Emilia sat still on her chair in a position she'd been forced to hold for the better part of an hour. By now, her legs were starting to cramp and her lower back felt stiff but still she endured. The reason for her minor suffering? A fluffy white cat that had decided her lap was the best place to be for a little midnight snooze.

With nothing else to do, Emilia studied the decor of John's latest hideout: a cat cafe in the middle of Tokyo, another one of the Enlighteners legitimate businesses hidden in plain sight.

Pale timber flooring and matching furniture coupled with the occasional grey fabric in the form of throw pillows and bench cushion seats gave the place a warm, calming atmosphere. The only other touches of colour came from the various cat trees, toys, wall shelves and poofy beds carefully placed throughout the area. All in all, about two dozen cats of various shapes and sizes called the cafe home, and most were pleased with the sudden attention of these newcomers.

The four werewolves were seated in a row on the floor, cat wands in hand much to the delight of their furry friends. Seated cross legged next to Gavin with a borrowed laptop in hand was Hailey, busy catching up on world news. In the meantime, the four vampires had decided to curl up in a corner on available bean bags for some much needed sleep. Their night was going to be a long one, since they needed to feed soon.

Seated beside Emilia, Aidan side-eyed the cat while secretly harbouring a grudge against it for doing what he wanted to do: rest his head in Emilia's lap while dozing off to the relaxing sounds of japanese jazz softly filtering through the speakers of the little cafe. He wrapped an arm around Emilia's waist and rested his head on her shoulder in compromise, nuzzling the silky smooth skin with his nose and earning a ticklish giggle from her.

Samaira, as promised, was in the midst of telling John the entire story starting from Emilia's first encounter with the vampire prince right up to the moment their group had met John. It had taken her the better part of an hour but now her story had finally reached its end. "And that is why Emilia and I wanted to meet the Enlighteners. You know the rest, and now here we are," Samaira finished while dusting her hands in exaggeration.

John turned his gaze slowly to Aidan, "Unbelievable. You actually closed three portals simultaneously. What a feat!"

Aidan raised his head from the comfort of Emilia's shoulder to stare unblinking at the witch, "Uh, did you miss the part where I died?"

"Yes, well, that was a pity, but still, what an achievement!" John didn't skip a beat, "But I must say, what truly fascinates me is how the portals came to be in the first place."

Aidan shrugged, "All I know is that someone put it there, but who or why, I'm thinking we'll never know."

John rubbed the bridge of his nose before absentmindedly adjusting his thick rimmed glasses, "That's a shame. I sure would love to find out."

"I'm sure you would," came Lannetta's sleep-filled voice from her spot on the bean bag. The brunette beauty stretched like a cat before standing. "But back to the problems at hand. You think you can help us find a way to break the curse of the sun?"

John pursed his thin lips before replying, "I give you no promises of success, but I am more than willing to give it my all."

"And that's all I ask of you," the vampire replied with a smile. "Now, for the next problem. As much as I love this cosy place you've got, I don't think staying in a cat cafe cuts it long term. Is there somewhere else we could crash for a while?"

At the mention of a new hideout, Andy quickly perked up, "I've got an idea. Tyler's dad lives on a rural farm, which is literally in the middle of nowhere." He was overflowing with confidence as he said, "I know the man. He's always been a pacifist, so much so many in the werewolf community have labelled him a vampire sympathiser. We'd be safest at his place."

Aidan mulled the idea. He couldn't think of anywhere else and no one had given a better suggestion so he nodded, "Get in touch with Tyler, but be careful. We don't want to give our position away."

"Got it." Andy was already hurrying towards the satellite phone in the cafe's staff room.

Lannetta let out a huff. "That's one problem solved. We can make further arrangements later. But first, we vampires need to feed." Her eyes narrowed on her brother, "Think you can handle it?"

Feeding. It wasn't something he'd done in this lifetime, but the same rules still applied. Aidan nodded, a slight frown drawing his brows together, "Do you have a place in mind?"

He didn't quite like the wicked smile that crept up Lannetta's face. "Oh yeah," she said, her voice pitching low and unmistakably giving off dangerous vibes, "a certain misbehaving human needs to be taught a lesson. Punishment and feeding time hand in hand is a good way to kill two birds with one stone."

Aidan eyed his sister dubiously, "Right, that sounds...interesting."

She grinned, canines elongating to their full extent, "Alrighty then, let's go."

Aidan and the four vampires took off with Lannetta leading the way, weaving through the crowds and up unknown alleys with their neon signs aglow, until they reached what looked to be a small restaurant. Inside, a single waiter was busy serving drinks to a group of young men in suits, not yet aware of the newcomers behind him. Using the distraction as an opportunity, the vampire queen confidently strode in right to the back and entered the door labelled 'staff only' without pause.

