Hours in the Moonlight: Rose Red Dawn - 8. Goaded Into Arguing
Summary: Frankly speaking, you really didn’t see how having ended up killing a Heartslabyul vampire, even an insane one, could end well with a clan leader quite like Riddle. If nothing else, he probably had a rule about it. But you doubted you ever could have foreseen it going the way it was now.
Series Type: Gender-neutral reader/ Vampire AU/ series/ romantic/ angst/ angst with comfort/ fluff/ sfw/ platonic interactions too!
Trigger Warning: Vampire
Word Count: 2471
Hours in the Moonlight Master-List
It was honestly a blessing that Cater had been sent to track down the wayward three who hadn’t shown up for the tea party.
He’d appeared on the scene with a horrified expression and a shout for Ace and Deuce to get out of my way before yelling at me to finish it.
We’d all been startled, but I’d only hesitated briefly before I fired at the vampire that had already injured both Ace and Deuce in the fight.
The stake had pierced the vampire’s chest, and he had dissolved into ashes almost immediately. The only sign that anything had been amiss at all was the utter catastrophe that was the hallways and the steadily growing bruises on me and my friends.
Vases had been smashed, pictures knocked off the walls, and now a pile of ash in the middle of the already dirtied floor.
I couldn’t quite bring myself to look at Ace and Deuce as I stared at the ashes, and it was Cater who spoke first. His voice strained with shock, “Are all of you alright? You didn’t get bitten, did you, Y/n?”
I slowly shook my head, lifting my gaze to look at the orange-haired young man who stared at me with a tightly worried expression.
“It wasn’t their fault, Cater. That guy attacked them first and-”
“I know that, Deuce,” Cater interrupted Deuce before shaking his head slightly, and I felt genuinely bad for him. Not only had he just given the order for me to kill that vampire, but he now was having to deal with the fallout and damage control too.
Worse still was the fact it was Cater having to do this. He was a mature young man, more so than I’d initially realized as I now saw, but he had also always seemed like an innately carefree individual.
I swallowed thickly before speaking. Forcing myself not to shift uncomfortably as I put on a brave face for both myself and everyone else here, “Where’s Riddle? I’ll need to tell him what happened here.”
All three of them looked at me in surprise. Possibly because I was willing to report that I’d just killed a member of the Heatslabyul clan to the infamously strict clan head or possibly because I was willing to deliver the blow that one of his clan’s members had been insane.
Either way, Cater shook his head after a brief moment, “He’s in his office…. I think all three of you had better go, though. I’ll handle cleaning up the hallway, so…”
He trailed off, and I nodded. Forcing myself to move from where I’d been standing before finally chancing a glance over at Ace and Deuce.
Both of them looked my way nervously at the same moment I looked at them, wondering exactly how they’d react to everything that had just happened.
Ace was the first one to straighten, nodding his head at me as Deuce followed suit, “Come on, Y/n. Let’s get this over with.”
I nodded my agreement and followed them, pausing briefly next to Cater to glance at him worriedly, only for him to meet my gaze.
And for the briefest moments he simply looked tired, but then he noticed me and, like a cloud disappearing from the sky, his face brightened and he gave a little wave as he smiled at me, “Don’t worry, Cay-cay’s got this handled! You go on and meet up with Riddle.”
I nodded distantly, frowning slightly but hurrying on after Ace and Deuce, who’d both paused to look back in confusion. I shook my head at their questioning gazes, not entirely sure what to make of what I saw anyway and finding that it had only made me worry for Cater more, though I was fairly certain he’d meant to reassure me.
The three of us walked along in silence, and I highly suspected that each of us was thinking about our entire experience with the insane vampire back then.
Ace was the first to break the silence, slipping over alongside me and nudging me with his elbow so that I glanced over at him right as he started speaking, “So how much trouble do you think we’re in?”
I had to admit that wasn’t what I’d expected him to say, and I almost sighed in relief before I shook my head slightly, “Hopefully none. After all, we did get attacked by an insane vampire. Most of what happened back there was self-defense, so….”
