"This is NYPD, raise your hands or we'll shoot you!" Archie's boisterous announcement startled me to the point that the photo slips out of my hand. But before anyone could notice the photo, I quickly step on it with my hands raised to the sky. So is Maverick, especially when they all cock their guns in unison. I may be fast but the speed of their bullets moves faster than my vampire. And if given the chance one of their bullets penetrates some crucial parts of my body, such as the brain or heart, my remaining lifeline could have been useless. "Gaius? Maverick?" Archie breathed out my name in disbelief as soon as he recognizes my face through the rays of their flashlights combined. "For God's sake, put down your flashlights and weapons!" I blurted out when I could barely see anything around me but the eye-blinding rays of their flashlight. "How did you guys get in here so fast?" Archie asks me before he ordered his team to point their flashlights to the groun
Then I ordered Maverick to lead the way out heading to the plane where we plan to secure the kids. I, on the other hand, continued searching for the rest of them beneath the lighthouse. As soon as we got out, one of them told me, "Where are you taking us? What about those ladies in the other rooms who turned into monsters?" "Monsters?" I could not help but curve the tip of my brows while assisting them out of the lighthouse. She nodded. "I heard the guards calling out their names, Elaine, Shantell, and Rachell..." Then she rubs the tip of her nose while digging into her brain. I remember Archie and Captain Denver once mentioned those names. They were the kids who were kidnapped ten years ago. But what does she mean about them as monsters? "Did you have any idea which chamber they are in?" I asked her while scanning the environment to make sure there will be no enemies who can slow us down, especially when I have ten more kids with me. "No, you can't see
Gaius POV In a world where everything is being dominated by obscure darkness, endless nightmares, and false fantasies, lies a lonesome hundred-fifty-year-old blood-sucking demon who stands firm on the top edge of the tallest building in the city. The hectic city of New Orleans sounded and looked the same as the previous nights. Humans wondering the streets with a smile on their faces. And small and large sizes of vehicles run in and out of my sight. "Target is on the move! Randolph Griffin, fifty-six years old and was holding a Ruger Max-9 Pro 9mm gun wearing a black hoodie. He is now heading to East Avenue, five blocks away from the building. I repeat..." My profound pleasure in indulging the sensation of this night's summer breeze that gently rubbed my cold pale skin shattered into pieces when someone's deafening voice vibrated in my ears. I was startled to the point that my body gets out of balance and falls through the air. Shit. I should have followed my instinct not to
And all I could think of is to get into the toilet room as soon as possible when I could feel the violet long curve lines that were scattered throughout my face because of the blood. I turned the faucet on and drink water as much as my stomach could carry to remove the fishy taste of the blood from my system. After a few minutes of drinking water, I heaved a sigh of relief when the color of my face returned to its normal pale after a few seconds of getting wet. "What happened earlier must not happen again," I uttered to myself. "Part of me wanted to kill her." then, I headed out of the toilet room and went back to the exit to sincerely apologize to her or at least offer her a treat. Unfortunately, she was already nowhere to be found aside from the phone that I just stepped on. Good thing it did not crack or get broken. Her face was displayed on the screen when the light switched on. "Is everything all right, Gaius?" Monbert asked me again. Before I coul
"Is that what I think it is?" she asked. Her smile broadens from ear to ear. "I've been searching for my phone since last night, Dad. Finding the phone was the reason I could not go home." Then, she slides closer to me and snatched the phone from my hands. It happens again. The warm wavelength coming from her slow movements awakened the deepest part of my belonging. And every strand of my muscles shivered. Instead of blood, I gulp a bulk of water down to my throat while staring at those veins on her neck. My throat got dried and was surging the thirst all of a sudden. And the thirst was completely hard to withstand. Part of me wanted to stab my fangs into her neck and shower her aromatic blood throughout my body. I want to imagine that to happen. However, her dad's sharp stares contradicted my profound imagination. That if I am not going to drop my stares away from his daughter, he is going to slash my throat and cut off my head. "Thank you so much for this," she added before
While holding onto that thought, I could not help myself but burst out my laughter. I mean, who could not be? Dad is telling me something unimaginable. Something that can only be seen on TV or any kind of streaming app. Do you know what makes him even look more ridiculous? Dad, I believe, is not the kind of man who loves watching movies and series of those kinds of stories. He is more particularly a business-minded type of person who loves and praises money, and of course, there is my mom and me. Other than that, nada. "Don't give me that kind of look, Cece." dad insisted. "that is why you have to stay away from him. Because if I saw that man even ten meters away from you, regardless of what approach first, I'm gonna rip his bones and pull his heart. And you know who I am when I got furious. Do you understand?" Dad indeed was the worst among other fathers that I know of. He may be protective of me and mom but it was too much to the point that he once killed a mid
"You heard him right, my dear, Cecelia." claims the other wolf. "He is the owner of the club you used to spend a few nights with your friends." "And also the reasons why we managed to know where your alpha dad lives," says Marcos. If he claims to be the owner of the club behind me, his name is Marcos. Whatever they want from me perhaps has something to do with my dad after knowing they are of the same kind; monsters. Alpha? Is that what they called my dad? But knowing about their connections with each other is the last of my worries at the moment. I still have my bleeding leg to attend to. I believe that if the wounds will not be cured as soon as possible, I might collapse or worse death await me. "Please, don't kill me," I beg them, then adjusted my body when my leg starts to get numbed. "If you need money, I'm so sorry, I didn't bring cash with me. How much do you want?" I try to reach for my sling bag but my hands could barely reach it because what my body
Gaius POV "So, what now?" Monbert asked me after patching Cecelia's deep wounds before he slides into my spot in the corner. He securely cleaned and removed every trace of her blood from the coffin to make sure my nose could sniff nothing. Yet here I am helplessly staring at my wrist when it glimmered. My lifeline has been deducted by two days after killing Marcos and his cousin. And the fact that it took me a few days to save 48 hours of my lifeline, I started to regret I let my thirst for blood precede the sole purpose of the Cursed System. "The damage has been done, Monbert." could not help but eject the cold air of regrets out of my nose and mouth. "I have to find the solution to my case as soon as possible. Alone and before everything I worked for go to waste." "Do you need to borrow lifeline from us?" Monbert humbly offered. He even extended his wrist to me without any signs of hesitation. "I can lend you at least two hours." "No, I can't lend