Kross's first act as a newborn predator was to secure his power. He scoured the floor of the ruined temple, his new, burning eyes seeing what his mortal ones could not. The stone was littered with them—hundreds of small, crystallized fragments of the great crystal, each one a red gem glowing with stolen life and corrupting magic. He gathered them up, a king collecting his treasury.
With his new, enthralled slave at his side, he returned to the police station. It was a fortress of law, and he would turn it into his personal barracks. One by one, he called the men he trusted—the bullies, the brutes, the ones who followed his orders without question—into his office. He offered them a gift. By the time the sun set, a dozen of the city's police officers were no longer human. They were his vampires, his hounds, their eyes glowing with a subservient red fire.
His next target was personal. He needed to hurt the creature that had humiliated him, and he knew exactly where her weakness was.
It happened while Elara was away. Leo had gone to the university library, and when he returned, a cold, primal fear seized him before he even opened the door. It was ajar, the lock splintered.
He pushed it open to a scene of pure violence. The apartment was trashed. The couch was overturned, the coffee table was in pieces, and a dark, coppery smear of blood stained the wall. Mike and Sam were gone.
Panic, cold and absolute, washed over Leo. He stumbled back into the hallway, his mind screaming. There was only one person who could help. He didn't have her number. He didn't know where she went when she disappeared. He only had her name.
He ran out into the street, his voice raw with terror. "ELARA! ELARA!"
He didn't know where he was going, he just ran, his desperate calls swallowed by the growing dark. His frantic flight led him away from the city center, towards the industrial outskirts, until he found himself at the base of a massive, skeletal cell tower that scraped at the night sky.
And he saw her.
She was perched at the very top, a silent silhouette against the rising moon. She wasn't looking at the city. Her gaze was fixed on the sky, where a strange, majestic eagle with bronze-tipped feathers was circling. There was an impossible sense of familiarity in her posture, a wistful longing as she watched the bird, a creature that looked like it had flown directly out of her distant past.
The moment was broken when he screamed her name one last time, his voice cracking with desperation. "ELARA!"
The eagle gave a final, mournful cry and wheeled away into the darkness. Elara's head snapped down, her silver eyes finding him instantly. One moment she was a speck against the moon, the next she was standing in front of him on the road, having moved with a speed that left the air undisturbed. She was no longer in the white dress of her experiment with normalcy. She was clad in her familiar black combat clothes, a warrior back in her armor.
"Leo," she said, her voice sharp with concern. "What is it?"
"He took them!" Leo gasped, tears of fear and frustration streaming down his face. "Kross. The cop. He took Mike and Sam. The apartment... it's destroyed. There's blood..."
He watched as every trace of wistful peace vanished from Elara's face. The brief glimpse of the girl who missed her home was gone, replaced by the cold, lethal fury of the thousand-year-old predator. Kross had not just attacked her neighbours. He had taken her people.
"He made his choice," she said, her voice a low, dangerous growl. She and him both decided then what must be done. This was no longer about hiding or surviving. This was about retribution.
"We have to find them," Leo pleaded.
"We will," Elara promised. She closed her eyes, her head tilting as she focused, casting out her senses like an invisible net. The mundane scents of the city—asphalt, exhaust, decay—faded away. She was searching for something specific.
After a moment, her eyes snapped open, and they were glowing with a faint, silver light.
"I have it," she said, her voice devoid of all emotion save for a chilling, focused rage. "The scent of their fear... and his. That foul, burning stench of the red gems. He took them to his den."
She looked at Leo, her expression hard as stone. "Stay close. Don't fall behind."
And with that, she began to run, a black shadow flowing through the night, following a trail only she could see. Leo, his heart pounding with terror and a sliver of hope, ran after her. The hunt had begun.