The child's limp weight barely registered in Michael's arms.
His body tremble. Not from fear, but from a hunger so sharp it sliced reason into shreds. The boy's tiny heartbeat fluttered like a dying bird. The scent of warms blood, so close, so fragile, hit Michael like a tidal wave. Michael's fingers tightened around the child's arm.
The man grinned slowly.
"There we go…" he murmured approvingly.
Every instinct inside Michael screamed to feed, to tear and drink the child's blood
But something else— a thin, stubborn flicker of the man he used to be ignited inside him.
Michael's jaw clenched, his breath hitched.
And suddenly—
He dropped the child. The boy hit the floor with a soft thud and rolled to safety against the wall.
The man blinked. Confused.
"…What's the matter?"
But Michael was already moving. Not thoughtfully, just pure, violent instinct.
He lunged.
Not at the child but at the vampire.
The man barely had a second to widen his eyes before Michael crashed into him with feral force, slamming him into the opposite wall. Plaster cracked around the impact. Michael's new claws tore into the man's coat, pinning him in place.
Then Michael's mouth opened and his fangs sank into the vampire's throat.
Blood hit Michael's tongue like liquid lightning.
Cold, burning, venomous energy surged through his veins in a violent rush. His back arched, his grip tightened, his claws dug deeper into the vampire's shoulders as he drank, drowning in the electric taste.
The man screamed.
"AH—! GET—OFF—!"
He grabbed a fistful of Michael's hair with inhuman speed and yank hard.
Michael snarled, still tearing at his throat.
The man slammed his arm forward with all his strength.
Michael flew.
His body smashed through a wooden divider and hit the wall of the adjacent corridor so violently the whole hallway shook. Dust cascaded from the ceiling.
He slid down the wall, vision spinning, blood smeared across his lips.
His breath trembled… but the hunger wasn't gone.
It was worse.
Much worse.
His body shook like something feral was trying to claw its way out from inside his ribs.
He forced himself upright, bracing his palm on the ground—
And froze.
Tap... Tap... Tap...
A pair of polished black shoes stepped into view.
"Well now… that was dramatic."
Michael lifted his head.
A man in a white coat stepped out from the shadowed doorway he had just ruptured. The soft lantern light revealed a familiar face, eyes glinting with amusement.
"Hey, professor," Nathaniel drawled with a small smirk. "You look different."
Michael staggered to his feet. Blood streaking down his chin.
He swiped his sleeve across his mouth. A slow, shaky motion that left a red smear on the white cloth.
Nathaniel tilted his head, examining him like a fascinating specimen.
And Michael through the haze became aware of his reflection in a shard of broken glass nearby.
His nose flattened, his skin was grey and corpse-pale, his eyes glowing a deep, predatory red.
Fangs pushing past his lips. Claws curling naturally from his fingertips.
A monster.
He stared at his own hands in horror, confusion, and disbelief.
His body didn't feel like his.
He lifted his gaze to Nathaniel, voice cracking with confusion and terror.
"What… what's happening to me?"
Nathaniel lifted a brow.
"We'll get to that," he said lightly. "But first—"
A cold voice cut in.
"Hey you mutt, what do you think you're doing"
The man stepped forward, rubbing his torn throat where venomous blood still glistened. He stepped partially into the dim angle of a lantern and his skin caught the faint light reflecting it back like shattered diamonds.
His expression twisted in annoyance.
"Are you the one who turned him?" he snapped at Nathaniel. "You should leash him properly, mate. He nearly tore my bloody throat out."
Nathaniel didn't flinch, he just smiled faintly.
"That's not my doing," he said with airy detachment. "And you—" his eyes flicked over the vampire's glittering skin, "are probably an Eclipsed. I presume?"
The diamond-skinned vampire huffed irritably.
But he froze suddenly.
His nose wrinkled.
"…Tsk." His face contorted with disgust. "Why is a rabid dog like you here?."
"Nothing, I'm just strolling around," Nathaniel's grin sharpened. "And you're exactly what I thought, a Twilight-
breed."
The vampire shot him a cold glare.
Nathaniel waved a dismissive hand. "Relax. I'm not judging."
He then nodded toward Michael.
"Now, hey uh… do you need help with him?" he asked casually.
Michael didn't answer.
