Faced with Melinda and Dick's confusion, the female vampire attendant merely extended a hand calmly, gesturing for her two guests to follow.
"Why did you throw her out?"
Dick couldn't contain his curiosity. After all, given the shop girl's proud demeanor earlier, she hardly seemed like someone her own kind would readily cast out.
"She had no idea of her place."
The female attendant kept walking. Seen from the side, the pale skin of her half-visible face took on an icy hue in the dim light.
"She's only a newly turned vampire. She has no right to enter the Underground Palace's banquet hall."
Melinda's brows drew together slightly. "Just because she was turned too recently?"
"Newborn vampires like her, with no ancient bloodline whatsoever, can be turned in large numbers in a very short time whenever we need them. They're nothing but expendable fodder at the very bottom. Our hierarchy is strict, and its boundaries must not be crossed."
The female attendant sneered, revealing the sharp canines at the corners of her mouth. "The Queen allowing human outsiders to come here for negotiations doesn't mean lowly newborn vampires can freely barge into a meeting place for their superiors."
Dick instinctively shifted to shield Melinda slightly behind him, his gaze sweeping over the vampires standing silently on either side of the banquet hall.
"What would happen if she insisted on staying?"
"Expulsion was already a lenient punishment." The female attendant glanced back, a bloodthirsty red gleam flashing in her eyes. "Crossing the boundaries between ranks is a provocation in itself. If she continued making a nuisance of herself, she would face far more than simply being thrown out."
Hearing the chill in the female vampire attendant's voice, Dick stopped asking questions and quietly raised his guard.
The female vampire attendant led