Episode 23

The communion service concluded with the closing hymn. As worshippers began to trickle out, Kyle, seated toward the back, scanned the departing crowd for Rosanna. Her face, more gaunt than he remembered, and her sharper jawline hinted at how she’d been faring in the past month.

“Rosanna!”

The name nearly escaped his lips, but reason held him back.

He wanted to call out to her, but doing so would draw attention. Instead, Kyle quietly followed her out, waiting for the crowd to disperse.

Rosanna appeared expressionless, though she answered Henry’s constant chattering beside her. Yet her mind seemed elsewhere.

Is she thinking of me too? Has she spent her days lost in thought, unable to escape from it as I have, wasting entire days in restless longing? Were there days when she, too, wanted to throw caution aside and come find me?

Just a few more steps, and he’d be close enough to greet her, to ask how she’d been, to tell her he’d missed her…

But his imagination remained just that. Kyle had to come to a halt, for another man had already stepped in to speak with her. She greeted him with a smile, the same smile Kyle had believed she reserved just for him.

His heart gave an unsettling lurch.

She was a prominent figure in high society; of course, she’d know plenty of male acquaintances. But was he merely an acquaintance?

He had no title for what lay between him and Rosanna. They weren’t friends, nor lovers—he’d never dared to define it. Perhaps they were close confidants with a special connection? Even that seemed too tenuous to be sure of.

To Rosanna, Kyle was likely nothing more than an inexperienced young man, a pitiful admirer unable even to admit his own feelings. And it had been a month. If she’d ever felt anything for him, surely it would have faded by now.

He stood still, watching her and the man drift further away.

“…paying back a debt… Raymond.”

Her words, and the name Raymond, struck deep.

Raymond. Raymond. Raymond…

Who was he? What was his place in her life? Why did they look so comfortable together?

It seemed as if Raymond had seamlessly filled the gap left by Kyle’s absence. Escorting her with a gentle hand on her arm, holding Henry’s hand in his other, stepping naturally into a role that Kyle had longed to claim. The scenes he’d imagined, his memories—now, Raymond had taken his place.

‘That was supposed to be me…’

He wanted to reach out, to halt their retreating figures, but his legs felt leaden. And what would he say? That spot was meant to be mine? With what right?

Kyle’s clenched fists trembled. Containing the turmoil within him was all he could do.

* * *

Three weeks earlier.

Raymond’s routine was the same today as it had been. He was tasked with keeping an eye on the townhouse of the target. Since arriving in Britna, he’d been on constant surveillance duty, but the target hadn’t shown herself outside once. It was clear she’d sensed the trap Breeder had laid, and now she was hiding away.

“So, how’d it go today?”

As soon as he returned to his quarters, Nina sidled up to him. Her persistence was an unwelcome part of his day-to-day life. Though she shadowed him constantly, eager to glean any information, she was too valuable a resource—a prodigy in engineering, and one of the Holy Cross’s most trusted assets—to dismiss.

Instead of wasting energy, Raymond responded with a curt answer.

“No changes.”

“What a bore. She’s a coward, isn’t she? Not even fun.”

“Doesn’t seem like you’re disappointed, though.”

“Now things are about to get interesting.”

Nina grinned, gesturing toward a small window. Hanging on a perch by the wall was a bat.

“We got word from headquarters, and the supplies we need for the operation arrived this afternoon. See?”

Raymond followed her gaze to the stacked trunks in the corner.

He turned back to the messenger bat, extending his finger. The bat bit down, drawing blood as its reward. It would remember the taste, having been trained to fly between headquarters and the recipient. Quick delivery, and no matter where the recipient was, it would find them—an efficient communication method vampires had used for ages.

“There you go again, scowling! Lighten up!” Nina poked his cheek, earning only a sharp glare from Raymond.

“You’re annoyed; it’s written all over your face. You hate using the messenger bat, don’t you? Because it feels like hypocrisy for the Holy Cross Order, vampire hunters, to rely on their methods.”

“….”

“But we can’t just pass up something so efficient, right?”

“I never said I was annoyed.”

Before she could retort, he pressed his finger to his lips, signaling silence. The well-fed bat began relaying the headquarters’ message through a series of subtle sonic pulses, which Raymond received.

Nina, unable to hear the bat’s telepathic transmission, hovered nearby, bouncing with curiosity.

“What did they say? Huh? Did they give you a special assignment?”

“You don’t need to know.”

