Their mission officially started the next evening but the present day was spent reading up on the Blood Queen and finding out the location of her henchmen who were allowed to go free since they actually committed no crime.

They were merely blood bags used by the Queen, Lamai Lamashtu. A female Vampire descended from a powerful Vampire family which had fought the Committee hundreds of years ago when the law against drinking from humans was passed.

Most Vampires still drank from humans all over the world but their population took a large blow due to how many of them were killed when caught. Her father was a powerful Wizard which added more to her already powerful bloodline.

Her arrest was called for when it was reported from within her manor on the outskirts that she was using very potent blood magick from her servants to create a poison strong enough to poison the earth's oceans. That way, all humans would be turned into mindless blood bags by drinking the water alone. The only ones who'd be able to escape the effects were Vampires.

Her scheme gained her an army willing to challenge the Committee leading to a full out battle as Investigators and magick police raided her manor. The battle led to the death of many but the Vampire sorceress was subdued after growing weak from being unable to take blood from either of her two half brothers, Finral and Egeaus Thornhold as they were the ones who betrayed her.

Val read through the files quite amazed how much she had done before she caught the attention of the Committee.

"Lucky for us, those two bastards still live in London." Symon said dropping the file on the brothers. "I thought they'd have left years ago."

"They trusted the Committee to keep their psycho sister trapped, and so did the rest of the world, whoever took the time to locate the locket and track down someone of suitable blood must have gone through a lot." Mika said not looking up. Their team was seated in the briefing room, the chandelier of lights casting down a soft blue-white glow . The bodies had been removed but the stench of death still had its traces in the air. Val felt sick but he powered through it, something told him he'd see much worse in the future.

"It really not a matter of effort." Symon shrugged tossing his files unto the table, "Whoever it was had inside help."

Kalvin looked up, his expression a cross of disbelief and agitation, "What are you trying to say?"

Symon wore a smug look, "You know exactly what I'm saying, you just don't want to believe it. Someone in London gave our culprit the locket. It was hidden in the White Tower right? No one knows about it and the memories of the old guards are wiped after they retire? They're kept under secrecy curses but secrecy curses can be broken if the person breaking the spell is strong or if an Animal's nature magick is used."

"The Incursion?" Kenta asked catching on.

Symon nodded. Val turned back to his papers, he knew it was coming sooner or later, but this was much sooner than expected.

***

Val and Symon arrive home around 9pm to meet both his parents seated in the living room.

Since he started his job at the Committee they were always waiting like this. They still cared even after he constantly tried to avoid them. He loved them and he understood that they had their reasons for not telling him about their past but he couldn't get over the fact they tried to hide part of his heritage from him.

Why did they think they could decide who he could and couldn't be? It pissed him off way much more than when he argued about what 'destiny' was with random strangers online (discussion for another time).

Nevertheless it was time to throw in the towel, he was getting tired of the cold atmosphere and he was sure they were too. Also he needed their help.

"Welcome back Mister I'm-a-big-shot-Committee-worker." His dad said I a tone full of anything but warmth.

"I'm sorry." Val said simply.

They all turned to him, his mum's eyes locked on his slowly. It was the first time they were making eye contact in a long time. "You look tired." She said sternly.

"You too." He threw back.

"I'm sorry but I've been so busy worrying over my son's safety." She retorted. "Get over here and hug me before I pass out."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

He hoped he looked more irritated than he felt, he didn't want to give her the idea that he missed her hugs, even though he really did. He walked into her arms and just let her squeeze him. He pulled back to feel his dad had joined also. Why did he have to have such touchy parents?

"You know, no matter what you did, I'd never think any less of you two." He started saying.

"Val..."

"No mum, let me finish. I'll be waiting, feel free to tell me whenever...or never, I don't really mind."

Symon rolled his eyes, what a family of softies.

"Now that we're all back on good terms, I have a favour to ask." Val said pulling out of their grip.

"Sure, go ahead son." Mr Cullen said.

"I have to go on my first mission tomorrow, and it may stretch into the weekend."

"Bridget is not going to like that, she gave all of us tickets to her show." Mrs Cullen said with a sad sigh. "Too bad you're going to miss it."

"We're all missing it." Val piped up. He wasn't ready to bare Bridget's disappointed glare alone. "You'll tell her a surprise family trip came up."

"But we were looking forward to it." His dad said.

"So was I." He sighed, but tomorrow was Friday meaning there was nothing he could do if the mission wasn't completed by the following night, and from what he's heard from Kenta, missions hardly liked to keep to schedule.

***

The next day, he took the girls to his house so they could play some video games after finishing up homework. His real plan was to lead them to the kitchen so his mum would drop the bomb that they'd be out of town on Saturday. She had cleared up her Friday schedule.

He was so anxious to get it over with that he forgot that 'Symon' the cat wouldn't be around to greet them.

They greeted Mr Cullen on the way up and just as he got to the stairs, he yelled.

"Mum, I'm home."

"I made sandwiches." She grinned walking towards them with a tray, "Good afternoon girls, how are you?"

"Splendid now that we have your sandwiches." Katie complimented.

