CRIMSON NOCTURNE

CHAPTER 25: The Search

The next day, both Yi Fei and Camilla successfully buried their feelings deep within their hearts, locking away the emotions that had surfaced the night before. They maintained the same courteous, respectful demeanor as always, moving around each other with careful politeness. Camilla handled all the household chores with her usual efficiency, and Yi Fei enjoyed a rare day of leisure at home, though his mind was far from restful. When night fell and Yi Fei prepared to transform and go out on his hunt, Camilla softly thanked him from behind for the pendant. Her voice was barely a whisper.

Remembering the awkward moment from the previous night, Yi Fei gave an embarrassed smile. Without meeting her eyes, he quickly leaped onto the roof and disappeared into the darkness. Only Camilla remained, standing at the window and watching the night sky where he had vanished. A long, heavy sigh escaped her lips.

"This line of work is dangerous. If you want to survive and do well, don't let random thoughts distract you when you're on the job." Recalling Van Helsing's gruff advice as he neared the area from the previous night, Yi Fei forcefully pulled himself together. He shook his head, trying to physically dislodge the thoughts of Camilla that lingered at the edges of his mind.

Crouching once again in the damp shadows of a rooftop, he felt increasingly like a cockroach—always drawn to the dark, filthy places that others avoided. After a wry, self-deprecating laugh, he focused his full attention back on the small house below. Then he froze. The building showed absolutely no signs of activity. No lights. No movement. No sounds of life. Could it be that they had discovered him last night and pulled a disappearing act? After waiting another ten tense minutes with still no movement inside, he decided to investigate directly.

Using the shadows for cover, Yi Fei crept silently toward the house, his padded footsteps making no sound on the pavement. Even at close range, his enhanced senses detected nothing inside—no heartbeat, no breathing, no warmth. Frustration mounting, he momentarily forgot Van Helsing's constant warnings about caution. He pushed open a half-closed window and leaped inside, landing in a crouch.

The room was perfectly tidy, with no signs of a hasty departure. Belongings were neatly arranged, as if the occupants had simply stepped out for a moment. Yi Fei circled the space twice, his eyes scanning every corner. Not a soul in sight. But as he breathed deeper, something familiar lingered in the air—a scent he recognized.

"Teacher Le!" Yi Fei's eyes widened in shock. The familiar fragrance hanging in the air was none other than Le Kester—the very woman who had taken Chen Jing from N City High School. "She was here! But where is she now?"

Chen Jing's face appeared vividly before his eyes, her smile, her warmth. Burning with desperate urgency, Yi Fei burst onto the rooftop and began leaping wildly across Rome, vaulting from building to building in a frantic, patternless search. He didn't know how long he searched, covering miles of rooftops, before finding nothing and gradually forcing himself to calm down.

"Rome is so vast—where am I supposed to find them in this endless maze of streets and buildings?" He stopped abruptly, landing heavily on a ledge. He crouched under an eave, despair pressing down on him like a physical weight. Then a new thought struck him. "Wait—maybe Teacher Le finished her business here and took everyone with her. If I can find just one of her associates, maybe I can track down the rest!" Hope flickered back to life in his chest. He steeled himself, took a deep breath, and resumed the hunt with renewed determination.

Fortune favors the persistent. After scouring more than a dozen streets, his patience was finally rewarded. Yi Fei's extraordinary night vision caught the wickedness unfolding in the deep shadows of a narrow alley. Several rough-looking men were holding a young woman down, methodically draining her blood into a container.

Even from his distant perch, Yi Fei could tell the woman was already beyond saving. Her skin had taken on the waxy pallor of approaching death. With unusual composure for someone his age, he decided to play the long game. He would follow these men and see where they led, rather than intervening prematurely.

After draining every last drop of the woman's lifeblood, the group casually buried her pale, lifeless body beneath a pile of garbage bags, covering their crime with casual indifference. They dispersed in different directions, melting into the night. Yi Fei silently chose one target—the man carrying the blood bag—and followed at a careful distance.

"Nighttime really is the best time for crime," Yi Fei muttered to himself, watching the man walk brazenly down the street with several liters of human blood sloshing in his container. "No one even bats an eye. You could carry a corpse down main street and people would look the other way."

