Blood Queen Reborn

Chapter 162: Rotten Meat

With how the little one had acted these past few months, Vorden didn’t expect to come up with an excuse or reason behind any actions he might’ve taken on the chair. If anything, his only plan was to silence those who knew about his secrets, but obviously he couldn’t do that to Quinn as the little one seemed to have taken an interest in him.

’He’s put me in a tricky spot,’ Vorden thought.

Quinn cautiously walked up to Vorden, with Hayley right behind him, "Hey, uh, what happened back there?"

"I really didn’t want to say this, it’s kinda a sensitive topic but..." Vorden swallowed, "I have pretty bad mood swings."

"Oh you poor thing!" Hayley worried, "It’s no wonder you reacted like that, I didn’t see any prescriptions in your medical records. Do you not have medication?"

"Um, I guess not," Vorden replied.

"Well, do you want a diagnosis to see if you’re eligible for treatment?" Hayley offered.

"Those don’t work on me, I tried."

"How do you know?"

"Used them. Didn’t work."

Hayley raised an eyebrow, "But you don’t have any medical records. You clearly haven’t even done a check up."

"You see, back home, I had my family doctor check up on me," Vorden lied, "I’m from an Original family. You know how secretive we get."

She nodded, and sighed, "Originals..."

Hayley didn’t dare say more, but in the past, Original families would call complaints which resulted in trouble. They claimed that she was "experimenting" on her patients to try to figure out how their abilities worked, when all she was doing was fixing a broken arm, or mending bad cuts. Sometimes, some Originals would refuse her care, calling in their family doctors to treat their kids.

"So, am I clear to go?" Vorden asked.

Hayley really didn’t want to just clear Vorden, as she thought it would do him good if he had an official diagnosis, but with how Originals had treated her in the past, it might’ve been too much effort than it was worth.

"Do you want to be referred to mental health? Or not," Hayley asked.

Vorden shook his head, and she nodded. This wasn’t something she could force so she left to attend to her other patients.

"I didn’t know you had bad mood swings," Quinn said.

"Like I said, it’s personal," Vorden huffed.

"Do you still want to meet up with the others?"

Vorden crossed his arms, and looked off to the side, a little distant.

Despite how he acted, Quinn was getting the feeling that Vorden wasn’t a bad person. He clearly had issues, but the way he acted didn’t seem malicious.

"I’ll take that as a no."

—

With the orange portal expedition coming up, Fex was hoping to find that one regenerative ability user for Layla before they left.

’She seems to eat once every 3 days if she isn’t injured,’ Fex thought, then sniffed the air, "Damn, where is that guy?"

Strangely, he wasn’t able to find him in the usual spots he was, making him think that he might’ve caught on.

’There’s no way he should’ve, I made sure he forgot, unless...’

Continuing his search further through the halls and buildings of the academy, the person Fex searched for remained unseen.

"Damn, he must’ve realized that he kept getting injured if he left his room," Fex sighed, "Now what am I going to feed Layla now?"

He crossed his arms and placed a hand on his chin, "I could— No, that wouldn’t work. What about— Well, only if I wanted to get caught. How about...? Eh, that’s a stretch...."

After a bit, he couldn’t seem to figure anything out, so he shrugged, ’Well, those orange portal planets were said to be pretty deadly. I’m sure she could find some snacks if given enough time. It’s not like I have any way to smuggle human meat there anyways.’

The mental image of him and Erin carrying a cooler with a cut up human inside made him giggle. All the military officials would wonder why they were lugging around such a thing.

’I’ll figure out some sort of plan B, just in case.’

—

The next day came around, and there was only one last day before the orange portal expedition. While she was waiting for Erin to finish her morning shower, Layla was wondering what she was going to eat that day. She could feel her stomach rumble a little, and she wanted to consume something before going to the expedition.

Normally, she would’ve gone over to Fex’s dorm room for food, but he sent her a message saying he wasn’t able to find the regenerative ability user. Apparently, he had a plan B, but plan A was to find someone who might die on the first day, which she didn’t like the idea of.

’I’d hate to wish for someone to die tomorrow, that just feels... awful,’ Layla grimaced at the thought of that, ’Although now that I think about it, I wonder if that one guy I kept eating from is traumatized that his limbs keep disappearing.’

Layla shook her head to clear her thoughts. Being a ghoul wasn’t a pleasant experience.

She headed over to their fridge, and opened it, revealing several slabs of raw meat. They were getting a little old since they initially bought them, and Layla didn’t want to waste food.

’I did only eat one unique human so far, I think I should be able to eat this.’

Taking out the meat, Layla turned around only to spot Cia staring at her.

"What are you doing? Didn’t take you to be that hungry," Cia commented.

"Uh—"

"Oh yeah, that’ll explain why the entire fridge was stuffed with meat all week, and left no space for any of my things," Cia chastised sarcastically, "Seriously, don’t buy a bunch of meat and then not eat it. You’re being wasteful!"

"I’m about to eat some now?" Layla explained.

"Uh huh, yeah, too little too late. That stuff is about to expire during the expedition. Anyways," Cia puffed up the edges of her hair, "I got a date with a really cute boy, how do I look?"

Layla glanced down at the meat she was holding, then back at Cia. She was wearing earrings in the shape of daisies, and a full black dress with lilac flower accessories. It was rather frilly and the skirt went slightly above her knees.

"You look good."

Cia’s face dropped, "Just good? Not cool and amazing? Eh, whatever, boys pick up a shirt off the floor and put cologne on it if it smells bad."

Checking her watch, Cia saw that it was time to leave, and quickly left. Layla let out a sigh of relief.

"Whew, I can eat this in peace."

—

Cia left the girl’s dorms, and mulled over all of the suspicious activity with Layla she had witnessed lately.

’First, they acted strange when I talked to them after we came back from Caladi, as if they were hiding something, then they bought all of that meat, and then Layla got suddenly very close to Erin. Something is wrong with Layla, but I can’t prove it just yet,’ Cia thought, now having arrived at the boy’s dorms.

’He came back with them, and it’s clear he knows more. He will tell me the truth of what happened that day.’