NIGHTS OF HALLOW
Chapter 75: Tracing the Scent

Chapter 75: Tracing the Scent

Theodore was quick to reach the border of Woodbridge village where he met Chief Advisor Daemon. Anything they were going to do, they needed to be fast about it before the ritual ends.

When Theodore arrived at the place where Daemon was, he saw the man come out from the carriage all dressed in a guard uniform. If he didn’t know the man was coming, he would have thought he was another guard.

With this attire, no one would have noticed the man sneak in. This confused him as to why the king would ask him to help Daemon cross the border without the guards seeing him. Which reminded him, where were all the guards stationed here?

Daemon and Theodore exchanged a small bow and Theodore said,

"The king asked me to help you get in,"

Daemon let out a light chuckle before he replied to the vampire church member, "You think so?" It was not a question from Daemon which Theodore caught too.

It was all clear that the chief advisor to the king didn’t need help to cross the border with an attire as this. But why would he call him? Wait...

Theodore paused and turned to look around him for the second time. "The guards..." He silently whispered and turned to look at Daemon with a slightly wide eye.

Daemon smiled at Theodore. He said, "I’m glad you caught why the king asked you to come here. To cut it short, the person responsible for it is among the church members. But we’ll leave that for you and Donovan to take care of."

"But I’ll advise you to leave the person now and play along with them. That’s always the fun part. Phew! "

Daemon chuckled again. He patted Theodore on the shoulder and walked forward. "Come on, we have other important things to do for the king. Leave some dimwits to continue their games."

Daemon scanned the area before walking away from there to be followed by Theodore.

"What else did the king ask me to help with?" Theodore skeptically questioned. He knew the man beside him was also another cunning fox just like the king, and he didn’t his help to do anything.

It seemed like Daemon was so thrilled about what they were doing. For on the question of Theodore, he grinned widely at the church member.

Daemon shrugged nonchalantly and replied to Theodore’s question, "It’s nothing much. It’s just to keep your nosy church members from a particular house in the last street of the village."

Theodore turned confused as well as curious to know which house Daemon was talking about. He questioned, "Whose house is that?"

"You will find out soon when we get there." Daemon vaguely answered without telling Theodore whose house it was and why he should make his fellow church stay away from it.

The church after the ritual of the exorcism ended was going to search every house and record the number of people living in the village.

The purpose was to know if there were any missing humans other than Mr. Perkin and Mrs. Perkin.

The second reason for searching every house in the village was to know if any vampires might be hiding in one of the houses.

After the records had been taken, the church will use them to compare and contrast the number of people currently living in the village with that of the record in the head warden’s register.

From the evaluation, the church will know the exact number of the residents of Woodbridge minus those that may have died or relocated. It was going to be a lot of paperwork work for the Headchurch Donovan, and the two days given to them by the king to provide the necessary documents and evidence of the abducting vampire was not enough. This was the reason they were doing everything in haste.

Daemon changed the topic and said, "I think the ritual for the exorcism has ended. Your head might be looking for you."

"We’ll meet in the next ten minutes on the last street," Daemon informed and walked in the other direction leaving Theodore to walk on his own.

The smell from the ritual was still wafting in the air, and Theodore tightened the piece of cloth around his mouth and nose. Just then something clicked in his mind. Chief Advisor Daemon had not tied anything on his nose and mouth. Didn’t the smell affect him? Or...

Theodore felt his jaw drop in surprise again. The King and his chief advisor never failed to surprise him every time.

Why hadn’t he noticed the man was a pureblooded vampire? But the question now was, which generation was he from? He had a vague idea of the generation the king was from though he was not really sure of it.

Theodore shook his head at the puzzle of Daemon he was trying to solve. Soon, he reached the place where Serena and Donovan were.

The ritual had finished, but the white vapors were still wafting in the air, doing the work it was performed for.

"It’s all done," He heard the witch tell Donovan.

Theodore walked up to them and gave the woman a small bow. "Thank you," He muttered and Serena nodded her head in acknowledgment.

She said, "I’ll look around the village first before I head back,"

"No," Donovan immediately refused which had the witch subtly glare at the human she could snap in two with a wave of her hand.

"I think it’s okay, Headchurch Donovan. She will be watchful and not allow others to see her." Theodore politely dismissed the refusal of Donovan.

Serena smiled at the vampire church member and without another word, she left there.

"Why did you allow her to walk around the village? Won’t she be discovered?" Donovan asked Theodore with a frown on his face.

Did you think if she wants to be seen that she wouldn’t do it? Theodore questioned in his head.

He replied, "No, she won’t be discovered. She’s a careful woman."

"Hmm, if you say so. But it doesn’t hurt to be careful. Come on, let’s set up the camouflage ritual for Welsh and Martha." Donovan said.

Donovan and Theodore had planned that after the witch performed the real ritual, they would set up a fake one to convince Mr. Welsh and Martha that there was a ritual performed for the exorcism.

Serena walked in the deserted and quiet streets of Woodbridge village. Her steps light on the ground. She had planned to investigate something that had been on her mind since she arrived in the village of Woodbridge.

There had been a peculiar scent she had been perceiving in the village, and the scent was very potent in the alley where she had stopped to touch the wall.

When Serena touched the wall in the alley, she aimed to trace the scent to its owner, but she didn’t get the chance to. It was as if the whereabouts of the person were erased. But one thing she was sure of was that, whoever the scent belonged to, was the lead in finding what she had been looking for. It was the one scent she had long to perceive since years of searching and turning the kingdom upside down.

Serena arrived at the village’s market after she walked around the village trying to figure out and see if she could find any trace of the person who had that scent she had been perceiving.

Serena inhaled deeply when she caught a sniff of it in the air again. Following the scent, it led her to a particular stall in the market where the scent heavily lingered around it. The stall was none other than Perdita’s stall where she sold buns in the market.

Again Serena touched the stall where the scent and the smell of buns were wafting from. She closed her eyes trying to link the scent to its owner but was again met with a dead end.

A frustrated sigh escaped her lips as her green eyes lingered longingly at the stall before she decided to leave the market.

Just as she was about to entirely leave the market, she bumped into churchwoman Martha who was hastily walking so she could reach her destination on time.

Martha was quick to halt in her steps when she saw the green-eyed woman. Weren’t the villagers asked to stay in their houses? She internally questioned herself. Her black eyes narrowed at the woman. She demanded in authority,

"What do you think you are doing here? Were you not ordered to stay back in your houses still today ends?"

Serena bowed apologetically at Martha. She replied in a small voice, "I’m sorry, for disobeying the order. I only came to get food for my hungry children." She lied.

"Shouldn’t you have taken it with you the day before? Why did you come now? " Martha questioned again in an annoyed irritated voice. She was rushing to meet up with her fellow church members so that she will be present when the exorcism was being performed. But this woman came from nowhere and was wasting her time.

"I don’t have enough food that would serve us for the day before and today," Serena responded with her head still bowed. She reached forward and grabbed Martha’s hand and pleaded, "Please can you help me get a little food to eat? My children are hu..."

"Get your hands off me!" Martha shrieked loudly with wide eyes as if she couldn’t believe that a stranger touched her. "Go back to your house now! The church will see to your problems." Martha huffed and marched off, heading to her destination.

Serena raised her bowed head and watched the retreating back of Martha. She muttered to herself, "Such an arrogant woman who doesn’t know she walking on the path of death." Within the short while of touching Martha, she had seen something dark hovering around the woman. Whatever it was, was surely going to be the end of her.