Chapter 116 | Concrete and Blood | Kael
Human eyes are round.
No vertical pupils, no gold, no ice-blue. Just black, or brown, or green, like regular glass beads. They walked past us, moving fast like they were running away, but nobody was really running—they were just busy. Busy staring at phones, rushing somewhere, chasing after something I couldn't figure out on streets at two in the morning.
"Don't just stand there." Kael's voice came out through gritted teeth. "Move."
He was leaning against the wall at the mouth of the alley, dark red wings hanging behind him like a torn-up cloak. Blood was still dripping from his chest. The Patricide Blade was still back on Side A, but the wound wasn't closing up. In the air of the human world, a vampire's healing was like a lamp with no plug.
I tried to fold my wings.
Couldn't do it.
Silver-white feathers shook in the night breeze, each one glowing faintly. On Side A, that glow was holy. Here, it was just weird. A drunk guy came around the corner, rubbed his eyes, looked at me, and then—
yelled.
Not scared. Excited.
"COSPLAY! COSPLAY! Those wings are sick! Dude, where'd you get that prop?"
He ran over with a glowing square thing in his hand—a phone, Xiao Qi had told me about those. He kept jabbing at it, pointing it at me, and the square shot out this blinding white light.
"Don't—" I put my hand up to block the light.
Kael moved.
He had no powers, no speed, but he put himself between me and the drunk guy. His eyes—even when he was this weak—still made the guy back up.
"Get lost." Kael said.
The drunk guy mumbled something and walked away, but he kept looking back.
"We need to get off the streets." Kael was breathing hard. "Your wings—they stand out too much."
"Where do we go?"
"First—"
He didn't finish.
His body slid down the wall. His knees hit the cement with a dull thud. I rushed to catch him, but his full weight fell on me and I almost went down too.
"Kael!"
"I'm fine." He said it, but his lips were purple. "Just—out of energy."
I looked around.
Tall buildings. Neon signs. Traffic. This was a world I didn't know. No bloodline network, no energy flow. I couldn't even feel any warmth from the moonstone necklace—it just sat there like a dead rock.
A car pulled up at the mouth of the alley.
Not a taxi. A black car with completely dark windows. The door opened and two guys in black suits got out. They were wearing sunglasses—at night—and holding some kind of metal gadget that wasn't a weapon but gave off waves that made my skin prickle.
"Leah Vane?" One of them said. His voice had no feeling, like a robot.
I froze.
How did they know my name?
"Kael de Noct?" The other one looked at Kael. Couldn't read his expression behind the sunglasses. "Gatekeeper bloodline. Confirmed."
They lifted up the metal gadgets.
Not to attack. To scan. Red beams shot out from the devices, running over Kael's body, over my wings. The gadgets beeped.
"Targets confirmed." The first guy said. "Bring them in."
They moved forward.
I spread my wings, putting myself in front of Kael. Silver-white feathers caught the streetlight like an open fan.
"Don't touch him."
The two men stopped. They looked at each other. Then the first guy took off his sunglasses.
His eyes—
had vertical pupils.
Golden ones.
"Don't be nervous, Miss Vane." He said it with his mouth curving up in this stiff way. "We're not your enemies. We're—"
He pulled something out of his jacket pocket.
A letter.
A black envelope, exactly like the one that fell out of the crack in the passage.
"—agents of the de Noct family in the human world." He said. "The master has been waiting for you for a long time."
"Master?" Kael's voice came from behind me, weak but on guard. "Who?"
The man didn't answer. He just stepped to the side, pointing at the back seat of the car.
"Please." He said. "Or we can force you. The way you are right now—"
He glanced at the wound on Kael's chest.
"—you won't make it thirty minutes."
Kael's hand grabbed my wrist. His fingers were freezing, but the grip told me: don't go.
But I looked at his face. Gray. Dying.
I didn't have a choice.
"Lead the way." I said.
The two men helped Kael up. They didn't touch his wings—like they knew what they were. I got in the car after them. The seats were leather and smelled like cleaning chemicals. The second the door shut, all the noise from outside cut off completely.
The car started moving.
I looked out the window at the human world. Bright lights everywhere, but cold.
Kael leaned against my shoulder, his breathing getting weaker.
"If this is a trap—" he could barely get the words out.
"Then we fight our way out." I said.
He didn't smile. He passed out.
The car headed toward a mountain on the edge of the city. The shape of it in the dark looked like a crouching animal. At the top of the mountain was a building. Not a skyscraper, but something old, with pointed towers, Gothic style—
a castle.
Just like de Noct Castle.
Only smaller. Older. More—
hidden.
The car stopped at the bottom of the mountain. An iron gate opened by itself. Carved into the gateposts was a symbol: a silver-white bat with moonstone eyes.
Gatekeeper.
"We're here." The man said.
He opened the door.
Cold air rushed in. I helped Kael out of the car. His feet dragged on the ground, no strength left.
I looked up at the castle entrance.
The door opened.
Standing in the doorway—
was a little girl.
Maybe ten years old. Black curly hair, ice-blue round eyes (not vertical), wearing a white nightgown. She looked at us, her eyes staying on Kael's face for three seconds.
Then she smiled.
"You're late." She said.
The voice wasn't a kid's voice. Something way older, trapped in that small body—
something ancient.
"Three thousand years." She said. "I've been waiting three thousand years."
She walked up to Kael, stood on her toes, and put her small hand over the wound on his chest.
Dark red light poured out of her palm.
Kael's wound—
started closing up.