Alexander finally turned his head toward Boris again. The moonlight hit the side of his face, making his expression look sharper than usual. He stared at Boris for a long mont before speaking.
"What is it about this Ann girl?" he asked. His voice was calm but curious. "Why won’t you get over her? She is just a human girl. Why go through all that stress when there are plenty of our girls who would die to be with you?"
Boris didn’t answer at first. He looked off into the trees like he was thinking about sothing he didn’t want to admit. Then he sighed and lowered himself onto the stairs beside Alexander.
"There is sothing special about her," Boris said quietly. "I swear there is. I can feel it."
Alexander snorted. He didn’t even bother hiding the sarcasm. "There is nothing special. You are just bored of vampire girls. They do not give you the excitent you want anymore. So now you are moving on to so human puppet."
Boris stayed silent. His jaw tightened a little, but he didn’t argue. Alexander knew him too well anyway.
Alexander flicked away a small pebble with his boot and leaned forward. "Listen," he said. "I will say this once. Stay away from Ann. Because of that Liam person."
Boris’ eyebrow lifted. "Liam?"
"Yes," Alexander said. "He is not normal."
Boris threw his head back and laughed. It wasn’t a light laugh. It was the kind that ca from deep in his chest, full of confidence and arrogance. "Normal or not," he said, "he is still human. I already defeated him once. What is stopping from doing it again?"
Alexander didn’t reply. He just looked back at the moon with a blank expression, the kind that said he already knew trying to convince Boris was pointless.
The night stretched out quietly around them. Too quietly.
Hours passed. The vampires who had run into the city moved through the shadows. They were fast, silent, and hungry. The people above didn’t hear the screams because none of the victims even had ti to scream.
The city stayed unnaturally silent. The kind of silence that makes people uneasy without knowing why. A few residents woke up during the night, wondering why it felt wrong outside. So peeked through their windows, expecting to hear dogs barking or insects buzzing or sothing alive in the distance.
But there was nothing.
No insects.
No animals.
No wind.
No sound at all.
Just a heavy, dead silence that wrapped around everything.
When morning finally ca, the sun pushed its way across the rooftops like it didn’t want to rise. People slowly stepped outside their hos. So rubbed their eyes. So looked confused. So looked scared for reasons they couldn’t explain.
And then they saw it.
"Oh my God," soone whispered.
At first people thought their eyes were tricking them. But the more they looked, the more they realized they were right.
The streets were filled with bats.
Hundreds of them.
Lying everywhere.
All dead.
So on sidewalks, so near cars, so on people’s doorsteps. There were no wounds on them. No signs of a fight. No sign of poison. They were simply dead.
A woman covered her mouth. "Is that... blood?"
She pointed toward an alleyway. The walls looked like soone had dragged bloody hands across them. Red streaks ran down the bricks like long finger trails. The sight made her shake.
Two n stepped forward imdiately.
"Won and children, step back," one of the n said.
"Step back now," the other added.
People obeyed without argunt. Even the strongest n felt sothing wrong in the air. The sll alone was enough to make so of them swallow hard.
The two n approached the alley with slow steps. The closer they got, the stronger the stench of blood beca. Thick. Heavy. tallic. It clung to the air like smoke.
One of the n lifted his shirt collar to block his nose. "Damn," he muttered. "What the hell happened here?"
They took another step, and the sll hit even harder. They both coughed lightly, but they kept walking.
Finally they reached the end of the alley.
And both n froze.
Their eyes widened. Their breathing stopped for a mont. One of them stumbled back a step, unable to keep his balance.
Because right in front of them...
Bodies.
Bodies piled on top of each other.
Ten of them at least. Maybe more. Arms and legs tangled together. Heads bent in unnatural positions. Clothes soaked in dried blood. So eyes still open.
The two n didn’t scream. They couldn’t. Their voices locked in their throats.
Police sirens echoed through the neighborhood as officers rushed in and blocked off the entire area. Yellow tape went up fast. Forensics pushed in with their equipnt while uniford officers tried to keep the growing crowd behind the barricades.
The two n who discovered the bodies were pulled aside for questioning. Both looked shaken, like they were barely holding themselves together. One of them kept rubbing his hands on his pants like he couldn’t get rid of sothing that was stuck on his skin.
The officer questioning them tried to keep his voice calm. "You are alright," he said slowly. "I just want to understand how you found the bodies."
The older man swallowed hard and nodded. His voice was rough when he finally spoke. "When we woke up, we saw... all those bats. All dead. They were everywhere on the street."
The younger man beside him nodded quickly. "Everyone stepped out to see what was going on. Then soone pointed to the blood on the wall. We followed it, and... we found them. The bodies. All piled on each other."
The officer let out a long breath. Not loud, but heavy enough that his partner heard it. He turned toward the other officer standing beside him.
"It’s the sa report everywhere," he muttered.
The two n imdiately exchanged confused looks.
"Everywhere?" the older one asked. "What do you an everywhere?"
The officer looked at them for a mont, then at the crowd gathering beyond the barricade. He realized there was no point trying to soften anything. They would all hear it on the news soon anyway.
He rubbed the back of his neck and said, "This isn’t the only place. In fact, this is the eighth location we have been called to this morning."
The younger man’s mouth fell open. The older man tightened his grip on the plastic cup of water he had been given.
"Eight?" he whispered. "Eight places like... like this?"
The officer nodded. "Yes. And it’s only six in the morning. We’re still getting calls."
The n stared at him like they didn’t understand the words. Their faces slowly shifted from confusion to horror.
anwhile, inside the alley, the forensic team had managed to separate the bodies. They laid them out on sheets and started their examination. The air was filled with the tallic sll of dried blood and the clicking of caras.
One of the senior forensics shook his head as he checked the wounds. "Sa thing as the others," he said. "Two fang-like punctures on the neck. And their blood is completely drained. Every drop."
An officer standing near him let out a frustrated breath. "Any idea what could have done this?"
The forensic stood up, stretching his back. He looked exhausted already. "Sir," he said, "I have been alive for thirty-five years, and I have never seen anything like this before. Not from animals, not from humans, not from anything."
He motioned for the younger forensics to take more pictures. They got closer, taking shots from every angle. One of them flinched when he looked closely at one of the bodies, then quickly composed himself.
The senior forensic continued quietly, "Even if an animal attacked them, the blood wouldn’t vanish like this. It doesn’t make sense."
An officer beside him scratched his head. "Then what the hell are we dealing with?"
Before anyone could answer, a young forensic who had been kneeling at the far end of the alley raised his head. He looked hesitant, like he knew he was about to sound stupid but couldn’t stop himself.
"Sir," he said. "What if... it was vampires?"
The alley fell silent for a mont, and even the officers nearby froze.
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