The secret room beneath the ruins buzzed with activity. Elara and Roric were preparing for the attack on Aethelburg Manor, while Jerry sat in a corner, his body trembling from prolonged hunger.
"What's happening to him?" Roric asked in broken English.
Elara looked at Jerry with deeply understanding eyes. "The hunger. He hasn't fed for days."
This time, the hunger was different. It wasn't just a desire, but an existential thirst threatening to swallow his humanity. Every cell in his body screamed for the only fuel that could satisfy it: the blood of his own kind.
"I can't go there in this condition," Jerry said, his voice hoarse. "I'll lose control."
This was the greatest paradox of his life. To fight for vampires, he had to hunt them. To protect humans, he had to drink from his enemies.
Elara approached him cautiously. "We brought you... a gift."
She pointed to a cell in the back of the base. Inside was a captive vampire from the Council guards, captured during a previous skirmish.
"He's one of the traitors who helped plan the purge," Elara said. "He deserves it."
Jerry looked at the prisoner. His eyes glowed with silver, his fangs protruding involuntarily. This was his fate - to become the blood hunter of his own society.
But the irony lay in the method. While human hunters killed vampires with sacred stakes, he hunted them with his body, his fangs, his instincts.
He entered the cell. The powerful scent of blood made his head spin. The prisoner looked at him with fear.
"Who are you?" the prisoner whispered.
"Justice," Jerry answered before pouncing.
It was the moment he had always feared. The moment he surrendered to the beast within. But the surprise was that with the first drop of blood, he felt not guilt, but clarity.
The prisoner's memories flowed into him with the blood. The Council's secret plans, the names of involved leaders, assembly points for the purge. Every drop of blood carried valuable information.
When it was over, Jerry was different. His eyes were brighter, his movements more graceful, his mind working at astonishing speed. He had become the weapon he always feared.
"What did you find?" Elara asked.
"More than we expected," Jerry answered, his voice carrying new confidence. "The Council is planning something bigger than the purge. They're preparing for the 'Great Cleansing' - a genocide of anyone suspected of disloyalty."
In that moment, Jerry realized the bitter truth: he could no longer be an innocent revolutionary. To defeat monsters, he had to accept the monster within him.
But the biggest surprise awaited him at the cell entrance. There stood Laura, her eyes wide, having witnessed everything.
"Laura... I..."
She fell silent. She looked at him for a long time, then said with firmness: "I saw what you did. And I saw your eyes afterward. You didn't enjoy it; you used it as a means."
Tears rolled down her cheeks. "I hate this world that forces you into this. I hate all of them."
In that moment, Jerry understood that his transformation into a blood hunter wasn't a loss, but a borrowing of his enemies' power to destroy them from within.
Now, with his transformation into the blood hunter complete, Jerry is ready to face the Council with their most powerful weapon - their own blood. But the question remains: what price will he pay when the victim becomes the hunter, and the hunter becomes the beast?