I trailed off, shrugging slightly before glancing over at Deuce on my other side who nodded with an oddly determined-looking gaze, “Yeah, we were defending ourselves. And I’m sure Cater will back us up too since he saw what was happening.”
I smiled slightly at his words before looking back forward. To be honest, I was less concerned about being in trouble for dispatching an insane vampire and more worried about what this meant for the evaluation.
At the very least, neither Ace nor Deuce seemed to think of me any differently, which was surprising, to say the least. But then they’d know what my job was this entire time.
But who knew how this would go over with Riddle.
It was true that the vampire was insane, that it had attacked us first, and that I’d been doing the job Crowley had given me. But it was also true that the vampire had been a member of Riddle’s clan.
I swallowed thickly as my feet carried me to the door that I knew led to where Riddle was far too quickly.
But I was going to have to face this at some point anyway, so I might as well do it now.
Ace opened the doors without any hesitation, and I walked in behind him, with Deuce beside me.
Trey turned to look at us, sighing slightly as he looked our way worriedly. But Riddle hardly even twisted in his seat, though he did raise his head as the three of us walked in and waited for him to look at us.
“You missed the tea party,” His tone was calm, but even I could tell it was carefully controlled and that there was an undercurrent there. And this was before he even knew about the insane vampire.
I stepped forward, opening my mouth to speak only for Ace to start before I could even make a sound, “There was an insane vampire. It attacked us while we were on our way here.”
I blinked in surprise at how calm he sounded, almost like he was just casually giving an excuse rather than delivering some news that was bound to be startling for both Trey and Riddle.
I watched as Riddle tensed in his seat, his small body going rigid as Trey’s eyes widened as he faltered, distress coloring his voice, “Are you three all right!?”
I smiled at Trey’s worry as his gaze darted between the three of us, obviously scanning us for any injury.
“We’re fine. Cater showed up and found us and… I killed the vampire,” I reassured Trey and explained at the same, only faltering once as I spoke. But it was odd. I hadn’t ever had to report killing a vampire to a clan leader before.
In the past, the clan leader had always been with me or the insane vampires hadn’t been part of a clan at all.
I watched as Trey swallowed thickly at my words, but most of my attention rested on Riddle who still hadn’t moved. I didn’t know if he was shocked or just collecting himself and deciding how to respond.
“Clan leader…. It wasn’t their fault. The vampire attacked Y/n and Ace out of nowhere and they acted in self-defense…. Y/n didn’t do anything drastic until Cater gave them the order,” Deuce explained hesitantly, his worried eyes staring pointedly at the back of Riddle’s head as we all waited.
Even Trey turned to look towards the clan leader as the silence continued to stretch, and I swallowed. My mouth seeming to grow steadily drier the more seconds ticked by.
And then at long last he turned, and I blinked in surprise at the expression on his pale, youthful face.
He was smiling.
It wasn’t a massive grin by any means, but it was a small curve to his lips that was obviously meant to reassure us as he looked our way with that pleasant smile on his face.
“You did well then. I’m sure it wasn’t easy,” His voice was light, and I nodded slowly, if confusedly. Completely caught off guard by his surprisingly relaxed reaction.
It was practically the exact opposite of everything I’d expected, and at first I thought I’d overreacted until I glanced around and saw I wasn’t the only one who was surprised. Trey, Ace, and Deuce all looked just as startled as I did, with Trey and Deuce looking relieved while Ace looked downright shocked.
“Still, I do wonder how you were caught off-guard….” I felt myself go still at the soft, almost amused words that slipped from Riddle’s mouth right as I looked back his way.
And while there was still a smile on his face, there was now something almost condescending about it as he tilted his chin like he was trying to look down on me.
And in some cold way, his words made sense. How was I, a vampire hunter, caught off-guard by an insane vampire, the very thing I was supposed to be hunting?
