The heavy mahogany doors of the inner sanctum clicked shut with a finality that echoed like a casket closing. The silence that followed was suffocating.
Manager Silas stared at the closed door, the image of that arrogant human's retreating back burned into his retinas. For a moment, he was statuesque, his pale face an unreadable mask . Then, the mask cracked.
With a primal snarl, Silas swept his arm across his massive desk. Crystal decanters, centuries-old ledgers, and priceless artifacts were launched across the room, shattering against the paneled walls in a spray of glass and ink.
"That... mongrel!" Silas roared, his voice trembling with a rage that stripped away his veneer of civilization.
In the corner, Victor cowered, making himself as small as possible, terrified that he would be the next thing broken.
Silas paced the room like a caged beast. It wasn't just the insult—though the memory of a human, a mere food source, looking down his nose at him in his own domain made his blood boil. It was the consequences. He had just lost the Manji Clan account. Billions in assets, transferred out under his watch. The Bank's auditors would be on him by tomorrow morning. He would be ruined. He would be demoted, stripped of his rank, perhaps even executed for incompetence.
He had one night. He could keep this hush-hush for exactly one night.
He stopped pacing. A cold, desperate plan formed in his mind. He couldn't let Jin leave Rome. He couldn't let a human walk away with that fortune and his reputation.
"He thinks he can use our laws against us," Silas hissed to the empty air. "He thinks the treaties protect him."
He couldn't use the Bank's official security. That would leave a paper trail, a record of him violating the very sanctity of the institution he served. It would be an admission of guilt. He needed something quieter. Something deniable.
He unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk, the wood splintering slightly under his grip, and pulled out a cheap, disposable burner phone. He dialed a number he hadn't used in decades.
"This is Silas," he said when the line connected. His voice was no longer that of a banker, but of a desperate noble ordering a hit. "I have a job for The Ghouls."
He paused, listening to the guttural voice on the other end.
"The target is at the Hassler," Silas commanded, his eyes glowing with a dull, rusty red light. "Human male. Goes by Ben Rudolf. He carries a velvet box containing items. I want that box intact."
He gripped the phone tighter. "And the human... I want him alive. Or half-dead. I don't care which, as long as he can scream. Bring him to me by sunrise. Leave no mess."
He snapped the phone shut and threw it into the fireplace, watching the plastic melt .
====
The penthouse suite of the Hotel Hassler Roma was a study in stillness. The plush curtains were drawn tight, blocking out the eternal glow of the city below, leaving the room shrouded in a heavy, deliberate darkness. It was a space designed for luxury, for indulgence, but tonight it served a different purpose. It was a trap.
Jin sat in a velvet armchair positioned strategically in the corner, facing the door but angled to cover the balcony. He wasn't sleeping. Sleep was a luxury he couldn't afford, not when he was hunting. he was still wore the bespoke suit. The jacket was draped over a nearby lamp, and the tie hung loose around his neck like a noose he'd forgotten to tighten.
In his hand, he held a tumbler of expensive whiskey from the minibar. The ice had long since melted, diluting the amber liquid, but he didn't drink. He simply held it, feeling the cold condensation against his skin, a grounding sensation in the silent room.
His deduction had been simple. He knew how arrogant people thought. He had walked into the Tepes Bank with pride and ego. He was a human, a "lesser being," yet he held the Slate and the Phoenix Tears. To a creature like Silas, driven by centuries of accumulated greed and arrogance, that combination was irresistible. Silas wouldn't let him leave Rome. He wouldn't let a human win. He was waiting for room service, of a sort.
A attack would happen tonight ,going by troupe.
At 23:00, there was no explosion, no shattered door. Just a soft, electronic click as the lock on the suite door disengaged, open from the outside. A second later, the heavy glass door to the balcony slid open on its tracks without a sound.
Mist poured into the room, thick and unnatural, swirling across the expensive carpet before coalescing into solid forms. Five of them. Vampires. Their presence concealment was average at best—good enough to fool low level, perhaps, but to Jin's heightened senses, they were as subtle as a brass band. They smelled of old blood and cheap cologne.
They moved with practiced synchronization toward the bed. Moving faster then there thoughts Blades glinted in the faint ambient light leaking through the gaps in the curtains. They expected a sleeping victim, a quick kill. They raised their weapons and struck as one, plunging daggers and short swords into the duvet.
