"HAHAHAHAHA~!" Lucien's laughter echoed like a demonic echo, tearing through the night.
Selene and Richard stared at him in disbelief. They themselves had seen his body fall, split in two!
And yet, there he was.
Still smiling, he began to rise as if gravity no longer had power over him. The blood on the floor stirred... and ran back to his body, as if it had a will of its own.
Richard recoiled, his face contorted. He felt as if he were witnessing a miracle in reverse, blasphemy made flesh. "This can't be! He was struck down by the power of our God! Why... why is he rising again!?" he cried in horror. It was like watching a demon being born straight from hell.
Fear made his knees tremble. Too terrifying!
He had expended all his energy on that attack; his attack was meant to permanently kill an ordinary vampire.
But Selene... Selene looked at him differently.
That bloody glow, that flesh that sewed itself together, that laugh that chilled anyone's blood... to her, it was beautiful. Her chest filled with relief and euphoria. She had seen him die, and now she had him again.
Lucien joined his torn halves with a wet snap, as if the flesh itself were sewing itself together. His laughter died away, leaving a silence more suffocating than the noise.
Then, his eyes flashed. Red rays crackled around his body. The air filled with an electric hum, and in an instant... he vanished.
"!!!" Richard opened his eyes and covered himself with a golden barrier, preventing any attack.
"Sorry to worry you." Lucien appeared in front of Selene as if nothing had happened; suddenly, she felt something invade her mouth.
Their tongues began to play in Lucien and Selene's mouths, small tears running down their cheeks, but that didn't last long. When Lucien pulled away, a bridge of saliva remained, and he wiped away the tears with a soft smile.
"I thought you were dead." She rested her face on his chest. "I thought I had lost you completely. Silly, why do you make me worry like this, even though I've only known you for one day?"
"..." He smiled silently, and his eye moved toward the hunter Richard, and his smile grew; he truly believed that he had died.
He separated himself from Selene, and a bloody pressure escaped from his body. It wasn't as heavy as Selene's, but it made the hunter shudder, and he took two steps back in fear.
With supernatural speed, Lucien appears in front of the hunter Richard, who is unable to react; his nails grow, but before they can pierce Richard's heart, a golden bar stops him.
Lucien took a step back; his hand was torn to shreds, flesh and bone reduced to charred pulp. Pain shot through him like a red-hot iron... but within seconds, the flesh twisted and returned to its original form. "He~," he smiled, amused, watching as the barrier cracked like glass under pressure.
He closed his hand and threw a powerful punch with all his strength; his fist hit the barrier.
Crack!
It shattered like glass into many pieces.
"Oh, my God..." Richard murmured as he saw the shattered fist approaching his face.
Bam!
When Lucien's fist connected with the hunter's face, it caved in, separating it from his body.
Swoosh!
A strong breeze blew, kicking up dust and trash from the ground. Shortly after, the headless body of the hunter Richard fell heavily to the ground.
The armor crumbled into golden particles, leaving only the black priest's robe and silver cross around his neck, followed by a pool of blood.
He looked at the hunter's body without saying anything. He had fought hard in this battle, a first experience he would never forget. Lucien noticed that the pages of the Bible that were on the walls lost their power and fell.
Y el ruido de la calle los envolvió; Selene y Lucien desaparecieron de la escena antes de ser vistos por algún civil.
Suddenly, a scream pierced the nighttime calm:
"Aaaahhhhhh!!!"
A civilian saw the hunter's body. The scream attracted more voices, hurried footsteps, frightened murmurs.
"A dead body, a dead body!"
"My God, someone call the police!"
"Run!"
Chaos spread like wildfire; the street was filled with panic and confusion.
At the top of a building, Lucien and Selene watch the chaos unfold. Within seconds, the sound of sirens can be heard.
"We didn't escape something problematic," said Lucien, with the hunter's blood on his hand. With a thought, he gathered it into a point, and it became spherical, as if it were a piece of candy, and he swallowed it.
His face wrinkled in disgust. 'Although it tastes better than the drunkard's, it doesn't measure up to Selene's blood.' The taste was thick and unpleasant, as if it had been mixed with old grease, but it still tasted better than the drunkard's.
"Honey... What did you just do?" Selene asked, shocked.
"???" Several question marks appeared above his head. "Eh? Well... I ate the blood of the Inquisition hunter. Didn't you see? Although I don't know if it was blood or old fried sauce... yours is a thousand times better." The disgust was still present on his face.
