The door is locked, her weapon has been rendered useless and her only means of calling for help is out of reach. After taking stock of her situation Chiyon found that she really didn’t have much in the way of options. Actually she only had two: resist in futility or comply and play along. Considering the stranger came to her in apparent peace she opted to go with the latter option.
As she sat Chiyon asked for the third time “who are you?”
“You can call me Wolf.”
“Well ‘Wolf’ how did you do all that?”
“Magic.”
Chiyon is not amused by his answer “that’s not funny.”
“The real answer is a lot more complicated, requires a long time to explain and is rather personal so to make a very long, complicated and personal story short…magic.”
Chiyon scowled but pressed no further instead asking a pertinent question “are you a vampire?”
“You’ve never seen a vampire do the things I can.”
“We live in strange times” she shrugged.
“Fair enough but you’ll just have to take my word for it.”
Chiyon wanted to say that wasn’t good enough but opted not to press the issue. He seems amicable now but who knew what could happen if she needlessly provokes him. Besides it would be a lesson in futility as due to his mask and voice changer she couldn’t even scrutinize him properly to get a feel for his emotional state.
“What is it that you wanted to talk about?”
“Are you aware of the hierarchy of vampires in the city, specifically the one who controls them?”
As a matter of fact she did “you’re talking about the Noble Bloods.”
“Yes and someone decided to make a move against them in the most blatant way possible.”
“Would that happen to be the incident earlier today?”
“You’re quick on the uptake.”
“It’s my job and besides that it was an obvious conclusion given the evidence.”
“Yes well, needless to say the Noble Bloods won’t take this challenge lying down which unfortunately means…”
“War” Chiyon grimaced.
“Right” the stranger nodded “and as much as I would like to not get involved in this I feel at least partially responsible for what’s about to happen.”
“Your attack on the Blood Syndicate” Chiyon deduced “was today in retaliation to that?”
He made a so-so gesture “not directly but I would be lying if I said it had nothing to do with it.”
“Does the Blood Syndicate have dealings with the Noble Blood?”
“They do” and with that he pulled up a laptop seemingly from his lap “I took this from the one managing operations at the Suntronics front company. It has records on all the operations the Blood Syndicate did in the city. Unfortunately they are good at compartmentalization and this branch mostly deals in cybercrimes which is the tamest thing the Blood Syndicate is involved in.”
Chiyon grimaced she figured that was the case but they weren’t able to pull anything useful from the office servers. Even their dark net website was shut down within hours of the attacks.
‘I suppose with how compartmentalized their organization is that any important information would only be kept with the administrator.’
“Here, I figure you can use the information on this as cause for some arrests.”
Chiyon almost scoffed “doubtful unless the information contains evidence that Chong Ji-Hae is a vampire and that the Monarch night club is a front for illegal vampire operations.”
“You already know about that huh? You really are good at your job. Unfortunately Ji-Hae was smart enough to use proxies so his name is kept out of the information. It wouldn’t take much to find a connection to Monarch through a bit of investigation though, probably.”
‘Dammit’
“Is there a problem?”
“Unless Ji-Hae or Monarch is directly mentioned here I won’t be able to do anything. At least not before this thing gets ‘misplaced’ in evidence lockup or is transferred to someone else.”
“You have spies in the police force?”
“I have my suspicions” she scowled “also my supervisors are reluctant to move against Mr. Chong.”
As in Chong Ujin the multi-millionaire industrialist with a lot of clout amongst the elite and government who will go to great lengths to ensure that nothing besmirches his public reputation and character. This includes covering for his psychopathic son and all the crimes he’s committed over the course of the decade.
“Hmm, there’s not much I can do about that kind of corruption unless they’re vampires I can eliminate. The same goes for those spies.”
“Eliminate? Just like that? You make it sound simple.”
The man shrugged “you’ve already seen vampires aren’t necessarily a problem for me. Give me a target and I’ll make sure they aren’t a bother.”
Chiyon’s brows furrowed “I don’t need a hitman and if we’re going to be tackling corruption in the precinct it has to be done right.”
“Well I’m open for suggestions though I don’t want to get involved in the politics. I just want to get rid of the Noble Blood.”
“Why?”
“Why do I want to get rid of the Noble Blood?”
“Yes and why come to me when it seems you have everything under control already?”
From what she saw and what he admitted not to mention the abilities he displayed clearly this man is strong enough to take on the vampires. Whether he is strong enough to kill a Noble Blood is up in the air however he is at least in a position where he has the element of surprise on his side. Regardless the man did not seem to necessarily need her help in that regard.
‘Assuming he’s going at this alone with no resources to back him up.’
Chiyon can make assumptions about what the man’s support structure is looking like behind the scenes and his own expertise outside of being strong but at the very least he doesn’t strike her as being incompetent or having a lack of technical skill.
