact.

But before she could move forward, Cassius came before her.

"YOU ARE A HYBRID!" Cassius yelled.

"How dare you hide this fact from us! I am your client, I trusted you to find my sister and here you are a half witch. How could I trust a Witch after the war!" Cassius kept spewing nonsense.

Sera rolled her eyes, she didn't have time for this, she could see the questions and hatred bubble in his eyes. Did she care? No. She tried to avoid him and move towards the building.

Cassius blocks her path again and grabs her hand. Leo tries to stop him by pulling him away, but Cassius was not ready to listen to anyone, he felt betrayed. Even though he didn't really like her from the beginning, at least she was a vampire like him. But now he didn't know what she was.

"Where are you going! I am not done talking. Who do you think you are? Always disrespecting me. You are not even pure-," said Cassius but was interrupted by Seraphina, who had enough of his ranting.

"Are you done, Your Highness? Because I don't want to listen to your silly little rant about how you cannot trust a half witch. Because believe it or not this half witch was the one who found your sister. So you better believe that this half witch knows how to do her damn job." Sera rebutted.

"Now, Your Highness, could you please move aside. I have much more important things to do than to handle your temper tantrum. It's bold of you to assume that your opinion matters. The truth is I don't care what you think about me." Seraphina said in a sickly sweet voice with a smile. She did not wait for Cassius's reply or for him to move aside. She went past him to the front entrance.

She went towards the room where she and Syl had heard the conversation between the leader and his assistant, perhaps she could find some important papers there which could help her find the other bases. Only Goddess knows what they are up to there. The room was quite empty but there was a lot of clutter. Like someone picked up the stuff in a hurry.

But surely they must have missed something. As Sera looked around the room her eyes fell on the further wall. That was it, it was a map with 3 points highlighted on before she could go towards it a large boom was heard and the wall collapsed. Her surroundings were engulfed in flames and smoke. She had to leave, there was nothing she could do, the map was already burnt and the rain had stopped. She couldn't just generate water out of thin air. And fire was a risky thing for vampires. Only a few minutes more would have been enough for her to get some valuable information.

Seraphina made her way outside. She stood in front of the burning building. Her eyes moved from one corner to the other. She missed her chance to find any information about the other bases. It must have been the leader who did this. He wasn't among the ones Seraphina had killed. He must have fled after ensuring that everything would burn up in flames.

Sera's trance was broken by Sylvia still in her wolf form, nuzzling her snout in Sera's hand.

"I am alright Syl. Don't worry," said Sera in a calm voice. Syl understood from Sera's expression that she wasn't able to find what she was looking for.

Cassius still felt agitated by Seraphina's words. Even though a part of him was blaring an alarm signal, what he was thinking wasn't right. He didn't ponder on this and moved towards his sister. He noticed that his sister was staring at Seraphina with admiration in her eyes, he didn't understand why.

Sera fished out the clothes she had packed for Sylvia and handed it to her. Sylvia went behind a bush to change. While Theron also went to put on the clothes he had brought.

All the people present there had been silent till now shocked by the explosion. But slowly the silence was broken as they started to whisper among themselves.

By the time Theron and Sylvia returned, all of the now free prisoners were having a full blown out conversation with each other. They were still trying to process all the things they had witnessed.

Theron also moved towards Lyra. Lyra was being fussed over by her brother and mate. Not being able to take it anymore she declared she is alright, just a bit shaken up.

Seraphina wished this was the only conversation that was taking place right now. But how can she expect that when the Crown prince basically declared the fact that she was a hybrid. Maybe if that wasn't the case she could convince everyone present there that she was just a normal witch but that wasn't possible anymore. She wondered what the hunters thought of her.

The whispers grew.

"She is a hybrid? But I thought there were none in existence!"

"Is she the one from the prophecy?"

"A witch and vampire! But weren't the races sworn enemies after the war?"

"I think I have seen her somewhere..."

" Yes...Yes. Isn't she the bartender from that restaurant? Umm...What was the name? Ah! Celestine"

Seraphina's focus shifted from the conversation when Nik approached her.

"You know I could make them forget right, Cousin?" Nik offered. Seraphina shakes her head. There were too many people here, to erase their memories would take a toll on Nik.

Vampires have the ability to manipulate the thoughts of a human, their prey. That is the major reason they can stay hidden. Something their goddess Lunara, wanted. But some vampires had even stronger affinity for mental manipulation, where they could even manipulate the thoughts of other supernaturals. Nik was one of them. But Seraphina didn't want to rely on Nik for this, as it came with a price. It could even mess up Nik's mind if he didn't regulate the usage. There were too many people here anyway.

All she could do is request them not to spill everything that happened today but she knew it was the tough chance that they would shut their mouths. But before that she needed to figure out why they were kept alive for so long.

The whispers of speculation died down as Seraphina made her way to the crowd. Some of them gulped. Perhaps she didn't like their nosy chatter.

Sera cleared her throat and spoke evenly, "Ahem! I know the last few days must have been traumatic for you all and you must be impatient to reach home as quickly as possible. I will make sure that happens but before that I would be grateful if you could answer some of my questions, just so that I could find out what the hunters were up to. Starting with, why do you think the hunters kept you alive for all this while?"

For a moment everyone's expression changed, now that their lives were no longer in danger, they could actually ponder over the question with a clear mind.

One of them answered, "It definitely felt weird. Everyday I thought it was the last but then nothing happened. They weren't violent unless I showed resistance when...."

"When they came to collect the blood", another completed.

"They collected blood from you too."

"Yeah! Those vile hunters came everyday to get almost a litre of blood from me."

Seraphina's mind froze, all she could think of was a conversation she had had with her grandmother. She hoped the answer for her next question would be no, she needed it to be a no.

"Did you feel any weakness after a while when the blood was taken?" Sera asked apprehensively. The princess, Lyra who had been quiet till now spoke, "Yes! It was so odd. It shouldn't have been the case as I was even given human blood everyday, I had no reason to feel weak."

"Even I felt weak, it felt like my energy was being drained", a werewolf answered. There were more murmurs of confirmation from the crowd.

Seraphina's lips formed a tight line. She didn't like what she was hearing. The victims were now sharing their experience with each other. Sera clapped her hands, "Thank you! For answering my questions. I would like to make a request. Please don't reveal what happened here tonight."

It wasn't difficult to understand what she was asking for. Although the princess was looking at her with a promise in her eyes, the story of the rest of the crowd was quite different. None of them were looking at Seraphina.

Sera sighed. There wasn't much she could do. She wasn't going to threaten them, they had already gone through enough. She could hope they would keep her request out of basic decency towards her. Besides she had a lot more to worry about, even more than her own exposal as a hybrid.

Nik came closer to her, "Cousin, what are you thinking about? Something tells me it is not related to the little icicle rain you caused earlier." Seraphina replied, "This thing just got a whole lot more complicated. May the Goddess help us."

1651 words