Selene gave him a sweet smile, but quickly turned serious. "I'm not talking about the taste, darling. How did you manage to move the blood at will?"
Question marks appeared above his head, as if he were in a cheap comedy manga: 'What is this woman talking about?' Lucien didn't understand any of the questions they were asking him.
"..." Selene looked at him silently, her eyes narrowed, and then let out a long sigh like a mother resigned to her mischievous child, and remembered another important detail. She said excitedly, "I know what your power is, Darling!"
"Really? What is it?" Lucien looked at her with bright eyes, like a child entering a candy store for the first time... but one that was having a sale. What kind of powers had he awakened? Were they awesome? His excitement only grew.
"Your powers are lightning or electrokinesis." Selene dropped the bombshell. "After you were split in half, you stood up and your body was covered in red lightning." She remembered when he appeared in front of her, in a flash.
"Electrokinesis..." he murmured, savoring the word like it was an expensive dessert. He hadn't realized he'd used the power, but… damn! It was like becoming Zeus, but the Latin version without the toga!
"Huh?" He suddenly froze, as if struck by lightning (literally). He had just remembered something important. "How could I have forgotten?" He slapped his forehead.
"What's up, darling?" Selene raised an eyebrow.
"My mother! We were going to visit her." He said it with the seriousness of someone who had just remembered leaving rice on the stove.
"Shit!" Selene's eyes widened. "Well... we still have time, don't go into soap opera mode."
A moment later, they both disappeared from the ceiling.
...
In front of the hospital where Lucien's mother was hospitalized.
Some nurses and doctors came and went dressed in their medical gowns, some drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.
Lucien inhaled and exhaled, unsure why he was so nervous. Perhaps he feared his mother's reaction when she saw the dramatic change he had undergone in such a short time. He felt Selene take his hand and nod.
They entered, receiving all kinds of looks, until they reached the reception desk.
"Can I help you?" asked the receptionist with a tired expression; she had to work a double shift today.
"I'm here to visit my mother, Carmila Ricci," said Lucien, his mother's full name.
"Oh, your mother is Italian," Selene, standing next to him, raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Yes..." He smiled and looked at the receptionist, waiting for her response.
The receptionist typed distractedly on the computer, her face illuminated by the glow of the screen. "Carmila Ricci..." she murmured. "Yes, she's in room 15A, but we don't allow visitors at this hour. You'll have to come back tomorrow afternoon."
"Look at me."
Selene's voice was nothing more than a whisper, soft and enveloping. The woman looked up and was caught in those wine-red eyes. The woman's tired expression froze, and slowly her face became empty, like a puppet waiting for orders.
"You will let us in to visit my mother-in-law, Carmila..." Selene spoke softly, each syllable caressing the human's mind like damp velvet. "And when we leave the hospital, you will completely forget this encounter."
"Understood..." whispered the receptionist, her voice dull, mechanical, without a shred of will of her own.
Selene smiled slightly, satisfied, and walked with Lucien toward the hallway.
Being far enough away from the reception area.
"What was that you used earlier?" he asked with great interest.
"Vampiric charm, you have it too," Selene replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Lucien crossed his arms, offended. "You never told me I had vampire charm!" he protested. "If I had known earlier, I swear I would have charmed my pig of an ex-boss and asked him for seven figures in severance pay."
He imagined the scene: his boss, mesmerized, writing checks as if it were Christmas. Then the fantasy escalated.
"Or better yet, I'll become a Robin Hood," he said, gesturing dramatically with his hands. "I'll charm the corrupt politicians, tell them 'give me your money' in a honeyed voice, and boom: straight into my account."
Selene looked at him with a raised eyebrow and, with icy calm, added amusedly, "And you were planning to start an NGO with a fancy name? 'The Lucien Foundation, Creative Redistribution'?"
Lucien shook his head, already in planning mode: "No, first I need a fake ID, an account in a tax-free country, and a cool alias like Kaneki. Because the government always gets the best deal: tax for breathing, tax for existing... what's next?"
Selene let out a stifled giggle. "Start by not using your charm at the ATM, darling. Banks don't appreciate being asked for 'voluntary donations.'"
He looked at her suspiciously. He had never felt this way about a woman who wasn't his ex-co-worker before. Wasn't she being a little too understanding? He decided not to think about it for now.
He looked at the door with the number 15A on it. On the other side was his mother, taking a deep breath. He opened it.