Chapter 197: Completing Mission
Carmilla and Scarlet were sitting on the trunk of a destroyed tree in a clearing far from the mansion. Neither of them had actually trained that morning. Carmilla still held a blood sword across her legs, but the blade had remained motionless for several minutes, while Scarlet stared at the sky with a dark expression and her arms crossed over her chest. The forest was silent, although the vampiric energy around the two kept every animal intelligent enough to stay far away.
"Two weeks and three days," Scarlet murmured without taking her eyes off the clouds. "Two weeks, three days, and approximately nine hours since the last time Victor fucked me."
Carmilla slowly turned her face toward her daughter.
"Did you really keep counting the hours?"
"I stopped counting the minutes because it was starting to irritate me." Scarlet tightened her arms around her own body and released a long sigh. "I cannot sleep properly, I am irritated with everyone, and yesterday I almost tore a maid’s head off because she asked whether I needed anything."
"She asked at the worst possible moment."
"I was lying in his bed, smelling his pillow."
Carmilla remained silent for several seconds before answering.
"I did that the day before yesterday."
Scarlet finally looked at her.
"Which pillow?"
"The one on the left."
"That one is mine."
"There is no pillow belonging to you in my husband’s room."
"Our husband."
"Exactly. So all the pillows are mine too."
Scarlet narrowed her eyes but did not begin an argument. Neither of them was truly irritated because of the pillow. Victor had been away far too long, occupied with a mission that seemed to grow larger with every report they received. Meanwhile, Carmilla and Scarlet were forced to remain at the mansion, pretend to be patient, and endure an abstinence that was beginning to seriously affect both of their moods.
"I miss his hands," Scarlet confessed, looking back toward the sky. "And his voice when he stops joking and becomes serious. I also miss when he holds me tightly enough that I cannot move."
Carmilla closed her fingers around the sword’s handle.
"I miss when he moves close to my ear and asks whether I can still continue."
Scarlet looked at her again.
"You always say you can."
"And I can."
"You passed out last time."
"For a few seconds."
"Almost five minutes."
"Were you timing it?"
"I needed to know when it would be my turn."
Carmilla made the sword disappear before she ended up using the weapon against something. Merely speaking about Victor made the situation worse. Too many images entered her mind, memories of the bedroom, of his body pressed against hers, and of the satisfied expression Victor always wore when he realized he had pushed both of them to their limits.
"When he returns, I will be first," Carmilla decided.
Scarlet laughed without humor.
"No."
"I was not asking for your opinion."
"And I was not giving it. I was informing you that it will not happen."
Carmilla turned her entire body toward her.
"I am the older wife."
"You are also the one who takes longer."
"That is called experience."
"That is called selfishness. You trap Victor between your legs and pretend not to hear when I knock on the door."
"You broke the door down."
"Because you did not open it."
"I was busy."
"I wanted to be busy too."
The two continued staring at each other, red eyes shining with the same dangerous possessiveness. Anyone else would have felt afraid watching that exchange. To them, it was merely an ordinary argument about the man they both loved in an unhealthy way.
Scarlet broke the silence first.
"We can share."
Carmilla raised an eyebrow.
"That sounded far too reasonable coming from you."
"I do not want to be reasonable. I want Victor naked in bed without another mission waiting for him the next morning." Scarlet breathed deeply, trying to control her impatience. "Both of us can stay with him at the same time. Then no one has to wait."
Carmilla considered the proposal more seriously than she wanted to admit.
"What if he returns tired?"
"We do the work."
"He may be injured."
"He regenerates."
"He may need to sleep."
Scarlet turned toward her with an offended expression.
"He had two weeks to sleep away from us."
Carmilla could not disagree.
"Then it is decided. When Victor returns, we take him directly to the bedroom."
"We lock the door," Scarlet added.
"We put up a barrier." Carmilla smiled slowly.
It was beginning to sound like an acceptable plan. She had no intention of allowing reports, meetings, or any insignificant emergency to steal Victor again before the two received all the attention accumulated during those weeks.
Scarlet smiled as well, although her expression remained dangerously possessive.
"I will make it very clear that he cannot leave the bed until he compensates for every night he left us alone."
"That could take days."
"Good."
"He will complain."
"He likes it when we complain first."
Carmilla rose from the trunk and adjusted her clothes, feeling her irritation decrease slightly now that they had a concrete plan.
"We need to prepare the room."
Scarlet stood immediately.
"New sheets?"
"He will tear them."
"Then we buy several."
"Blood Wine?"
"A lot."
Carmilla walked toward the mansion with Scarlet beside her.
"And no one finds out when he arrives."
"Agreed. If any woman tries to speak to Victor before us, I will kill her."
Carmilla glanced sideways at her.
