Just like that, tension settles over the entire auditorium, crackling in the air.

The silence that swoops down upon them is deep and troubled, heavy with unspoken intentions.

Lan Zhan had already angled his seat closer to Wei Ying; their hands already joined, but now his thumb stroked the ridge of his knuckles trying to soothe him. It shakes Wei Ying out of his distraction, and he begins to emit waves of peace, if not happiness, because if he was honest, he would want to be as far away from here as possible.

It makes a difference.

Even his grandmother feels it, and while her mouth stays in a line of determination, her eyes crinkle in a silent thanks.

"There are several things to discuss, so let's get down to business." Wen Qing shuffles the blank papers in front of her.

She's nervous, Wei Ying realises, surreptitiously watching her.

Good.

"As you know, Wen Rouhan passed away a few days ago, leaving our ship without a captain. Our Board of Directors has nominated me to take over. It will take a further week to get things up and running like they used to, and I've managed to keep things quiet by stating that the halt in production is due to a contamination event." Her voice rings out loud and clear, naturally amplified by the circular room.

Low laughs punctuate the air.

"Contamination is right!"

"Wens breeding artificial vampires! Is that what we're calling it now?"

"So civilised!"

There's an air of cynical sarcasm around, like the vampires can't believe her matter-of-fact attitude, of trying to normalise the Wens' barbaric practices, of which she had a hand in.

Baoshan Sanren remains quiet, her face unchanged except for her silver eyes. Amusement flashes within, replaced by cold calculations.

"But, he was a prominent figure. People are already beginning to ask questions, and they want to know what's happening. The moment the media gets a hold of this, it will be difficult to contain. Hence my proposal for a public statement," Wen Qing continues, ignoring them.

The jeering gets louder.

"What are you going to tell them?" Baoshan Sanren asks her.

Her tone is enough to silence the crowd, already becoming restless.

"That's what I would like to discuss."

Wen Qing is interrupted by a blond vampire in the third row up ahead.

"What's there to discuss? Just tell them he was killed by his own experiments! If anything, it's his own fault that things turned out the way they did!" His voice carries across the room, and he has his own supporters.

"But that would expose our kind! That's the stupidest thing you've said tonight!" A dark haired older vampiress says, also standing up. "We've enjoyed a covert existence up until now, with an abundance in food. The moment the humans find out about us, it's all over. They will hunt us down!"

"Let them come!" The vampire who snarls that, looks like an ex-wrestler. His canines are extended and his talons are out as if to ward off an immediate attack.

His supporters mimic his stance and that slice of the auditorium becomes even louder until Baoshan Sanren raises a hand, calling for silence.

Wei Ying taps on Lan Zhan's wrist, wanting to check the time.

It's already past ten thirty.

How?

The time passed along so quickly that Wei Ying hadn't even noticed it.

What are their ninja teams doing now? How far have they got now?

He'd noticed they were all carrying black backpacks, but would that be enough? Had they even found anything? And what was Wen Qing going to do when she found out?

Of all his questions, that one seemed the hardest one to answer.

Wei Ying could understand Lan Zhan better now. It was so much easier to deal with things that he knew were going to happen, than to play it by ear. One wrong step and that would be that.

But in these past few weeks, all Wei Ying had done was play it by ear. It was terrifying, really.

"Do not be rash." Baoshan Sanren mutters, loud enough to be heard by the super sensitive hearing all around her.

"I have evidence, if you want to take this further," Nie Huaisang chooses to speak now.

"What? A trial in a human court? And since he's dead, who exactly are you going to hold accountable?"

This voice of reason comes from a tiny Asian lady wearing pixie boots, sitting in the front row.

Every single head turns towards Wen Qing, silently accusing her of compliance with Wen Rouhan. If anyone is accountable, it's her, in their opinion.

Wei Ying almost feels sorry for her.

Almost.

But he knows it is her own deeds that have brought her to this place. Wei Ying half expects her to cry crocodile tears over the same issues again to garner sympathy like before, and now he's surprised at himself. How strangely fitting that once he has removed himself from the equation that is Wen Qing, he can see all her actions in another light?

Whereas before he thought she genuinely felt bad for everything that had happened until now, he can see that when she was blaming her uncle was by-the-by, and very convenient. How her scientific brain must have delighted in the new discoveries to be had almost daily?

