In the living room, Selene was looking at something on her phone, while Vanessa was feeling slightly nervous.
"I wonder what Lady Arlene is doing in that room," Mayla said aloud to ease the tension in the room.
"Maybe she's testing her remote control," Selene said in a disinterested tone. She knows her friend well.
"Why do you say that?" Mayla is intrigued. Why test Lucien's control if he seems to be a newborn vampire? When he's good enough.
"Because when they drink your blood, you feel a strong urge that makes your instincts stronger; if you can't control it, you can lose yourself."
"Now I understand why, since we were little, our parents drank our blood." Mayla now understands, woman, because she is only 87 years old; she has not acquired all the basic knowledge.
"Your parents drink blood from your necks; I say this because, according to modern novels and movies, the neck is something only lovers do." This time, it was Vanessa who spoke.
"You're not entirely wrong; we only let our partners drink blood from our necks, but to train us, our parents bite our arms, although the stimulus is less," Selene explained.
Vanessa nodded, understanding, although, honestly, she wasn't expecting an answer.
The three continued chatting until they sensed the presence of Lucien and Arlene, who smiled.
She sits down and crosses her legs sensually: "Okay, now we'll talk about the reason I came."
Lucien, visibly exhausted, takes a seat, as does Selene, who maintains a calm expression.
Then Arlene begins recounting what Mayla had discovered about the Cultists' movements, the Inquisition, and the two vampires involved.
Lucien listens to everything with a neutral expression; I don't expect a single half-mad vampire, as Selene says, to be involved in both the Inquisition and the Cultists.
"To think that bastard would be involved in that mess... now I understand why the Cultists became so active; that's why they're more active," Selene said in a neutral tone.
"That's right," Arlene nods slightly. "But what strikes me most is what he said about the black moon; I've never heard anything like it in my 125 years of life."
"Mayla, do you know if he said anything else about the black moon?" She looks at her calmly.
"No, my lady, what he said was that the black moon is not for a ritual to become a demon; all that was an invention on his part," Maya replies, returning to her place.
Vanessa, who overhears the vampires' casual conversation, doesn't know how to feel; she is overwhelmed by a range of emotions: anger, hatred, resignation, sadness, and more. Everything she suffered was because of a bastard who lied to them.
Being held captive for many months, all because of a lie? What kind of bullshit is this! All that suffering, for nothing?
"Why did this have to happen to me...?" she murmurs, biting her lip.
However, that murmur was heard by everyone with supernatural senses.
"Don't overthink it, you just had bad luck," Selene said, as if she had seen many things: "This time it was you, but next time it could be a child in Africa or an elderly person in Holland, so thinking that is stupid; you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and had terrible luck."
The same applies to Lucien, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time before being attacked by four female vampires who, curiously enough, ended up becoming his wives.
"I see... so those two groups are working with Loic," Lucien said. That vampire didn't seem as half-mad as Selene and Arlene had mentioned.
As for the stolen artifact, he thinks it might be a cover to divert everyone's attention so they don't realize they're working for the right cause.
"But that's not all. Loic has a partner named Silas... Silas Vesper, who was seen when they met with the Inquisition hunters," Arlene said.
"What!?" Lucien sits up abruptly. "Arlene, did you just say... Silas Vesper?" His eyes begin to glow an intense blood red.
"Yes, Silas Vesper..." she confirms, tilting her head to one side. "But... why are you so surprised?" she asks, sensing his agitation.
"Because that's the name of the owner of the company where she works..." he says in a neutral tone, but immediately realizes something he hadn't noticed until then.
"Damn it! I have to hurry!" He gets up and heads for the exit, his eyes red as blood.
"Wait, what's going on?" asks Selene
"My mother is in danger!" he shouts.
She looks at him, confused. What does his mother have to do with the vampire Silas? She doesn't understand.
But Lucien doesn't have time to explain. When he quit, he did so in a very peculiar way.
So he quickly leaves the house and heads to the hospital, where his mother is, before it's too late.
"It's okay for my husband to leave like this; it's almost dawn," Arlene said, looking out the window.
"You don't have to worry; he's immune to the sun," Selene says with a tone that still sounds surprised.
"What!?"
"And that's not all; he can use his vampiric instincts to fight."
"..." Arlene stared blankly as she watched Lucien speed away.
...
A light morning drizzle falls as the first golden rays of the sun pierce the s.ky
Lucien is already arriving at the hospital; the dawn light reflects off his skin without burning him, with Luna in his shadow.
He arrives at the hospital, where nurses and doctors come out in their white coats, some with coffee in their hands and others with e-cigarettes.
He enters and receives all kinds of looks until he reaches the counter.
"How can I help you?" asks the nurse with dark circles under her eyes, in a neutral tone.
"I've come to see my mother, Carmila Ricci," says Lucien, his eyes now red as blood, shining.
"It's very late..."
"Once I see my mother, I'll leave with her, and you'll forget everything that's happening now." He interrupted her, staring intently into her eyes.
"Understood." The nurse responds in a robotic tone with an expressionless face.
He accompanies her to room 15A, where his mother, Carmila, is.
The smell of cheap disinfectant reaches his nose, along with the beeping of the machines; he sees that his mother is fast asleep, as if nothing in the world could disturb her sleep.
"Ha..." Lucien sighed with relief. His mother was unharmed... but he knew this place was not safe for her.
Then, Mayla emerges from his shadow: "Can I help you with anything?"
"Is there any way to get my mother out of the hospital right now?" He doesn't want to leave her there; he's not going to make the stupid mistake of leaving the woman he loves most in the world exposed to danger.
"Yes."
He looked at his mother and then at Mayla: "Do it right now, please."
"Yes," Mayla takes out her phone and starts talking.
"It seems like it was a false alarm, but we'd better move it somewhere else." Lucien realizes his oversight.
"All right, they'll be here for your mother in five minutes," Mayla informs him.
He smiles. "Thank you," he says sincerely.
Suddenly, he senses several auras, both sacred and blasphemous.
They were Inquisition hunters and cultists!
Lucien's expression hardened.
"Mayla, protect my mother," he said coldly, his eyes shining intensely.
She nods. Suddenly, her shadow grows, covering the entire room, and then shrinks back.
All the machines are gone, as is Carmila. She returns once more to Lucien's shadow.
Lucien leaves the room with a neutral expression, watching as his enemies arrive at the hospital.