The sensation of walking in broad daylight was intoxicating. Vicky drove his McLaren slowly through the city center, deliberately letting the sun warm his skin. There was no pain, no weakness—only immense, boundless power. The Level 5 threshold had not just removed a debuff; it had given him back his days.
He was no longer just a nighttime predator. He was a creature unbound.
That morning, Vicky called his two followers to his penthouse. Marcus Keller, impeccably dressed and radiating a renewed life force, arrived first. Elias Vance, the dock worker, was slightly hesitant in his new suit, but his eyes shone with the absolute loyalty of a man whose world had been saved.
Vicky laid out his new agenda.
"The goal is not simply to survive," Vicky stated, pacing before the floor-to-ceiling windows. "It is to reign. We need resources, protection, and above all, secrecy."
Keller immediately grasped the scope. "Master, I have already used Nightwatch Holdings to secure five dormant corporate shells. We can begin acquisitions immediately. But we need a name, a central identity for this undertaking."
Vicky considered his powers—the blood that gave life and claimed loyalty. "We are bound by the blood, committed to a new era. We shall be The Crimson Pact."
He assigned their roles:
Marcus Keller:Logistics, Finance, and Recruitment (Wealth Focus). His task was to identify the most influential, power-hungry, and desperately ill people in Veros—politicians, billionaires, and high-level executives—and prepare them for conversion. He was also ordered to locate and purchase a secure, subterranean fortress: an old bank vault or an abandoned Cold War bunker.
Elias Vance:Security, Intelligence, and Recruitment (Loyalty Focus). His deep ties to the city's working class and poor were invaluable. Elias was tasked with identifying loyal individuals suffering from poverty or disease, people who would serve the Pact out of genuine gratitude and unflinching devotion.
"The human world thinks they are safe because they think they understand the rules," Vicky finished. "We are here to rewrite them, one asset, one soul, at a time."
Revenge on the Ticker Tape :
Vicky's next target was not a monster in the dark, but a sniveling bully in the light: Damien Vance. Damien's status and wealth came directly from his father's company, Vance Holdings. To hurt Damien was to cut him at the social jugular.
Using the financial infrastructure Keller had already established, Vicky directed a complex, two-day operation.
Phase 1: Keller's analysts discreetly fed carefully crafted, non-criminal information to three obscure financial blogs—rumors about Vance Holdings' exposure to a risky emerging market and a potential internal investigation.
Phase 2: Vicky used Nightwatch Holdings to heavily short-sell a massive amount of Vance Holdings stock, coordinating the pressure with automated market triggers.
The stock began to bleed. It wasn't a crash, but a painful, steady ten percent drop over two trading days—enough to wipe hundreds of millions from the family's portfolio and trigger mandatory margin calls.
The news was a sensation on the financial networks.
**BREAKING NEWS:** Vance Holdings suffers massive, unexplained volatility, linked to anonymous rumors of corporate instability. Seraphina's Regret
Vicky found Damien and Seraphina exactly where he expected them: at an exclusive, high-end cafe popular with rich students. Damien was pale, his phone pressed to his ear, his usual arrogance replaced by visible panic as he shouted into the receiver.
Seraphina, looking impeccably stylish, was trying to soothe him, but her eyes were darting nervously. When she saw the black McLaren pull up directly in front of the cafe, she froze. When Vicky stepped out, calm and effortlessly powerful in the afternoon sun, her composure shattered.
Vicky walked past their table and stopped, leaning down slightly.
Damien, sweating, glared up. "What the hell do you want, Thorne? Lost your way?"
Vicky didn't acknowledge Damien. His crimson gaze, now piercing in the daylight, locked onto Seraphina. He could see the cocktail of emotions in her eyes: greed, confusion, and most satisfyingly, crushing regret.
"Seraphina," Vicky said, his voice quiet but commanding, "I trust your financial judgment is as astute as ever." He tilted his head slightly toward Damien. "It appears some people are having a very bad week. Choose your alliances carefully. They define your value."
He straightened up and walked away, leaving them frozen. Seraphina stared after him, her hand slowly pulling away from Damien's arm. She had rejected a boy in despair; now she saw a man who owned the world, watching her regretfully acquired partner fall apart. The seed of her future heartbreak was planted.
The Conflicting Evidence
Detective Mila Torres was on unauthorized surveillance, camped in an unmarked police vehicle down the street from Vicky's penthouse. Her superiors had told her to focus only on financial paperwork, but her gut screamed otherwise.
She was waiting for nightfall, expecting the suspect to emerge under the cover of darkness. Instead, she watched, dumbfounded, as the McLaren roared to life at 10:00 AM, in bright, unforgiving sunshine.
Vicky Thorne, her suspected leader of a nocturnal, energy-signature-leaving crime ring, casually drove off to meet a suit-clad Marcus Keller at a downtown high-rise.
"Impossible," Mila whispered to herself, documenting the time and date.
Later that afternoon, she watched a second figure enter the high-rise: Elias Vance, a registered dock worker from Sector 4.
Mila's brow furrowed. Contradiction. If Thorne was a vampire, why the daylight exposure? If he was just a scammer, why was a cancer-cured billionaire meeting a dock worker? The pattern was becoming more complex and contradictory, further isolating her theory from her non-believing colleagues.
"He's not a vampire, he's… something new," Mila concluded, frustration mounting. She knew Captain Hayes would laugh her out of the room if she presented a 'day-walking vampire' theory. She had to find tangible proof first.
Vicky has delivered his first strike against his ex-girlfriend's current flame and officially begun his organization, while Detective Mila is becoming increasingly confused by his daylight activities.