Chapter 30

The trip to San Francisco, California was absolutely tiring. We didn’t take the car, thankfully, and instead took the plane. I couldn’t take another a day’s worth of trip in a car. It was too much for me, especially because we were in a bit of a hurry.

I wasn’t able to pack for any of my clothes, instead throughout the whole trip, I had to buy clothes and any other necessity along the way. Still, we made it to San Francisco, California without much trouble. The city felt slightly different than Chicago, but there were some similarities.

The similarities are usually the loud obnoxious sounds of the cars going by, the large number of people that walks back and forth in the morning, noon, and night. Bright lights that seem to sparkle continuously even if the night life came to the city life that never slept.

A couple of things that were different were the wind. In Chicago the wind flowing through the city was a lot more windy, during anytime of the day. Maybe its because of the cold lake near the cityscape that makes the wind blow a lot stronger than the winds in San Francisco, or it could possibly be the location itself from North to South. There were even the famous red trolleys that are active often going up and down the steep hills, while in Chicago there were more horse drawn carriages for tourist.

Still it felt similar to our old home, and I felt no different from coming from Chicago to San Francisco, especially the tall confines of the cityscapes that loomed over me like hawks. Even the air were thick with the smell of rogue werewolves in the near vicinity. Every time we walked pass the alleyways, I could smell the rancid smell of their body odor that made me want to hurl.

Never in my life have I smell such heavy scent of rogue werewolves just walking through the streets. It made me very uncomfortable, and the Rogues knew that I was here. My Alpha smell was an unusual scent in this werewolf infested city, it made ALL Rogues weary to come near, while some stalked close by debating on interacting with me. The smell of an Alpha rarely came to the city life, especially because werewolves didn’t like being in the confines of the city and I was unmated female werewolf.

For some reason, I felt tensed for the past couple of minutes since we got off taxi. I watched with diligence for any strange movements, listening with my ears, and even smelling the air for any close Werewolves.

Eventually, we came towards the City Hall. It reminded me a bit of a Roman Architecture that you see in the back of a twenty dollar bill. It’s pearly white building with a round oval in the center, large columns that were evenly spaced out, and bright white lighting that lit up the night, giving it a majestic feel.

They were no one, but us outside. I trailed behind Adam quickly as we pass the security guard that didn’t seem to move towards us, instead they acknowledged Adam and let us go through the large door without any problems. The moment we entered, a beautiful scene was stood out to me completely different from the outside. From round circular stairways that lead to the top, beautiful arches on each floor, and  rows-upon-rows of chairs filled around the stairways. It was a perfect place to have a wedding, the beauty was that spectacular.

People were packed to the brim, some standing while the others sitting. Every single one of them were vampires. The whole place was divided into their own covens, I could tell by the way they dressed. Some wore punk like clothes, others victorian, majority of them were in suits, but they were a few, like me, who wore just plain clothes.

Somehow or another, both Adam and I made it to the front seat. A lot of vampires turned their heads towards me, watching wearily as if I was some kind of strange specimen. I tried my best to not pay attention, but when you have Vamps staring at you, one can’t help but feel threatened. When a beautiful vampire lady in victorian clothes stare at me, she gave me the most disgusted look that I haven’t seen in awhile. It took everything out of me not to snarl back and throttle her pretty little face.

Sitting down, I sat up straight, picked up my chin up proudly, and stare down anyone who challenge me into a staring contest. I wasn’t no pushover, especially since I was an Alpha and I took any challenge head on.

Standing on the stairs were a handsome young man, his silver hair were slicked perfectly back, eyes that were blood colored stare out into the crowds with power, even his voice screamed listen-to-me-or-else. Out of all the vampires, he was the only one who wore the most exquisite clothes that I have ever seen.

I thought he was in some kind of costume party the way he wore his clothes. The long cloak that were made of lion skin with a giant head resting on his right shoulder. From head-to-toe, he wore an extravagant clothes all in black. He looked amazing in it, out of the whole vampire, I believe he was the only one who could even pull it off. Adam might have a difficult time himself.

“As of now, we have sighting of Ogma here in San Francisco for the past three weeks.” The Vampire in lion head cloak spoke.

I leaned over, and elbowed Adam. “Who is he?” I whispered.

“Travis Rognaso, the oldest known vampire in America, out of the three in the world of vampires, he’s the second most powerful vampire in the world. My guess is that he’s about 15,000 years old.”

I gaped. Woah. That’s some numbers on a vampire, especially of their kind. Not only that, he’s still looking amazingly young, making his age seems like a lie.

“We can not let this hybrid run scott free in America any longer.” Travis spoke with power. “At this rate, he’ll cause other unwanted catastrophe. Ever since he was the cause of World War II, I wouldn’t be surprised that he would want to start of a third World War.” He spoke coldly.

