Letters to Romeo.

Maximus watched Roman walk away from the cemetery as if he hadn't been standing there in front of Piper's grave and quietly mourned for her. He had noticed the look in Roman's eyes, which looked hollow and cold as if whatever was there earlier had vanished. Like something had broken, which was now hard to fix. 

This was not supposed to happen, thought Maximus to himself, and before things could get out of control, he quickly made his way out of the restricted forest. When he reached the infirmary, he entered Dr. Isolde's office, looking for Olivia, but there was no one in the room. 

When he reached one of the rooms in the infirmary, Maximus finally found Olivia in there. 

"You are back early," Olivia spoke in a low voice to Maximus. She made her way towards the door of the room while turning behind to check where Julie was asleep. 

"Yeah," Maximus's reply was short, and there was a heaviness in his voice. 

Olivia's eyebrows subtly furrowed, and she asked in concern, "What's the matter? Did something happen?"

"It's Piper," Maximus voice broke, and he shook his head, "She was shot with a Silverwater, too close to her heart and her heart started corrupting. We couldn't save her."

"Where is she? Maybe we can try to inject the medicine," said Olivia, but seeing the expression on Maximus' face, her eyebrows furrowed deeper. 

"Rome and I buried her in the cemetery in the restricted forest," replied Maximus, while Olivia processed what she just heard. Piper was not supposed to go to the hunt with the others tonight. The vampiress had never been to an official hunt before, and with the number of Elder vampires in the group, there had been no necessity for her to take part in it.

Olivia was aware of why Piper had gone in the first place. It was to keep an eye on Roman, to make sure he wouldn't be attacked, as he had earlier been shot. Her eyes shifted back to look at Maximus, and she asked, 

"Where's Rome?" 

"I am hoping to find him in his dorm and nowhere else," Maximus let out a frustrated sigh before he informed her, "He snapped."

"How bad?" asked Olivia, knowing this was going to happen. The trauma on Roman would have been less if he wasn't under the influence of Silverwater substance in his body, which had weakened his body as well as his mind. 

"Worse," answered Maximus, "I think you should go and meet Dante, let her know about what happened. I will go look where Rome is." 

Olivia shook her head, "I am looking after the girl. Evans had appeared for who knows what reason. We can deal with that later. First, let me convey this to Isolde." 

"Alright," replied Maximus, and he was about to leave when Olivia stopped him. 

"Max," she placed her hand on his arm, stopping him. "Are you okay?" her blue eyes stared into his eyes, and he offered her a faint smile. 

"I am good, Liv. Don't worry about me. I will go and find Rome before Donovan finds him and takes him to celebrate about Roman turning into a ripper," said Maximus and Olivia let out a frustrated sigh.

Once Maximus left the corridor, disappearing behind the wall, she quickly checked the room's windows before closing the room's door where Julie was sleeping. With Julie's heart beating steadily, that let the vampiress know that the human was asleep and wasn't pretending. 

Olivia made her way to meet Isolde, looking for the university doctor, and while she was at it, she met Elder Remy, who was in another room, going through documents. She knocked on the door to gain Elder Remy's attention, and the vampire looked up from the documents that were in his hands. He noticed the vampiress expression that looked slightly out of the usual. 

"Elder Remy," Olivia spoke, her hands cold over the news she had received. "Piper… she was killed."

The Elder vampire's expression didn't change while he stared at her, "Did everyone return?" he questioned her. 

Olivia shook her head, "No, it is just Maximus and Roman who returned. The rest of them must be on their way."

"I see," replied Elder Remy, unaffected because death wasn't uncommon in the life he had lived through until now. Humans and vampires died one way or another, and the pain of going through every single time had washed itself to a cold state, where nothing barely passed through him. "Let me go see Dante."

Elder Remy stood up from his chair, placing the documents that belonged to the students of Veteris. 

Olivia pursed her lips before she asked, "Is there a way to switch a vampire's humanity back to its usual self?" She didn't know how Roman was going to live through the thought and knowledge that Piper had come to join the mission only for his sake. And if he hadn't been injured, she would have still been alive.

"There's no proper guide on how to return from being a ripper to a regular vampire," stated Elder Remy. "I went through Roman's file. There's another component apart from the substance of Silverwater. It looks like some sort of chemical reaction took place in his body and there have been signs of corruption in his heart."

Hearing the Elder's words, Olivia's jaw clenched, and she wished it wasn't too true. But Remy Oscar, in the past, was a doctor before he had turned into a vampire. 