"Yeah these things are nice." Bridget grabbed two.

"We'll bring some for your performance tomorrow, how does that sound?" Val smirked.

His mum got the message, "Actually, Valerian, we won't be able to go."

"What?!" He screamed loudly.

Symon was watching from the kitchen and wanted stab himself, such stupid acting. From Val really, Mrs Cullen was doing rather fine.

"Your aunts called today, apparently your grandmother is on death's door."

"What's that got to-"

Katie put her hand over Bridget's mouth. "Please continue Mrs Cullen, she has no emotional tact whatsoever."

"Simply put, the whole family has to be present for support."

Val turned to Bridget, "Oh well, there's nothing I can do...it's not my fault though so don't be mad at me."

She narrowed her eyes at him and slapped Katie's hand away, "I am mad at you, but your dying grandma sounds like something serious. Just make sure you'll be present at the next one so I don't have to look at just 'her' again." the gestured her thumb to Katie who let out a huff before turning to Val.

"My regards to your grandmother. I have a question though." She looked around with a hint of worry in her eyes, "Where is Symon?"

Val, his mum, and Symon were definitely not ready for that, they exchanged looks. Mrs Cullen shrugged and hurried out of sight after dropping the tray on the table.

Katie and Bridget exchanged their own looks, they had both being talking about it. They never saw the cat after school anymore and Val had been avoiding bringing them over until now. After the time they had asked when he returned to school he just never mentioned the cat he always talked about. They suspected it had something to do with the cat worms.

"I don't mean to pry, but we're just worried and you haven't talked about him..." Katie said.

He knew he had to make this believable, he took himself back to the time of his evaluation, watching his comrades die, seeing an expression he never thought he'd see on someone's face, he pulled back to the surface the feelings of agony, the pain, and unexpectedly he felt himself tearing up. Why had he been so useless?

"Val?" Bridget called looking a but anxious now.

Oh right. He sniffed and was about to speak up when he felt arms around him, Katie was hugging him.

"We're so sorry." She whispered getting the message.

Bridget joined, "We're here for you dude."

Val felt more tears drop, he hoped a day like this would never come. A day when he'd actually have to be comforted over the loss of someone close to him when he had the power to save them. He'd do all he can to prevent it.

Symon watched, he had witnessed Val cry before, that was years ago and then he didn't know why. He had wanted to ask so badly what had made Val cry so that night, but he had still been pretending to be a regular house cat then. The second time was after the evaluation. Now he was seeing it again, his gut wrenched in a irritated manner. Tears on the humans face didn't sit well with him and he'd do all he could to stop them from coming again.

***

On the way to the hanger Val kept trying to form his weapon. Fortunately, the handle got longer; unfortunately, that was as far as he got before the dark obsidian object shattered into sparkling shards.

Symon patted his shoulder, "You'll get it eventually, kid."

Val nodded determinedly and stepped into the elevator. He moved closer to Kalvin. "You ready?" He tried at friendly conversation. He had never seen this guy before so he guessed the dark haired boy was under some other instructor than Blaise.

"I should be asking you that, word goes round you failed the evaluation...in front of the Governors."

Val flushed from embarrassment. "Let's not talk about that, besides I've improved."

"Good luck then." The boy smirked.

Mika set their coordinates and sound the hum of magick could be felt. The doors closed and they were off. Val was thankful he got no evil foreboding feelings this time. This might actually be simpler than he expected.

The Travelator landed with the usual thud.

They all stepped out into the crisp evening air of central London. Val had been in the city a couple of times with his parents but now he was here on official business.

He looked out of the alley to see people walking on the streets and began to worry they'd look suspicious. Mika picked up on his worries quite quickly. "Don't worry about it, magick in our uniform wards off suspicion. If someone is staring too long, it means they're magick users." He looked away from Val and hit the machine twice, it became invisible. "Okay everyone, here's what we know...there's a rouge vampire queen in this city, our job is to catch her and figure out how she got her locket. Mystery of who stole it comes later."

"What about her blood bag brothers?" Symon questioned.

"We've assigned people to guard them from the shadows." Kalvin replied.

"So even they don't know they're being watched?" He pushed.

"Of course, imagine the pointless panic it'd cause if this got out."

"The Committee's just trying to cover its own ass again."

"Symon, let's leave it there for now. We've got a mission." Kenta cut in.

Mika glared at Symon and then Kalvin before continuing, "The girl who was transformed is Rachel Dean, from what was gathered, she left a party and was about to be raped by the two victims." He took in a breath, people were just so despicable. "She was wearing the locket by the time she left the party, our first suspect slash witness confirms it, her name is Edna Jenner, a friend of Rachel's, and lucky for us, a magick user. Symon, Cullen and Kalvin you're going to investigate her, since I'm good at tracking, Kenta and I will look at the crime scene to see if we can find any traces."

"That about sums our plan up, any questions?" Kalvin asked.

"Let's just get this over with." Symon sighed already leaving the alley.

"Bet he doesn't even know the way." Kalvin scowled before walking after him.

Val wished Kenta and Mika good luck before running after the other two. His first official mission had just begun.