“If my goal was to just kill the Noble Bloods then I wouldn’t need your help. Unfortunately they and vampires in general have gotten too big and organized for a shotgun approach to work. If I want to be rid of them then that means taking out their influence over the very infrastructure of the city itself.”
Now Chiyon understood why he approached “and you figure partnering with someone working within law enforcement will help to cover your bases.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Exactly.”
“Flattering as I am by your confidence in me I’m only a lowly detective.”
“You’re highly competent, specially trained in dealing with vampires, acknowledged by your superiors and respected by your peers” he began listing off “you can’t be bought, bribed, blackmailed and won’t let bureaucracy get in the way of doing what’s right.”
“…you’ve done your homework.”
He bridged his fingers together and leaned forward “Officer Hwa the reason why I approached you tonight is because you are the only officer in the best position both officially and morally to help me right now” he extended a hand “so what do you say?”
Chiyon looked between his face and his hand for a long moment before reaching out.
Meanwhile…
Chong Ji-Hae walked the halls of the buildings looking none the worse for wear despite being caught up in multiple explosions just several short hours prior. All things said and done he didn’t really mind that, it would take more than a few explosions to even get him worried for his life. If anything he was more pissed that the incident destroyed his good suit! His mind however kept going to her, Hwang Soyun the Pureblood.
Just the thought of her is enough to rile him up, a bubbling rage peaking from under his placid façade causing his fangs to ache resulting in his pink tongue running over the decorative golden grillz. To say that she made an impression on him would be an understatement. What he gathered from the freelancers sent to spy on her painted her as a normal young woman. Ji-Hae scoffed, they said the same thing about the priest though they did note he seemed to have some training.
‘If those idiots weren’t already dead I would kill them myself.’
Ji-Hae went into that battle with half baked information and was thus unprepared for the apparent ambush just like his men. Looking back in hindsight it was clear to him that they were prepared for this kind of eventuality. Otherwise how else could they set such a trap with the priest having a freaking vampire killing arsenal and getaway driver?
‘Shit they even somehow managed to fake their own deaths.’
Ji-Hae almost had a conniption when the ‘four bodies’ were identified. Just like that Hwang Soyun, the priest and the two brats are dead to the world removing damn near all other means of coercion outside of physical confrontation.
‘But first we have to actually find them.’
If they were this prepared to confront them then Ji-Hae knew for certain that they would have some kind of safehouse or bunker to hunker down.
‘Shit for all I know they could be booking a flight out of the country!’
Ji-Hae had to take a moment to calm himself which is not the easiest thing to do but he focused on another aspect of the incident that occurred which was Soyun herself. He now knew better than to underestimate her again. Even if she gave him a sucker punch the fact that she managed to blindside him brought things into perspective for him.
His hand went up to his jaw ‘that actually hurt.’
Even though his regeneration has long since taken care of the injury he could still feel the phantom pain where he was struck by her. Really it was the indignity that bothered him rather than the actual hit. In a normal situation he would have been much angrier however there was something about her that made him temper his rage. It was her presence something he’d only ever experienced by one other individual in his lifetime.
‘Depending on how this meeting goes I might just experience it twice in a single day.’
He internally grimaced at that but kept his amiable façade going as he came upon a set of ornate double doors guarded by a pair of suit wearing vampires. At first glance they didn’t look too dissimilar to the ones he employed however in actuality these guys are in a completely different league. Regardless they opened the door for him with silent nods of deference sending a spark of delight through his being.
‘I do so love interacting with people who knew their place. A shame I’ll have to spend time with these guys instead.’
Beyond the open doors is a conference room kept purposefully dark with the only source of light being a large monitor at the far center. Before the monitor is a long wooden table where five others are seated all with wine glasses in front of them. Each individual present is a direct peer of Ji-Hae, his fellow Noble Bloods whom controls all the Common Blood vampires of Korea.
The moment he stepped in one of the seated individuals, spoke up.
“Look who finally decided to show himself” said an intelligent looking bespectacled vampire with shoulder length brown hair sipping from his glass.
“Hmph, you’ve made a mess of things” spoke an older looking man (eldest of them all) who sported a full head of hair tied into a loose top knot and a full beard.
Ji-Hae managed to suppress the sneer off his face as he took his seat at the far end of the left side of the long table next to the only person he could tolerate who coincidentally happened to be the only female amongst them Ji-Hae defended himself.
“In my defense I only told my men to keep an eye on her and report back. It’s not my fault that Templar decided to come out from retirement after a decade.”
The only woman amongst them quirked an eyebrow as she regarded him “the Templar are involved?”
Ji-Hae went to answer only to be interrupted by the man sitting on the other side on the opposite far end from him. This man is unique from the others given that he is a clear foreigner with chocolate brown skin, his hair shaved into a buzzcut with fades at the sides and a diamond stud in his ear.