She avoided the kitchen and instead speedily made her way down a set of steps to what looked to be a basement area. Aidan, who was the last down the steps, blinked at the sight before him. Gold bars were randomly stacked against all the walls, while in the middle, a group of five men sat around a table, taken by surprise at the sudden intrusion.

"Qu-Queen Lannetta?!" One of the middle-aged men at the table jumped up violently from his seat, not even trying to hide his horror. The others followed right after.

"That's right, you little shit head. The queen is back, and she wants her money and then some." Lannetta moved towards him, exaggerating her movements to look like a tiger ready to pounce.

All the men at the table began reaching for their guns, but Maxim, Flint and Byron disarmed them before either one of them could draw a weapon. As Aidan prepared to help, a sudden, unexplainable ache pressed against his chest, forcing him to stop in his tracks. The feeling morphed from pain to an odd stuffiness before dissipating quickly, leaving Aidan panting ever so slightly.

The stunned vampire could only silently yell, 'Soggy takoyaki! What in the world was that?'

"Please, listen. I have an explanation!" While all the other men cowered in a corner of the tiny room, the object of the vampire queen's anger began running circles around the table as Lannetta continued stalking him.

"Duke Havar's men threatened to kill me! I had no choice!"

"So that's your reason for withholding the profits from our business and keeping it all for yourself, eh?" Lannetta's eyes roamed the room before returning to him, flashing him a grin, "Seems like you've tripled it from the time I was gone."

"I did triple it, but I don't get to keep most of it," he muttered almost to himself, "the duke keeps eighty percent of all profits."

"That's too bad. It's a far cry from the fifty-fifty we shared." Lannetta had not one ounce of sympathy for him.

Staring at her with eyes as wide as they would go, he pleaded, "I swear, I had no choice. He was really going to kill me!"

This time, the brunette vampire was done playing his game of lies. She used her naturally fast reflexes to circle the table before grabbing him by the collar. "Bullshit," she growled. "Did you think you were the only human I entrusted my businesses to?"

Realising his error, the man shrank back as much as he could, looking like a turtle trying to hide in its shell. Lannetta yanked him back. "I know the truth! You chose to side with Orsan and you ratted out the other vampires who remained loyal to me!"

Sweat beaded on the man's forehead as a premonition of what was to come hit him.

Lannetta glared at the squirming man before her. "You are such a fool. If you think he will spare you for siding with him, you're dead wrong 'cause he is still going to kill you. Or enslave you, depending on the mood of the hour."

"Or turn me into a vampire," the man mumbled defiantly.

The room fell deathly silent until Lannetta laughed.

"Is that what he promised you?" she continued chuckling. "I take pride in being a pretty good judge of character. I refused to change you because I knew longevity would corrupt you. My mistake was thinking you would need centuries to turn rotten."

The man's beady eyes narrowed as his face contorted into an expression of rebellion, "You didn't give me a chance to even prove myself but Duke Orsan did."

"And yet you're still human even after all these years." the vampire queen mocked. "It's been, what, fifteen, twenty years?" Her grip on the man tightened as she leaned in, "And you'll be dying as a human because I'm going to deal with you today."

'No, wai–"

Her canines were slicing through his shoulder before he could finish pleading.

The four other humans screeched in fear at the sight of their boss being bitten before the three vampires muffled their cries with hands over their mouths. Aidan hurriedly moved to silence the last man left yelling his lungs out.

Lannetta paused long enough from feeding to say, "Drain 'em boys, but don't dry 'em. I don't actually want them dead."

Aidan's fangs elongated to full length, causing the human in his grasp to utter a muffled yelp. "Don't worry, it looks worse than it feels," Aidan assured before tearing the shirt collar and immediately puncturing the man's shoulder, the euphoria-inducing numbing agent from his fangs already entering the bloodstream.

In seconds, the man's eyes were glazing over as the pleasure set in. Aidan carefully withheld injecting the neurotoxin and began feeding, finding the blood tasting its familiar bitter and sweet, in a comparative way to how Coke somehow melded both flavours without being disgusting .

Shortly after, Lannetta handed over the anaemic bunch to a group of fifteen or so of her loyalist humans before the vampires headed back to the cafe. "I didn't expect us to have loyal humans in this day and age," Aidan said, curious to know more.

"There are a few families who continue to pledge their loyalty to us. Their family wealth is intricately linked to favours and advice I've bestowed in the past and they still remember that. My offer to turn them remains open yet all have refused the gift of vampirism."

"And what about loyal vampires?"

"Orsan killed those he knew, but many survive still, in little towns, far away from prying eyes."

Aidan continued his walk to the cafe in silence, pondering the next steps he needed to take to save himself, his family, his friends and all the unknown number of townspeople who secretly believed in the Bloodreign name.