"Is there a way a blood transfusion can help?" asked Olivia. Remy walked to where she was, coming to stand right in front of her. 

"Vampire's bodies are not like the human body, Olivia. Even if you try to make a transfusion, the things there will only continue to multiply, and who knows how fast. Probably if we get some of the tests run, I will get to know about his condition," he watched Olivia stand there still, consumed in worry, before he walked out of the room, heading towards the headmistress' room. 

Olivia returned to the room where Julie was, watching the human still sleeping while she had no idea what the future would be for Roman or Julie. She hoped that Julie would be that one person, who would be Roman's anchor, to be able to bring him from the darker side so that the little humanity that had been there would be preserved. 

Away from the infirmary, Maximus searched everywhere for Roman. He first went to Roman's dorm, but the room was locked, and he couldn't feel Roman's presence there. He wondered where else Roman could be. He continued searching for almost half an hour and noticed the two cars that had left Veteris had not returned with the Elders in it. 

"Are you planning to get detention by idly standing there to get caught, Marudas?" asked one of the vampire students, who was sneaking back into the boy's Dormitorium. 

"Have you seen Rome?" questioned Maximus because he had looked for every possible place, but he didn't know where Roman could possibly be. 

"Moltenore?" asked the vampire. "I saw him going to the lunchroom," replied the vampire before slipping into the Dormitorium so that he wouldn't have to go and attend the detention tomorrow. 

"Thanks," Maximus whispered before he ran towards the lunchroom. 

When he stepped inside the place, most of the lights in there had been turned off, except for two lights. One behind the counter, and one on the ceiling, right below where Roman sat on the chair. But he wasn't alone. There was a girl in his arms, and his face buried in the crook of the girl's neck. 

The girl had been compelled, and Roman had chosen to sit in a place where anyone who was breaking the curfew time or the human staff would be able to spot what he was doing. 

Roman had his hands wrapped around the human's waist. He continuously sucked the blood out from her neck, drinking the warm liquid as he looked thirsty. His fangs dug deeper into the human's neck, hearing not a single complaint from her as he had compelled her. 

"Rome," Maximus dared to disturb him, and he ignored the person. "Rome, you are going to kill the girl." 

Maximus had known Roman since his childhood and when they were humans. Though Roman appeared cold and detached, it was only people who were close to him who knew that his emotions ran deeper than what he showed and maybe more than what others had. He had always been good at covering his emotions, and Maximus wasn't sure if it was to guard himself against the words he had heard from people talking about his mother and her relationship with Lord Malcolm. 

Maximus heard the human's heartbeat turn lower and lower, and in the next few seconds, there was no sound of a heartbeat coming from the girl. The human had died.

When Roman pulled away from the girl's neck, his mouth was smeared in blood, and he ran his tongue across his lips, savouring the taste of it and wanting more of it. His eyes had turned dark red, and his own heartbeat was low, as if the heart was in doubt if it should or shouldn't beat in the chest. 

"I understand what you are going through right now and I might not able to be fully comprehend it, but this is not the way to handle it—"

Roman raised his hand to stop Maximus from talking as if Maximus' voice was too loud for him and his eyes shifted from the human to look at Maximus. "I don't know what you're talking about, Max. Everything is perfectly fine. We are vampires, and a true vampire has to live the way they are meant to be. Not behave like the humans."

Realizing that Roman's compassion or any human emotions had been turned off, Maximus said, "Let us get back to the dorm and speak."

"For what? You seem to be worried for nothing. Calm down," said Roman, and the human dropped to the ground. 

"And I am not done yet. I am only getting started."

Maximus grit his teeth. At this rate, Dante and the others would have to lock Roman in the dungeon. And maybe it wasn't a bad idea, but the problem was that there was another person who would more than happily bring Roman out in the light, to be his weapon and for his own excitement. Everyone knew Donovan would not lose this opportunity.

Many vampire students had been expecting Roman to flip his switch, and they had come to believe that it would be the death of the human girl that would break him. But no one would have guessed that Piper's death would bring him to this state, and as Roman said, he was only getting started, and Maximus could see it. 

"Fine," replied Maximus, "I will get the blood arranged for you, but you cannot walk around rampant by picking up the humans as if they are flowers in the garden."

A light chuckle escaped Roman's lips, and he said, "Stop worrying, Maximus. How about you go and spend some time with Liv? I am sure she will be ecstatic about it." If Roman wasn't his friend, Maximus would have staked the person who stood in front of him. 

