The Outbreak

Orissa stepped over the bodies and walked to the office, knowing the sound of the gun being fired would alert the remaining guards, but since George was dead, she didn't bother to waste any more time and headed to the office and took his laptop.

"Are you sure you can get anything useful from this?" Orissa dialed Lidia's number and asked, smiling faintly at the almost sobbing tone Lidia used to assure her that the laptop was all she needed.

"Okay, I'll head back now." Orissa walked to the window and leapt through it, feeling the cold glass breaking as she fell to the ground a story below, but by the time the glass landed, she had already left the estate grounds.

"Since I've decided to do this, I definitely cannot fail. If I do, it won't just end with me dying." Orissa shook her head and let out a sigh, unlike the humans nearby who's bodies were always warm enough to produce condensation, her body was directly affected by the environment to a certain extent.

Shouldering the bag, Orissa walked onwards with light steps more reminiscent of a butterfly flitting across a pool of water than someone walking on land.

"One more day until the conference, and they may try something, perhaps one last ditch effort? We can put safeguard in place to prevent being hacked, and with Lidia's new programs, we can make sure they can't cut the broadcast midway."

"But humans will undoubtedly denounce us for being cruel, so how can I play this?" Orissa knew most humans simply frowned on killing if it didn't benefit them, but instead of trickery, she just decided to be honest.

Picking up her pace, she returned to the building a half an hour later and could tell that the four teams she sent out hadn't returned, but she could feel their general location and none seemed to be injured.

"Although we have an almost overwhelming advantage over humans, I'll definitely find someone who's proficient in fighting and either to turn them or pay them to teach us."

Before she reached the elevator, Orissa took a detour to the empty rooms of the floor where the material for the renovations were and sniffed the air. Unable to smell anything but humans, she cast a glance at the dark room and then left.

"Thanks!" Lidia came over when the elevator doors opened and took the bag from Orissa, quickly vanishing back into her makeshift lab to begin transferring the funds in George's accounts.

Because Orissa didn't want Lidia to be in some cramped space working, she told Ryan to have people darken the windows and add desks inside the room the first day while Ryan got ahold of everything else to better help Lidia.

"Orissa? You're back!" A miniature cannonball slammed into Orissa's gut, and looking down, she could see Zaylee's bright eyes staring into her own with a lollipop in her mouth.

"Yup. Did you have fun playing around?" Zaylee had come from Lidia's lab, so she guessed she went in sometime and kept the latter company. Orissa carried Zaylee to the elevator before putting her down gently.

"Yeah! I played games on the computers! I even got seven kills on my first try!" Zaylee said happily and Orissa smiled a bit, feeling sorry for whoever she was playing against because Zaylee was basically a walking cheat who could press buttons some tens of times it would take for a human to press it once.

"That's great! Do you know where Ryan is?" Orissa patted Zaylee's and asked because she had to address an issue. The vampires didn't need to feed daily, but going a few days without blood would definitely make them less happy and more cranky.

If that happened, she felt it would be annoying, or that an accident in which a vampire attacks someone would occur, and she didn't want that especially with the conference being the next day.

"He's with the lady who was designing clothes." Zaylee hugged Orissa's leg and tapped the button for floor sixty. When the elevator stopped and the two vampires stepped out, Orissa tilted her head when she saw Odelle, Sierra, and Ryan looking at a middle aged vampire with annoyance.

"What's wrong?" Orissa walked over with a question mark on her face and looked at the man who withered under her gaze. While Sierra expression brightened visibly when she saw Orissa, Ryan sent a security guard to call the other vampires over.

"We happened to hear him saying you have ulterior motives for making this place since if you wanted to keep us safe, you would grant us the strength to be safe." Sierra looked as Orissa's face fell slightly.

Less than a minute had passed, but aside from the vampires who were out hunting wolves and Lidia who was busy, everyone had gathered and some looked at the middle aged man with disdain.

"What's your name?" Orissa asked the man who looked up at her, his eyes mixed with five points fear and five points anger. When he refused to speak, forget Sierra and Odelle, even the common vampires were angry as their fangs were visible.

"Okay, let's ask a different question then. Why do you think you'd be safe with more strength?" Orissa ignored his rudeness and asked a different question and all the vampires present felt she was too kind for letting such a slight go.

"If we had your strength, would be need to bow our heads to you or the humans? We could directly take over the country, instead you want to play house and politics with the humans!" Hearing the man, Sierra snarled at his insolence towards Orissa, but the person herself only smiled faintly.

"And how would you propose doing that?" Orissa didn't seem to be mocking him, so he took a breath, looked at the vampires present who looked at him angrily and decided to try and sway them to his side.

"Kidnap the leaders of the country and force them to yield to our demands. Go kill everyone who opposes us and make this our country! If we did this, would be have to hold ourselves back, we could feed on anyone with no consequences!"

"Okay, but what then? If we do it your way, the country would just be bombed with nukes by the other countries and if by some saving grace they didn't, you'd just make your newfound subjects rebel." Orissa said while looking him in the eye.

"So? They're only humans, what can they possibly do? We are superior to them in every way, so why should we even entertain them at all?! If you ask me, Orissa, Queen of the Vampires, you're just weak and soft to the humans." Before his sentence finished, the vampires present all snarled and hissed angrily not believing someone could be so ignorant.

"Okay, if they rebel and you do quell them, some vampires would die, right? So, if you lead, you'd not have only caused humans to rebel, you'd have caused the deaths of some of us as well." Orissa didn't seem angry and stated her words plainly.