The sound of tearing fabric ripped through the silence. Feathers exploded into the air, drifting down like snow in the darkness.
"Empty," one hissed, confusion coloring his tone.
From the deep shadow of the corner, a red eye flared open, glowing with a cold, crimson luminescence.
"You're loud," Jin said.
The vampires whipped around, their eyes widening as they registered the figure standing in darkness. But they were already too late.
The fight wasn't a battle. I
Jin moved. He didn't explode with roaring power; he flowed. He was a ghost in the darkness with nimble speed.
He was behind the first vampire before the man could even raise his sword. Jin let out his claw and let them pass through his neck cutting it off .
The second vampire lunged, a desperate slash aimed at Jin's throat. Jin didn't dodge. He stepped into the guard, his body shifting like smoke. He caught the vampire's wrist, redirecting the momentum so the blade buried itself in the chest of the third attacker rushing from the balcony.
The third vampire gasped, looking down at the sword protruding from his sternum, before crumbling to ash.
The second vampire stared in horror, but Jin was already moving. He swept the vampire's legs out from under him and, with a casual stomp to the throat, ended him.
Two left.
The fourth vampire turned to run, but Jin picked up the whiskey tumbler and flicked his wrist. The glass flew through the air faster than an arrow coated with touki, shattering against the back of the vampire's skull. He dropped instantly.
The leader, the last one standing, froze. He looked around at his fallen squad, dispatched in less than ten seconds with minimal effort. He looked back at Jin, who was now standing in front of him, hands loose at his sides, breathing steady and calm.
Jin's red eye bored into him. "Where is he?"
The leader, a thug with sharpened teeth and fear in his eyes, tried to play dumb. "Who? Who sent us? I don't—"
"I didn't ask who sent you," Jin interrupted, his voice flat. "I know who sent you. I asked where is Silas?"
The leader blinked. "Who... who is Silas?"
Jin sighed. "The bank manager. The one who hired you. Give me his address, and I will let you go. Where is he now?"
The promise of life was a powerful motivator. The leader swallowed hard, nodding frantically. "I... I can get it for you. I don't know his current location, but I can get it."
He fumbled for his phone, his hands shaking so badly he almost dropped it. He dialed a number and put it on speaker, terrified Jin would think he was calling for backup.
"Hey, buddy," the leader stammered into the phone. "I... I need a favor."
A voice crackled on the other end, sounding annoyed and slightly disgusted. "Hey buddy, I can't. Your sexual preferences are too weird. The last girl is still freaked out. I told you to lose my number."
The leader turned a bright shade of crimson, looking mortified as he glanced at Jin standing in front of him. "Hey man! I promise, that's not what I want! I swear! I just need Silas's address. The bank manager."
There was a pause on the line. "Silas? The stuck-up one? I see... but you owe me. A huge one. Let me get back to you."
The line clicked dead.
The leader looked up at Jin, a nervous, hopeful smile on his face. "He... he will get back to me."
Jin nodded, unamused. "Okay. Do you have a car?"
"Yes! Yes, I have a car downstairs."
"Let's go out," Jin said, gesturing to the door. "You will drive me."
Jin decided to kill every vampire turning them to ashes .
They left the room, stepping over the ashes . They took the service elevator down to the garage, the silence uncomfortable for the vampire but perfectly comfortable for Jin.
Once they were in the car, a nondescript sedan, the leader's phone buzzed. He checked the text message.
"You are lucky," the vampire said, starting the engine. "He is at his house today. Appian Way."
"Drive," Jin ordered.
As the car pulled out of the hotel garage and into the night, Jin looked out the window. The city was quiet, the ancient streets empty.
"So," Jin asked, breaking the silence. "How can you attack this hotel? I thought there would be some treaty. This is one of the best hotels in the city."
The leader, now acting as a chauffeur for the man who murdered his friends, shrugged. "Brother, it's only good in the human part. In the supernatural world, this place isn't under the treaty and isn't that good. It's fair game. And honestly... now with the civil war, the treaties mean very little. Everyone is grabbing what they can."
Jin watched the lights of Rome blur past. "I see."
The car sped toward the Appian Way, carrying a hunter to his prey.