"He must have gone on a break," Damien said, his eyes looking around to see the two dead bodies who were still occupying the room since he last came here a few hours ago. 

Penny caught sight of the magistrate who she had personally killed. Walking towards the dead body, she stood next to it, "Did they find anything about him?" 

"If it's the origin that you ask then no," Damien answered her, following her footsteps he looked at the dead corpse, "To know where he is from would be useless as most of the black witches are mostly from the north who come from Wovile. Murkh is trying to figure out how the conversion took place while he claims it might be the organ replacement."

"You mean vampires?" Penny tried to confirm. It was because the man had possessed the traits of a vampire when it came to appearance but the basic instincts of a vampire were missing from him. 

Damien gave her a nod, "We thought the black witches were harvesting only the human's body parts and organs but who knew they had started to target the vampires too now."

Who knew that the witches were trying to take every walking creature to form an advantage? The witches had to be stopped, if they didn't things would only worsen for everyone, thought Penny to herself. 

When the door to the laboratory opened and in came Murkh with a bunch of plants that had muddy roots dangling at the bottom of it. 

"I got the test results for the blood sample you gave me this morning," said the vampire doctor throwing the plant in the sink and turning to walk around the room to be a small tiny tube which was the length of Penny's index finger, "This is the paralyzing potion which has been used by the witches. A person will need to feed into another person's body continuously so that the potion continues to stay and has an effect in the body."

"What are the components?"

"They are made from the roots of these plants. At least that is what I believe looking at the structure of it. Many plants and animals have fallen prey when they have pulled out the roots along with the shoot to eat. Some of us even noticed how the dead animals came back to life when in truth they never died but had only been paralyzed." 

Damien leaned over the table that was hammered to the ground to say, "So the witches have been trying to infiltrate the community of vampires or they are trying to turn one, though I doubt it would be turning themselves into the blood-sucking creatures that we are." 

He was right, thought Penny to herself. The witches felt they were superior to the rest just like any other being, believing what they belonged to and where they came from, they were of higher status while the rest were lower. 

The black witches were h.e.l.l-bent on bringing the black witch back into their hands so that they could rule the four lands of the empire- the south, west, east, and north. 

"Do you think they are trying to do something like what happened a few months ago with the switchers infiltrating the council? Maybe they know they can't use the switchers as a means now and they want to try to send the witches as vampires?" Penny asked Damien and the word switcher caught Murkh's attention. 

"The switcher was the one who killed Max," he muttered under his breath. 

Damien shook his head, "But there is no way to get in unlike what happened when the switchers were in the council. The switchers had the ability to morph to any person and that meant killing a person and replacing them by filling the position. If they are trying to infiltrate into the council, one they witches cannot step into the council ground because of the spilled magic, and two, there are no openings." 

"Councilman Damien," Murkh asked for his attention, his thin small eyes staring at the floor of the ground as he said, "There are opening positions."

"Whom did you hear it from?" Damien questioned as he hadn't heard about it. 

"Councilwoman Evelyn. She said she proposed to Rueben about having a few more members added for another round of examination as there had been missing councilmen from their positions," Murkh answered to continue, "There might be a possible examination to recruit some of the people to run errands but nothing too high."

Damien hadn't expected this. It was too sudden which he hadn't heard a whisper about. If what Murkh was saying was true then it wouldn't be too hard but there was a loophole for the witches who wouldn't be able to step anywhere close and without giving out the initial test or even clearing it, they would be needing the ability to come to the council building. 

"The witches can step on the lands," he heard Penny say, "If their blood os mixed with another creature and isn't as pure as they were born or turned then they will be able to come here without a problem," she and Alexander were live examples for it. 

Damien stood there thinking about it before he said, "Let the council exam commence."

"What?" Penny's brows furrowed in question. The black witches would cheat their way through the exam and would cause only more problems. Murkh gave an expression of intrigue to what Damien said.

The doctor vampire then said, "More corpses the better for me to be able to experiment."

"We need to trace back to see how many others are involved in this little plan. We'll have some of the handpicked candidates and I will talk with Rueben about it," Damien informed then, "Just because a person survives in the exam it doesn't mean they have pa.s.sed, you need the approval of the elders and the head council but before that, I will need to have a little chat with Evelyn."

Remembering yesterday's event with the woman in the church and then being given a lift by Mr. Varreran, Penny realized she was yet to let Damien know about it. 

"But before that," Damien paused catching the vampire doctor's attention, "We would like a tour to the morgueatory."