The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 45

Lucianne shoved aside the thoughts of how good the reception was underground as she turned around to pick up the empress's call. "Pelly?"

The response came out ominously, "Aunt Lucy, there's been another abduction. Twenty adults and two children have been taken from another village, Saber Vagary."

Lucianne's facial expression squinted in despair before she asked, "How far was this from the Falling Vines?"

"23 miles north." "Without bloodshed?"

"Without bloodshed," Pellethia confirmed, and added, "We're still here, and everything seems the same. Lycan and werewolf scents, which, we're positive, would fade away to reveal the real proditors that were here. The prints are like the last time as well - some real, some fake." "Have your trackers managed to follow the trail from the last abduction?"

"Maddock sent sixteen vigils after your visit, but the trail was lost before they recovered any further clues. They've been suspended since then, and Maddock has been stripped of his title."

Lucianne blinked repeatedly before she found her voice again and asked, "I'm sorry, what?"

She suspended sixteen vigils and a viscount?! Well, now a former-viscount. The vigil-suspension came as a shock because vigils were not just policemen, but high-ranking investigative officers who were talentedly-skilled and trustworthy figures, loyal only to the imperial family. A vampire had to have served for at least a century AND done some form of noble work to even be considered for this exclusive club.

Pellethia couldn't fathom how what she said was hard to understand, but she responded nonetheless, "Octavia and I suspended Maddock for a week, along with those he sent who came back with nothing but an apology."

"Don't you only have thirty-two vigils in your empire, Pelly?" Lucianne had been reading up on everything about vampires since the empress's first email. She remembered this fact easily since she found being a vigil to be her dream job if she were a vampire. "That's right. The suspension ought to keep the remaining half on their toes."

Lucianne reminded herself that Pellethia had been ruling for centuries, so she would know what she was doing, and chose to ask, "Did the suspended ones replace anything? Anything at all?"

"They followed the trail from Falling Vines towards the south, where the weather wasn't as sunny. Crossed over three rivers. Ran through a forest and an abandoned castle." The castle got Lucianne thinking. "So, they went inside the castle?"

"Yes, they followed the trail through a broken front window, went to the second floor, and the scent was strongest at another window on that floor, which faces the second forest, the Forest of Oderem. Once they took two steps in, the trail was, understandably, lost." Lucianne knew about the Forest of Oderem, too. It was an ancient, scent-confusing place. The forest itself produces its own odors that could be from anything as wonderful as a field of flowers, as delicious as freshly-baked pastries, or as foul as decomposed bodies.

It was grown by Count Dracula, who paid a witch for enchanted seeds that eventually grew into this forest. Dracula either brought the man he 'owned' in there for private moments, or lured his enemies into the forest before using the confusing scents to lure them deeper in and ultimately killing them and feeding on their blood. It was a nightmare for the authorities but a dream come true for proditors seeking an escape route.

Pellethia then said with a snarl, "That forest should have been burned a long time ago."

"Pelly, we both know why no one can do that," Lucianne said.

Many emperors had tried to get rid of the Forest of Oderem in some way, but their attempts were not only futile, it was a guaranteed way to suffer from some kind of misfortune. Some emperors who tried had their closest confidantes fall ill from unknown illnesses and die a painfully-slow death; some lost their spouses; others even lost their only child, their heir, effectively ending their ruling bloodline.

After some thinking, Lucianne said, "How about this, Pelly? Let Xandar and I meet the suspended ones. They might have seen more than they know."

A pause, and Pellethia's voice came out with visible relief when she replied, "That would be wonderful, Aunt Lucy. When?"

"I'm a little occupied with one of our teams here right now, so...tomorrow evening?"

"Okay, we'll get them ready."

"Thanks, Pelly."

Her tone came out more cheerful when she said, "Thanks for helping us with this, Aunt Lucy. Send mine and Octavia's love to Uncle Xandar."

Lucianne chuckled. "Will do. See you soon."

After hanging up and heaving a sigh, she returned to her husband's side and told him and Greg everything. Xandar's thumb on her shoulder started drawing comforting circles as he felt the frustration with her.

When Lucianne finished speaking, Greg questioned in disbelief, "Isn't the Forest of Oderem like any normal forest, My Queen? The thing about fake scents is merely a fairytale spun by some author to teach children to avoid wandering into unknown places exuding delightful scents, isn't it?"

Fairytale? Where did that come from? Xandar's eyebrows furrowed in confusion for a brief second before he realized that Greg remembered the enchanted forest from a children's bedtime storybook, and he snorted before burying the bottom half of his face in Lucianne's hair to hide the teasing smirk and chuckles.

Lucianne touched her husband's arm as she spoke in Greg's defense, "Darling, be nice. It really does exist in a fairytale book before we all learned it in school."

When the king managed to compose himself, an amusing smile was still visible when he commented not too loudly, "Greg, I knew you were bad at history but I didn't think you were this bad. Goddess, a fairytale."

Although only Greg's top four could hear what Xandar said, Greg was still embarrassed that his weakest subject back in school was disclosed in front of Lucianne, so he argued in defense, "To be fair, cousin, that subject had been nothing but a nuisance. What's with the mandatory requirement about needing to take history, forcing us to know every little thing about the past? It's in the f*cking past! Leave the damn thing there and move the hell on!"

"Darling, seriously, stop." Lucianne pleaded as Xandar continued trying to hold back his chuckles. She was neither smiling nor laughing at that moment but Xandar's burst of humor through their mate-bond was making it harder for her to fight the urge to laugh with him. She then looked at the slightly red-faced Greg and spoke with as much composure as he could manage, "I'd like to meet everyone, Your Grace. Shall we start with the introductions?"

"Of course. Right this way, my Queen." Greg responded instantly with gratitude as he gestured her to the first lycan on his left.

The fact that Lucianne was speaking to Greg replaced Xandar's humor with possessiveness, making him hold his wife close as they approached the first lycan. Lucianne and Xandar spent the next few hours shaking hands and getting a brief background on the ninety-four lycans, who were pleased to meet her, but who still showed some resistance towards Xandar despite Lucianne's attempts to let them know that he helped her argue for pardon to be granted.

Like Greg, they knew where the true power lay, and they felt that it was with her because their lives were stuck in a rut until she came along. Pardon was in the law for aesthetic purposes. It was almost never granted. If any police, warrior or king heard about them living in the shadows, they would never be in a position to bargain once they were found.

Some of them were skeptical when they heard that Greg was surrendering their presence at first, but now that they'd met the queen, they couldn't help but concur that they would have done the same thing if they were Greg. The queen might not admit to have vetoed anything in the meeting when pardon was discussed, but her presence brought a change, not just in their boss but also in the kingdom. She was giving them a chance they never got from anyone else but Greg.