All the vampires in the room were divided on the opinion of what Travis spoke. Majority of them were in outburst at the possibility of their livelihood being in jeopardy.

“What do you mean a problem? Isn’t it a good thing that we would have another World War?” A man with flaming red hair, stepped through the crowds. The clothes that he wore were just as flamboyant as Travis himself.

Travis stopped to stare with annoyance at the man that came, strutting in the building as if he owned the place. “Donovan, how nice that you are here.”

“Travis my dear, you know just as well as I that you don’t want me here.”

“What do you mean? I don’t have any such thought.” He glared.

Donovan shrugged his shoulder as he stopped in front of Travis. “Doesn’t matter, though you should answer my question.”

“That is an simple answer. We put all our lives in jeopardy to going into war.” Travis snapped.

“You know as well as I that’s not true. Ogma did a wonderful service to this world when he started the World War II. The amount of human infestation has gone done, allowing us to have a firmer grip of the world’s politics.”

“True, but what he want’s is not just another World War Donovan. You should no better than I that he wants to start a large scale Magical War.”

Donovan snorted, laughing at Travis serious face. “You serious? A Magical War? Do you know how long a REAL Magical War had ever been in existence? That wasn’t till the time of the infamous Jesus Christ Scandal. Right now, the latest Seraphim Dragon is sleeping in its Sanctuary, who in the right mind would want to go back to the Stone Ages?”

“Ogma is not right in the mind. Exposing our community will begin another world wide hunt of our kind till we are completely extinguish. I don’t know about you, but the livelihood of our kind being exposed is not something that majority of the magical race wants.”

“You’re always so scared of exposure.” Donovan rolled his eyes. “What’s wrong with coming out and putting the humans in their place? Right under our feet like the cattle they are?” He turned towards the crowd with his hands spread out.

The other vampires started to whisper, a good half of them nodded in agreement with what Donovan had said.

“You know as well as I, that is how our kind gets killed. We do not walk in the light, our species best works in the shadows.” Travis hissed. “Work smart, not stupid.” He snapped.

“I am working smart. Our kind have been in the dark for way too long. We deserve to be kings, Travis. Not rats hiding away in the sewers.”

“That is where you are wrong. We are not trapped. You, Donovan, are a fool if you believe the world works so simply on the surface.”

“No, you are wrong. My fellow kin, what he say is just a delusional ideal of what our kind can really do. We should be the ones in power, keeping these humans chipped and numbered as a cattle they are. Right now we have implanted such ways through the use of Medicare. The new wave of technology for the humans is identification through chips, every personal information found through a simple scan. With this we as a superior will know which blood we can enjoy, prune out the defected, and even suggestively breed them together to create the best quality of blood.”

The words that he said made me furious. How dare he use humans as if some kind of cattle? Not only that, the way that he said is infuriates me even more. My hands clenched and unclenched together into a fist. I wanted so badly to go up there and knock a couple sense into him.

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“I present you the finest quality of blood that we had breeded.” With a clap of his hands, a large number of servants came out with glasses and red drinks of blood. Every single one of the vampires were handed with a glass filled with red blood. Even Adam was handed one, he gazed at the blood in his hand with interest. Everyone of them were smacking their lips, eyes that turned bloody red with hunger as they stare at the blood wine in hand.

“Take a sip, my brethren. I know you are dying to taste it. Don’t worry, I haven’t tampered with it.” Donovan smirked. He clapped his hand again, and this time a young human male was pushed out.

I could tell that he was in his early twenties, the thin muscles, the pretty face, and golden hair that sparkled under the light made him look strangely angelic. He gaze around the room with fear as he cowered at the hungry sight of the Vampire that stare towards him.

Donovan walked over, he pulled out a knife in his hand and pulled the man’s hand. With a sharp slash against the man hand, a streak of blood erupted out of his fingers.

Everyone, I mean everyone, perked up with hungry gaze. Even I couldn’t help but smell the strange sweet alluring scent of blood that I never knew that could ever existed. If I could describe it, they were a hint of a familiar scent of flowers mixed in with blood. What was even more powerful was the smell of his scent. It was alluring to the point where I wanted to be near him and just sniff him.

Shit. This wasn’t good. I never felt such a strong pull before, especially through smell. Our kind are big on scent, and I have never smelled something so delicious that I just want to be next to him. He was like a dangerous smell of crack that muddled my mind. I had to shake myself awake, pulling away as best as I could.

Everyone was tensed, and I could tell that everyone hungered for his blood. Even Adam seem strange, but he wasn’t as bad as the others. Travis didn’t seem to be phased at all and instead stare at the human with keen interest.

