Kael walked unhurriedly through the silent streets, Elizabeth still in his arms. The city slept under the cold moonlight, oblivious to what moved beneath its fragile order. Each of his steps was firm, calculated, while the vampire’s body seed lighter and lighter, as if exhaustion had finally overco her stubbornness.
The silence stretched for several blocks before Kael spoke again.
"What is your na?" he asked, without looking at her.
Elizabeth blinked, as if the question had caught her off guard. It wasn’t distrust—it was bewildernt. As if no one had cared about sothing so simple in a long ti.
"Elizabeth," she replied after a second. Her voice was low, hoarse.
Kael nodded slightly. "That’s all?"
She hesitated. Her gaze drifted to the sky, to the shadows of the rooftops.
"That’s all," she confird. "I have no last na. No country. I never have."
Kael glanced at her briefly, too quickly to be obvious, but attentive enough to grasp the weight behind those words.
"Raised by soone important?" he asked.
Elizabeth swallowed hard.
"By the Vampire Queen," she said. "Liza."
The na ca out carefully. Reverently. And painfully.
Kael didn’t react imdiately.
"Until she died..." Elizabeth continued, her voice lowering. "After that, everything fell apart."
The cold wind swept between the buildings, slightly lifting her white hair. Kael adjusted his arm under her back without even realizing it, an automatic gesture.
"Then tell what’s happening," he asked. It wasn’t an order. It was a direct, almost weary invitation. "Because vampires don’t cross borders on a whim. And much less do they appear wounded, hunted by others of their own kind."
Elizabeth closed her eyes. For a few seconds, Kael thought she wouldn’t speak. Her body stiffened, as if protecting herself from sothing invisible. When she spoke again, the words ca out broken, as if they were pieces of sothing larger that she couldn’t hold whole.
"The Vampire King...," she began. "Dracula."
Kael raised an eyebrow slightly, but didn’t interrupt her.
"He’s grieving," she said. "Since Queen Liza’s death. But it’s not normal grief. It’s not silence. It’s not withdrawal. It’s... fury. Despair. Sothing wrong."
She took a deep breath, her chest rising with difficulty.
"He started doing unthinkable things. Summary trials. Public executions. Internal hunts." Her voice trembled. "As if he were trying to punish the entire world."
Kael sighed softly, the sound almost lost in the wind.
"And you?" he asked. "Where do you fit into this?"
Elizabeth opened her eyes. There was sothing there that mixed anger, confusion, and a fear too old for soone so young.
"Soone said it was ," she replied. "That I killed the Queen."
The silence that followed was heavy.
"That’s a lie," she added too quickly, as if afraid he would believe her. "I would never—I would never do that. She was all I had."
Kael nodded once. There was no judgnt on his face.
"And yet, they believed it," he said.
"Not all," Elizabeth corrected. "But enough."
She lightly pinched the fabric of his coat with her fingers.
"The King declared that I was...filthy blood."
Kael frowned.
"And do you know what that ans?"
She shook her head.
"Not completely," she admitted. "All I know is that when that title is given, the person ceases to be seen as a true vampire. As soone who deserves to exist." She swallowed hard. "They say my blood is impure. Weak. A mistake."
Kael let out a heavier sigh now.
"And you weren’t the only one," she continued. "The King marked several others. Children. Young vampires. So older ones who disagreed with him. All called unclean blood." Her voice faltered. "And they’re killing them all."
The streets seed to narrow around them.
"Many fled," Elizabeth said. "Anywhere. Forests, ruins, other kingdoms. So... ca here."
Kael nodded slowly.
"That’s why vampires are appearing in the Human Kingdom," he murmured. "Not as invaders. As refugees."
Elizabeth looked at him, surprised.
"They don’t want war," Kael added. "If they wanted to, you wouldn’t be alive. They’re hiding. Trying to keep the peace. Trying not to draw attention."
He paused briefly.
"While hunters are crossing borders and turning this into a political problem."
Elizabeth took a deep breath, as if those words brought order to her.
"So... do you believe ?" she asked, almost hesitantly.
Kael looked away at the clear sky, deep blue even at night, cloudless. The stars were too visible for such a chaotic world.
"A lot of things make sense now," he replied. "Vampires disappearing. Strange movents. Hadrian suspicious. Incomplete intelligence."
He looked ahead again.
"This didn’t start in the Human Empire," he said. "But it will eventually affect it."
Elizabeth remained silent, absorbing it all.
"I didn’t want to cause any of this," she murmured. "I just... wanted to live."
Kael let out a short, humorless laugh.
