I often think myself invincible. I know it's wrong and that I should get rid of the mentality, but I can't. It's a difficult thing to do, when time and time again you are experiencing the thrill of power, of being able to race the fastest cars and shatter the stones in your grip. However, a bomb big enough or a determined sorcerer might very well end me. Do you know who has both? The government of the Union. The government, of which the CNS is the direct extension. In the country, ruled by the army and the law enforcement, the agency that controls both is untouchable and all mighty. And now I seriously pissed them off.

"Greetings, Mr. Hennigan." - the gruff voice breaks the established silence. It's coming from a radio, that surprisingly still works after a fall from the stairs.

I quickly send Charlie upwards to find the source.

"Your pet would disappoint you, I'm afraid."

So, he can see me.

I pick up the radio and press the button.

"Who are you?"

"Call me 'Inspector'.", he answers, with amusement, - "I'm an officer of the Committee of National Safety, if you haven't figured that out yet."

"And what is it you want with me," ,- I emphasize the last word as clearly as I can, - "Inspector?"

"Help you, of course."

Yeah, I understand what is going on now.

"You are in a quite, " - he hesitates a little before continuing, - "tricky situation."

"At the eastern corner of the room you're in, there is a camera hidden in the plant. Check it, if you don't believe me."

I walk up to the plant and, surely, there is a camera there. I crash it.

"That was uncalled for, Lucas.", Inspector gibbed.

"Fuck you." - I barked, unable to keep the mask of calmness any longer.

Inspector laughed.

"I'll tell you two things."

"The first one is that CSN does not take lightly on someone murdering its operatives. Especially, on tape."

"When our chairman, a man of principle, will hear of it, you're completely fucked."

"There would be nowhere for you to hide, no means for you to fight, nothing, except accepting your fate."

"The second thing is, I can help you.", - declared Inspector.

Of course he can. He set all of this up, after all.

"I can cover up what happened here and make the tape go away."

"And what is it you want in exchange?" , - I ask him. This is a blackmail, no more, no less.

"A favour. Or a few of them." - he tells me, "Nothing specific yet, but, do not worry, I'll collect when the time comes."

"So, do we have a deal or should I go to the chairman right now?"

"It's not really a choice, is it?" - I doubt.

No response comes. I try to speak with him again, but Inspector keeps quiet for some time.

"Your pet proved to be more capable than I thought.", - he finally answers, out of breath, - "I left him alive, as a sign of our future friendship."

"How considerate of you." - I snick venomously.

"I am a gentle man.", he says and then continues, - "I'll contact you later, Mr. Hennigan."

And with that, the conversation ended.

I order to collect all the guns from the dead soldiers. Might as well gain something out of this nightmare. After that is done, we set out to search for Charlie. It takes us about fifteen minutes of wondering in the mall, before we finally hear him groaning in some kind of store room. The room itself is in chaos, with shelves thrown down and Charlie underneath. There is a steel pipe in his chest and his arms look broken.

"Let me guess," I start to jest, "You'll want me to keep this from your sister?"

He chuckles, before gasping in pain.

"That'd be nice, boss."

After pulling the pipe out and fixing his arms, I ask Charlie about what happened.

"That dude was not human." - he avowed rather shamefully.

"What do you mean?" - I ask.

"When I tackled him, he overpowered me. Just by sheer strength, Master."

That's impossible. Half-bloods are supposed to be at least three times stronger than a grown male.

"That's not all." - Charlie continues, while trying to stand up, - "We started trading punches after. He was faster than me too, at Donna's level if I had to guess."

"He sounded exhausted when he picked the radio again. Was his stamina flawed?" - I hinted to him, remembering the Inspector's lack of breath.

Charlie scratches his chin in thought, then answers.

"Come to think of it, he was slowing down near the end."

At least this super soldiers lack the endurance.

"Okay," - I tell the halflings, - "lets get the hell out of here."

It's later into the night, I am in my office, glass of scotch in my hand. Yes, vampires can drink other beverages than blood. It's not so simple with food though.

I take a sip, letting the alcohol into my system. I won't get drunk, of course, but the taste is still enjoyable. After everything that happened today, the scotch is exactly what I need to replace the bitterness in my mouth. It's been a long time since I lost my temper. Then again, it's been a long time since I have been played like this. Even my exile happened mostly because of my own arrogance, but this… That Inspector simply outsmarted me. I wonder if he even arranged the capture of Thomas somehow.

I am immersed in my own thoughts so deeply, I don't notice Donna come in.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She looks at me and smiles warmly.

