The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 116

As soon as Gerella stepped into the civilization of vampire territory, wondering if she was in the right place. She pulled her grey hoodie up, trying to draw as little attention to herself as possible, wondering if it was smart to go invisible. She decided against it because she didn't want other discretus to think that she had something to hide. She was glad to see that whoever else was on the street hid their heads as well, but they did it because they hated the early evening sun, and wanted as little of it as possible.

On her way here, Gerella already knew that she had to hide her eyes since its blue color did not match the green ones from the population. She was trying to replace something that would hide her peculiarity until something outside the subway station caught her attention. It was an advertisement for contact lenses in five distinct colors, and the model's eyes were blue like hers.

When Gerella was trying to wrap her head around the concept of contact lenses, two ladies with shopping bags and blood-flavored slushies in their hands noticed her discombobulated state. Their nosiness forbade them from taking another step, and they joined Gerella at the advertisement board when one of them said, "Don't bother with this brand. It's a safety hazard."

Gerella blinked in surprise when she asked, "W-What?"

The same lady pointed at the advertisement and explained, "They should've taken this down two days ago. Someone bought a pair of contacts from this company, but the color from it peeled and entered her eyes. After the surgery to remove the color fragments, she filed a suit, seeking damages to cover the medical cost. I think she bought the purple ones."

"Oh," Gerella responded, not knowing what else to say.

The other one was sucking on her slushy before she said, "If you're looking for good contacts, try Optimum. That one's been around here forever. No lawsuits whatsoever. Where do you get yours, by the way?"

"Uh...Optimum, actually." Even Gerella was surprised by how smoothly that lie came out. She wasn't even sure she heard the lady right.

The lady turned to her friend and said, "See, I said it remains the most popular brand, and I was right. That other woman we saw earlier uses Optimum, she uses Optimum...”

They were walking away before Gerella called out, "Hey, um...could you tell me where the rulers live?"

They turned, blinked and the second one questioned, "The empress and consort?" "Yes."

They found her question rather odd, and started studying her attire to try to figure out which region she may be from. Everyone in their town knew where the castle was. But Gerella's clothes were too generic for them to pinpoint her origin, even with the knowledge they had on stereotypical dressing about foreigners.

They didn't want to be late for their ride, so the first lady pointed to her right and said, "Go around the corner, walk until you see the custodes station, then make a right, keep going forward until you see the castle." "Thank you!" Gerella exclaimed out of pure relief and dashed away.

The two friends exchanged odd looks before scanning their transit cards and waited on the platform. One asked, "What do you think? Is she from Occidens or Orientem? Her accent IS different from ours but I can't tell how. Like, from which region?"

###

Gerella followed the directions and after a minute, she began wondering whether she was being too trusting to only ask one set of individuals, but her doubts were put to rest when she walked past the custodes station, where she saw creatures in uniforms. She turned right like she was told, and blocked out Saxum's link for the third time since she left before she continued walking as quickly as her legs could manage.

The sight of the castle sent a stream of pure relief through her. The upward curl of her lips showed her elation, until she saw the guards. How was she going to get in?

###

Pellethia heard the knocks on her bedroom door. She was waiting for Octavia to get ready when she got up to answer it. At the sight of one of the castle's guards, she asked, "Yes, Dolly?"

Dolly looked apologetic when she said, "Forgive my intrusion, Your Majesty, but there's a young woman requesting an immediate audience with you and the consort. She claims to be a hybrid." 'Is this Maddock's trick?' Pellethia wondered.

Dolly continued, "She said her name is Ella. The guards at the gates tried to get rid of her, but she said something about needing to warn you that the Lycan Queen will be in danger, and something about hybrid children dying because of some experiment. And she said she was a bonded mate of Tobias Tristan, claiming to have met him on a beach. Isn't Tristan one of the kingdom's ministers, Your Majesty?"

Octavia was right next to her by now, and Pellethia took a moment before she stepped out of the room, pacing down the corridor in quick steps while asking, "Eye color?"

"Blue, Your Majesty."

"What did she smell like?"

"Apples and gardenias." "Send her in."

The guards brought Gerella from the guardhouse, and when she stepped into Pellethia's study, she started blurting out everything she knew and begged Pellethia and Octavia to replace a way to stop the whole thing before any more hybrids were sacrificed.

Dolly and her colleague kept looking at their Majesties throughout Gerella's confession, waiting for the signal to arrest this woman for treason, abduction, false imprisonment, and a whole line of other things that could make a very lengthy case in court. But Pellethia and Octavia's eyes merely stayed on Gerella the whole time.

At the end of it, Gerella was already taking quickened breaths when Pellethia asked, "Do you have any idea whether they've moved on to the next location without you by now?"

Gerella shook her head as she uttered, "No. I've been blocking out Saxum's links, Regina's as well.”

Octavia clarified, "If they chose to move, you said that they'd be going to wolf territory?" Gerella nodded.

"Which part of wolf territory?" Pellethia asked as she held her breath.

The moment Gerella said, "It might be Bordure", Octavia immediately linked Rafael and the rest of the vigils and custodes at their disposal. Pellethia rummaged through the papers on her table for her phone as she muttered, "C'mon, where is it? Where is it?" Pellethia's urgency and the persistent way she was picturing Lucianne in her head made something miraculous happen. Before she realized it, her eyes glazed over and her rummaging was brought to an abrupt halt when she heard Lucianne's confused voice ringing through her mind, 'Pelly, I don't recall forming a mind-link with you.'