"Do not kill anyone inside the mansion. It stains the floor."
Scarlet nodded seriously.
"I will take her to the forest."
The two continued walking, now far more cheerful. Victor had not yet returned, but every detail of his arrival had already been decided.
He simply did not know yet that he would spend several days locked away with two completely devoted, possessive, and sexually frustrated wives.
...
Victor was still looking at the empty capsule when a sudden irritation passed through his nose. He tried to ignore it, frowned, and turned his head aside, but the sensation increased too quickly to control. The sneeze came out loudly, crossed the entire laboratory, and echoed between the rows of tanks like a small explosion.
"ACHOO!"
Everyone looked at him.
Alexa stopped moving her threads. Dahlia froze with one of the body bags open between her hands. Liora and Liria stepped back together, while Nera made an expression so disgusted that she looked as though she had witnessed something worse than the deformed creatures discovered during the mission.
Victor wiped his nose with the back of his hand.
"What?"
Nera pointed at him with the scythe.
"Disgusting."
"You were covered in organs less than an hour ago."
"Organs are normal. That was disgusting."
Dahlia agreed with a serious nod.
"You could at least have covered your mouth."
"I turned to the side."
"Toward the capsules," Alexa replied. "I hope this laboratory does not create a new disease simply because you decided to spread vampiric saliva over the experiments."
Natasha observed Victor for several seconds, as though searching his face for any sign of change.
"How is a vampire sneezing?"
Victor also seemed to think about it. He placed two fingers against his nose, breathed slowly, and checked whether there was any chemical scent strong enough to have caused the reaction. The air remained saturated with artificial substances, preserved flesh, and fluorescent liquid from the containers, but nothing seemed different from several minutes earlier.
"Someone must be plotting against me."
Alexa turned her face away.
"That was the most idiotic conclusion possible."
"It normally happens when someone is talking about you," Victor replied with complete seriousness. "Considering the number of people who want to kill me, imprison me, or complain to me, it is a reasonable explanation."
Nera narrowed her eyes.
"Maybe it is your wives."
Victor fell silent.
The possibility seemed to disturb him more than any enemy they had faced that night.
"Then I need to return quickly."
"You only became worried now?"
"I was busy."
The conversation ended when Mirella called everyone from the other side of the laboratory. Her tone no longer carried urgency, but there was still too much work to allow prolonged distractions. The capsules had been completely opened and the hybrids removed one by one. Some died before the liquid finished draining. Others woke disoriented, aggressive, and incapable of recognizing anyone around them.
The decision had been made quickly.
None survived.
The bodies were spread across large dark tarps, organized according to their degree of alteration. Dahlia had performed a superficial inspection before each corpse was placed inside a reinforced body bag. The most unstable creatures had to have their limbs separated and stored in smaller containers because even after death, some parts continued trying to reconnect.
Liora closed one of the bags and sat on top of it to force the air out.
"This is the fourteenth."
Liria dragged another by the ankle.
"You counted wrong. This is the sixteenth."
"I did not count the two that melted."
"They are still bodies."
"They became soup."
"That is still a form of body."
Dahlia tore the bag away from them before the argument ended.
"Stop sitting on the samples. Some of these things have additional bones that can pierce the material."
Liora stood immediately.
"You could have warned me sooner."
"I warned you three times."
"I did not hear."
"Because you were arguing about sweets."
"Important subject."
Dahlia forcefully sealed the bag and placed a red label over it.
"If any of these creatures wakes up inside the carriage, I am throwing both of you in with it."
The twins smiled, clearly not believing she would actually do it.
Alexa remained near the control table, watching the bodies being prepared for transport. The threads attached to the mechanisms had allowed them to recover part of the records before the equipment lost power, but several reports remained incomplete. Ghideon had erased names, destinations, and identities, leaving only numbers and classifications for each experiment.
She looked toward the bags.
"Do you really think killing all of them was the better choice?"
Nera stopped pushing a capsule.
Alexa noticed the look and continued before she could interrupt.
"Some of them showed awareness. One asked Victor for help. If they had been taken alive, perhaps they could have explained what happened here or provided information about the other facilities."
Nera rested the scythe against her shoulder.
"Alive, they are ticking time bombs."
"That does not mean all of them would attack."
"It means we do not know which ones would."
Alexa crossed her arms.
"We could keep them sedated."
Dahlia answered before Nera.
"No."
Everyone looked at her.
The healer removed her stained gloves and pointed toward one of the bagged bodies.
"The metabolisms were different. Some reacted to sedatives like vampires, others like werewolves, and at least three absorbed the substances without any effect. One entered a complete transformation when I tried to reduce its heartbeat."
Nera nodded.
"Ticking time bombs."
