The streets of London were buried beneath a heavy fog that muffled the sounds of the city, turning it into something almost ghostlike. Alice walked without haste, every step calculated, every glance alert to the shadows. She had followed traces of blood through forgotten alleys, listened to whispers in decaying taverns, and now her hunt had led her to a vampire club hidden beneath the ruins of an ancient church.
Inside, the air was thick with the scent of burning incense, strong alcohol, and iron —fresh blood served in crystal goblets. Alice slipped in like a shadow, her feline gaze sweeping across every table, every face. The low, slow music failed to drown out the murmurs surrounding the name she hunted.
James.
She approached the bar, and the bartender —a pale vampire with yellowed eyes, froze the moment he sensed her presence.
"Where is he?" Alice asked, her voice low yet sharp as a blade.
The man looked away, trembling, but before he could answer, Alice bared her fangs just enough to let a flicker of her predatory presence spill into the room. The bartender broke.
"I heard James was seen at the abandoned docks in Southwark. I don't know if he's still there… but someone from the Council was spotted with him."
Alice smiled, a glint of cruelty flashing in her eyes. It was the first solid lead she'd had in weeks.
Meanwhile, across the ocean, the night unfolded very differently in New York.
Natalie's eyes snapped open. The world felt… wrong — or rather, unbearably alive. Every city light spilling through the window burned with painful clarity, every sound stood apart and sharp — footsteps on the sidewalk, a heartbeat pounding in the apartment below, the distant wail of a siren. Her throat burned like fire.
She rose abruptly, gasping, realizing her body responded in an inhuman way — light, fast, powerful. Rose leaned against the wall, watching like a satisfied predator admiring her creation.
"Welcome, little Natalie," Rose said with her ever-present provocative smile. "You belong to the night now."
Natalie lifted a hand to her neck, feeling the bite marks nearly healed, then pressed her palm to her chest, her heart no longer beat. A shiver ran down her spine.
"I… I can feel everything. The sounds, the smells… the thirst." Her voice wavered between awe and fear.
Rose stepped closer, lifting Natalie's chin with her fingers.
"That's only the first spark. The thirst will shape you, Natalie. And you'll learn quickly… or you'll be consumed by it."
Over the following days, their dynamic changed. Natalie, once fragile and shattered by Kara's death, seemed reborn in the body of a predator. Yet insecurity still lingered in her eyes — something that only fueled Rose's cruel amusement as she pushed the fledgling vampire to her limits.
One night, when they went out to hunt, Natalie smelled the blood before she even saw the man walking down the street. Instinct took over, and when she sank her fangs into his neck, ecstasy surged through every fiber of her being. Rose watched, satisfied.
"See?" Rose said. "You were born for this."
Natalie pulled away, breathless, her lips stained red.
"I… I liked it too much."
Rose laughed softly.
"And you'll like it more and more. But be careful, darling… pleasure is what enslaves us most."
Back in London, Alice arrived at the abandoned docks of Southwark. The cold wind carried the scent of saltwater and rust. There were signs of a struggle on the ground, footprints fading into darkness. But James was nowhere to be found.
A shadow lunged from the darkness, attempting to drive a blade into her neck. Alice twisted aside with effortless grace, then seized the attacker's arm, wrenching it until the bone snapped. He fell to his knees, revealing his face — Sebastian, a vampire known for serving the Council and, more recently, James himself.
"Where is he?" Alice snarled, her eyes blazing like fire.
Sebastian spat blood onto the ground, laughing mockingly.
"You'll never find him. He's beyond your reach."
Alice wasted no time. In a single fluid motion, she drove her claws into his chest, tearing through flesh and bone until her hand closed around his still-beating heart. Sebastian screamed, but Alice merely twisted her wrist and ripped it free in a spray of blood.
"Useless to the very end," she murmured, crushing the heart in her hand before letting it fall to the ground.
She lifted her gaze toward the city skyline, blood smeared across her lips, a cold smile forming.
The hunt had only just begun.