Volterra was not far from Florence. It took Catherine about twenty minutes to drive there. When she was seventeen, Mr. Langdon had taken Catherine to Volterra to participate in the most magnificent festival in this small town - the Festival of San Marcus.
It was a festival to commemorate the event that a priest named Marcus drove all the vampires out of Volterra and saved the townspeople fifteen hundred years ago. And that priest named Marcus became a hero here.
Therefore, Catherine was not unfamiliar with the road to Volterra.
Moreover, the Festival of San Marcus six years ago had left a rather deep impression on her.
Catherine didn't particularly like the town of Volterra, but she didn't dislike it either. It was just that she had never seen such an ancient small town with so many lost souls. The wails and cries of those lost souls made her tremble with fear, and she begged Mr. Langdon to take her home that very night.
Since then, she had never been to Volterra again. However, the latest case of this serial murder case happened in Volterra again, so Catherine had to go to this small town.
From a distance, the conspicuous and familiar yellow police tape came into view. Catherine got out of the car and shook hands with the police officer who came to greet her. She then opened the on - site situation summary document that the officer handed to her.
"How many people died?"
"Two. They were a couple."
"When were they found?"
"At around 5:30 this morning. A cleaner found them when he came to collect the rubbish. Because the door was not closed at that time, the cleaner felt strange and went in and saw that the victims were already dead."
"How was the crime scene protected?"
"It was damaged and not well - preserved. Since the cleaner was the first eyewitness, she was very panicked and couldn't remember what she had touched at that time."
"I see... Well, is Mr. Langdon here?"
"Yes, he's waiting for you."
Catherine closed the document in her hand, sighed, held the folder in her hand, used one corner to push aside the curly hair that had slipped in front of her eyes because she had been looking down at the document. She tapped her forehead with the folder and walked towards the crime scene.
She didn't need to look hard to find where Langdon was because his figure and appearance were so outstanding. He was as perfect as the vampires in those ancient Gothic legends - this analogy was rather gloomy but very appropriate, which Catherine had learned from that Festival of San Marcus.
Those elegant and blood - thirsty nocturnal creatures could be more beautiful than any sculpture or famous painting just by standing still, with eternal beauty. Catherine had seen the portraits of vampires, and indeed, even the expression "astonishingly beautiful" was not enough to describe them.
Langdon's temperament was somewhat similar to them in some aspects, except that his eyes were not scarlet, and like Catherine, he ate human food and had normal sleep.
Langdon was squatting on the ground examining the corpse to check for obvious fatal wounds. His long fingers, wrapped in rubber disinfected gloves, traced the bloodstain along the side of the corpse all the way up to the collarbone. After pausing briefly, he tentatively reached towards the back of the neck.
Catherine couldn't help but ask softly, "Was the fatal wound this time also due to the rupture of the carotid artery in the neck?"
Langdon withdrew his hand, pushed up his gold - rimmed glasses that had slipped slightly, and smiled gently, "You're here, Cathy."
Catherine nodded and then squatted down to examine the appearance of the corpse with him:
The deceased downstairs was a male, naked except for a pair of shorts. There was blood on the carpet. After forensic examination and comparison, the blood had flowed out of the body at a not - too - fast speed directly.
There were no obvious defensive wounds on the corpse. It could be seen that either the attacker struck when the victim was unprepared and killed with one blow, or it was an acquaintance who committed the crime.
Catherine put on rubber gloves and slowly turned the corpse over with Langdon. An obvious tooth mark on the corpse's shoulder made Catherine's heart skip a beat - again, this bite mark that almost matched that of a human, but with a deep indentation left because of the great biting force.
The only difference was that there were two straight scratch marks below this bite mark this time, and some bluish - black substances remained, as if they were marks left by sharp canines on the skin.
This was not present on the previous victims.
Catherine used a cotton swab and an evidence bag to collect the dried bluish - black particles from the wound and put them into a box beside her. At this time, something in an evidence bag in the storage box caught her attention.
