Chapter 50: Price of Betrayal

After my encounter with the hunters, I didn’t move immediately.

I stayed hidden for an entire day, watching, listening, waiting. Hunters were patient creatures, and the foolish ones never lived long. If they were tracking me, they would expect me to run.

So I didn’t.

I remained in the same area, observing the streets, the rooftops, the people passing by. Nothing unusual. No lingering scent of silver weapons, no strange eyes watching from the distance, no quiet footsteps following mine.

By the end of the day, I was certain of one thing.

They weren’t on my trail.

That was when I decided to move.

Now I sat in the back of a taxi, staring out the window as the city passed by. Cars crawled through traffic, street vendors shouted to passing pedestrians, and the afternoon sun hung high above the buildings.

The driver said nothing, and neither did I.

A few minutes later the taxi pulled over in front of a tall hotel building.

“This is it,” the driver said.

I paid him, stepped out of the car, and shut the door behind me.

The sun was brighter than I expected. The light reflected off the glass windows of the building and forced me to raise a hand to block it as I walked toward the entrance.

I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The cool air of the lobby washed over me instantly.

The place was quiet. Polished floors, soft lighting, and a few guests moving in and out of the elevators.

At the reception desk stood two young men dressed in matching uniforms.

They looked up as I approached.

I stopped in front of the desk.

“Good afternoon,” one of them said politely.

I nodded slightly.

“I’m looking for someone,” I said. “Her name is Juliet. Do either of you know where she is?”

The two receptionists exchanged a brief glance before looking back at me.

Then they both shook their heads.

“No,” one of them said.

“We don’t know anyone by that name.”

I studied their faces for a moment.

“Did she leave any message?” I asked. “Anything about when she’ll be back?”

Both of them shook their heads almost immediately.

“We have no idea,” one of them said.

The answer came too quickly.

Too simple.

For a place like this—where information usually flowed through the front desk like water—the response felt rehearsed.

My eyes dropped to the small name tags pinned neatly to their uniforms.

Chinedu.

Marvelous.

I lifted my gaze again and looked directly at Chinedu.

“Do you have any idea who I am?” I asked.

He shook his head slowly.

“No, sir.”

I nodded once.

“My name is Emmanuel,” I said calmly. “Juliet’s cousin.”

The reaction was immediate.

Both men stiffened.

The color drained from their faces as if someone had pulled the blood straight out of them.

“I—I’m sorry, sir,” Chinedu said quickly.

“We didn’t know,” Marvelous added nervously.

I leaned slightly closer to the desk.

“That’s fine,” I said. “I just have one question.”

They waited silently.

“You two are Renfields, aren’t you?”

They hesitated for a brief second… then both nodded.

“Yes, sir.”

I glanced around the lobby before looking back at them.

“And the rest of the staff here?”

Another quick nod.

“Yes, sir.”

“All of them.”

I looked at both of them for a moment, then said calmly, “Today is your lucky day. I’m going to make your dreams come true.”

The change in their expressions was immediate. The tension disappeared from their faces and was replaced with excitement.

“Really, sir?” Marvelous said.

I ignored the question and glanced around the lobby.

“Is there somewhere private where we can talk?”

“Yes, sir,” Chinedu replied quickly.

They hurried out from behind the desk and stepped in front of me.

“This way, sir,” Chinedu said, pointing ahead.

They began leading me across the lobby and into a large hallway. The floor was polished, reflecting the lights above. To my right was a small diner with a few people seated inside, quietly eating. To my left was a jewelry store, its glass displays filled with watches and necklaces that glinted under bright white lights.

We kept walking.

After passing several doors and empty corridors, they turned into a much smaller hallway. It was narrow and quiet, with only a single door at the end.

Chinedu stepped forward and opened it.

“Please, sir.”

I walked inside.

It was a conference room. A large oval-shaped table sat in the center of the room with chairs arranged all around it. The lights above were bright, and the room smelled faintly of polished wood and air freshener.

I pulled out one of the chairs and sat down at the table.

Across from me stood Chinedu and Obinna, both of them waiting, their hands folded in front of them like obedient servants.

I leaned back slightly in the chair and looked around the room.

“Wow,” I said. “Are you two even allowed in here?”

Chinedu gave a small smile.

“Mrs. Juliet isn’t a strict boss,” he said. “And now that she’s gone, it might be a while before she comes back. So… we can honestly do as we wish around here.”

I nodded slowly.

“Good,” I said. “Then tell me what you know.”

Obinna opened his mouth to speak, but Chinedu quickly raised a hand and stopped him.

I looked at him.

“What’s wrong?”

Chinedu hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Sir… before we say anything, you have to promise us something.”

“And what is that?”

He swallowed nervously.

“After we tell you everything we know… you have to turn us.”

Both of them stared at me with desperate anticipation.

They had probably dreamed of this moment their entire lives.

I watched them for a few seconds before giving a small nod.

“You have my word.”

The tension immediately left their shoulders.

Chinedu cleared his throat before continuing.

“Several weeks ago,” he said, “Mrs. Juliet brought a young man to the hotel.”