She would have seen every experiment as an opportunity to learn more, and wasn't he himself a victim of her curiosity?

The blood she had extracted from him was supposed to test any anomalies, any disease to explain his passing out episodes. But when Wen Ning had dropped Wei Ying's sample of blood, accidentally contaminating it with Lan Zhan's venom, she never stopped to explain her actions.

She knew it was not normal and so she went ahead to test that plus any other theories she wanted to explore, and didn't care about his ailments.

Science came first.

Not family.

While Wei Ying is drowning in his changed reality, the murmurs have gotten louder. All the voices are tired of catching the shortest stick, of leaving their destinies to someone else.

Things come to a head when the loudest voice says, "we could kill her now, and be done with it."

He's a sharply dressed dude, wearing a black suit with a white shirt, no tie.

Wei Ying glances at his grandmother; no matter how he feels about Wen Qing, this is NOT the answer!

Luckily, Baoshan Sanren already has her hand up for silence, before that last comment gains traction.

"How will killing her help? In fact, it would do the opposite. Right now, she's the only thing standing between us and certain exposure, and I'm sure we can all agree, the freedoms which we now enjoy would vanish in a single heartbeat, were that to happen." Her decisive tone, and her words spoken with authority holds the weight to bring back calmness, however fragile it is.

Wei Ying wonders whether or not Baoshan Sanren is the oldest vampire here, and if that is the case, then surely her success at maintaining a hidden lifestyle is to be applauded?

It would be easy to crash and burn in a second of ill-advised passion, surrendering to the heat of the moment, but far, far harder to play the long game. Centuries have passed and yet the anonymity his grandmother has procured could be wiped out in a fraction of the time.

How is she not scared about this?

"Please do us the honour of an explanation." The black suited individual bows as well, all a mockery of her opinion.

Wei Ying is about to get up and go and punch his lights out, but the slightest shake of his grandmother's head barely stops him.

The silver fire in his eyes, the open glare he's aiming at that wanker, it's enough to make Lan Zhan conscious of how hot his fiancé is. Wei Ying looks ready to throw hands and it won't be pretty.

"Of course. Let me simplify, since it appears to be difficult to understand, for some of us."

Wei Ying bites his lip to stop himself from snickering out loud. Trust his grandmother to turn the tables on that idiot and imply he was the stupid one.

"Wen Rouhan had a huge chunk of the press in his pocket, not to mention the local law enforcement. Maybe it goes as far as the courts, who knows? With his death, it's entirely plausible to assume that courtesy, advantage, whatever you want to call it, is over. The moment the news of his death comes out, all hell is going to break loose as the humans break free of his confinement. When that happens, you can bet your asses that they're going to crack down on us with everything they've got. But, we still have the advantage of time, and my fellow vampires, I suggest we use it."

"What should we do?" Some of them chime out.

Wei Ying looks around and from the confusion on some of the faces that he can see, he realises that not all those present belonging to the Network of Vampires are outspoken, over-opinionated fools; some of these people just want to carry on with their lives as quietly as possible, with no hiccups.

It's time for Tripod to speak up for them, to give those people their voice.

Wei Ying nearly misses the tilt of his grandmother's head towards him, and then Tripod stands up.

"I agree with Baoshan Sanren. To stay hidden and out of sight, spread out as we are, is in our best interests. Tell me, what could you possibly gain by coming out to the humans? But you have everything to lose by doing that. Only an idiot would think showing our cards was the best option."

"So you're just going to let them get away with it?" Huaisang looks physically sick at that.

"Yeah! Are you?" Another voice shouts, obscured by the darkness.

"What about the ones we caged here? What's going to happen to them?"

Wen Qing stands up, at the last comment.

"I can answer that question. But first, I want to apologise to all of you." She bows deeply, and everyone becomes silent, watching her. "I AM sorry, no matter what you think of me. I had my reasons for doing whatever was asked of me, and I was put into a terrible position. I chose the lesser of two evils, and it might not make sense to you why I did what I did, but it was my only option then."

"THAT'S her apology?" Someone mutters in the darkness. "I didn't hear a 'sorry'!"

"Neither did I. Excuses, that's what I heard." Another voice joins the first one.

