Lisa gasped as she felt pressure on her shoulder and before she knew it, she was harshly pinned to a wall, her face scraped against the rough surface of it. Panic rose within her and she immediately regretted having taken this route back to her apartment.

“Keep quiet and I will make it hurt less,” the guy cooed.

“Roy, please, don’t do it, I will do whatever you guys want me to do,” Lisa felt so useless as she pleaded.

The girl would very much preferred to have been murdered rather than herself to be violated in this way. What had she done to deserve all these? Lisa had thrown away her money, her morals, and her dignity. Was being born into a rich family a sin? If so, Lisa would like to ask to be reborn again.

“Of course you will do all of our biddings, my bidding, including this,” Roy sneered as he plastered his pulsing hot body against hers.

“Please… don’t…” Lisa could feel his prick poking into her rear and she struggled to break free but she was just too weak.

Roy, the guy who had been torturing her mentally throughout her high school years laughed in delight at the girl’s feeble attempts. However, something happened, Roy’s laughter stopped abruptly and the pressure on her body was suddenly gone. There was a sharp but short crunching sound which Lisa did not manage to figure out what it was before she had been knocked unconscious. However, before she the darkness had claimed her, she saw a face, a face so beautiful that it was etched deeply into her memory.

Wendy knew she should have been quicker and knock the girl out quickly. That moment of hesitation arising from her reservation from hurting the girl almost gave the vampire out. The mortal girl must have seen her for a split second or two, but Wendy was certain that the girl had not witnessed the crime the vampire had committed. Making a face of disgust as she examined her kill, Wendy initially thought to leave the twisted body of the almost- there. The vampire then looked at the Lisa girl and her expression softened. What do I do with you?

In no way would Wendy leave Lisa at the scene of crime. That would have been a sabotage and a very irresponsible way to do things. However, it would have been difficult for Wendy to move the girl from this place as well, because she would need an alibi to prove that she had not made the kill.

Shuttling between these thoughts, the vampire then returned her attention back to the mangled corpse and finally arrived at the idea of removing the body from the scene. Fortunately, it had been bloodless kill, it would have been troublesome if it was not. Sighing, the vampire picked up the lifeless body as if it were a ragdoll.

Something then caught Wendy’s attention, the unmistakable scent of a fellow being, another of her own kind in the vicinity. Judging from how the scent was becoming stronger as seconds passed by, Wendy knew that this stray vampire had sensed her presence as well. Narrowing her eyes at the thought of having to deal with this added complication, Wendy knew she had to quickly remove herself and the body away from the spot in hopes of luring the vampire away. Stealing one last glance at the unconscious girl and feel her uneasiness escalating, the vampire then fled into the night.  

Good luck, Lisa.

**  

“The last time, we had vague news that Joohyun was spotted had been in Europe. We have covered the States as well. Let’s try the Asian countries now.”

“Why Asian countries?” Amber asked. “Besides, we did not confirm that that vampire was Joohyun back then, the vampire that you had questioned had only admitted that it was Joohyun because you had tortured him so.”

“Where else do you suggest?” Sulli avoided the question entirely and ignored Amber’s accusations.

“I am not suggesting anywhere else, I just want to know why you have suggested to comb through the Asian countries.” Amber emphasised, patience was thinning in her voice.

Krystal intervened as she knew the conversation between Amber and Sulli would be headed nowhere with each prejudiced against the other’s intentions. “It is just a hunch. Sulli and I thought of combing through the Asian countries simply because we think she might be there.”

Amber squinted her eyes which were full of mistrust before letting out a long sigh. She hated to admit that Krystal’s hunches were deadly accurate and besides, Amber knew Krystal had informants all over the world. Amber could not help but notice that Krystal had become more and more supportive of the plan to hunt down Joohyun.

Despite herself showing her firm stance against looking for Joohyun, Amber also found herself unable to extricate herself from the plans and felt like a hypocrite for objecting to these plans in the first place. Countless of times, she would lose her temper whenever Sulli taunted her with the fact that Amber would always do the group’s bidding and that she would be powerless to stop anything from happening. It was a repetition of events, déjà vu, of what happened seven hundred years ago. Voices had been raised and yet Amber had still allowed the series of misfortunes to befall upon Irene and do nothing about it. The vampire shut her eyes as she remembered the scene that had been carved so deeply into her mind. Silver-chained Irene. The intense fire. The impossible feat of breaking those silver chains. Her incredible escape.

Amber then felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Krystal, again. Krystal always seemed to have a way to reel Amber back to business with a simple touch. Amber sighed audibly once more and shrugged Krystal’s hand off. “Please Krystal, stop using this on me.”

Krystal shook her head. “It was meant to provide you comfort, nothing else.”

Amber raised her brows sceptically but decided to make no further comments. The discussion progressed when the rest of the members have also agreed to lock their focus on the Asian countries. For the first time in so many hundred years, they would deploy the full strength of The Valks to look for their long-lost, former member. In Amber’s mind, she was not so concerned because no one would have been able to remember Joohyun’s scent. Besides, the vampire knew in her old heart that Joohyun was capable of hiding herself well enough and that The Valk’s enthusiasm to find her would should wane with time. It always did. Apparently, Amber’s thought did not resonate with all the members of The Valks.

Sorry Joohyun, we have no choice but to resort to this. I am afraid, you must be destroyed regardless of the situation.

**

Seulgi snapped back to concentrating on the duel a moment too late. She had seen the leader move. She went to the right. Yes, the leader had definitely gone in that direction.

The young vampire’s eyes, which were by now wine-red scanned the plains quickly in hopes of catching up to the leader. It was of no use and oddly enough, Irene’s scent was everywhere and that only meant that Irene had covered all the areas within that