127 Silicon Street,Belltown, Perium City, Kettlia RegionOctober 9th, 64144:30 pm
Old man Roe shuffled up the creaking staircase, leading the stranger to room six-three-six. The faded wallpaper peeled in long strips from the walls, and the air was heavy with the smell of mildew and something faintly metallic. The building was ancient, a forgotten relic his father had left him—a blessing turned burden. With each step, Roe felt the weight of his tenants' complaints about failing heat and spotty gas lines. He longed to repair the building, to make it livable again, but times were hard. Credits were scarce. Ever since the New King had ascended the throne, life for humans like Roe had become an uphill climb. Jobs once plentiful had vanished, replaced by policies that seemed designed to crush them.
His old construction job was long gone, leaving him reliant on this crumbling building and the meager rent it brought in. The departure of the previous residents from six-three-six had been another financial blow—though they had paid handsomely before they left. The man, a vampire, had given no explanation. He had simply taken his credits and disappeared with two peculiar girls in tow. Roe hadn't asked questions. He never did. Most who came here were running from something, and Roe had learned long ago that knowing too much was dangerous. Still, it seemed that whatever they had been fleeing had finally caught up with them. The stranger's arrival was proof enough of that.
Roe glanced over his shoulder at the man trailing him. The stranger's wide-brimmed straw hat shaded his face, and his long black raincoat swished faintly with each step. The cowboy boots seemed an odd touch, but Roe had seen enough bounty hunters to recognize the type. This one wasn't ordinary. Something about him set Roe's teeth on edge. The man radiated a quiet menace that made Roe's stomach churn. He decided it was best to cooperate and keep his mouth shut. No sum of credits was worth his life.
They reached the door. Roe's hand trembled as he slid the key into the lock and turned it. The heavy wooden door groaned as it swung inward.
Lee Abernathy stopped on the threshold, his eyes narrowing at the invisible barrier he could sense just beyond the frame. As expected, the room had been leased under a human's name. Clever. By law—and by ancient laws of nature—a vampire couldn't enter uninvited if the property was claimed by a human. This was no doubt Sanders' doing. A practical, albeit primitive, safeguard. If the Kain girl was still with them, her human status would have allowed her to secure the lease. As long as she was present, they could come and go freely. But for any other vampire? The room was off-limits.
A faint smirk crossed Lee's face as he raised a hand and snapped his fingers. From beneath his coat, a handful of mechanical scouting bats—M.S.Bs—fluttered out. Sleek, black, and nearly silent, they glided into the room. Developed by Bathory Corporation, these biotech drones were the pinnacle of vampire technology, capable of scanning every inch of a space without leaving a trace. Lee's right eye, a bionic implant synced to the M.S.Bs, flickered as he activated the feed.
Through the bats' sensors, he surveyed the room. The living space was small and worn, with peeling paint and a faded couch that sagged in the middle. The kitchen, little more than a cramped corner with a few rusting appliances, was equally unremarkable. Moving further, he found the master bedroom and a smaller secondary room. Both were empty, stripped of any personal items. Whoever had lived here had taken great care to leave no trace behind. Lee sighed. They had covered their tracks well.
He turned to Roe, who hovered uneasily in the doorway. "Does the building have any records of their comings and goings?"
Roe hesitated. His gut told him to say no, to claim ignorance, but fear won out. "Yes," he muttered. "Follow me."
The office was cramped, a small room cluttered with file boxes, old furniture, and a computer that looked decades out of date. Roe eased into his chair, the old wood creaking under his weight. He powered on the uni-monitor, the screen flickering to life with a faint hum. Navigating the outdated interface, he pulled up the surveillance footage for room six-three-six.
The feed played silently. Roe didn't have audio—an expense he'd never been able to afford. But the footage was clear enough. Residents coming and going, the occasional glance out a window, a momentary gesture caught in a freeze-frame. Lee leaned over his shoulder, his sharp gaze fixed on the screen.
"Let me see it," the vampire ordered. Roe reluctantly vacated the chair, putting a cautious distance between himself and the bounty hunter. Lee settled into the seat, his face unreadable as he fast-forwarded through the clips. He paused when the screen showed one of the girls. She was tall, her skin dark, with a jagged scar running across her lips. Something about her presence on the screen felt off, even to Roe. The vampire's lips curled into a smile, revealing his sharp, glinting fangs.
"So, she's with them," Lee murmured, his voice almost too soft to hear. "How wonderful."
Roe watched in alarm as Lee's fingers danced across the keyboard, highlighting the files and deleting them one by one.
"What are you doing?" Roe protested, his voice rising. "You can't just—"
He never finished the sentence. The vampire moved faster than Roe's eyes could follow. The old man stumbled back against the wall, his hands flying to his neck as blood poured from a gash that hadn't been there a moment before. His vision swam, the room tilting wildly. He tried to staunch the flow, but it was no use. The bounty hunter loomed over him, his expression eerily calm.
Lee raised his bloodstained hand and licked his fingers, his eyes half-closing as a shiver of pleasure ran through him. "Thank you for your cooperation," he said quietly. "May the divine Mother's eternal night guide your soul."
Roe's knees buckled, and as the world went dark, Lee's fanged smile was the last thing he saw.