The man walked for a while, then stopped at a crossroads. He looked around cautiously, checking for followers. Confirming he wasn't being tailed, he turned into a residential building by the roadside. But Yi Fei, perched high on an adjacent rooftop, saw everything.

Yi Fei studied the building—an ordinary apartment complex housing dozens of families. Finding the real target in such a crowded place would take time and patience. With no better plan, he settled onto the roof and began using his enhanced senses to search room by room, listening for the telltale signs of vampire activity.

He had just been subjected to the snoring of the twenty-third apartment's occupant when the very man he'd been following emerged from the stairwell. Cursing under his breath, Yi Fei decided to abandon subtlety. He would catch this one and demand answers directly.

Having exceeded Berman's quota for the night, Kurt was heading back to see his lover, blissfully unaware that a predator was tracking him. He wandered casually through the neon-lit streets, humming a strange, off-key tune as he went.

A few drinks at a bar. Some flirtatious banter with women returning home late. Maybe a brawl or two thrown in for good measure. Under Yi Fei's increasingly impatient gaze, the slightly drunk Kurt finally decided it was time to head home. Stepping out of a bar, he ducked into a side alley—a shortcut that would take him home faster. Yi Fei had worried the man would stick to well-lit main roads all night, but this alley was perfect. Here, he could make his move without witnesses.

Kurt staggered deeper into the narrow passage, his bottle swinging carelessly in his hand. Then, suddenly, his vampire instincts screamed a warning. A powerful force was rushing toward him at incredible speed. His drunken haze vanished in an instant. Fangs bared, eyes glowing green, Kurt spun and swung the bottle with all his might at the streak of silver charging at him. "I knew someone was watching me! Now I've lured you out!"

Yi Fei's left-hand blade sliced the bottle clean in half just before it connected with his skull. Glass shards flew in every direction. His right hook followed immediately, a devastating blow aimed at Kurt's jaw. The strike, far beyond anything the vampire could withstand, shattered his guard and connected with a sickening crunch.

Kurt flew sideways, his body crashing into the brick wall with bone-jarring force before he even hit the ground. All the confidence drained out of him. In all his years as a vampire, no one except Berman had ever been able to hurt him like this.

Lifting his head, Kurt studied his opponent with dawning horror. "A werewolf?" His confidence evaporated, and now even his last shred of courage deserted him. He couldn't believe he had encountered a werewolf—a creature that hadn't been seen in Rome for decades.

Seeing the despair in the vampire's eyes, Yi Fei deliberately projected overwhelming menace as he approached. He stopped directly before Kurt, towering over the cowering vampire, letting the silence stretch.

"Is he over two meters tall? Definitely under three," Kurt thought frantically, his legs trembling uncontrollably. "How will he eat me? Swallowing me whole would be disgusting..."

"Tell me," Yi Fei growled, putting as much menace into his voice as he could manage. "The girl you killed earlier. Where did you take her blood? What are you planning to do with it?"

Still stunned, Kurt answered reflexively, the words tumbling out before he could stop them. "The boss took the blood back to base. I heard it's going to the cathedral. I don't know why. That's above my pay grade."

"The cathedral?" Yi Fei's mind raced back to the destruction of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Were they planning something similar for Rome's St. Peter's? "How can you enter such holy ground?"

"No idea. The boss handles all the logistics himself." Kurt just hoped to die cleanly, without a messy, prolonged end.

This one didn't know much, but it was enough. He could stake out the cathedral and wait for them to make their move. Yi Fei nodded slowly. "All right. Hope you do better in your next life." He opened his jaws wide and let out a low, rumbling growl. "Disintegration Cannon..." The layered soundwaves that erupted from his mouth struck Kurt with devastating precision, pulverizing every internal organ in the vampire's body. Kurt died instantly, without a single external wound—a clean death, as promised.

"Not bad—my control over that finishing move is definitely improving." After wiping his mouth, Yi Fei oriented himself by memory and raced toward the cathedral at top speed. "Let's see exactly what dirty tricks they're planning under that holy dome."

[END OF CHAPTER 25]