“Now, try the drink.” Donovan raised up his wine. He took a deep drink, and the others quickly followed.

“How is this possible?!” One of the vampires yelled in complete disbelief. “This has almost the similar taste of a Belladonna?!”

“Belladonna?” The other voice went up an octave. “Is what you are saying true?” A young woman spoke confusion riddled her mind.

“Yes.” The male vampire that spoke, hissed. “The quality isn’t as close to it, but it does have a small fraction of the sweet taste of one.”

“That’s impossible. Are you saying that a Belladonna could be a human now?” One of the elderly looking vampires spoke out in outburst. “Do you know how crazy that sounds?”

“I have a Belladonna, and I know what I am talking about.” The man snapped annoyed.

The others became silent. They stared at their drink as if it was some kind of foreign object that they never seen before, while others eyes sparkled with excitement at the possibilities of the new taste of blood.

“How would this help us? Aren’t you already breeding them now? What correlation does this have to do with Ogma?” One of the vampires spoke out, cutting the silence in half.

“That is simple.” A large grin appeared on Donovan’s face. “War will bring this technology into fruition a lot faster. I will be able to prune the humans and choose the best genetics as well as disposing the ones that we don’t need. This, my brethren, are the age of genetics, and this young man is a proof that a Belladonna’s blood is possible to reproduce without having a Belladonna.” He spoke out in excitement. “This is what we all have wanted, we don’t want to die by meeting our supposed Belladonna, instead we can live forever without a need of one. Ogma has the vision and the power to control the dragons. He can show us the way.”

The words that he said sparked everyone’s attention. All the vampires knew what this meant, and a good two-third was starting to lean towards what Donovan were saying.

I didn’t like where this was going. What was worse was something in me was stirring. It was a strange pain in my guts.

“Enough,” Travis spoke. “War is not necessary to get to where we want to go. Being exposed isn’t a smart move…though what you are working on is a different story.

Donovan started to chuckle with delight at Travis interest. “I know this is revolutionary, the genetics that the few human has is the key to many more highest grade of blood for our kind. Not only that you all felt the power correct? That is also the effect that Belladonna’s give, an empowerment of our abilities just from drinking their blood. Think about the power we can gain even more when we find the perfect one.”

Travis was hooked. “Fine, get the project underway, but we are not going to have any war. It’s to risky, we don’t have enough power to counter the humans yet.”

Donovan look amused at Travis. He could tell that Travis was becoming more in favor of Donovan’s answer as time went by.

The human pulled back his arm, he ripped his clothes that he wore and quickly wrapped his hand with bandages.

“We need to go.” I spoke with a sharp breath of pain that hit my stomach. The longer that I stay here, I felt my head swirl with outburst. No, I couldn’t stay here any longer, it was bad and I needed a way out now.

Adam turned his attention towards me, worried at my sudden ailment. “Is something wrong?”

“I need to get out of here.”

Adam quickly stood up and helped me up. A few vampires around us turned their gaze at us with curiosity.

I felt a sudden chill, when I turned, I met the someone’s gaze. It was Donovan. My lips turned into a snarl as out eye made contact, he turned away first, allowing me to leave the vicinity as quickly as possible.

When we hit the exit, I bolted out into the open. Swirls of light danced in front of me as I ran, I couldn’t stop. I needed to get away from that dangerous place, any moment I thought I would go crazy from that intoxicating smell. It took awhile for me to get away as far as I could, I eventually stopped, heaving in deep breath.

Adam ran up beside me, confused and worried. “Are you okay?”

“Yea.” I held up my hands in front of me telling him that nothing was wrong.

“What was that all about?”

“I don’t know, but whatever Donovan created is a monster.”

“I’m not understanding you?”

I straightened up. “I don’t know either, but what he’s doing is seriously wrong. I suggest you to keep an eye out on Donovan, especially on that human that he had created.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Adam wasn’t sure what was wrong with me, but it seem like he understood. His gaze still set on me, worried that I might go for another run.

Eventually, we went towards one of the best quality hotel in San Francisco. He bought a room, allowing me to go in first and shower. Adam left me the keys, and disappeared leaving me alone. I was inside the shower for a good hour, but the pain in my stomach started to spread up my spine shocking my whole body.

I groaned. Why is this happening? I didn’t understand what was going on with my body. My whole body felt like it was on fire in a very bad way. My muscles ached, my head felt doozy, and what was worse was that human smell lingered in my nose.

Whatever Donovan was cooking up, I had a very very very bad feeling, but that thought quickly vanished with the pain the pulsed through my body. I needed a way to stop this pain, there just wasn’t anything I could think of right now but medicine.

