A white Rolls-Royce glided through the snow-dusted streets of Vesper City, heading toward the secluded outskirts beyond the glow of neon signs.
Behind the tinted glass, the city's harsh, artificial lights began to fade, replaced by the long shadows of the dormant forest that bordered the urban sprawl.
In the back seat, Laura Lockwood watched the unconscious young man strapped beside her. He looked even more fragile in the soft glow of the interior cabin lights. His chest rose and fell in a shallow, erratic rhythm.
A faint, victorious smile tugged at her lips as she leaned back against the expensive leather. She had spent years looking for a way out of the suffocating politics of her family, and fate had seemingly dropped the answer into her lap.
"To think the Seer's words would come true," Laura murmured. Her voice was barely a whisper, lost in the hum of the engine.
Susan drove in silence, eyes fixed ahead. The woman was more than a secretary; her posture revealed combat readiness. Every few seconds, Susan's eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, checking the perimeter and the boy in the back. Her hands gripped the steering wheel with a firm, practiced discipline.
"Miss, we should be cautious," she warned. "We don't know whether he's awakened."
Laura shook her head, dismissing the concern with a wave of her hand. "If he'd entered the Origin, he wouldn't have fainted at the sight of a little blood. He's unawakened. I'm sure of it."
The car rolled through iron gates and into a private mansion resting like a shadow among the trees. Susan hoisted Leo out like a sack of grain and carried him to a guest room, dropping him onto the bed.
Laura approached, fingertips brushing the faint sigil on Leo's wrist. The mark was cold to the touch, a strange, geometric pattern that seemed to sit just beneath the surface of his skin.
"So this is a Lord's mark," she whispered.
Susan nodded, standing by the door with her arms crossed. "He didn't even try to conceal it. Truly an unawakened candidate."
"Why does he look so sickly, though?" Laura mused, noticing his irregular heartbeat and the way his skin seemed almost translucent under the lamp. It was as if his very life force was being tugged at by an unseen hand. "Regardless... if the Seer is right, this boy is my golden ticket to escaping the Lockwood family's control."
Hope flickered in Laura's eyes, a rare spark of genuine emotion in her usually guarded expression. She turned away, unaware of how drastically fate was already shifting.
Inside his mind, Leo was a wreck. He was drowning in a sea of red and black, his memories fracturing like glass. The trauma of his near-death experience and the searing pain of his body reforming had drained him, but it was the flickering holographic panel that truly broke his grip on reality.
The red text floated in his darkness, blinking with an insistent, mechanical pulse. It felt like a parasite had latched onto his consciousness, whispering secrets he wasn't ready to hear.
As night fell, the mansion was swallowed by shadows. The temperature in the room dropped, and the air grew thick with a metallic scent. Laura entered the room to check on her 'prize,' but she found him shivering, drenched in a cold sweat. He looked like a man possessed, his body twitching as if he were fighting an invisible intruder.
She rushed to his side, wiping his forehead. ''Hey... can you hear me?''
A whisper escaped from his cracked lips. ''Hung…ry…''
''What?'' Laura leaned closer.
The air grew still, as if the house itself were holding its breath. Leo's eyes snapped open. His irises, once silver, glowed crimson. They weren't the eyes of the boy she had pulled from the bridge; they were the eyes of a starving predator.
Laura's pulse thundered in her ears. A primal hunger surged through Leo's veins, a roaring fire that demanded to be fed. His teeth lengthened into sharp points, tearing through his gums with a wet, sickening sound.
He lunged.
"Ahhhhh!"
A scream tore through the room as his fangs pierced her neck. Panic ignited, followed by a foreign, terrifying wave of pleasure that chased the pain. Before she could succumb, the door crashed open. Susan burst in, her aura flaring with power.
''Miss!''
Susan's face contorted with fury. She grabbed Leo by the hair and threw him with enough force to crack the wall. Leo slammed into the masonry and crumbled to the floor.
CRASH!
"You bastard! How dare you lay a hand on her!" Susan hissed, her hand glowing with energy as she moved to finish him.
"Stop!" Laura clutched her neck. "Don't hurt him!"
Susan froze, her hand inches from Leo's neck. She hesitated, then stepped back, kneeling beside Laura. "Miss, you're bleeding. We need to call an Association healer immediately."
Susan pulled out a silk handkerchief to stanch the wound, but her hand stopped mid-air. She blinked in disbelief. "What...?"
"What is it?" Laura asked.
"The wound... it's gone," Susan stuttered.
Laura touched her neck. There were no punctures, no jagged marks. If not for the dark blood soaking her dress, it would have seemed as if the attack never happened.
Laura stood up, shaky and confused. But as she looked at Leo -bruised and sliding down the wall, she felt a sudden, sharp pang of grief in her own chest.
'Why am I feeling sad for him?' she wondered. 'Why does my heart ache because he's hurt?'
Leo groaned, his fingers clawing weakly at the floorboards. The maddening hunger had receded, replaced by a metallic tang on his tongue.
"W—what happened?" he croaked, wiping his mouth. He looked at the blood on his hand. "Where am I... whose blood is this?"
"You don't remember?" Laura asked, her voice softer than before.
"I remember the bridge. I remember the water," Leo said weakly, his energy completely spent. "After that... everything went dark."
Susan leaned in and whispered to Laura, "Miss, he's dangerous. We have to report this to the Association."
Despite the distance, Leo heard her perfectly. "What Association?" he tensed. 'I drowned... I should be dead. And that strange game panel... what is happening to me?'
"Susan, I'm fine," Laura said firmly. "Let's talk in the hall."
Reluctantly, Susan obeyed.
In the hall, Leo sat on a leather sofa. Laura poured jasmine tea. He sipped once—then spat it out in disgust.
"Pah! What is this? It tastes like ash!"
Laura tasted her cup, confused. "It isn't that bitter…"
Susan watched him with narrowed eyes. She had slammed him into a stone wall with enough force to kill a normal man, yet he was sitting there without a single broken bone.
'He isn't awakened, yet his body has the durability of a Tanker... and he can't stand human food?'
Laura placed her cup aside. "After you fainted on the bridge, we brought you here to recover."
Leo frowned. "Why? Do you know me?"
"No."
"Then why didn't you take me to a hospital or the police?"
Laura's lips curled faintly. "If you were normal, we would have taken you to the police… or left you."
Leo gripped the chair. "Normal?"
Susan answered. "You are a Lord candidate."
Leo stared. "A… what?"