Episode 3
The escape from the the opera house has had cost Rian dearly.he stumbled through the forgotten underbelly of the city.
a network of abandoned subway tunnels rumored to connect to ancient sewer systems. His clothes were torn, and his body was in agony; the partial shifts he used to fight the cultists and escape the Vampire Coven were taxing his stamina to the breaking point. He was hiding in the dark, his transformation incomplete and unstable.
Meanwhile, Detective Lena Vasquez was performing a high-wire act in the precinct. Officially, she was leading the manhunt for Rian, but unofficially, she was feeding him false leads and manipulating patrol routes to keep him one step ahead of the Vampire Hunters. She knew her deception couldn't last; the Coven's Liaison, Marcus, was breathing down her neck, obsessed with claiming the bounty.
Rian knew he couldn't heal on his own. His werewolf strength required sustenance he couldn't find, and the trauma of the framing left his mental controls frayed. He needed specific, archaic medical knowledge—knowledge only one person possessed.
Rian pulled out a tiny, silver whistle, an artifact from his Coven days, and blew a single, high-pitched, inaudible note. He waited two hours, then sent Lena to a specific, dusty herb stall in the city's neutral market with a demand for Nightshade Bloom—an incredibly rare, potent supernatural analgesic. This was his signal to Serena.
Serena's shop was a chaotic haven of tinctures, dried herbs, and hidden magics, located behind a legitimate flower shop. She was a gifted human apothecary who had once shared a deep but ultimately broken love with Rian.
Lena presented the Nightshade Bloom. Serena's eyes, usually warm, hardened to chips of ice. "He sent you," she stated, not a question. "He sends a symbol of pain, not love."
Lena was direct. "He's framed for murder and abduction. He's bleeding out in the subway tunnels. If he dies, the truth about the missing granddaughter dies with him."
Serena relented, driven by her healer's oath and the deep, angry love she still harbored.
Serena met Rian in the deepest part of the tunnel network. The reunion was agonizing. Rian was huddled against the cold stone, too weak to fully shift or fully hide.
"You left me to protect me," Serena said, her voice trembling as she applied a poultice of rare herbs to his shredded torso. "You left me because you were afraid I wouldn't survive your paranoia, Rian. And now you crawl back when you need me to save your life?"
"I'm sorry, Serena," Rian rasped, the only apology he could muster. "I was a risk. I am a risk. But I'm also the only witness to the truth."
Their bitter reunion was cut short when Rian, despite his weakness, noticed something Lena had missed while tending his earlier wounds. On his tattered jacket was a faint, silvery-grey dust, almost microscopic.
Serena immediately recognized the metallic residue. "It's a flux compound. Used in ancient metallurgy, often by covens to forge specialized blades. But I only know one place in the city that still uses a specific blend of lead and silver oxide like that—the Old Monarch Foundry.
The realization was immediate: the abandoned foundry, on the city's outskirts, was massive, heavily shielded, and the perfect place for Eleanor Vance to hold Elara and complete the Chimera Blood ritual in secret. They had to move.
As Rian, marginally recovered, rose to leave with Lena, a familiar voice echoed down the tunnel access ramp. Marcus, the Vampire Liaison, flanked by a small squad of elite, heavily armed Vampire Hunters, emerged. They had tracked Lena's discreet movements to the flower shop and then, with Vampire speed, followed them into the tunnels.
"The hunt ends here, Rogue," Marcus sneered, his fangs glinting under the emergency lights. "The bounty is mine."
A ferocious firefight erupted in the narrow tunnel.
Rian, weakened, shifted just enough to become a monstrously strong brawler, deflecting silver-coated bullets with his forearms while Lena provided covering fire, aiming for the Hunters' less vital organs.
They managed to push the Hunters back, but the exit was blocked, and the tunnels were compromised.
Serena looked at Rian, her eyes full of the painful truth of his life. "Go! Now!" she commanded.
She spun around, grabbed a canvas bag filled with her volatile chemical compounds and pouches of concentrated wolfsbane powder, and sprinted toward a junction tunnel. Seconds later, a deafening blast tore through the underground, collapsing a section of the tunnel behind Rian and Lena, and spraying the Vampire Hunters with painful, debilitating wolfsbane fumes.
Rian and Lena escaped through a narrow service duct, leaving Serena behind to face the fallout.
Rian and Lena burst into a deserted street just as sirens approach the foundry district. Rian knows Serena is now implicated and in danger. He turns to Lena, his face grim. "She bought us time, but they know we're going to the foundry. We go now." He glances back toward the burning tunnels. The fight to clear his name just cost him the only woman he ever trusted.