“As far we know Stefan Joseph hasn’t been in contact with anyone in that organization for close to a decade now.”
“Makes sense if he’s been taking care of the Pureblood all this time” the man directly across from Ji-Hae chimed in with a bored expression, he sported multiple visible tattoos and piercings and has short spiky hair with frosted tips “he’s gone rogue.”
Ji-Hae ignored him and instead asked “what I want to know is how he managed to put down two dozen of my men.”
“Just because he’s retired doesn’t mean he forgot his skills.” the dark skinned vampire then shrugged “in any case I told you not to underestimate him.”
Ji-Hae’s eyes opened a fraction to pin the man with a glare even as the man returned it with an almost imperceptible smirk of amusement.
‘This fucker…’
The way how the priest was described to him it made it seem like he was just some low level grunt past his prime. Considering how long he’s been inactive with no suspicious movements for almost a decade he should have at least been out of practice. But the man handled himself even better than the military Special Forces.
“Regardless” his thoughts were interrupted by the bespectacled Noble Blood who adjusted his glasses “to have lost to a human is very embarrassing Ji-Hae” he shook his head in mock disappointment “you bring shame to His name.”
This time Ji-Hae’s eyes fully opened as he scowled “now listen here you quack I wasn’t beaten by the priest, in fact I was about to take him for interrogation when the Pureblood blindsided me!”
At the woman clapped her hands the sound echoing over the room rather loudly halting any further words as she exclaimed “oh! So you’ve met the Pureblood? What is she like?”
For a moment Ji-Hae’s fist clenched and his tongue ran over his teeth “she…is nothing special” he spoke “but with that priest she’ll become a problem for us if we leave them alone.”
“Will she though?” the woman tilted her head in thought “if she did all this just to run away and hide then it stands to reason she’ll lay low for the foreseeable future.”
Ji-Hae shook his head “this wasn’t some elaborate plan to run away and hide” well it was but “at least that wasn’t the point of this.”
Ji-Hae then went on to give them an abbreviated version of events and by the end he had most of them interested.
The female Noble Blood hummed to himself “to go through such lengths…”
The elder vampire grunted “it seems we underestimated them.”
“And now they’ve gone to ground” the foreign Noble Blood frowned “it will take time for us to track them.”
“There is no need for that.”
All present Noble Bloods flinched before turning their gaze to the monitor which up until that point only displayed a bright blue light. Now it showed a silhouetted individual in a red background.
“Lord Hananim” the Noble Bloods greeted with respect.
‘Lord Hananim’ continued in a deep voice “it is just as Ji-Hae says, this was not a move brought on by desperation, this was a statement…a declaration of war.”
“Oh~” went the bespectacled Noble Blood “war is it? Then will they be coming after us?”
The elder vampire grunted “makes sense they can’t keep hiding and leaving the country might be even more dangerous for them.”
“What will you have us do in the meantime Lord Hananim?” spoke the tattooed Noble Blood.
“Carry on as you were” he intoned “there is no reason to disrupt your own operations for this. Should she or the priest show themselves in your territory it will be up to you deal with them. Do as you will with the priest but I want the Pureblood alive.”
“Yes Lord Hananim” the six intoned.
“And Ji-Hae?”
The Noble Blood flinched as he felt a pressure set deep within his chest. It was as if his very blood was curdling from within.
Still he managed to answer “y-yes Lord Hananim?”
“Your stunt today has put unnecessary attention on you. Don’t do anything unnecessary for the time being understand?”
“A-As you wish Lord Hananim” Ji-Hae grunted with sweat trailing down his brow.
And with that the TV lights flickered back to the blue screen static and the pressure is let off. Ji-Hae only took a single breath in an attempt to maintain some decorum though it obviously failed. The senses and observational skills of the other Noble Bloods were too advanced not to notice how Lord Hananim’s scolding affected him.
With the desertion of their leader the meeting has officially come to an end and the Noble Bloods filed out of different sections of the room, a deliberate design choice so they would not have to suffer the presence of the others. Allied as they all are the Noble bloods did not exactly have a good working relationship. If not for the presence of ‘Lord Hananim’ and his vision their large egos and caustic personalities would have ended up with them fighting each other constantly.
As he walked out the room Ji-Hae did not bother to hide his scowl “what do you want?”
Behind him the female Noble Blood tilted her wide brim hat forward hiding her face from view “what are you planning?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Knowing you I doubt you will be taking what was done to you lying down.”
He turned and regarded her with a closed eye smile “give me some credit here. I won’t mess up our operations for something like petty revenge” he turned away “besides Lord Hananim’s orders are absolute.”
Ji-Hae walked away with eyes partially opened revealing malicious blood red orbs and his lips parted revealing his golden fangs.
‘Oh yes I will follow Lord Hananim’s orders to the letter.’