"The thing is, if we vote to keep silent about ourselves, she wins! Nothing changes for her and this company, they'll carry on doing their experiments, and when it gets out of hand again, guess who they're going to call to clean up their shit?" The tiny Asian lady with the pixie boots says, scowling at Wen Qing.

"I would never sanction something like that!" Wen Qing protests, looking around the auditorium with wide eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, we believe you!" The blond vampire from before tells her scornfully, rolling his eyes.

"Then you're just going to have to trust me!" Wen Qing replies, her eyes on fire at these people throwing accusations at her.

That's the wrong thing to say in a huge room full of annoyed vampires steadily getting angrier. They start jeering at her, and there's even a bit of name calling. Wen Qing flinched every time a projectile came close. It's just pieces of paper for now...

"What if we could provide a guarantee?" Baoshan Sanren says in the thick of it, and immediately Tripod looks interested.

"How?"

"It seems to me, none of you lot trust her. Which is fair, don't get me wrong!" Baoshan Sanren holds up a placating hand. "Hear me out."

There are calls for silence and the heckling turns down a few notches.

"I agree that it's in our best interests, and hers, that we help each other. It wouldn't be a smart move for Wen Laboratories to suddenly become the focus of the media, given their shady history. Whatever shield Wen Rouhan managed to procure for them is about to expire, and once that happens, it's going to be a feeding frenzy.

"I think it's safe to say that none of us want Wen Laboratories to experiment on humans. There are enough of us already, plus from what we've seen, the artificial creation of Vampires is highly unstable and frankly, downright cruel."

Cheers erupt from all around the auditorium.

"I was able to talk to many of us since Sunday happened," Tripod sits down finally, looking around the faces avidly watching him back. "Many of us don't want to draw attention to our kind, and in that vein, the old adage "my enemy's enemy is my friend" comes to mind. If Baoshan Sanren can guarantee that Wen Laboratories under the righteous hand of Doctor Wen Qing will refrain from creating more wild creatures, and will do their utmost in helping those that still exist, then I think I'm speaking for the majority that we are willing to let this end."

A few vampires try to add their boos to the ensuing cacophony of support, but mostly there are only cheers echoing around the auditorium.

Finally, Wei Ying thinks they are getting somewhere.

"So my request for additional help must lie at Nie Huaisang's feet," Baoshan Sanren says, arching a brow in his direction.

"Me? How?" Huaisang does his best to appear confused, but Wei Ying already saw the flash of understanding in his eyes.

And disappointment.

Whatever his grandmother is going to suggest, Huaisang isn't going to like it.

"From what my grandson tells me, and from your questions this evening, I know you have much evidence against Wen Laboratories. We all know that you could go public tomorrow, and it would ruin them, as well as make life difficult for many of us, but I would urge you to please think about this:

"If you make copies of your proof and give it to trusted people, with a guarantee to go public if anything should happen to you, that's the first part. The second part lies in sitting on it for now. It is our hidden blade, so to speak." Baoshan Sanren is positively glowing in anticipation with her next words. "That's the guarantee and the threat we hold over Wen Qing that, should we discover any breach of our laid out conditions, you or your friends go public. This also guarantees your safety, because I'm a superstitious person.

"If anything were to happen to you, even accidentally say, maybe you're out walking and you happen to trip up, or something falls on your head, I'm going to blame certain people for that," Baoshan Sanren turns a calculating gaze towards Wen Qing then, "and then, no one can save them. Do you understand?" Her tone is icy.

Wen Qing has not blinked once, and she nods silently, the weight of this meeting finally dawning on her.

"Speak up, child. There should be no doubts in anyone's mind about what we are agreeing to here."

"I understand. And this is my promise to you as well, that no more experiments endangering human lives will take place here."

To her credit, Wen Qing's voice only wobbles once.

"Alright, then I think we're done here." Baoshan Sanren says, standing up.

"Wait a second, not so fast." The blond vampire from before, steps forward towards Baoshan Sanren.

Wei Ying is already feeling tired, but his instincts kick in, giving him goosebumps all over. Whatever this guy has to say, it's not going to be good.

"You say that the threat can be contained, that we can carry on as normal," his blue eyes glint dangerously. "And I agree, in HER case. But what about him?" He points at Wei Ying now. "He's still a danger to us. We all saw it on Sunday, he managed to disable us with an artifact and a flute. Who's with me when I say that we're still in danger, but it's much, much worse!"