"So, Connect is just a meaningless name humans slapped on us?"
Uche asked, his brows furrowed in confusion. He had always wondered what these Connect people really were and why they were called that name.
Mira nodded.
"Exactly. It's just another way humans try to define what they don't understand, but I still could not understand why they chose Connect."
Uche exhaled deeply, disbelief heavy in his breath.
"Alright, then. Tell me more about these vampires of yours."
Mira leaned forward slightly, her voice steady.
"As you might have guessed, humans believe we're nothing more than myths—fantasy creatures that only exist in books and movies. They assume we're a product of imagination, part of some entertaining folklore. But that illusion will shatter soon enough."
She paused, her gaze distant, almost thoughtful.
"They'll learn the truth when we descend on them like a storm. One day, the human world and their fantasies will collide, and it won't be pretty."
Uche leaned forward, hanging onto her every word, unsure whether to be frightened or fascinated, he don't really understand what she meant by 'the human world and their fantasies will collide soon.'
'Are the vampires planning war against the humans.'
He thought, but decided not to ask. It doesn't really concern him in many ways if the vampires decided to wage war against the humans.
Mira continued, her voice measured.
"We are not some aberration or twisted branch of humanity. We're a race of our own, separate. We have our own world and our own way of life, our own culture, and rules. We even have leaders, councils, and laws that keep everything in check, just like human governments. I wasn't born among humans—I'm only here on a mission, observing. There's a lot I've learned from their world, but that's a story for another time."
She studied Uche carefully, gauging how much of this new reality was sinking in.
"We're fundamentally different from humans, and yet... there are ways in which we're remarkably similar."
She paused briefly, collecting her thoughts before explaining further.
"Vampires possess unique abilities. We have a powerful influence over blood—our own and others'. Blood is not just nourishment; it's the essence of who we are. It binds us, empowers us, and allows us to heal from injuries. But there's more to it than just that."
Mira leaned back slightly, watching Uche's expression twist in a mixture of awe and skepticism as he absorbed everything she was saying.
"However, you are slightly different from other vampire I've known. "
Uche blinked, taken aback.
"How?"
Mira crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap, as if preparing to unveil a mystery she had pondered for quite some time.
"You're a half-blooded vampire, Half-bloods are born when one of our kind—usually a vampire on a mission—has a child with a human. I suspect that's how you came to be."
Uche frowned, the puzzle pieces of his fragmented childhood snapping together.
"So, you're saying... one of my parents was a vampire?"
Mira nodded, her gaze steady.
"Most likely. It would explain a lot."
A wave of unease settled over Uche as he thought back to his grandmother—the only family he ever really knew. She'd always been secretive about his origins, as if there were some great truth she was waiting for him to uncover on his own.
"Maybe she knew all along,"
Uche muttered under his breath, though the thought felt strange. He shook it off and returned his attention to Mira.
"But you said I'm different—even from other half-bloods. What makes me so... unique?"
Mira sighed, adjusting her posture slightly. It was a simple movement, but it conveyed a hint of weariness that seemed unusual for someone so composed.
"Half-blood vampires who are raised among humans are... muted versions of us,"
She explained slowly, choosing her words carefully.
"Their vampire abilities lie dormant, they grow up thinking they're ordinary. All their vampire traits are muted, they won't be affected by the sun, nor would they ever crave for blood even when they got hurt. The only trait that remains active is a weak form of supernatural healing, which often goes unnoticed. Nothing about them screams vampire—until they live among pure-bloods."
She leaned forward again, as if to emphasize her next point.
"Once a half-blood returns to the world of vampires, things change. Their dormant traits awaken. Their strength, their senses, their hunger for blood—all of it becomes undeniable. They begin to truly embody what they were born to be. But no matter where they are—among humans or vampires—pure-blooded vampires always remain unchanged. We never lose what we are."
Uche absorbed the explanation in silence, his mind racing.
"Okay... but what about me? If I've been living among humans this whole time, shouldn't my abilities be suppressed too?"
Mira gave him a small, knowing smile.
"That's where things get interesting. Your healing ability... it's unlike anything I've ever seen. Even pure-bloods don't heal the way you do."
"What do you mean?"
Uche asked, narrowing his eyes in confusion.
"Didn't all vampire heal the same way."
"Yes, but yours is entirely different."
Seeing the trouble look on Uche's face, Mira reached to her hat, placed her hand into it and brought out a small pen looking stick, almost like a nano stick.
'Did she keep that in her hat?'
Uche thought, confused, and interested in what the strange stick could do.
"Just watch."
She tapped the device, and a translucent screen appeared in the air, displaying a recorded video. Uche's stomach clenched as he recognized the scene—it was him, lying on a cold operating table, his abdomen split open, eyes gouged out.
He recoiled, his heart hammering in his chest.
"How... how did you get this?"
Mira's expression softened.
"Don't worry. I'm the only one who has it now. I made sure every trace of it was wiped from their systems. No one else can use it against you."
Uche stared at her in disbelief.
"How... how did you even do that?"
Mira's smile was sly.
"It's what I'm good at. Don't ask questions you don't want answers to."
He exhaled sharply, forcing himself to focus on the video. As the footage played, he watched in disgust as his body healed itself—tendrils of flesh writhing grotesquely, knitting together the gaping wound in his abdomen.
When the video showed him picking up his own eyeball and pressing it back into place, Uche turned away, repulsed.
'Damn, no wonder they called me a monster.'
Mira fast-forwarded the footage, then shut off the device.
"So why bringing this up, does it have anything with me being different."
Uche asked.
Mira didn't say anything, instead, she walked up to the crescent-shaped knife on the floor and picked it up, making Uche stand up on instinct, almost immediately.
"Be calm, nothing is happening."
Without flinching, she pressed the blade deep into her own arm, slicing through muscle and sinew. Blood gushed from the wound, but within minutes, her body began to heal. The bleeding stopped, and her flesh knitted back together seamlessly—without the strange tendrils that Uche had seen in his own healing process.
"See the difference?"
Mira asked, holding up her perfectly restored arm.
Uche's frown deepened as the realization hit him.
He hadn't noticed it before, when he injured her with the knife and her body healed back, he hadn't notice it that time as her bloody singlet was slightly blocking her abdomen, and he paid next to no attention to her healing back then as he was surprised.
But now, he realized that the strange bloody tendrils that usually emerge from his wounded body did not appear on Mira's.
"Why doesn't your body heal the same way mine does?"
Mira gave him a small, enigmatic smile.
"That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?"
Uche sat back down, his mind spinning.
"So... what am I, really?"
Mira leaned forward, her eyes gleaming with intrigue.
"That's what we need to find out. You're not just a half-blood. You're... something else entirely. Almost like a different race from the vampire, you're not like anyone I've ever met."
She paused, letting her words sink in.
"But one thing is certain—you have the scent of a vampire. I can sense it. So, whatever you are... you belong to us."
Uche swallowed hard, the weight of her words settling over him. The truth was unsettling—he wasn't just a misunderstood outcast. He was something far more complicated. Something unknown.
For the first time in a long while, Uche felt truly lost. All his life, he had fought to survive, never knowing why he was different, never understanding his place in the world. And now, even among beings who were supposed to be his own kind, he was still an outlier—something beyond what even vampires knew.