The clicking grew louder, closing in from both ends.
Elena pressed herself against the damp brick, her breaths short and shallow. Mira kept her grip tight on the poker, though her hands felt strangely heavier than before — almost numb where the injured man had touched her.
A blur shifted at the mouth of the alley. One Hunter erged, crawling along the wall like a spider before dropping silently to the ground. Its pale eyes — not blind, but clouded — flicked from Mira to Elena, then toward the shop they had just fled.
Inside, the injured man's screams broke into wet, choking gasps. The sound stopped as suddenly as it had begun.
The Hunters froze. Their heads tilted toward each other in eerie unison. The clicking softened, slowed — a pattern now, almost like a conversation. Mira realized they weren't deciding whether to attack. They were deciding who got the kill.
"What are they doing?" Elena whispered.
Mira didn't answer. She was watching the way the closest Hunter's nostrils flared, the way it lingered on her wrist as if it could sll sothing there.
Then it backed away. Not retreating — making space.
Another figure stepped into the alley from the shadows behind it. Taller. Broader. The skin was the sa ghostly white, but the jaw was heavier, marked by deep grooves like scars. Its clicks were slower, deliberate.
The others fell silent.
Mira understood. This was the alpha.
It walked past her without touching, eyes locked on the shop. When it spoke — if the sound could be called that — it was a mix of clicks and low guttural tones. The smaller Hunters answered, scattering up the walls and vanishing over the rooftops.
Elena's hand clutched Mira's arm. "They're… leaving?"
"Not for us," Mira said, though her voice felt far away.
The alpha turned its head toward her for the first ti. In its gaze was sothing sharper than hunger — recognition. It tilted its head, sniffed the air, then raised one long, clawed finger and pointed at her wrist.
Mira's skin burned where the man had touched her. Beneath the surface, sothing pulsed, faint but steady — like a second heartbeat.
The alpha made one final click, and the remaining Hunters lted back into the darkness, following their leader into the rain.
For a long mont, the alley was still.
Elena exhaled shakily. "We need to move before they change their minds."
But Mira didn't move. She was staring at her wrist, where dark lines had begun to branch outward under the skin, faint but spreading.
"They didn't kill us," she said, more to herself than Elena.
Elena's voice wavered. "Why?"
Mira finally turned toward her. "Because I think… I'm one of them now."
From the rooftops, far above, a single, slow click echoed — not a threat, but a summons.
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