Kyon's First Person POV.
“We can still make it,” I said, my voice steady despite the adrenaline pumping through my veins. “But we have to move now.”
Sia nodded, her expression hardening into focus as she took a deep breath. The sound of distant footsteps echoed through the hall. They were coming. We couldn’t stay here.
I scanned the corridor ahead, the oppressive silence broken only by our breathing and the distant wail of the fire alarm that still blared from somewhere above. The blaring sirens masked our movement, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before they caught up. The hunters wouldn’t be easily thrown off course.
“We’ll have to take the stairs,” I muttered, already moving toward a nearby service door.
Sia’s voice was low, full of resolve. “And if we get cornered?”
“We don’t get cornered,” I said, pushing open the door. We stepped into a narrow maintenance corridor, the scent of dust and old metal filling the air. The hallway was dark, lit only by flickering fluorescent lights overhead.
The floor above was swarming with hunters, their thermal imaging equipment scouring the hotel for any sign of life. The disabled cameras in the Sky Lounge had slowed them down, but it wouldn’t be long before they realized we were trying to cover our tracks.
“We need to move quickly,” Sia said, her voice sharp. “This place is crawling with them.”
“This way,” I whispered, tugging Sia’s arm as we ducked into another corridor. My Echo Flux pulsed faintly, rippling outward to scan the area. Hunters moved on the floors above and below us, their presence like faint pinpricks in my awareness. Vampires, however, were harder to track. One was dangerously close, his bloodlust restrained but palpable.
I know we couldn’t afford to fight, not like this, not with the odds stacked against us. The exhaustion from our earlier battle with the hunters weighed heavily on us both. And there was no way to outrun a vampire, not with our current state.
“They’re everywhere,” Sia muttered, glancing over her shoulder. Her face was pale, her normally sharp eyes dulled with fatigue. “We need a plan. We can’t keep running like this.”
Suddenly, a voice echoed from behind us, smooth and taunting. “Master Conrad will reward me handsomely for delivering you to him.”
I spun around, my heart leaping into my throat. A vampire emerged from the shadows, his lean figure and sharp grin sending chills down my spine. He wasn’t as terrifying as Mika, but he didn’t need to be. In our state, he might as well have been unstoppable.
Sia grabbed my arm. “Kyon, we can't fight him.” She was right. We were running on fumes, and honestly the thought of fighting even one more hunter—or worse, a vampire—felt impossible.
“I know,” I said, already scanning the hallway for options. My eyes landed on a fire alarm panel mounted on the wall. An idea sparked, desperate and reckless.
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“Cover your ears,” I told Sia, yanking the handle on the alarm. The shrill wail erupted instantly, echoing through the hallways and drowning out everything else.
The vampire hissed, clutching his ears as the noise disoriented him. I didn’t wait to see if it would last. Grabbing Sia’s hand, I pulled her toward a service door at the end of the hallway.
“Through here!”
We shoved the door open and stumbled into a narrow maintenance corridor. The walls were lined with pipes and exposed wiring, and the air was damp and musty. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than being cornered.
“We can slow him down,” I said, grabbing a fire extinguisher off the wall. As the vampire burst into the corridor, his movements faster than I anticipated, I swung the extinguisher with all my strength. The impact caught him off guard, and he staggered back, snarling.
Sia didn’t waste the opportunity. She focused her Arkamon Flux, sending a surge of energy into the nearest sprinkler pipe. Steam and boiling water erupted, scalding the vampire and forcing him to retreat further.
“Go!” she shouted, and we ran deeper into the maintenance corridor.
We didn’t stop. Every step was driven by the need to get away. The vampire’s curses echoed behind us, but we didn’t look back. We couldn’t afford to.
Third Person Point Of View.
The hunters moved with precision, each step calculated, each decision weighed. The Sky Lounge had been their last known location, but the moment the cameras went offline, they knew something was amiss.
“We’ve lost visual,” their leader growled into his comms, his voice a low rasp. “But we can still track them.”
The thermal imaging equipment on the hunter’s wrist flickered to life, showing the heat signatures of the two fugitives moving through the building. Despite the fire alarm that had thrown off their search, they could still see the faint outlines of Kyon and Sia.
“Trap them near the mechanical corridor,” the leader ordered. “They’re trying to stay ahead of us, but they won’t get far.”
The team of eight hunters split off, moving toward the 28th and 29th floors, working in tandem to create a net. Their training was impeccable, honed for moments like this. They knew that Kyon and Sia were exhausted, that they couldn’t keep running forever.
“Don’t let them slip past,” the leader barked. “They’ve disabled the cameras, but we’ll flush them out.”
On the 31st floor, another four hunters prepared to reinforce their colleagues if Kyon and Sia made a break for it.
The leader’s fingers flew over his device as he relayed updates to the hacker outside, listening to the steady stream of information about the heat signatures. “We’ve got them cornered. There’s no escape now.”
....
Harvey Ross moved like a shadow, his footsteps silent as he ascended the 27th floor stairwell. He was a master of stealth, an expert at moving undetected through hostile territory. The hunters above were making their move, but Harvey wasn’t in a rush to confront them.
Instead, he stayed a few steps behind, watching them through the cracks in the walls, waiting for the perfect moment. His eyes narrowed as he noticed the faint shift in the air, the presence of another—a vampire, dark and dangerous, concealed in the shadows.
The bloodlust was nearly invisible, a hidden predator stalking its prey.
Ross had sensed Lawrence’s aura earlier, but he could wait. The vampire that was closing in on Kyon and Sia was a more immediate threat. His gaze flicked back to the hunters, knowing they were closing in on Kyon and Sia’s location. His priority had shifted.
If Kyon and Sia were going to escape, they needed help. And he would be damned if he let a vampire slip past him to intercept them.
....
Meanwhile, Lawrence was battling his own obstacles. He’d made it past the ground floor, but the journey was slower than he’d hoped. The elevators were out—hacked by the hunters—and the stairwell was littered with traps.
The first one went off just as he reached the 10th floor. The blast was deafening, and the force of it sent him reeling backward.
“Ambush!” Lawrence cursed, his muscles tense as a group of low-level vampires sprang from the shadows, moving faster than he anticipated. They were weak, far less dangerous than Faraday, but in his current state, even the lowliest vampire could be a problem.
He fought them off with ease, his control over his Arkamon Flux sending searing waves of energy through his opponents. The vampires disintegrated before they could land a blow, but it still slowed him down. Each burst of energy drained more from him than he cared to admit.
As Lawrence continued upward, the challenges only intensified. The stairwells were rigged with tripwires and remote-detonated explosives. The hunters had anticipated resistance, and they weren’t taking any chances. But Lawrence pressed on, using his strength to avoid or disable the traps in his path.
Conrad was watching, and Lawrence could feel the vampire’s eyes on him, analyzing his every move.
“Faster,” Lawrence muttered under his breath. “Don’t let them catch up.”
.......
The hunters continued to close in. Their leader’s voice crackled through the comms, giving orders as they moved.
“Eight hunters are on the 28th and 29th floors, pushing Kyon and Sia toward the mechanical corridors. Four more are stationed on the 31st floor, ready to intercept. Don’t let them slip past.”
Three hunters had positioned themselves at key points near the stairwells between the 26th and 33rd floors, ensuring no one could escape downward. They were relentless, methodical, and efficient. Every step they took was calculated.
Their leader continued to monitor the situation, eyes flicking from the heat signatures on his device to the building’s security systems, coordinating with the hacker. They had the advantage of numbers, superior training, and superior technology.
It was only a matter of time before they caught up.