“Riddle-”
Riddle held up a hand, effectively cutting Trey off with just a simple motion as he stood and now walked towards me, tilting his head slightly, “I suppose there is only so much you can do, but I really would have thought you’d be more prepared since you are the head-vampire’s personal hunter whose in charge of evaluating all of the clans.”
I felt myself straighten slightly, a frown slipping onto my face as I tried to place exactly what Riddle was trying to achieve. For one thing, his statement was poorly phrased. It made it sound like he’d known all along there was an insane vampire here and had let them be to test me. And if that were the case, then he was definitely number one on the suspect list for causing the influx of insane vampires.
But I wasn’t about to jump to conclusions quite that easily. Not when I’d been goaded into arguing with clan leaders in the past.
Both Leona and Idia had already done that, but it hadn’t really been surprising when either of them had done so. In fact, it had been something that obviously fit their personality and had a clear purpose that ranged from gauging my personality to pushing me away in defense.
But Riddle didn’t have that clear aim. Unlike them, he hadn’t really seemed to be against me evaluating the Heartslabyul clan. Maybe slightly annoyed by the prospect, but not particularly against it either.
“Hey! It wasn’t like you knew there was a crazy guy here either. And I hadn’t ever even seen that guy before! For we know he could’ve snuck in here or something,” I blinked in surprise as Ace suddenly appeared right next to me. Pushing his way forward and glowering down at his clan’s leader as he snapped at the shorter man.
But then Deuce spoke up from my other side, nodding slightly with a frown on his face even as he spoke up with a vehemence all his own, “Yeah, he came out of nowhere, clan leader! There was no way to predict that.”
I watched, with a creeping sensation that something was about to go horribly wrong, as the smile disappeared from Riddle’s face and a deep frown appeared.
He scowled at both of the young men before his gaze met mine once more, and I found myself speaking in an oddly calming tone as I recalled what Rook had taught me about insane vampires and what I’d learned on my own, “It can be hard to predict when a vampire is going to go insane. In fact, from what I’ve seen, it’s pretty much impossible to tell up until they have begun to lose their mind….”
“And yet it is still your job to handle these situations, but you didn’t fire until Cater told you too?” His words were all but flung at me, and I blinked in surprise before feeling myself frown.
He wasn’t entirely wrong, of course. But….
“I didn’t want to do anything until I was sure. I would rather not hurt anyone who is innocent if at all possible,” My tone wavered slightly, but I managed to keep my voice level even as annoyance crept into my words.
“Hey-”
Trey’s interjection went wholly ignored as Riddle stepped closer, practically shoving his way past Ace as he crowded me, “Even after the vampire attacked you?! Heartslabyul has rules against the attacking of mortals.”
I fought the urge to snap back at him, my hand clenching into a fist at my side, but my voice was beyond infuriated as I responded, “And do you enforce that rule with a death sentence?”
I watched as the young man’s left eye twitched at my words, and Trey let out a halfway nervous chuckle before stepping forward with his hands raised. Almost like he was trying to calm two wild animals, “Look, what happened, happened. For now we should probably-”
“Well, at least now I know why the evaluations have been taking so long,” Riddle stepped back, a smile creeping back onto his face as his gaze stayed on me, and I felt my eyes widen slightly.
Trey frowned, his tone changing as he shook his head slightly in an almost warning fashion, “Riddle….”
Apparently heedless of the other man’s words, Riddle continued, smiling at me as if he’d just won some sort of argument, “It is a shame, though. If you were just a bit faster, then perhaps Ace and Deuce here plus a myriad of other new vampires never would have been turned, and this whole matter could have been resolved much sooner… I would’ve expected better from a hunter who works for the head-vampire himself.”
I opened my mouth, a comeback ready that died on my tongue almost immediately as the exact meaning of his words registered and all my fight withered and died. Because while I’d been evaluating clans and befriending vampires, people had been getting attacked and getting turned.
It was something I’d known already, but now that it had been thrown back in my face by someone other than myself, I could feel a cold sensation sweeping over me.
Because the longer it took me to come to a conclusion with the evaluations, the more people would get killed or turned.
Just like Rook and Epel.
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