I leaned back slightly, listening.

“From the way he behaved… and from everything we observed, it looked like he had just been turned. A new vampire.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“How do you know that?”

Chinedu exchanged a quick glance with Obinna before answering.

“The first day she brought him here… a few hours later she came to me with a dead body. A young girl.”

He paused briefly.

“She asked me to incinerate the body.”

There was no hesitation in his voice, as if disposing of corpses was part of his normal routine.

“And Mrs. Juliet,” he continued, “is not the type to make mistakes when feeding. She’s careful. Very careful. So when I saw that body… I knew it wasn’t her doing.”

As he spoke, something clicked in my mind.

I remembered the conversation with Captain Jonas.

The missing girl.

So that was it.

Juliet had been involved all along.

I raised a hand slightly.

“Cut the story short,” I said.

Chinedu nodded immediately.

“And tell me where she is now,” I said.

Chinedu didn’t hesitate.

“She’s in Antarctica, sir. With the new vampire.”

For a brief moment I said nothing.

A sharp feeling rose in my chest—something close to jealousy. Juliet had taken our sacred blood, the blood we guarded so carefully, and given it to some random man. Turned him into a vampire… and then taken him all the way to Antarctica.

It almost sounded like a vacation.

But the feeling passed as quickly as it came.

It didn’t matter.

I was going to find her anyway. And when I did, I would remind her of what we had. The bond between us was older and stronger than anything she could build with someone else.

I looked back at Chinedu.

“Why Antarctica?” I asked. “Why go there all of a sudden?”

He shook his head.

“I don’t know, sir. She just left one night without warning.”

I leaned back in the chair.

Then it made sense.

It was probably because of me.

Years ago Juliet and I had performed a spell together—a simple but powerful one. It allowed us to sense when the other was searching… when the other was coming.

So she must have felt it.

She must have known I was looking for her.

That was why she ran.

By now she had probably broken the spell, cut off the connection completely.

But it didn’t matter anymore.

Because now I knew where she was.

“So where in Antarctica did she go?” I asked.

Chinedu shook his head. “I don’t have that information, sir.”

I narrowed my eyes slightly. “Then how do you know she went to Antarctica in the first place?”

He answered quickly. “The people who flew with her on the plane are also Renfields. We communicate a lot.”

That was enough for me.

I stood up from the chair and adjusted my coat. “Thank you for your help.”

I turned toward the door, ready to leave.

Before I could take another step, Obinna spoke.

“But sir… we told you everything we know. It’s your turn to keep your promise.”

I stopped.

Slowly, I turned back to face them.

They were both standing where I had left them, watching me with anticipation.

I looked at them for a moment before asking, “Tell me… what is the sole purpose of a Renfield?”

They glanced at each other but said nothing.

So I answered for them.

“Renfields exist for one reason. To be loyal to their master. To serve them no matter the consequences or circumstances.”

Their expressions slowly changed as they understood where this was going.

“But you two,” I continued calmly, “have already broken that vow.”

They began stepping back.

“You ratted your master out the moment someone stronger appeared in front of you… and now you expect me to reward betrayal.”

Fear replaced the excitement that had filled their faces earlier.

They continued shifting backward as I stepped toward them.

“Instead of rewarding you with eternal life,” I said quietly, “I’ll reward you with death.”

They froze where they stood.

For a brief second, neither of them moved, as if hoping I was bluffing.

I wasn’t.

Before either of them could react, I stepped forward and grabbed them—one in each hand. My fingers wrapped around their heads firmly, careful and precise.

They didn’t even have time to scream.

With one swift motion, I twisted and pulled.

The sound was sharp and wet as both heads tore free from their bodies. Their bodies collapsed almost instantly, dropping to the floor beside the conference table.

I stepped back slightly, making sure the blood didn’t spray onto my shirt.

The heads slipped from my grip and rolled across the polished floor.

For a moment, the room was completely silent.

I glanced down at my hands, now covered in blood. Without much thought, I wiped them on the front of their uniforms, using the fabric to clean the worst of it off.

Then I straightened my sleeves and walked out of the conference room.

The hallway outside was quiet.

I moved calmly through it and back toward the lobby as if nothing had happened.

When I reached the reception area, two women were standing behind the desk.

One of them looked around the lobby with a confused expression.

“Where are Chinedu and Obinna?” she asked.

The other woman shrugged.

“I left them here at the desk earlier,” she said.

I allowed myself a small smile as I walked past them.

Neither of them noticed the faint smell of blood.

I stepped out of the hotel and into the open air.

Across the street was a park filled with children running through the grass while their parents watched from nearby benches. Laughter drifted through the air as the kids chased each other under the afternoon sun.

For a moment, I just stood there watching them.

It reminded me of another time.

Another place.

Back in the old Oyo Empire.

Juliet and I had once been children too, running through the sand, playing without a care in the world. I could still remember the day we made that promise to each other.

If we ever got lost…

We would always find our way back to one another.

I looked up at the sky for a moment.

Now I knew where she was.

Antarctica.

And I was going to find her.