Dahlia continued, now more serious.
"The organs were altered too extensively. Even if they remained motionless during transport, there is no guarantee they would stay that way when we reached the Capital. One had two hearts beating at different rhythms. Another used shadow in place of part of its nervous system."
Natasha closed one of the boxes containing documents.
"Transporting dozens of those creatures alive across the Kingdom would be irresponsible."
Alexa looked back toward the corpses.
"I know. I simply dislike the idea of killing prisoners before discovering whether any part of them still remained inside."
Victor approached the capsule where the conscious hybrid had been. The container was empty, but a handprint remained on the inside of the glass. He did not appear satisfied with the result either, although he showed no regret.
"I tried to speak to him."
Alexa looked in his direction.
"And?"
"He could not talk. When the liquid finished draining, he tried to tear out his own heart and attacked Dahlia."
The healer pointed toward one of the larger bags.
"That one."
Victor continued.
"Perhaps there was still a person inside. But that person was trapped in something they could not control."
Nera struck the end of the scythe against the floor.
"Then killing them was better."
This time, no one disagreed.
Yvonne, who had remained silent while checking the corridor, cleaned her sword and sheathed the blade.
"Transporting them alive would have required guards, healers, and restraints we do not possess. If one of those things escaped inside a village, it would be our responsibility."
Liora raised her hand.
"I agree with the foul-mouthed one."
Yvonne looked at her.
"I have not started speaking."
"But everyone knows you are thinking profanity."
Yvonne decided to ignore her.
Mirella entered the laboratory at that moment. She had replaced part of her damaged uniform with a dark coat found among the supplies, but dried blood remained on her neck and arms. The Blood Body was no longer active, although her movements remained slightly stiff after the excessive strain.
"The transport arrived."
Natasha closed the final box of records.
"How many carriages?"
"Six. I requested reinforcements as soon as we realized the size of the facility. Two will carry the documents and smaller equipment. The other four are for the bodies, samples, and capsules."
Alexa looked toward the enormous containers.
"How did they bring six carriages near this place without attracting attention?"
"They closed the streets in the northern sector and spread a story about a chemical leak in the warehouses."
Victor observed fluorescent liquid running through one of the broken tubes.
"That is not entirely wrong."
Mirella pointed toward the open passage.
"The reinforcements have already cleared the route to the surface. Take everything we can transport. The rest will be destroyed before we leave."
Nera looked toward the equipment.
"Can we burn it?"
"No."
"Explode it?"
"No."
"Then how?"
"Carefully."
Nera appeared deeply disappointed.
The group began the transport. The body bags were placed on stretchers and carried in pairs through the narrow corridors. Some had to be tied down because the deformed bodies did not fit properly. The smaller containers were sealed inside metal boxes, while Natasha used her threads to keep the documents organized and prevent any paper from being lost during the climb.
Alexa left first with Ghideon’s notes. Dahlia accompanied the medical samples, complaining whenever the twins tried to carry a box at an angle. Yvonne remained at the rear, checking every room before allowing the reinforcements to continue.
Only one tank remained.
It was a wide and heavy capsule constructed from reinforced glass with a thick metal base. The liquid had already been drained, but the structure remained heavy enough to require several people. Two soldiers approached with a special stretcher, considering how they could fit the container through the destroyed opening.
Victor seized the tank by the base.
"Move."
One of the soldiers looked at him.
"Sir, that weighs more than a ton."
"I noticed."
Victor tilted the container, passed one arm beneath the base, and lifted it onto his shoulder. The metal groaned from the movement, but his body remained steady. The capsule occupied almost the entire width of the corridor and forced everyone to step back to let him pass.
Nera watched the tank above him.
"You could have carried all of them."
"I could."
"And you left us working?"
Victor began walking.
"You needed to participate."
"You bastard."
Mirella waited near the exit, checking the number of bags and boxes before following. When Victor passed her with the capsule resting on his shoulder, she examined the container and then looked at him.
"Do not drop it."
"I was not planning to."
"You usually destroy things without planning to."
"Not always."
"Almost always."
Victor did not answer. He continued climbing through the passage while the others formed a line behind him. The path to the surface was covered in debris, werewolf bodies, and marks from the battles fought throughout the tunnels, but the reinforcements had cleared enough space for the larger loads to pass.
When they finally reached the warehouse, the sky was beginning to brighten over Bramford. Six black carriages waited outside, surrounded by soldiers from the Valentine Family. The windows had been sealed, and containment symbols covered the sides of the vehicles intended for the bodies.
Victor placed the tank inside the final carriage. The suspension sank several centimeters beneath the weight but held.
He struck the side of the vehicle twice, turned toward the group, and breathed in the cold morning air.
"Well, we are leaving."