Raymond infused the bat with a new message and sent it back to headquarters. He then shut the window and looked down at Nina.

“Aren’t you going back to headquarters? Why are you still here? You have a perfectly good lab there.”

“I’m staying a while. I already set up a workshop in the basement, so I’m good. It’s quite nice, actually.”

“They humored you, didn’t they?”

“Bingo! They can’t make weapons without me, after all.”

The Order’s high-ranking members were willing to indulge her whims for a simple reason: her results. Since Nina Shea had joined as a technician, weapon lethality and durability had drastically improved.

Recently, she even managed to synthesize lycanthrope blood. While still toxic to vampires, its unique composition could fool them, making it even more effective.

Nina Shea, the Order’s prized asset.

“So, I’m joining this mission, too! I asked to be included because it sounded fun.”

“Who’d you ask?”

“The mission designer—Noel, Breeder’s right-hand man.”

Raymond recalled the young man. Though lacking in physical strength, Noel was clever, a favorite of Breeder’s, and adept at devising traps for vampires.

“This mission will be the three of us. Noel will be working from behind the scenes. Oh, I didn’t tell you about our cover identities, did I? It’s hilarious. We’re orphaned siblings from the Far East, crossing the continent with a merchant caravan until we ended up here in Britna. Now we’re opening a shop with the money we saved up.”

“How’s the setup coming along?”

“The shop’s ready to open. Noel’s already planted the groundwork around the townhouse, so we’re expecting some response soon. We’ve got a plan to lure the target, so things will kick off shortly.”

Nina looked as excited as a child. Raymond, on the other hand, felt little enthusiasm for this mission.

His usual assignments were straightforward: locate a dangerous vampire, eliminate them. But this one was different—gradual infiltration, trapping the target from the periphery, and above all, ensuring her capture rather than her elimination.

Raymond remembered his special instructions. ‘Get close to the vampire,’ they’d said, which turned his stomach.

“Oh, by the way! Your weapon’s ready, Raymond.”

Nina remained cheerfully oblivious to his thoughts.

“A gun, was it?”

“A revolver designed to fire special bullets. When the bullet detonates, it releases my synthetic blood compound, Lycan-β, which incapacitates vampires.”

Her green eyes sparkled.

“Want to test it out today?”

Raymond glanced outside. It was a cloudy night, with the moon veiled behind heavy clouds. A night where one could disappear without a trace.

* * *

Since the intrusion incident, Rosanna had been confined to her townhouse, her plans to see Kyle thwarted, leaving her in a haze of restlessness. The more she waited, the more her thoughts drifted back to Kyle. The inability to see him only heightened her longing, and she realized she needed to shift her attention elsewhere to quell this unfulfilled yearning.

Though confined, she tried to find amusement in whatever she could, exhausting every indoor activity until boredom set in. Even the morning papers became an unexpected source of entertainment, and she found herself reading every article, down to the smallest corner snippets.

“I must be living to see the strangest things—Rosanna, up early and reading the newspaper.”

“Rosanna!”

It was another typical morning. Vlad entered the living room, ready for the day, with Henry perched on his shoulders.

“The world’s growing restless.”

Rosanna pointed to an article in the morning paper. On the front page was an illustration of a fallen man, accompanying a story about a recent murder.

“This is the city, after all. Murders happen every other day. The papers blow it out of proportion, crying that the world’s ending.”

“But this one… his throat was slit, and he had gunshot wounds, too.”

“A rather unusual method. Two different weapons, no less.”

“With such a brutal killer on the loose, it’s dangerous. I’m worried about Kyle… He’ll need to be careful. Maybe I should sneak over to check on him?”

Vlad saw right through her. Trying to trick her “defender” with such a flimsy excuse—he couldn’t help but scoff.

“So, you’re looking for a reason to step out? There’s no need to worry; a theology student like him isn’t likely to be wandering the streets at night.”

An unspoken tension hung in the air, only to be interrupted by the household’s true little authority.

Having been left out of the conversation long enough, Henry started stomping his feet in the air, as impatient as a racehorse waiting for the starting bell.

“Why are you talking about things I don’t understand! I’m gonna get mad!”

“Ouch, Henry! Don’t pull your dad’s hair!”

“Put me down! Now!”

Henry flailed about, tugging on Vlad’s hair in protest, and Rosanna enjoyed the familiar scene. Watching the father and son battle it out each morning had become a small pleasure of hers.