There was a thin border when it came to a vampire who was going through corruption and a vampire who was a ripper. It was only one step away from each other. 

"Do you think Julianne would be happy if she saw you in this condition?" questioned Maximus, holding the last straw that was in his hand right now. 

"Julie will be fine. She's smarter than she looks and she's well aware of my appetite," remarked Roman.

Maximus's eyebrows subtly frowned, did the human know about the existence of vampires? It was possible. 

Roman patted Maximus' shoulder with a smile on his lips, and he made his way out of the lunchroom. Some drops of blood dripped down from the girl's neck. His eyebrows furrowed when he noticed the bite mark on the girl didn't look like a pinprick, but instead, it looked as if a feral animal had dug its sharp canines into the girl's neck. 

Maximus looked in the direction where Roman had disappeared, and his gaze returned to where the human lay before it fell on the morn behind the counter, who was sitting on the ground. 

"Why didn't you stop him from drinking from the human in here?" questioned Maximus, slightly irritated. 

The man turned around, and he showed the bruise on his face, "It is hard to make him listen to any reasoning once he sets his mind on something. I tried and ended up getting punched right at my face," the person who looked after the lunchroom, grimaced in pain.

Maximus wondered what to do as he bit his tongue, which had the pin pierced in there. 

Same time in the main building of Veteris university, inside the headmistress' office, the four Elders took their seats in front of the desk while Dante stood in front of them with her arms crossed. 

"How could this happen?" asked Mr. Dante with a look of shock and disbelief on her face. 

"There was a hunter who had been hiding. No one took note of it, until he appeared and pulled the trigger at Piper, Ms. Dante," explained Mr. Borrell.

Dante had a scowl on her face, and she was nowhere impressed with the turn of events. Piper was the one person she trusted, and she was someone who had been there throughout her time in Veteris as her assistant. Her heart ached and mourned for the woman, and she stared at the three Elder vampires in disbelief. 

"I thought you would protect the people who had come with you," Ms. Dante's eyes flared, trying to control her anger. 

"It was something very unexpected, Eloise. When we go on any mission, casualties are not uncommon, and people sometimes get either injured or they die," stated Donovan, staring at the vampiress, who stared at him. 

"You are the Elder vampires with abilities. You could have saved her from getting hurt!" Eloise placed her hand on the table, gripping it, and she sighed. 

"Careful there, Eloise," Luciano's eyes narrowed at the woman. "We did what we are best at, it isn't like we put a target on Piper, so that she would turn dead."

Dante was well aware that the Elders had little to no sympathy towards anyone. They didn't care about Piper or anyone for that matter. What they did care about was their greed and their pride. 

Ms. Dante raised her hand near her face, her fingers rubbed her forehead, and she asked, "Where is she? Her body..." 

This time, Remy answered the headmistress' question, "Her body was already buried in the grave of the cemetery."

"Mr. Borrell, I want you to make proper arrangements so that we can bury her with proper respect and for her soul's peace," ordered Ms. Dante and Mr. Borrell nodded his head, bowing his head to the Elders and he left the room.

"Where is Roman and Maximus?" Dante questioned the youngest vampire in the room. 

"They came here to bring Piper to the infirmary. Considering she's dead, they were late," commented Luciano, his lips twisted before he said, "Let us consider that her life didn't go to waste as we were still able to get one rat out of the hiding."

Someone knocked on the door hurriedly, "Come in," said Ms. Dante, and the person looked like he was beaten recently. "What's going on?"

"I-uh," the person stuttered, not expecting to see all the Elders in the room this closely. 

"Well?" asked Ms. Dante, raising her eyebrows. 

The person said, "I think we have a vampire rampant on the grounds of Veteris. Found one human on the…."

Dante didn't know why everything had fallen out of place on the same night. She had a grief expression, and she said,  "Find out which vampire student has been leaving a body recklessly when it was clear to not kill them. Bring the person in here."

"Yes, Ms. Dante," the man bowed his head. 

"Children are supposed to enjoy once in a while, Eloise," commented Donovan and Ms. Dante tried not to glare at him. 

"At this rate we will be building less of a place to study for the students with peace and harmony, and more of a burial ground which can be turned into a graveyard," replied Ms. Dante..  On the other hand, Elder Remy didn't comment about the possibility of who the vampire student was and stayed quiet as if he had no idea.