Chapter 149-Ominous name

Chapter 149: 149-Ominous name

"We’ve got it."

Regina burst through the doors with barely enough breath to finish the words.

Jarel looked up from the documents spread across his desk. The queen’s High Advisor had been buried in reports for hours, but the urgency in Regina’s voice made him set everything aside.

"What did you find?"

Regina stepped closer, her expression grim. "The red blood the patients drank came from a student named Maisa Loven."

Jarel froze. For several seconds, he didn’t move. "Maisa Loven?"

The name alone was enough to drain the color from his face. Of all the names Regina could have brought him, that was one he had hoped never to hear again.

Maisa Loven was nobody or at least, she was supposed to be. Yet somehow, that nobody had managed to cause quite a stir throughout the vampire nation.

Her existence had already brought one crisis after another to the attention of the palace. And just when they thought the latest disturbance surrounding her had finally settled, her name had surfaced again at the center of another disaster.

Jarel slowly reached for the report Regina was holding. He flipped through the pages.

Once, twice and then again, more carefully. His eyes moved over every line, every laboratory result, every blood analysis and every recorded observation. He didn’t skip a single detail.

The evidence and the research was there. The blood samples had been documented, tested, compared, and analyzed. Every conclusion had been supported by data.

He couldn’t dismiss it as an attempt to blame an innocent redblood simply because they needed someone to carry the responsibility for the disaster.

The evidence pointed directly to Maisa’s donated blood and that raised a far more disturbing question.

"How can redblood be this poisonous?" Jarel’s voice was low as he pondered on what bothered him most. "And where exactly did this Maisa Loven come from?"

He had seen strange blood disorders before. He had dealt with unusual reactions, contaminated blood, rare mutations, and illnesses that had baffled experienced physicians but this was different.

Redblood was supposed to be the most ordinary blood among vampires. It wasn’t supposed to behave like poison.

Yet the moment the patients consumed blood from Maisa’s donations, their bodies had begun to deteriorate.

Even Regina, with all her experience as an investigator and alchemist, hadn’t been able to explain why.

Jarel stared down at the name printed across the top of the file. Maisa Loven, It was almost as though that name existed solely to bring him and the vampire nation one nightmare after another.

"I’m still not sure how she managed to do it." Regina ran a frustrated hand through her hair. "But we’ve traced it back to the blood bags. The patients drank blood donated by Maisa, and shortly afterward, they began showing the same symptoms."

Regina’s eyes hardened. There was something almost eager beneath her frustration.

She wanted Maisa in her laboratory. If she could get her hands on the girl, she could examine her blood directly. She could compare it to ordinary redblood, study its composition, determine what had changed, and if they were lucky, they could discover a way to reverse its effects and discover an antidote.

At least, Regina needed to believe it was that simple. However, deep down, she had a feeling that a deeper conspiracy was in play.

"Then find her," Jarel said. He closed the report. "You have my permission to bring her here. Interrogate her if necessary. Do whatever is required to determine what happened to her blood."

Regina’s expression tightened. "Easier said than done."

Jarel’s eyes narrowed. That was far from the answer he wanted to hear. With the pressures from above to wrap up the case and give rest to the unsettled vampires in the nation, he couldn’t afford her response.

"We searched the academy. We’ve searched the communes. We’ve questioned the people who knew her." Regina shook her head. "She’s nowhere."

"Nowhere?"

"She left the school when the break began. We don’t know where she went, whether she went somewhere with a friend, or whether she even intends to return to the academy is unknown."

Jarel leaned back slowly. A headache was beginning to build behind his temples. Of all the times for their only lead to disappear... It had to be at the critical moment when he’s being hounded for solutions.

Outside his office, the palace continued to function as though everything was normal. Servants moved through the corridors. Guards changed shifts. Advisors attended to their duties.

But behind these walls, the situation was becoming desperate. More students were falling ill, their conditions were deteriorating with every passing hour but so far, they hadn’t recorded a single death.

Their bodies were rejecting the blood they had consumed, and despite every treatment Regina had attempted, there was still no reliable way to stop the progression.

And now the one person whose blood had caused it was missing. Jarel pressed his fingers against his temple. "How long do they have?"

Regina didn’t answer immediately. That silence told him enough for him to be worried. "Regina?"

She lowered her gaze. "We don’t know."

Jarel’s stomach tightened. "But they’re getting worse?"

"Yes."

"How many cases have you recorded now?"

"Enough that we can no longer treat this as an isolated incident."

Jarel stared at the report again. Maisa Loven, the name seemed almost ominous now.

"If we don’t find her..." he began.

Regina’s expression darkened. "The students infected with her blood will all die," the words settled heavily between them. "One by one until there’s no one left."

Jarel thought desperately for a solution. In that moment, he thought of his daughter. He and his wife had been forced to punish her because she lowered herself to a punishment meant for a redblood, if he recalled correctly, that redblood was Maisa.

’Maybe she knows where Maisa went?’ he thought as he drew his blood mirror to call Lumi.

However, he stopped himself. After that punishment, Lumi was still upset with him so even if she knew where Maisa was, she wouldn’t reveal it.

He decided to call Luan. The boy was smarter and wouldn’t lie to him.

After a few rings, the call connected. "Yes, dad," Luan’s voice spoke on the other end.

"I’m calling on official business. Luan, would you happen to know where Maisa Loven is at the moment?"

Luan, who had just exited the mansion after searching the whole house for Kayden stopped at the back gate when he heard his father’s question.

He raised his head and in the garden, seated by the bench and looking out towards the forest like a hunter was the very vampire his father was asking about.

"Why, dad?" He asked, "What does the palace want with her?"

"It’s confidential," Jarel didn’t reveal anything about the case. "Trust me, if we don’t find her... the nation will be in danger."

Luan debated whether to answer honestly or pretend he knew nothing. However, with his mind occupied with finding Kayden and clearing the air between them, he couldn’t afford to have another thing to juggle.

"She’s in..."

Awoooo!

He stopped mid-sentence when he heard the wolf howl. "Kayden," that was the first thing that came to mind.

He had searched the hacienda for the whiteblood and now only the surrounding forests were left. And now there was a wolf howl coming from the forest.

Knowing better, he could tell that it was a werewolf because normal wolves like humans can’t find the nation and that meant that one or maybe a pack had slipped through the magical barrier and into the vampire territory.

"Luan?" Jarel panicked when he went silent.

Luan couldn’t pay attention to him anymore and quickly hung up. "No, I was angry last night... I didn’t mean to push him to run off..." He shuddered. "Varitreya and the Krauss family will have my head if something happens to Kayden..."

He put away his blood mirror and ran off towards the forest to ensure Kayden wasn’t there.

Maisa, giving in to curiosity ran towards the howl as well.

Meanwhile, Jarel stared at the disconnected call and was bewildered. "Wait, did I hear a howl on the other end?"