Chapter 3 : Encounter continues

Sera sensed it immediately. And struck. She smashed the silver spike deeper into his chest. Husen jerked sharply.

Then the station lights flickered back on.

For one brief second, they froze together. Too close and too surprised. His body pressed against hers. Cold hands gripping her wrists. Silver buried in his chest. Those crimson-gold eyes locked onto her face with terrifying intensity.

Then Jonas fired another UV round directly into Husen’s back. The vampire released her instantly. Smoke curled upward from burned fabric as Husen staggered sideways.

Jonas charged. Sera attacked again.

Relentless now. No hesitation.

Knife after knife. Strike after strike.

Husen blocked most. Not all.

Silver cut across his arms. His ribs. His throat. Each wound healed slower than the last. Ancient vampires burned energy, healing silver damage.

Keep cutting. Keep moving.

Eventually, he slows. Eventually, he dies....

Husen finally stopped retreating.

The shift happened instantly.

One moment defensive. Next moment, hunting.

The vampire moved suddenly with terrifying aggression. He caught Sera’s wrist mid-strike and slammed her against the subway wall hard enough to leave cracks behind her shoulders.

Jonas fired. Husen threw Sera sideways directly into the line of fire. Jonas jerked the rifle upward barely in time. The UV round exploded harmlessly into the ceiling. Husen reached him immediately.

Fast. Too fast.

He grabbed Jonas by the throat and hurled him across the station. Jonas crashed through the ticket gate hard enough to bend metal.

Sera attacked from behind. Husen spun. Their blades collided. Silver against clawed fingers. Sparks burst between them. The vampire’s eyes locked onto hers again.

Hungry. Focused. Alive.

“You’re exhausting,” he breathed.

“You’re dying.”

“Optimistic.” He smirked.

Sera drove another knife toward his eye. Husen caught her arm. Twisted. Pain shot sharply through her wrist. The knife clattered away. Then suddenly, his face hovered inches from hers. Too close again, he gritted his teeth to control his lust for her blood. Breathing shouldn’t matter for vampires.

Yet she felt his anyway. Cold. Steady. Wrong.

Husen looked down briefly toward the pulse in her throat. His grip tightened slightly. And for one terrible second, the station went silent.

Not externally. Inside her head. Something ancient stared at her like prey. Sera reacted instantly. She bit him hard. Husen jerked backwards with visible shock.

Sera slammed her forehead into his nose again and escaped his grip immediately. Jonas burst from the wreckage with another silver blade and drove it clean through Cassian’s shoulder from behind.

The vampire snarled sharply. Finally, losing composure. Jonas twisted the blade viciously.

“Die already!”

Husen grabbed him one-handed and threw him across the platform again.

This time, Jonas stayed down longer. Sera’s stomach tightened. This wasn’t working. Husen was wounded everywhere now. Bleeding. Burned. And still standing. Still smiling.mStill hunting them.

Ancient vampires really were monsters. Then the screaming started. Deep in the tunnels below. Wilds. A lot of them. Husen heard it first. His head turned sharply toward the darkness beyond the tracks. Sera noticed the shift immediately.

The vampire’s expression hardened slightly. Not fear. Calculation. The shrieks grew louder. Closer. Dozens of them. Jonas staggered upright beside her, breathing hard.

“You hear that?”

“Yes.”

More screams echoed upward through the tunnels.

Fast-moving. Hungry.

Husen slowly pulled the silver blade from his shoulder and tossed it aside. Blood dripped steadily down his chest. The vampire glanced once toward the tunnels. Then, back toward Sera. Decision flashing behind ancient eyes. He calmly walked away towards the incoming wilds.

Sera blinked.

The first wild burst from tunnel darkness shrieking. Then another. Then ten more.

Grey skin. Blackened veins. Teeth bared in a starving frenzy. The entire station exploded with movement.

Jonas grabbed Sera’s arm immediately.

“We leave. Now.”

Husen didn’t move.

The wilds ignored Sera and Jonas completely. Every creature locked directly onto the ancient vampire instead.

Hunting. Tracking. Waiting. Husen sighed softly, almost tired.

“Well,” he murmured, glancing toward the advancing horde, “this is inconvenient.”

The wilds screamed and charged. Jonas pulled Sera backwards toward the stairs instantly.

“Forget him!”

Sera hesitated only a second.

Husen stood alone beneath the flickering subway lights surrounded by blood and approaching monsters, black coat hanging torn open while silver wounds slowly healed across pale skin.

Ancient. Beautiful. Terrifying. And doomed.

He deserved it.

Jonas yanked her harder toward the exit.

“We need to move fast.”

Sera finally turned away.

“Yeah.”