CH 73 - Eyes in the Fog

CH 73 - Eyes in the Fog
Daniel sat hunched over in front of a wall plastered with maps, covered in scribbled black and red ink. Tiny silver pins marked key spots attack sites, blood trails, timestamps. A dim bulb swung low above his head, its lazy sway pushed by the old, creaking fan in the corner.
The day felt endless. The sky hadn’t shown a flicker of light. Even the wind seemed unsure if it should pass through.
It hadn’t even been 24 hours, yet the world was already holding its breath. Fear had settled deep. But Daniel hadn't closed his eyes for more than twenty minutes. Sleep was out of the question.
Lucien had contacted him earlier not with words, not even a voice, but through a message handed over by someone nameless. Just one sentence:
“This isn’t a natural phenomenon. This is their doing.”
Their. The vampires. Creatures once thought to belong in myths—now living, breathing nightmares.
Daniel stared at his laptop screen. Lines of code and glowing coordinates pulsed like an artificial heartbeat. He was matching the times of each attack with shifts in air temperature and readings from motion sensors he’d secretly planted in alleys, rooftops, and backstreets.
“The pattern’s messy… but not random,” he murmured.
His voice was quiet, but held a sharp edge.
“I know you’re out there.”
A red light blinked. Coordinates: 13.1127, -52.4412.
Another one. They were moving again.
Daniel quickly shifted the camera feed. There—just a flicker. A shadow leaping from one rooftop to another. Too fast for a human. But just slow enough to trip the thermal sensors.
“And... you just walked into a trap,” he said, pressing a button on a small remote in his hand. A low pop. A flash of purple light.
The creature screamed, flared, and dissolved into the mist. No blood. Just dust and the faint scent of something scorched, drifting into Daniel’s room through the vents.
He leaned back, closed his eyes for a second, and let out a dry, tired laugh.
“Fourth one tonight. Still not enough.” He grabbed the walkie-talkie. “Team Three, confirm the west perimeter is clear. Stay away from grid three-two. There might be another wave incoming.”
A voice crackled back, shaky but focused.
“Copy that. But Daniel… why are they moving slower now?” Daniel’s eyes locked on the digital map in front of him. The city looked like a bloodstained chessboard—and he was down to his last pawn.
“They’ve stopped spreading... something’s holding them back. I don’t know what yet. But don’t let your guard down.”
This time, Daniel’s voice was low, like a whispered prayer soaked in dread. He typed a few commands. The map on the wall lit up, now in infrared. Red lines appeared, swirling into a strange spiral pattern. It wasn’t tactical. It wasn’t how predators hunted. It was something else.
“A ritual?” he muttered, squinting at the map. “That kind of thing still exists?”
Part of him wanted to laugh it off. But if Lucien was rightand this sunless sky was the work of magic then even logic had to make room for the impossible. On the table next to him sat a neat row of small metal vials. Each was filled with a pale blue liquid. When injected into the ground or a wall, it triggered a UV burst two meters wide, two minutes long. That was his real weapon. Not guns. Not bullets. Light.
The formula had been given to him by one of Lucien’s friends. Not a full vampire, but a half-blood one with a talent for making things that shouldn’t exist.
"The attacks are slowing down," he said as he scribbled new numbers onto the board. "They think I haven’t figured out their rhythm. Big mistake."
He pinned a new location onto the map—one he’d overlooked until now: the rooftop of an old building in the western district. A place that had never been touched by any of the attacks. "That place… a blind spot?"
Daniel picked up his walkie-talkie.
"Team Two, check the old building in the western district. Do not enter. Send a drone. Switch to thermal. If the temperature drops below minus two pull back."
A voice crackled in reply. "Copy that. Drone en route."
Daniel’s eyes returned to the digital map. The red spiral now looked more like a vortex—everything pulling toward a single point. The monitor in front of him glowed faintly in the dark. "Visuals live. Drone One’s approaching," came the voice through his headset.
Daniel sat up straighter, eyes locked onto the screen. The thermal camera displayed a foggy blur mist that didn’t just obscure vision, it messed with the sensors. Once in a while, the silhouette of the old building’s rooftop flickered into view. Cold smoke drifted over the area, more like enchanted fog than anything natural.
“Damn… this isn’t normal fog,” Daniel muttered, fingers flying over the controls to boost the light contrast.
“It’s like the mist is alive. Wrapped in magic.”
He switched to infrared, but the result was the same. No signs of body heat. Or maybe… whatever was there didn’t register on any human scale.
A voice cut in through the static. “Sir, We’ve spotted… something. Coordinates three-two-six. Next to the collapsed tower. There’s light.”
Daniel squinted. The screen showed a vague figure, barely visible but two red dots glowed brightly in the middle of its shadow. “Is that… a vampire?” asked a shaky voice in his ear.
Daniel leaned in, studying it. He held his breath.
“No. That’s not a vampire.”
The red lights stared straight at the drone’s camera—like it knew it was being watched. A split second later, the feed dissolved into white noise. Just static. No image. No signal. “Drone One, connection lost!” shouted the operator on another channel.
Daniel slammed his headset down and stood, tension sharp in every line of his body. “Whatever that was it grabbed the drone. And not with normal hands…”
He grabbed the walkie-talkie. “Ground units, full alert. Do not approach coordinate 326. I repeat, do not approach! We’re dealing with something outside our classification.”
He stared at the now-useless screen, just lines of glitching static. Then he opened a drawer and pulled out an old, worn book notes from the Regane Library, passed to him by Lucien. Stuff Lucien hadn’t even dared explain in person. Pages about weaknesses, limits of power… and how to keep a vampire out of a space without a direct invitation.
“They’re planning something. And I need to be ready before they are.”
“If the world’s being swallowed by the night,” he whispered to himself, “then humans better learn how to become fire.”
He clipped five small vials of potion to his belt. His every step past the door could be a one-way trip.
Daniel stood, grabbed his jacket, and stormed out.
His stride was firm. Eyes sharp. There was no room left for fear. If the sky wouldn’t lend its light then humankind would have to forge its own. And if tonight truly was the beginning of an endless night, then he would become something darker than the darkness itself. He raised his walkie-talkie again, voice steady and commanding:
“All units, full alert. No one moves without orders!”