Letters to Romeo

With the trouble that had suddenly descended to Veteris, Julie had failed to notice something. To confirm she turned to Melanie and whispered, "Do they know that I know about vampires?" It was because Mr. and Mrs. Davis had replied to Melanie's question about vampires not being good in her presence.

Melanie shook her head, "I think they believed that you knew, as I was the one to bring up about the vampires at the table. They must have assumed that I told you as we are close?" She bit her lip, realizing the mistake that she had committed in front of her parents.

Far away from the table, Mr. and Mrs. Davis continued to walk towards the lunchroom's counter. Mr. Davis spoke to his wife in a low voice, "Did you notice it?"

"I did. It seems like it isn't just Conner, but also our daughter who seems to have a hard time keeping a secret," replied Mrs. Davis, but that wasn't what bothered her. "There must be more than one vampire… for Melanie to want to defend those blood sucking leeches."

Mrs. Davis was a woman who was a hunter since she was a young girl. After seeing her brother and her father being killed by a group of vampires, she had vowed to kill every vampire and send them back to hell, where they rightfully belonged.

In the meantime, Donovan appeared in the lunchroom with Luciano, arguing about something in a hushed tone. Julie, who noticed their presence, searched for Roman, her eyes roaming across the entire lunchroom.

"We need to ask the person in the kitchen to not serve the food. It is going to be a bloodbath, if the vampires are exposed," stated Melanie, and Julie couldn't agree more.

And then Simon appeared through the main doors of the lunchroom, walking towards Mr. and Mrs. Davis and stopping them from going further by engaging them in a conversation. Within a few seconds Roman entered the lunchroom, and Julie walked to him and asked, "Melanie's parents are planning to feed something lethal to the vampires. Mrs. Davis is going to enter the kitchen."

Roman's eyes were on the hunter couple, and he replied, "Yeah, Simon said he would handle it. He plans to switch another vial of water in the woman's pocket."

"She's holding it in her hand," said Julie, worry coming to mark on her face.

"I will be back in a bit," murmured Roman, and he left Julie's side.

Mr. and Mrs. Davis had never met Roman and didn't know who he was. He casually walked towards them as if going to the counter to get his breakfast. He came to stand behind the couple while listening to them speak to Simon.

"It is good that we have someone we know to look after Melanie and Conner. After all, they are still learning and it has barely been a few days," spoke Mr. Davis, and Simon offered them a polite smile.

"It is the least I can do," replied Simon, and he then said, "What brings you here?"

"We are here on a mission of checking to see if everything is as clean as it is supposed to be," answered Mrs. Davis, continuing to hold on to the glass vial. "Did you know that someone died outside Veteris ground? In the forest. It has been all over the news."

"I think I must have heard something similar to it, but Veteris' staff usually doesn't bring such things to the students' attention except warning them to not wander away from the property," responded Simon, and he asked them, "Have you brought Silverwater with you? I have some if you need to double the effect," he offered them.

"That won't be needed. I have something much better than Silverwater," replied Mrs. Davis, and Simon tilted his head.

"What is it?"

"It is one of my creations. I call it poison Ivy," smiled the woman, and she looked down at her hand where the vial was present.

Simon's green eyes locked on the little glass, and he asked, "May I see it? I don't think I have ever seen anything that has been able to surpass Silverwater."

Though Mrs. Davis knew that Simon was a hunter, she didn't completely trust him enough. But then it wasn't like he would take it with him or drop it. She gave it to him without taking her eyes off the vial and keeping a close eye on it as it was the key to unlock the truth of Veteris.

"To think that such a little thing can do an enormous damage one can imagine," said Simon, and he continued, "I have been trying to lay traps and wait for people to step into it…bite me," he whispered the last two words. "But unfortunately, I have been having hard luck in finding them. I sometimes wonder if I should perhaps just quit university and get a hunting job. After all, it is much more thrilling and satisfying than going to end up in a four walls job."

"I get what you mean, but you have come so far. I think you would be a wonderful assistant, if you ever plan to divert a little from your actual streams," Mrs. Davis offered him a job in her own office. "Once Mel graduates, she will be joining us and we can create even better solutions to inject into the vampires and put an end to the entire race."