"That cop still on your mind?" - she says, walking up closer.

"He got me good." I respond to her, while gazing in the window.

"There was nothing you could've done",- she soothes me and puts a hand on my shoulder. I flinch from it.

"Making me out as a helpless pup is not really helping, Donna."

"I'm sorry." - she apologizes.

I just shrug my shoulders.

We stand in silence for a few minutes, before Donna speaks again.

"You need to clear your mind."

"What do you propose?", - I ask, intrigued.

"Let's go." - she takes me by the arm and lead me out of the office. I decide to let her.

I am standing in the training hall, an enormous room empty of any furniture. Aside from the mats on the floor, there are only multiple stands with shining weapons on them. Those weapons are the 'doremi', made from enchanted metal and sharp enough to cut through even mine dense bones like butter. Thanks the Gods that no bullets can be made from that metal, or I'd be in serious trouble.

All of the halflings, except Charlie, are here too, armed with doremi. They formed a circle around me. A thick rag is tied across my face, making me blind. A nessecary handicap for the seven halflings to have a chance.

Donna is the first to attack. She is fast, her movements are swift: I barely roll out of the way of her sword coming for my head. For me, fighting without eyes is incredibly difficult. My senses are no better than those of a half-blood. After dodging the sword, I duck immediately, awoiding an axe from one of the nameless. He really is not proficient with it, placing his feet so far from each other. I sweep one, causing him to fall on the ground, and pull the punch of my hand right before it hits him. Don't want to kill the lad, after all. I am about to stand up when I feel a dagger in my back. Dylan, you sneaky bastard. I put my hand on his arm and press so hard, it breaks. He screams loudly then.

I jump forward and pull out the dagger in the air. Two of the nameless coming for me, also armed with swords. Their movements are too predictable though: with ppen palms I send both flying towards the wall. Then, with an elbow I strike in the chest another, who was flanking me from the left. The snap his bones made caused me to grin unconsciously.

It's Donna again. On full aggressive, she swings her sword relentlessly and I can only dodge it by a hair length each time. Donna got much better since we last fought, probably on her peak now. After everything that has happened to her, the determination to learn everything about murdering people is not surprising, to be honest.

Suddenly, the swings stop. Moreover, I can't feel not hers, nor the other nameless'es presence. They went invisible. Other pure-bloods can sense through it with ease, but I have to improvise.

Now, magic is a complicated thing and I am far from the best to explain it. All I can say is that casting spells is like connecting stars in your head. There is a countless number of those stars, some of them similar to each other, some of them completely different. From this vast pool you have to choose the exact stars needed for the spell. I have no idea how the spells are created in the first place or what the limits on them, just know that even using already made ones is extremely difficult without practicing it at least a thousand times.

With a thought, I push the spell out of my head into the reality. I learned this trick from a sorcerer, who dabbled in the divination magic. It basically allows the user to put a tracker on all the things emitting magic in a small radius. And every living being has at least some magic inside.

I casted just in time: Donna and the nameless are about to jump me from two sides simultaneously. The spell is very crude and only lets me know the approximate location, but it's enough. I roll backwards, causing my opponents to crash on each other.

"

Fuck!" screams Donna, looking for her missing feet. Her landing on doremi is rough, to say the least.

Looking at her attempts to reattach her limbs, I just can't keep the laughter inside.

She curses and throws her foot at me.

When it hits my face, Donna and the others begin to laugh with me.

"That almost worked, though.", - Donna tells me after calming the hysterics.

"I was going easy on you.", - I chirped.

Donna placed a hand on her hip and simpered.

"Glad you're feeling better."

"Yeah, thanks." - It never hurts to be polite.

"So, what's next?" - Donna asks, putting her sword back at the stand.

"What do you mean?"

"Are we going to keep our heads low? Because of the CSN?" - she adds.

"Don't be ridiculous, Donna.", I say, - "One human would not change my plans."

"But -" - she begins, but I interrupt her with a gesture.

"I've never bent over for anyone." - I state, - "and I am not going to start."

"Fair enough." - she replies, looking at me strangely.

"What is it?"

"Just reminded about the phrase I heard from your father, when I used to babysit you." - I catch the sadness in her eyes when she speaks the second part.

"What's the phrase?" - I encourage her.

"Never change yourself for the world," she responds, - "change the world for yourself."

"My father was a man of many quotes. It was his job requirement, after all."

Donna chuckles.

When the sun rises up, I feel ready to take on the next night.