“Miss… you need to go alone. That bastard beat me up badly. I won’t be able to go with you,” Antonio rasped, his voice weak as he tried to move closer to Cra. His strength failed him, and he colpsed to the ground. As he began coughing up blood, Cra wanted to comfort him, but the thick, metallic scent of his blood made her reconsider.

  Cra quickly knelt beside Antonio, who could no longer stand. Realizing he was beyond saving, she decided to sacrifice him to ensure her escape. Just before Antonio lost consciousness, Cra didn’t hesitate as she sank her fangs into his neck, drinking his blood as quickly as she could.

  Antonio had little life or blood left, and with his excessive bleeding, it took only a few seconds before Cra was forced to stop. His blood, tainted and rapidly turning poisonous to her, made her pull back. When she released him, Antonio had already stopped breathing. Cra let his body go, swiftly scooped up Isabel, and fled the street. The priests had long since vanished, more concerned with their safety than their mission to stop Cra, which made her smirk. She took pride in their ck of faith, believing they weren’t true devotees willing to sacrifice themselves for the church.

  “I’ll send the rest of the priests after you soon,” she muttered under her breath.

  Cra cast a final gnce at the burning house, where the hunter was struggling to drag Matteo out of the fmes. Just before she turned to leave the alley, she heard the hunter speak for the first time. His voice was raspy, as though he hadn’t spoken in ages, but each word carried a commanding weight, the kind used to rule over crowds.

  “I swear on my name, Lorenzo Falchi, that I will hunt you to the edge of the world and kill every vampire who crosses my path,” he vowed.

  Lorenzo didn’t provoke Cra further. He was in a far worse situation than she was, focused on saving Matteo from the fire before he burned to a crisp. Cra dismissed his threats. But as the sound of soldiers echoed through the streets, she knew she had to move quickly. Leaping onto the rooftops, she scanned for the fastest route out of the city, plotting a path to Charlotte’s house where René could heal Isabel.

  Cra raced through the streets as fast as she could, weaving through chaos. The city had erupted into riots, with soldiers, priests, and citizens many were under vampire influence wandering alongside rogue vampires, all stirred by the hunters’ presence. Cra felt the world had turned upside down, a single mistake transforming the city into a battlefield. Yet the chaos gave her the space she needed to slip through, the air thick with the intoxicating scent of blood mingled with silver.

  The atmosphere was perfect for Cra, who now moved more slowly through streets crowded with people fleeing the city. The pandemonium gave her ample time to pn her next move. She darted through the city and soon reached Butcher Street, where Charlotte’s house still stood, untouched by the spreading fires.

  “Isabel, we’re here. Once René treats your wounds, we’ll leave this hell and find somewhere safe for a while,” Cra whispered into Isabel’s ear as she entered René’s house. But the sight that greeted her was far from pleasant. The pce was strewn with blood-soaked cloths and half-dead people.

  “What the hell is going on? Where is that beggar?” Cra growled, her patience fraying. She wanted to silence the moaning, screaming, and dying around her, but she ignored them and hurried to the second floor. The suffering of the poor souls scattered across the house meant nothing to her. She barged into the room where she had first met René and found him tending to a shabby man, stitching a wound, while Charlotte watched patiently from the corner.

  “Oh, hello, love! What brings you here at such a strange time?” Charlotte excimed her tone cheerful as she rose to greet Cra. But the scent of blood and the urgency in Cra’s demeanor made it clear this wasn’t a casual visit.

  Cra ignored Charlotte’s enthusiasm. As a vampire, Charlotte had long lost any care for humans. Cra gently pced Isabel on the bed, ripping open her clothes to expose the dagger wound on her side.

  “René, help Isabel. She was stabbed with a dagger. I need to leave as quickly as possible before they arrive and burn this pce down,” Cra ordered, her voice cold and commanding, showing no regard for the beggar René was tending to. Her icy gaze fell on him, sending a chill down both Charlotte’s and René’s spines.

  Charlotte understood Cra’s urgency and quickly ssignaledRené to assist Isabel, even though he was still stitching up the beggar. “René, go help I,sabel. Can’t you see she needs treatment for her injuries?” Charlotte urged, her tone sharp. She felt uneasy under Cra’s piercing stare and hdid not pitythe beggar, unwilling to risk denying Cra’s request.

  “Why should I help her? She won’t be able to save us if we…” René began, but his words were cut off.

  A gss of blood Charlotte had been drinking from shattered on the floor as she let it fall, appearing beside René in an instant. “René, Miss Cra told you to help her familiar. Why are you wasting time with this filth? You already said he’ll probably die, and you can’t save him,” she snapped.

  Charlotte dragged René away from the beggar, though he was visibly displeased, still trying to save the man. René’s sharp gaze turned to Charlotte as if he wanted to burn her with his stare, but her worried expression made him reconsider.

  “Elder, please tell me exactly what happened,” René said, his tone softer as he relented.

  René's mood suddenly shifted at the beginning, as he was about to prioritize the beggar over Isabel, but now he was ready to give his life for Isabel and quickly inspected her stab wound and started cleaning it with blood.

  Cra wanted to question what was happening, but as she felt that this blood was from the vampire, she was pretty sure that it was not just a joke and let him do the magic, because she didn’t understand what was happening and what was René doing, as she only saw that the wound was stitched together and cleaned with wine.