A pleased expression appeared on Simon's face, and he said, "I am really thrilled over the offer. Thank you very much, Mrs. Davis, I will be sure to consider it."

Mr. Davis continued looking around at the students, keeping an eye to find a single trait of the vampires. But so far, he couldn't find even one. But the truth and the fact about Veteris vampire students was that they were taught to camouflage with the humans, to not stand out and to appear like any other human. Being in the presence of many human students, the vampire students were used to such an atmosphere and weren't on high alert as if they were going to be caught any second.

Simon said to them, "My family will be very happy to know that I am being offered a job in the hunters community."

"I am sure they will be. We people need to stick to each other," replied Mrs. Davis, and just for a moment, her head turned to look at the counter as two students had moved away, giving them space to walk forward.

In that window of the gap, Simon quickly slid his hand in the pocket of his jacket. But just as he pulled his hand out with the vial, Mrs. Davis' eyes fell back on him and his hand.

The woman's eyes quickly narrowed at him.

Julie and Melanie, who were far away from them, could still see what was going on, and they felt their hands turn sweaty and their heart beating louder than ever. They didn't want anyone in this room getting hurt.

"Shit!" Melanie cursed under her breath on seeing her mother catch Simon slipping the glass vial into his pocket.

"I think we should go there," said Julie, so that Melanie's parents wouldn't start killing the vampires right now.

Back at the counter, Mrs. Davis asked Simon, "What did you just do?"

Simon gave a blank expression as if he didn't know what the woman was speaking about. He asked, "Nothing at all. I was taking out my handkerchief," he said, pulling it from his pocket. But there was clear distrust written in Mrs. Davis' eyes, and it was then that the doubt of suspicion was planted in her mind about the boy.

"What happened?" questioned Mr. Davis, who had not noticed it.

Roman, who had been standing there near the counter, picked up his coke can and walked past them, walking close to Simon's back because of the students who had come to hover near the counter.

Mrs. Davis didn't reply to her husband, as she had caught something on Simon. The boy stretched his hand, giving her the glass vial. He casually said, "I think it would be interesting to see the possible doom this little thing can bring, if there are people whom we are anticipating."

The woman took the glass vial from Simon's hand, but she didn't stop there and stepped forward, holding his wrist. Her hand went straight to the pockets of his jacket, squishing it in her hands, but found nothing in there.

Simon innocently raised his eyebrows, "Did something happen?"

Mrs. Davis was sure that she had caught his hand slip and drop the glass vial into his pocket before picking it up. As if there was another glass vial, waiting for him to switch it. She looked down, noticing it was her own glass vial and it had the same design.

She straightened Simon's jacket and said, "You have a lovely jacket. Where did you buy it from?" diverting the conversation.

"It was a gift from my cousin," replied Simon, his voice still polite, and Mrs. Davis gave him a nod.

Back at Julie and Melanie's table, the girls were biting their nails when Roman appeared and sat down next to Julie. She asked him, "You left Simon with them. Is it alright?"

"I am sure he can handle them just fine," replied Roman, getting comfortable in the chair. He wondered how serious Simon was when it came to the hunter girl because it was obvious that his attention was on Julie's friend. "Because the glass vial is here."

Julie and Melanie turned to look at the little bottle that Roman held in his hand now. They looked surprised, and Julie asked, "How did you get that?"

"Quick hands for a vampire are a fortunate thing," one corner of Roman's lips pulled up, and he watched what was going on near the counter.

When Simon had dropped the glass vial inside his pocket, Roman had quickly picked it up with a little tear that was made in the jacket pocket. The red-headed vampire had then pulled another similar looking vial of glass filled with water from another compartment. The glass vials were identical because Simon had stolen one of them when he had visited Melanie's house.

But hunters had a better eye when it came to movements and picking up subtleties compared to the other average humans. Which was why there had been a high chance of one of the Davis' catching sight of it. Especially considering how Mrs. Davis guarded the glass vial like a snake.

Roman leaned and placed a kiss on Julie's temple, "I am here. There's nothing to worry about when I am around. I will handle anything for you," he said to her, and she believed in his words. "I will go give this to Isolde and join my father at the table. Just so that he doesn't create havoc by mistake."

Roman stood up from the table and walked to where the two Elders were seated, ordering one of the vampires on what they would be eating.