Chapter 865: An obsession It had been days since Kazz’s beaten body was found pinned up on the back of a house down a dark alleyway, and yet there was still no news from the first family about the incident. Was it pride, anger or something else that made them hide this information? But what concerned Quinn more than any of these things was that no one had seen Kazz either. Covering up what happened to her was one thing, but as a vampire, healing wounds were easy as long as they had blood. Which meant Bryce was hiding something by keeping her indoors. With the other group approaching Fex’s location, Quinn believed finding out the truth might just help them out or clear them of a danger they might be running towards. ’Are you sure you want to do this? If you get spotted, then there will be serious punishment.’ Vincent said worriedly. ’A leader sneaking into another leader’s castle, they are bound to think you are up to no good, especially with everything going on.’ ’There are two reasons why I think it will be okay.’ Quinn replied as he took off his clothes from the ceremony. They were beyond uncomfortable and would make him stand out if he was caught. ’When Muka made the suggestion, part of the reason I didn’t want to go was in case it was a set up. It’s been a while since then, so he probably thinks I’m no longer going to do this. ’The other thing is my shadow cloak ability. Yes, it can still be detected from others like leaders and knights, but getting past regular vampires isn’t really a problem. Third, even if I do get caught, I won’t look like myself.’ Quinn said, looking in a mirror. In the reflection, Quinn didn’t look like himself at all. Instead, he looked like one of the vampires from the settlement. Someone who was from the first family, but not part of the inner circle. Normal flat black hair, with a regular face, and was kind of plain looking. "Perfect, Peter’s soul weapon really does come in handy for situations like these, and with Logan’s spray, I can’t tell the difference between my own smell and others," Quinn stated, looking proud of himself. ’Let’s just ignore the fact that you said two reasons and stated three. Maths really isn’t your strong point is it?’ Vincent commented. Quinn was no fool that his actions might lead to something big, but everyone seemed to be making big actions before him, and to match them, he needed to make movements as well. Before leaving, Quinn met up with Paul and gave a stark warning. "You need to prepare them for the worst soon, with the king’s election coming up next week, I’m sure the other families will make their move, or if someone doesn’t get the result, they wanted this whole place could turn into another vampire Civil war, and our group just isn’t strong enough. "What I want is for the tenth family, is to just not get involved with outside affairs. We will stay here, make a stronghold and protect everyone within. Whenever I can, I’m going to keep improving everything around this place." With that, it was time for Quinn to make his move. Using the shadow cloak while in the vampire world practically made him invisible. It was easy for him to move through his own castle area, and beyond without being spotted. Of course, it would have been fine for him to just use the disguise but he wanted to see how well his shadow cloak would work. Once in a while, there was a vampire in the settlement that had better senses than others and would look towards Quinn’s direction, but they would ignore him when they saw anything, to them it was just a feeling something was there and they weren’t certain. ’Looks like this will work out after all.’ Quinn thought. Eventually, Quinn reached the first castle area, and the first thing he noticed compared to the other castles, was the amount of guards standing by the gate was three times as much as by the others. ’Maybe he is accepting someone to make a move?’ Vincent thought. ’Well, he wouldn’t be wrong, or it just means he has something to hide.’ Instead of going through the front gate, Quinn decided to scale the walls instead. The shadow cloak would remain active as long as he didn’t use any other skills or got hit while doing so. The walls were also filled with guards but there were far fewer and with Quinn’s speed once scaling he was able to jump right down into the inner castle area, allowing the guard to just feel a slight breeze. The guard had turned its head and looked down where Quinn had landed, but could see nothing, just like the vampires with keen senses in the settlement. ’You will have to be careful now.’ Vincent warned. ’In the inner castle area, and castle there will be vampire nobles, and those with better senses than most.’ ’Don’t worry, even if they can sense me they won’t see me.’ Quinn said, as he started running through the area as fast as he could towards the castle. Heading up to the front door would be a problem, especially with the special lock that was designed but for Quinn it was easy to enter through other ways. Swirling around to the side of the castle, where no one could be seen, Quinn quickly changed skills from shadow cloak, into his shadow travel which allowed him to go through and under buildings, then when past the wall it was a simple as just getting out of his shadow, and putting the shadow cloak on again. ’Muka was right, you do have the right set of skills for a job like this. You know if all else fails and you want to just make a good living, you should become a thief or something.’ Vincent recommended. ’Ah yes, doing everything I can to become a great infamous thief of the world, that’s a brilliant idea.’ Quinn replied, while he continued going through the castle. All of the castles were large, and there weren’t actually many vampires in either of these castles. This was something Quinn noticed when visiting the others. This would be a big help for him. ’Now it’s time to search for where Kazz is in this place.’ While going around in the castle, Quinn made sure to not be seen. Using the cloak and hiding in places. His senses were better than theirs and so was his hearing. So whenever he could hear someone approaching , he could act before they could. Using a number of his shadow skills to avoid being seen. What Quinn did notice though, was all the paintings on the wall seemed to be of one person. The person looked similar to Bryce but not quite the same. ’He has a lot of paintings of this man, do you think it’s his father?’ Quinn asked. ’I’m not sure, Bryce is even older than I am, but I can’t remember him being close with his father.’ Vincent replied. As they continued to search for Kazz floor by floor, they still saw more great paintings of the same man, proud and strong, and then entering one of the rooms using the shadow, there was a shock at what he could see, it was a room full of paintings, but not just any ordinary paintings. While the others showed the man in his glory with a gentle smile or defeating creatures and beasts, these ones looked as if it was drawn with blood, and the paintings were melting. Trying to make out one of them, Quinn could see that it was the same man from all the other paintings, standing on an execution platform and standing by his side, was Arthur. ’This isn’t his father. It’s his grandfather.’ Quinn said. ’Remembering Arthur’s story, about how he thought the ones that had attacked his friends were the first leader. Now that we know it’s untrue, it means that Bryce’s grandfather was killed for no reason.’ Looking around the room, Quinn could see even more terrifying paintings. It was a room dedicated to Bryce’s grandfather with his death. One had a rolling head, the other as if his grandfather had been raised from the grave. Quinn had seen his fair share of death by now, he even had blood on his own hands, but this room felt different and was starting to get to him. Everywhere he turned he could see Bryce’s grandfather decapitated in some way, or being tortured and Quinn eventually had to leave the room. ’Why would Bryce have a room like that?’ Quinn wondered, but with all the paintings around the castle of him and no one else, it felt like it was beyond just a liking for his grandfather. Sticking to the task at hand, Quinn continued, and eventually, he had arrived at a room that appeared to be locked, it wasn’t just a simple lock either. There were certain rooms in the castle that were locked, but they looked like they mostly led to either a weapon storage room or research lab, but here it was in the middle of what looked to be sleeping quarters. Using the same shadow skills as before, Quinn entered the rooms and when he rose from his shadow, he had hit the jackpot, he could see Kazz from behind standing staring out of the window. ’She looks fine, so why lock her up?’ Quinn thought, as he slowly approached her. "Kazz, I don’t mean to startle you." Quinn said in a soft gentle voice. Kazz turned around, and when she did, she had tears in her eyes. "Why....why have I been locked up in this place....did I do something bad?" She asked. Seeing this, Quinn was slightly confused by her reaction and her tone of voice sounded like that of a young girl. It reminded Quinn of the first time he had met her. "Kazz, are you okay..did something happen?’ Quinn asked. "I, who are you....are you with that man?" Kazz said, pointing behind him. ’What’s she pointing at?’ When Quinn turned around. In a dark corner of the room, sitting down, was a man with a cane in his hand. *****