"Almost every disaster starts like this," he said. "Soone just wanting to live."
He tightened his grip on her arms, making sure she didn’t slip.
"You did well to run," he continued. "If you had stayed, you would be dead. Or worse."
She closed her eyes for a mont.
"Thank you," she said again. This ti, more firmly.
Kael didn’t respond imdiately.
"Don’t thank yet," he said finally. "What’s happening among the vampires won’t stay contained for long."
Elizabeth opened her eyes. "What’s going to happen?"
Kael stared at the street ahead, the human city too calm for what was approaching.
"If the Vampire King has truly gone mad..." he said slowly, "...then this isn’t just mourning."
He paused. "It’s the beginning of sothing far worse."
Kael crossed the gates of the Ainsworth mansion without slowing his pace. The night there was too peaceful compared to the chaos he had just left behind—well-kept gardens, magical torches casting a soft light, the comfortable silence of a place protected from external wars.
Protected... to a certain extent.
As soon as he passed through the main door, the atmosphere changed.
Alia was in the living room, sitting on the arm of a sofa, reading sothing distractedly. Irelia ca from the side corridor, still in her training clothes, her hair haphazardly tied up and the tired expression of soone who had spent too many hours with a sword in hand.
The two looked up at the sa ti.
And froze.
Kael was there. Covered in dried blood. His coat torn in places. And in his arms, a woman.
A beautiful woman.
Long, white, almost silver hair, falling in loose waves. Skin too pale for an ordinary human. Crimson eyes that, even tired, still carried sothing ancient and dangerous. Her body was bruised, but that didn’t diminish the visual impact.
The silence lasted exactly half a second.
Enough for Alia to narrow her eyes.
Enough for Irelia to clench her jaw.
The temperature in the room seed to drop a few degrees.
"Kael." Irelia’s voice ca out low. Too controlled to be calm. "Who is she?"
Alia said nothing. She just slid off the sofa, her gaze sharp, assessing every detail—the way Kael held her, the closeness, the instinctive protectiveness in the gesture. Before either of them could speak, Kael simply raised his free hand.
It wasn’t abrupt.
It was automatic.
A calm, almost weary gesture.
"She’s a victim here," he said quietly. "Calm down."
His tone wasn’t a plea. It was that of soone who no longer had the patience for extra drama.
Elizabeth shrank slightly in his arms, sensing the tension in the air, her eyes darting quickly from one woman to the other. She said nothing. She just observed.
Kael took a deep breath.
"Her na is Elizabeth," he continued. "Vampire. She’s being hunted by her own kind."
That was enough to change the atmosphere.
Alia’s gaze lost so of its imdiate hostility and shifted to political awareness. Irelia still seed suspicious, but the focus shifted from pure jealousy to sothing more serious.
Kael walked to the sofa and carefully settled Elizabeth down, making sure she was properly supported before stepping back half a pace.
"She can’t walk much," he explained. "She’s exhausted."
Alia nodded slowly.
"I figured," she said. "Go on."
Kael told her everything. No embellishnt. No drama. From the persecution in the Human Empire, the vampire enforcer, the Crimson Council, to the na that made all the more sense now: Dracula.
When he finished, the room was silent.
Alia crossed her arms, thoughtful, pacing back and forth for a few seconds before stopping near the window.
"That... makes sense," she finally said.
Irelia turned to her, surprised.
"How does that make sense?"
Alia sighed.
"Technically, I’m still part of the royal family," she replied. "Even though I’m away, certain information still reaches . Fragnted reports. Things that nobody cares about... until they do."
She looked at Elizabeth, now with a different look. Less judgnt. More analysis.
"In recent months, several vampires have disappeared from their traditional territories," she continued. "Entire clans dissolving. So appearing in human areas, but always hidden. Never attacking."
Kael nodded.
"Refugees," he murmured.
"Exactly," Alia confird. "But at the sa ti, hunters have erged. Older vampires. Executors. They’re not fleeing—they’re hunting."
Irelia frowned.
"And the humans?"
"Manipulated," Alia replied without hesitation. "These older vampires have absurd persuasive abilities. Subtle ntal influence. They use human soldiers, border guards, rcenaries... they make the dirty work look like ’threat cleanup’."
Elizabeth clenched her hands in her lap.
"So...," she began hesitantly, "...this isn’t seen as a war?"
"No," Alia replied. "Not yet. Officially, it’s not a threat to the kingdom."
She turned to Kael.
"That’s exactly what you said," she finished. "A grieving, maddened king, blaming everyone around him to avoid facing his own responsibility."
Irelia let out a heavy sigh.
"Classic," she murmured.
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