It was something like a lock, which had been completely scratched and damaged. Catherine was stunned for a moment, then reached out to pick up the lock covered with blood and scratches. There was a string of letters on it, which seemed to be...
Volturi...
Langdon gently pulled her hand and put the lock back. He looked back at the attic and smiled at Catherine, "Do you want to go upstairs and have a look? There's something even more incredible."
Catherine blinked, "Okay."
When walking around the corner of the attic, Catherine heard suppressed crying. She turned her head. The faint sunlight shone on her from the side, stretching her shadow long, covering the ground and climbing up the wall. The crying person was hiding in her shadow. It was a man, a lost soul.
It saw Catherine, and Catherine also looked at it. Seeing that Catherine didn't move, it seemed to be stunned for a moment, and then trembled as it said, "Can you see me?"
"Yes." She nodded, and then quickly looked around. Langdon had already gone into another crime - scene room first.
So, she approached it, "I'm Catherine, a forensic doctor in the police department. Can you tell me how you died?"
It stared at Catherine blankly. After a long while, it said slowly, "I don't know who they are, but the only thing I'm sure of is that they are definitely not human."
The conversation between Catherine and the lost soul continued. Behind the laurel branches and leaves outside the window, a pair of scarlet, resentful eyes flashed.
——————
The autopsy results came out quickly. As with the previous ones, the cause of death was excessive blood loss. However, this time, the discovery of bluish - black particles in the wound of the corpse was the first time. There had never been such a clue before.
Catherine spent an afternoon and most of the evening analyzing this strange substance, but unfortunately, there was no result. The only certainty was that it was a highly mutagenic and extremely toxic substance.
When the clock's hands pointed to two, the last drop of liquid dripped from the tip of the syringe in Catherine's hand. The intense drowsiness made it impossible for her to concentrate. She casually took off the light - blue face mask and rubber gloves and threw them aside. Catherine took off the protective suit, felt the change in her pocket, and walked to the convenience store outside the police station to buy some instant coffee powder.
Remembering that there was no hot water in the office and only a pile of that strange and terrifying substance waiting for her, Catherine somewhat self - destructively tore open the tin foil packaging of the coffee powder and poured it into her mouth with her head tilted up.
Then, she froze for a moment.
The taste of coffee without water or sugar, apart from the initial slight fragrance, was endless bitterness. But this was not the reason why Catherine stood still.
What surprised her was that there was actually a person standing on the third - floor roof of the police station. The light from the street lamp interfered with Catherine's vision from above, making it impossible for her to tell whether the person was male or female. The person seemed to have sensed Catherine's gaze and moved slightly, but had no intention of leaving.
Immediately after, a second and a third person, dressed in black like the first one, also appeared. It seemed to be a group activity. But... damn it! How did they get to the top floor through the police station's security personnel and system?!
The fine and bitter coffee powder choked into the trachea with her breathing. Catherine covered her mouth, but it was of no avail. She coughed incessantly, and the intense bitterness made her cough almost to the point of vomiting.
What made her even more restless was that at this moment, the glass in the police station on the second floor suddenly exploded and splashed. The extremely sharp glass became the most terrifying killer under the action of gravity. Catherine tried her best to avoid it, but still unavoidably got many cuts from the glass. From the corner of her forehead to her neck, the bright fragments were stained with red liquid, and the sharp edges tortured the pain - sensing nerves to the maximum extent.
That was... the location of the laboratory!
She stumbled into the police station. Blood slowly flowed down through the gaps between her fingers covering the wound. The alarm in the police station was blaring loudly, deafening. The armed police officers scattered in all directions to look for the source of the explosion just now. Catherine grabbed the head of the special investigation team who was passing by and said urgently, "Sorry, there are people on the top floor... there's more than one, and they're not our police! The laboratory..."
Before she could finish speaking, Langdon quietly came up behind her, gently placed his hand on Catherine's shoulder, trying to calm her emotions, his voice gentle and brooking no resistance, "Thank you for telling us, Cathy. But now, you need treatment. Ms. Anna will bandage you up."
