Leo watched Laura as she leaned against the doorframe, her face flushed and her breathing heavy. The hunger that had been clawing at his insides was finally silent, replaced by a cold, humming power that vibrated through his limbs.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, finally pulling back.
Laura rubbed her neck where the bite marks were already receding into faint, pale scars. Tears tracked down her cheeks.
"Please… tell me. What's happening to me?"
Leo clenched his fists. Shame gnawed at him. No matter who Laura was, she had never harmed him. Using her like a blood bank made bile rise in his throat.
"We've become vampires," he said quietly.
"We are what?" Laura gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.
Leo hesitated, then continued. 'She can't betray me anyway. A small truth might bind her further.'
As the clock ticked toward midnight, Leo explained what little he understood- the bond, the transformation happening in her blood, the instincts awakening beneath his skin. He hid the system and the river incident.
He expected Laura to break down, scream, and beg for answers.
Instead, she laughed.
"So you're saying... I have a chance?" she asked, clutching his hands. Her eyes weren't filled with horror, but a terrifying spark of hope. "I can be strong? I can have abilities like the Awakened?"
"It's possible," Leo said, caught off guard.
"Finally..." She smiled through her tears, a jagged, broken sound escaping her throat. "Finally, I'm not just trash."
She began to speak, her voice hollow as she laid out the map of her life. It was a story of a woman who had been a pawn before she was even a person. Born into the prestigious White family, her life had been a fairy tale of luxury and promise until her father, Rowen White, returned from the Origin as a Lord.
The place had twisted him, stripping away his humanity and replacing it with a cold, divine arrogance. He began to view mortals- including his own daughter- as stains on his existence, mere insects to be used or crushed.
When Laura's brother also awakened as a Lord, Rowen decided Laura was only useful as livestock to bridge a connection to the Lockwoods.
Steven's father was a powerful Awakened, so Rowen sold her into a marriage with a man twenty years her senior.
"My mother's final act for me was a contract," Laura whispered. "She begged my father to ensure that, unless I willingly accepted, they couldn't touch my body. It's the only dignity I have left. No matter what I achieve in business, to them, I'm just a bridge between two powerful men."
"That's why…" Laura whispered, wiping tears. "Why, I bet on you. If you awakened, I might finally control my own life."
"I guess we're the same," Leo sighed. "Both of us just wanted to live on our own terms, but fate wouldn't let us."
"But we can change it now," Laura said, her smile small but genuine. "We can decide how we live."
"Maybe," Leo said. "But know this: "If the chance comes, I won't hesitate to kill Steven."
Laura scoffed. "Do whatever you want. I can't stand being in the same room as that demon."
She stood up, smoothing her clothes. "Rest now. You need to visit the Awakened Association tomorrow."
''Isn't it better to stay hidden?'' Leo asked, a flare of paranoia hitting him. ''What if they sense we're vampires? What if they see us as monsters to be hunted?''
"The risk of staying hidden is higher. If a Lord survives Origin with no registration, the government starts snooping. You only need to show your sigil as proof. I'll send Susan with you for protection."
"Wait... Susan," Leo remembered the way she had handled him. "She attacked me with fire last time. Is she a Lord too?"
Laura winked mischievously as she reached the door. "She was. But she lost her status. You can ask her yourself tomorrow."
***
The next morning, Leo sat in the back of a Rolls-Royce as it glided through the streets like a phantom. He glanced at the stern, stone-faced Susan in the rearview mirror.
'She threw me like a sack of potatoes last time,' Leo thought. 'Better keep my mouth sh-.'
Before he could finish the thought—
"You know I was a Lord once," Susan said.
Leo blinked, leaning forward slightly. "Oh? Really?"
"I've seen more death than you can count," she said, her eyes meeting his in the mirror. "Do you know what I smell when I look at you?"
Leo's pulse quickened. "What?"
"Death."
A chill crawled along Leo's spine. 'Did she sense the resurrection? The river?'
"I don't care who or what you are," Susan continued, her grip tightening on the steering wheel. " I'll kill you if you hurt Laura again.
Leo chuckled softly, a dark, melodic sound that seemed to surprise even himself. "Relax. I know the feeling of death intimately. It is the only thing that has been honest with me lately. I won't harm her without reason."
The car glided through the southern district, a place of crumbling warehouses and forgotten government annexes. Taking a breath, Leo asked, "If you don't mind, can I know what you meant by I was lord once?"
Susan glanced at him from the rearview, and for a fleeting moment, a flicker of raw, unadulterated pain flashed in her eyes before she buried it back beneath her armor. "In origin, there is no order or rules; only strength matters there."
Her hands clutched the steering wheel as if it were the only thing keeping her anchored to this world. "So when there are no rules, there always be greed. They want more. So one of the lord eyed my territory. I had built a sanctuary there. A place where the weak could find shelter under my banner."
"Though I battled to my best, Will can only take you for a point; he was blessed with a high talent, and he had better support," she whispered, the bitterness in her voice as thick as poison. "He had a legion of summons that outnumbered my own ten to one. He didn't win through skill; he won through the sheer weight of his backers."
Leo sighed, "So he didn't kill you even after he took your territory."
"He didn't bother," she said, gritting her teeth with a sound like shattering porcelain. "And he was also from the white family, so, like trash, he threw me out of my territory. To him, I wasn't even worth the trouble to execute a member serving the same family."
Silence settled over the car, a thick shroud that made the luxury of the Rolls-Royce feel like a coffin.
They stopped before an ordinary government building in the south of Vesper City. It looked like a typical tax office- boring, grey, and filled with tired people in suits.
"This is the 'Secret' Association?" Leo asked as they entered the lift. "It's a bit... public, don't you think?''
"You'll see," Susan muttered. She raised her wrist. A glowing Sigil, identical to the mark on Leo's arm, appeared on her skin.
In the blink of an eye—
The lift dissolved around them.
They appeared in a grand hall bathed in shifting golden light. Vast pillars rose like carved obsidian spines. A floating ceiling reflected constellations unknown to Earth.
"Welcome," Susan said, "to the Aethelgard Hub.
Leo whistled in pure excitement. Warriors in enchanted plate armor rubbed shoulders with women in revealing, high-fashion silk that rivaled top models. Strange, multi-eyed beasts were led on leashes by tamers.
Some passed through shimmering portals. Others negotiated before pedestals holding stones humming with power.
''How the hell does the government cover this up?'' Leo wondered, his eyes wide. ''This isn't just a secret... It's a whole different world.''