Conrad’s presence hung in the air, a suffocating weight that pressed down harder with every second. Even in his absence, it felt like he was in the room, watching us, listening. My mind churned with possibilities, none of them good.

Sia stood near the bed, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, her jaw clenched. The tension in her posture mirrored the storm inside me.

“We can’t stay here,” she said at last, her voice cutting through the silence. “Not with him watching us like this.”

I nodded, glancing at the door as if Conrad might walk in at any moment. “Agreed. But how do we move? He’s probably got this whole place under his thumb.”

“Not just the place,” she replied. “Him. His vampires. Maybe even some of the staff. Conrad’s an elder vampire, Kyon. You don’t understand what that means yet.”

I frowned. “Then explain.”

She paced the room, her footsteps soft but purposeful. “It means he’s listening, probably even now. His senses are sharper than anything you’ve encountered. Sound, sight—hell, he can probably feel the heat coming off our bodies through the walls.”

“That’s… unsettling,” I muttered, leaning against the window. The city lights outside sparkled, mocking the situation we were in.

“It’s worse than that. Conrad doesn’t just watch. He plays games. Everything he does is calculated. He wants something from you, and until he gets it, we’re stuck in this cage.”

I clenched my fists, the frustration bubbling up inside me. “Then we call Lawrence. We need backup.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Sia stopped pacing, fixing me with a sharp glare. “Conrad’s probably monitoring every line in and out of this place. If Lawrence gets caught in this, we’re down a valuable ally.”

I exhaled slowly, trying to steady myself. “We don’t have many options, Sia. Lawrence is close by, and he’s the only one who can tip the odds in our favor.”

“Fine,” she said reluctantly. “But we do it my way. Carefully.”

She pulled a small handheld device from her bag and set it on the table. It looked like a sleek, black brick with a glowing interface.

“A signal scrambler?” I asked.

She nodded. “Basic tech. It’ll mask the call long enough to get through, but if Conrad has his people monitoring comms, they’ll notice. We’ve got to keep it short.”

“Then let’s do it.”

I dialed Lawrence’s number, my thumb hovering over the call button for a moment before pressing it. The line rang twice before he picked up.

“Kyon?” His voice was laced with concern. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“Listen,” I said quickly, keeping my voice low. “We’re trapped in Helios Hotel. Conrad’s got us boxed in, and there are hunters outside. We need—”

The line crackled. A cold, unfamiliar voice cut in. “Kyon, you’ve caused quite a stir.”

My blood ran cold. “Who is this?”

“Someone who doesn’t want to waste time,” the voice replied, calm and detached. “Walk out of the hotel, quietly. Come alone, and we’ll let the girl go.”

I tightened my grip on the phone. “And if I don’t?”

“Then we come in. And trust me, you don’t want that.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The line went dead.

“What happened?” Sia asked, already moving to disable the scrambler.

“They intercepted the call,” I said, my voice tight. “They want me to walk out alone. They’re promising to let you go if I do.”

Her expression darkened. “And you believed them?”

“Of course not,” I snapped, running a hand through my hair. “But now we know they’re watching the hotel. They’ve got the place surrounded, and they’re monitoring communications. This just got worse.”

Sia grabbed her bag and started rummaging through it. “If they’re that coordinated, we have to assume they’ve got people inside too. Staff, security—anyone could be working with them.”

“Then how do we make it out?”

She froze, her hands stilling over a small device in her bag. It looked like a compact Flux amplifier, one I’d seen her use to heighten her senses during training.

“We plan,” she said finally, standing up. “Carefully. We’re not rushing into this.”

We moved to the table, lowering our voices as much as possible. Sia gestured for me to sit while she began outlining a plan.

“First, we figure out the layout,” she said. “Helios is massive, and it’s a maze for anyone who doesn’t know it. If we’re going to escape, we need to pick a route that avoids choke points.”

I nodded. “And we can’t risk using the elevators. Too easy to trap us.”

“Exactly.” She spread out a rough map of the hotel she’d pulled from her bag. “Stairs are safer, but they’ll expect us to use them. If we can find a service corridor or a kitchen, it might give us a better shot.”

“Assuming Conrad doesn’t already know every move we’re making,” I said bitterly.

She shot me a sharp look. “Then we don’t give him anything to work with. No talking, no obvious signals. We use Flux to communicate.”

That caught me off guard. “Communicate how?”

“Feel my energy,” she said. “Focus on it. I’ll send you instructions through Flux pulses. It’s subtle enough that Conrad might not pick up on it.”

I hesitated, then closed my eyes, letting my senses reach out. Her Flux energy was steady, deliberate, like a tightly controlled current. I focused on it, feeling the faint vibrations she sent my way.

Move left. Wait.

I opened my eyes, impressed. “That could work.”

“It will,” she said firmly. “But we still need to address the biggest problem.”

“Conrad,” I muttered.

The mention of his name brought the weight of his presence crashing down again. He was everywhere, woven into the very fabric of this place. And the vampires loyal to him only made things worse.

“How do we get past him?” I asked. “Even if we manage to avoid his people, he’ll know the second we step out of this room.”

Sia sighed, leaning back in her chair. “We have to distract him. Give him a reason to focus his attention elsewhere.”

“Like what?”

She frowned, clearly thinking it through. “He wants something from you, right? Otherwise, he wouldn’t be playing this game. Maybe we can use that to buy time.”

“You mean talk to him?” I asked, incredulous.

“Not you. Me,” she said. “I’ll keep him busy while you slip out and find a way to disable the hotel’s surveillance.”

I shook my head. “That’s too risky. If he catches on—”

“He won’t,” she interrupted. “I’ve dealt with vampires before, Kyon. You haven’t. Trust me on this.”

Her confidence was reassuring, but it didn’t make the plan any less dangerous.

As we finalized the details, my mind wandered to another question that had been nagging at me since this all started.

“How do you think they found us?” I asked.

Sia glanced up from the map. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve kept my head down since coming to this city,” I said. “No big displays of Flux, no picking fights. So how did the hunters track us here? Someone must’ve told them.”

She leaned back, considering my words. “It could’ve been Conrad.”

I frowned. “Why would he do that? He wants me alive.”

“Exactly,” she said. “This could all be part of his plan. Put you in danger, then swoop in to save you. It’s the perfect way to manipulate you into trusting him—or needing him.”

The idea made my skin crawl, but it made sense. Conrad was a puppet master, pulling strings we couldn’t even see.

“Or,” Sia added, “it could’ve been someone else entirely. Maybe Elijah.”

“Elijah?”

She nodded. “He’s the head of the vampire faction in Sharman. If he thinks you’re a threat, he might’ve tipped off the hunters just to force Conrad’s hand.”

The layers of schemes were dizzying. It felt like we were caught in a web, every thread tightening around us.

By the time we finished, the plan was set. It wasn’t perfect, but it was all we had.

Sia looked at me, her expression serious. “We move tonight. No hesitation.”

I nodded, determination hardening in my chest. “This isn’t over.”