With pain that continued to pulse, I got out of the shower half dazed unable to think straight. Everything seem to phase in and out, my mind was confused almost as if I was lost in thought. For some reason that smell just kept amplifying in my nose.

Like a zombie, I started to put on the extravagant black dress clothes that Adam left behind, I remembered bits and pieces of his words stating that we have a party that we needed to go too. Eventually, I was moving through the next couple of hours without much thought, Adam came back to pick me up in an expensive car. We arrived at a large club that state, Friday Night Oasis. For some reason, it reminded me of a strip club name more than an actual club.

“Are you alright?” Adam asked worriedly. “Are you sure you can do this?”

I waved my hand towards him, telling him that I was okay. I was trying my best to hold in my pain. “Yea.” I croaked.

“Are you sure? I get the feeling that you’re hiding it.”

“I’m fine. What are we looking for?” I turned towards him.

“We’re going to keep an eye out on Donovan, but what we’re really looking for is a possible contact that is supposed to make contact with him tonight at the club.”

“Do you got any description?”

“Sadly, no.”

“This is going to be a little difficult.”

“True, but it’s the best shot that I got.”

“Let’s get this over with.” I spoke, opening the door of the sports car and eventually heading hand-in-hand with Adam. We passed through the bouncer without much difficulty as usual, and made our way through the club. Adam shuffled me towards the back of the club, where we entered into a V.I.P section.

The moment I entered, I saw Donovan sitting with other vampires that I haven’t seen at the council. He was leaning back, laughing with a human girl in his arm. When he saw us enter, a large smile erupted on his face.

“Adam!” Donovan lean over with his hands outstretched towards him.

“Donovan.” Adam took his hand and shook it.

“I’m so glad that you are here, my old friend.” He clasped Adam into a hug.

“Glad to see you as well. You said quite a speech at the council there.” Adam pulled away.

“You like? I thought I did an amazing job stirring up the crowd.” He chuckled as he sat back down. He scooped up the girl in his right, and snacked her into his arm. “Do you want a drink?” With a rough lift, he shook his head towards the girl in his hand. “Don’t worry she’s tamed.”

The way he said ‘tamed’ made me flinch with disgust. Usually this meant that these humans were called into service of a vampire, giving their blood for free in the hopes to either become immortals themselves or just to be under their wings.

Adam raised his hand to stop him. “I’m good.” He took a seat.

“Who might this lovely lady be?”Donovan sniffed towards me, and a full set of fangs showered me with glee.

I wasn’t to thrilled the way he look at me. It wasn’t lustful for sure, but keen interest in what I am.

“This is Alpha Tila of the White Raven Pack.”

“An Alpha? A female one too.” Donovan stated with surprise. “What a rare sight indeed. The one and only female Alpha pack in America to boot. Quite Astounding.”

“Is there a problem?” I spoke, not sure how I should take his words.

“Absolutely not. It’s just a pleasure that someone as powerful and beautiful as you are standing here in front of us today.”

“Thank you.” I gave him a fake smile.

“You’re welcome.” Donovan winked. “Now, on with business.” He pushed the human girl aside and clapped his hand. With a quick rub, he turned towards Adam with interest.

“I would like to buy that human male that you have shown at the council off you,” said Adam.

I flinched and whipped my head towards him in complete disbelief. Did he just out right ask him that without a care in the world? I just told him that the human was a problem. A big one at that.

Donovan eyes started to sparkle. “How much are we talking about?”

“How much do you need?”

“That is up for grabs, though I would like the first female that is born from him is one of my conditions. They have a more…stronger taste in blood if you get my drift. Plus, it seems you have a hen that you want to breed him too.”

I blanched. How could he so easily sell humans so easily as if they were products. This was so wrong, but even still I knew I trusted Adam. He must have a reason of wanting to buy him off. I don’t know what, but it still didn’t sit well with me. This was one of those darker aspect of the world that I deal with alongside Adam, I have seen things worse than this, so it didn’t effect me too much. Still, I had to wonder what Adam had in mind.

“What if I said, I do?”

“That’s even better. He is one of our best stallion you see. So far I haven’t found a good fit for him yet.” Donovan crossed his hands,” though now I feel like I have a good feeling that I might have.” A smug look appeared on his face

Adam didn’t seem to phased at all and instead stare back with a stern gaze.

Suddenly without realizing it, I smell that same sweet scent wafting in the air. My ears perked up, I look around to see where the scent was coming from. The pain that was in my body was slowly dissipating away, but my mind became muddled with the strong scent that entered my nose. I unconsciously stood up, Adam look over his shoulder towards me.

“Tila?” He asked.

My thought were muddled and slow, I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. Wow, what a delicious scent.