The report that was sent by the witch hunters took a minimum of one and a half days before it reached the council that went to the head council's room. When Rueben pulled out the black envelope from the stack, tearing the cover to read the contents inside it, his eyebrows furrowed at what was in there.
Leaving the head council room, he made his way towards the other building and on the way, he met many of the councilmen who bowed and greeted. Barely sharing any words with them, he stepped out of the current building to go to where Murkh, the vampire doctor worked in the laboratory.
Passing through the bloody smell that came from the cells, he walked into the laboratory to see Murk who was already with the samples that were sent by the witch hunters. Getting closer to the tray dish where the organs were placed, he noticed how the organs appeared to be burnt and charred from outside.
"Have you seen this before?" asked Rueben to Murk who had his glasses on, staring at the sample organs closely before moving back.
"I don't think so, Sir. We have had charred bodies along with the organs but it told that-"
"That the body appeared to be fine. These organs belong to vampires," Reuben completed, his eyes picking up the state of a mess the room was in right now, "In the note, it was written that they found the vampire's organs missing but his insides were fine. It was as if the organs were ripped out of his body. Damien and the others came across this one I believe during their time in Valeria."
"Yes, the one who had vampire's eyes but had a witch body," Murkh answered, giving it a thought but then he shook his head, "But the man's body was not charred. Not outside nor in. The body that was sent here was clean without much damage apart from the bullets and the stitches on his back."
Reuben gave a hard look at the organs again, before saying, "Cut it open."
The vampire doctor didn't have to be told twice. The man enjoyed cutting through and opening them up for his eyes to look at. Bringing the scalpel that was longer and sharper which he had chiseled two days ago, his eager hands went to the heart that was black and hard in appearance.
He cut the outer part of the heart, going deeper to turn them into half. When it was opened up, they noticed how there were barely a few drops of blood that kept the heart moist at the center.
"I think the heart was dying," Murkh commented looking at the heart that was dried and chalky when he ran his fingers across the outer part of the organ.
Rueben had a grave expression on his face as he said, "The black witches are trying to convert themselves to humans and vampires. There have been past sightings with open bodies with missing body parts. They are mostly vampires and humans because they are easily available and no one can ever suspect you."
In time, Damien appeared who had come to give a visit to Murkh when he found Rueben in the laboratory, "Good evening, head council," greeted the pureblooded vampire stepping inside the room.
"Damien we have a problem," on hearing the head council speak to him, Damien couldn't help but smile. If the problems in their lands were few he would have been spending his time in the mansion. If it weren't for Penelope being a white witch and her mother coming up in the monthly letter, he would have been lazing without a care in the world, "We found improvised black witches."
"Tell me why it isn't that surprising," Damien commented and his eyes fell on the heart that was cut out, "Who does that belong to? Looks like someone got roasted."
Reuben then explained what was written in the note, "The white witches found two black witches in the inn. The heart and other charred body parts belong to someone but not the vampire who was killed in there.
Damien gave the man a nod, "The vampire's body parts must have been used as a replacement for the witch. I don't think we have found any recent sightings apart from what has been found a few years ago in the case files. Did they give out a description of how the witches looked?"
"Yes," Reuben put his hand in his pocket to pull out a folded parchment that looked dull and dirty as if it had withstood wind and rain, "This is the one. The witch hunter wrote down that the woman looked like this. Was this Kreme's doing?" asked the half-vampire raising his brows at the young man.
Taking the parchment and unfolding it, Damien looked at the woman's picture that had a bounty of four hundred gold coins in it. Unable to keep himself from smiling, his fangs appeared to peek out of his mouth when he continued to stare at the picture, "I had Kreme draw her."
"Who is she?" questioned Reuben. Though the man was a head council in here, there were a lot of things that went unknown to him without his consent and Damien aced in it.
"She is Penelope's mother."
"The girl?" asked the councilman unable to hold his surprise. Murkh, who already knew about it, left to clean the scalpel that he had used.
"She has been trying to kill her daughter for some time now but if there was another witch with her. The probability of the person being her brother is very high. The woman, Laurae, has a brother but we haven't been fortunate enough in finding anything more about him than knowing he is her brother who was engaged to Penelope's aunt."
"Do they have children?"
"None," Damien responded back to Reuben and handed back the picture, "I had Kreme draw her and post her pictures everywhere so that she would make an appearance and she finally did. Sadly, the witches don't have the locator spell else it would have been easy to spot her and have her cough up about the other rituals."
Reuben exhaled the air through his lips. He could now see why Damien was involved in the case of the ritual. The people here were connected to one another.
"I need you to set out a court meeting out in the open," said Damien.
Rueben asked, "Don't we always have the court meeting outside?" the pureblooded vampire shook his head.
"This is for the elder council. I need to bring someone out in the highlight," Damien stated, giving a pause before saying, "Don't inform anyone about it. A surprise meeting is always fun, don't you think?"