The man didn't give him even a second to think. One moment he was glaring at Nathaniel, and the next he lunged forward with a snarl, closing the distance between them in a blur.
Bang!
Michael barely managed to bring his arms up before the impact slammed him backward. The two collided, skidding across the narrow corridor as the vampire clawed at him with sharp, glittering nails.
Michael reacted purely on instinct. He twisted, shoved, and swung blindly, his movements wild and unrefined. Every strike felt clumsy, like his body wasn't fully his yet, but the strength behind each motion was undeniable. His hand caught the vampire's shoulder mid-grapple and the man staggered back several steps, surprised by the force.
But Michael didn't get a chance to follow up. The vampire surged toward him again, slamming him against a support beam hard enough to make the wood creak. A sharp pain shot through Michael's back. He hissed, bracing his arms against the man's chest to push him off.
Their struggle blurred into a violent back-and-forth, both stumbling down the corridor. Every sound sharpened around Michael. Footsteps, breaths, the shift of muscle, even the faint groan of the ship's hull. At first it overwhelmed him, a chaotic flood of noise threatening to drown his focus. But as the vampire swung at him again, something clicked.
The world shifted.
The noises weren't just sounds anymore. They were patterns.
Michael inhaled sharply, and for a moment the entire corridor vibrated with a low, pulsing resonance that rippled through his senses. A strange awareness bloomed inside his mind as a three-dimensional outline of the hallway formed from sound and vibration, rendering everything with eerie clarity.
When the vampire moved, Michael felt it before he saw it.
He ducked low, letting the man's clawed hand slice through the air above his head. The motion carried him forward; he pivoted and landed a solid strike to the vampire's ribs. The man grunted, stumbling sideways into a wooden crate.
Nathaniel, who had somehow ended up sitting on the floor with a small tin of something he was eating, raised his brows in mild amusement as the two tumbled past him.
"Boo," he called lazily. "You're being beaten by a newborn."
The vampire let out a frustrated snarl and tried to regain momentum, but Michael was already adjusting, letting the strange new ability guide him. The vibrations painted the man's movements before they happened: a shift of weight, a rush of air, a tightening of muscle. Michael dodged a clawed swipe, then countered with a hard knee to the stomach that forced a gasp from the vampire's throat.
The fight crashed from corridor to corridor, neither gaining full control, until they both finally broke apart from each other with heavy breaths. They stood several feet apart, bodies marked with cuts and torn fabric, chests rising and falling rapidly. But it was clear who had taken the worse of it. The vampire's face was swollen, his jaw bruised, his shirt torn to ribbons. Michael, though battered, was still steady on his feet.
Nathaniel dusted off his hands with a cloth and stood up, glancing between them with a bored expression. "Well, that's that. We should probably forget this whole thing, don't you think?"
The man, still catching his breath, glared at him with pure hatred. "You think I'm just going to walk away?"
Nathaniel's smile sharpened. "You can try. But I don't imagine you want any of those nobles or their precious 'rabid dogs' hearing about this incident, do you? Especially if you hurt our dear first class here"
The threat landed instantly.
The vampire froze. His jaw clenched, eyes darkening. He stared at Nathaniel, then at Michael, weighing his options. His anger simmered silently before he backed away, posture stiff.
"This isn't over," he spat toward Michael, pointing at him with a trembling hand.
Then he turned and sprinted down the opposite corridor, disappearing into the maze of passageways.
Silence settled almost immediately after.
Michael's legs finally gave out. His knees hit the floor, breath shaking as exhaustion washed over him all at once. His body felt heavy, trembling from the strain of unfamiliar power.
"Not bad for a newborn," Nathaniel said as he crouched in front of him, meeting his eye. He slipped Michael's arm over his shoulder without waiting for permission. "Come on. Let's get you patched up before you start leaking everywhere."
Michael winced but managed to lift his head. His gaze shifted toward the faint shapes of the unconscious woman and child lying where the fight had begun.
"H-how about them?" His voice was raw, nearly cracking.
Nathaniel followed his line of sight, then gave a soft exhale through his nose, almost amused.
"Don't worry about them," he said, tightening his grip around Michael's waist before lifting him more securely. "Someone will take care of them."
The lantern flickered softly as they turned down the corridor, leaving the scene behind.