The Vampire Prince graduates High School (Book 3)

Camellia

The night ended too soon, and I needed to return home. My parents stayed at the hotel and wouldn't return until the following night. Their vacation ended before mine. They also seemed to want me out of the spotlight for a while. Even if a story about me would take the attention away from Alexander, it might also complicate things.

Violet and Noah forbade me to look into the leak.

'Relax,' they told me.

It made me think they were trying to hide something. Even if I wanted to help, I was behind on work. The rest of my break was spent watching the news, investigating the leak whenever I could, and doing schoolwork. The reporters went around in circles, but Alexander, Noah, and Violet were not budging. They were pursuing legal action against the leaked medical files regardless if some information was false. Some of it was true. Thanks to that, the government seemed to be cracking down on the websites that held the information and on the individuals posting the information. Even the media started covering it less. This was all in a matter of two days. However, the information was still talked about.

Whenever Alexander visited me, he would say the vassals were not budging. His bigger concern was getting out of this situation without his position being threatened. Plus, it also didn't help the damage caused to the vampire community with this.

There were many posts on the forum supporting Alexander, and some even stated that it didn't matter if he was human or not. Some users weren't happy with that. Many keyboard warriors came out of the woodwork and put in their two cents.

I downvoted all of them and tried to boost the supporting ones. Unfortunately, that was the only thing I could do.

It was the last night of my break. School was tomorrow, and I'd just finished the last discussion board due in three hours. Exhausted, I pushed my laptop away from me and sprawled across my bed. I was finally caught up for the semester. All that was left was the next three weeks. We needed to write a report on our internship and its impact, but I could start that later.

Feeling my stomach grumbled, I glanced at my phone. It was 9:30 pm. It wasn't too late to eat. I pushed off the bed and headed downstairs. My parents rested in the living room. They had the evening news in the background. Mom knitted, and Dad worked on a crossword puzzle. I was about to go into the kitchen for a snack when Camellia's picture flashed across the screen.

I climbed over the couch and turned the volume up. Both of my parents began to scold me when they stopped abruptly.

"A disgruntled employee has been found responsible for leaking the information," the reporter said.

I snapped a picture of the headline and sent it to Noah and Alexander.

"Is this true?" I typed. "Who is she?"

"That was fast," Dad said.

"You think so?" Mom asked.

Dad shrugged. "They started blaming someone already. Feels like they're trying to get this out of the spotlight as quickly as possible."

He had a point. But why Camellia? She didn't work for the royal family. She worked for the mafia. Were her bosses trying to send a message? I didn't believe she would do something like this for a moment. Sure, we didn't know each other very well. Camellia probably knew more about me than I did of her. But I had believed she wanted to help the royal family. Didn't she say the mafia hadn't taken well to her snooping for more information?

"Sources state that the disgruntled employee fabricated the documents she had accessed as the Royal Physicians' assistant."

I rolled my eyes. So, that's what they were going for, but I didn't believe Alexander or Noah had approved this. They aimed to be transparent. This story sounded like the mafia. Maybe Camellia had gotten too close to the truth, and they wanted to get rid of her. That made more sense than this story.

"Did Prince Alexander say anything?" Mom asked me.

I shook my head. "No, I wasn't told about this. Plus, I've been busy with work. I haven't had time for anything else."

"Sounds like you're being kept out of the loop," Dad said.

"I see it more as they're letting me have the freedom a senior student will have without having royal obligations. Once I'm officially part of the family, I'll be busy."

"Did you come down for something, hon?" Mom asked.

At the same time, my phone buzzed. Thinking it was Alexander, I looked at the screen, but the message came from an unknown number.

"Just for a snack," I told her.

I entered the kitchen, grabbed a small bag of chips, and hurried back upstairs. A tabby kitten waited for me on the bed. I slowly closed the door behind me.

"What happened?" I asked, opening the bag of chips.

'Got to close,' she replied. 'To what, I don't know. But my people found their scapegoat.'

I sat on the bed. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "Whoever did this wanted to take the heat off themselves. What did you manage to find?'

'It was an inside job. From what I found, there's a secret group among the mafia. I couldn't find any records of them, and the higher-ups feigned ignorance at every turn. They must be afraid of someone.'

"Who is that?"

'The only ones with that much power to frighten the mafia are the royal family and world leaders. Not a large list, but still extensive.'

"Domestic or foreign?"

'Domestic more likely,' she replied.

"What are you going to do?"

Camellia gave me a slide glance. 'I was hoping you could shelter me. The mafia wouldn't dare go after you. They'd have to go to war with the Crown Prince. They know he isn't someone who is easily controlled.'

"If it was the mafia, couldn't they use that agent again to make him human?"

'Maybe, but if that was the case, wouldn't they want to keep the Crown Prince human instead of allowing him to overcome it himself?'

She made a good case, but I couldn't help but think there was something else we were missing.

"Or maybe they can't use that biological weapon on the same person twice. And if they could, they need to wait between administrations."

'You've sure thought about this a lot.'

"Thinking is all I can do," I told her. "We need information. Know of anyone that could help?"

'Would that guarantee a place to stay?'

I bit my lip. "Yeah," I said. "You can stay. Just need to cooperate."

'I accept this arrangement. I'll need to lay low for some time before I can pull some resources.'