Catherine ignored the severe pain in her body, grabbed Langdon's clothes, and said anxiously, "The laboratory exploded! The laboratory!"
Langdon signaled Anna to take Catherine to get bandaged, and then ran towards the second floor with the other police officers.
After being taken into another room, Catherine, lying on the simple operating table, was dazzled by the strong light above her head. Anna took out anesthetic and injected it into her, preparing to start cleaning the glass fragments in the wound and then sew it up.
There were not too many glass fragments. It was just that the impact was relatively large, and the wounds were relatively dense. The suturing went smoothly. Most of the suturing was on the head, with five stitches. The effect of the anesthetic had not yet worn off. Catherine's head was still very heavy, and her thinking was muddled. The shadowless lamp above her head seemed to have become a bright and blurred mass, and she couldn't see clearly.
She had to force herself to think about other things to stay awake - why the laboratory? Why attack the laboratory? Was it the monsters that the lost soul mentioned during the day coming for revenge?
No, what was there in the laboratory that was worth their attacking?
Laboratory, laboratory, laboratory...
Was it that highly mutagenic and extremely toxic substance?!
Before Catherine could finish thinking, a huge explosion sound came from the main entrance. Anna turned around in panic. Almost at the same time, a cold, hard hand as solid as granite suddenly gripped her neck. The executioner had a pair of devil - like red eyes. His golden - brown hair was messy, sticky with blood, and stuck to his face. Despite several obvious bloodstains on his overly pale face, his beauty was still undiminished.
His face was as perfect as if it had been carved by Michelangelo himself. The murderous aura added a somewhat eerie allure to him. Anna looked at him, unable to distinguish whether her current emotion was amazement or fear, or both.
The killer didn't give her much time to struggle. His beautiful lips opened slightly, and his fangs accurately pierced Anna's carotid artery.
Because of the anesthetic, Catherine was not fully awake, but the instinct of survival drove her to get up. Just in time, she saw Anna, like a doll drained of all life, completely motionless in the monster's hands, and then fell to the ground. Strands of blood soaked the snow - white collar and snaked across the ground. Her eyes didn't even have time to close.
"Ah... Ah! Ahhh -!"
The strong smell of blood and the beast - like sound from the other's throat made Catherine scream and want to run away. However, due to the combined effect of panic and the anesthetic, her hands and feet were uncoordinated. She suddenly fell from the bed to the ground. The stitched wound throbbed with pain as if it was about to burst open. Everything in front of her was pitch - black, and the world was spinning.
She didn't dare to stop. Trembling, she crawled towards the door with her arms, trying to make a last - ditch struggle.
However, before she could touch the fragments of the door in front of her, the killer had already quietly come up behind her and picked her up.
Intense suffocation came simultaneously. Catherine reached out randomly to pull at her collar, trying to fight for that tiny bit of air desperately. The random grabbing quickly made Catherine's wounds bloody and mangled again. At the same time, the killer behind her also froze.
Catherine was roughly thrown to the ground, crying out in pain. The intense pain in her arm temporarily overcame the dizziness caused by the anesthetic and the near - suffocation just now. She lowered her head. After the physiological tears slid down, her vision became clear.
The upper part of her left arm was stabbed by a sharp metal fragment, and blood was gushing out like a needle of fire burning and stabbing back and forth in the arm muscle. She lay on the ground, crying and despairing, feeling the wind with a smell of blood blowing towards her face, and something sharp touching her neck.
Was she going to die?
She was going to die.
Catherine was in despair. Suddenly, her mother's smile, her father's appearance, the few happy times in Windsor Castle during her childhood, and the Windsor ancestors' ghosts who broadened her vision, told her various stories, and comforted her when she was down in the dumps flashed before her eyes.
And her mentor and guardian, Mr. Langdon.
Goodbye, everything.
She closed her eyes, waiting for the final moment to come.