The two Vampires pushed the door open. A deep frown graced their faces as they looked straight ahead.

“It looks empty. I mean, honestly, only an idiot would come back here after doing what he did,” One of the Vampires commented, noticing the empty room.

Atlas stood behind the door completely still, not making even the slightest of noise. It was as if he had stopped breathing as well.

The Two Vampires stepped inside the house and walked to the washroom without looking back to see if someone was there or not. For them, the room was empty.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Atlas snuck out of the house and disappeared into the crowd.

“Not here either,” the Vampires stepped out of the washroom. “We just wasted our time by coming here, didn’t we?”

“While we’re already here, let’s see if we can find something about them here,” the second Vampire commented, walking to the wardrobe.

Other than a bunch of clothes, he couldn’t find anything worthy of his attention there.

The other Vampire walked to the table to check the papers that were spread there. The entire table was covered in letters, from bills to job posters. He went through all the papers, not finding anything useful.

“I don’t think we’re going to find anything here.” He tossed all the useless papers on the ground, clearing the table entirely before pulling the drawer open.

“Huh?” As soon as he opened the drawer, his face changed. He noticed a notepad in the drawer with something written on it.

He picked up the notepad and went through what was written. “That bastard!”

“Did you find something?” His loud curse attracted the attention of his mate, who ran to him.

He took a curious glance at the notepad in the man’s hand. “So he knew we were going to come here. It’s a challenge to Lord Carlisle. Should we show him?”

“We can’t keep it hidden. Come, let’s go.”

Both the men left the house, not even bothering to close the doors behind them as they left.

From an unknown corner in the neighborhood, Atlas watched the two leave. He noticed the notepad in their hands which brought a smile to his face.

“He made my existence a living nightmare? It’s time I return the favor.”

~~~~

Yovana was given the cure of the poison, and her body started healing. His face regained the color, and her breathing stabilized. She didn’t seem to be in pain anymore.

Carlisle sat beside her, waiting for his men to return. He kept observing the beautiful lady lying on the bed before him, but there seemed no lust in his eyes. For the first time in his life, he had a pure expression of worry on his face.

He gently caressed the cheeks of Yovana. “Even after all the security I gave you, you still had to suffer like this. I am sorry. I promise I’ll make up for it. Whoever did it… They will regret ever being born! Get well soon, little Yovana.”

He stood up, hearing the sound of footsteps outside.

The door opened, and multiple dark-robed men stepped inside the room. “We checked the roof and all the surroundings. We didn’t find anything. Whoever did it escaped already.”

Carlisle nodded. “Let’s see how far he can run. Seal the entire city and check every house if need to! I want those two people at any cost!”

“Yes.” All the Vampires bowed before they left. Only one man stayed behind.

“My Lord, if I may sit something…”

“What do you want to say?”

“My Lord, the people who can disappear do easily from the place that was surrounded by us; I think they won’t be stupid enough to stay in the city. If I’m not wrong, they probably left the city already.”

“Leave the thinking to me! Do as I say!” Carlisle snapped, seeing one of his men talking as if he was saying something that Carlisle didn’t know. He had guessed that much as well. He just didn’t want to take a risk. He wanted to make sure that it was the work of outsiders and that they weren’t here.

“Y-yes.” The last Vampire also swiftly ran, sweating under the immense aura of Carlisle.

Just as he left the room, two more Vampires stepped into the room. “We checked the house.”

“Let me guess; you didn’t find anything?” Carlisle asked, rolling his eyes.

“We didn’t find him, but we did find something else…” the men muttered as they hesitantly took a step forward and gave the notepad to Carlisle. “It seems to be a message from him.”

Carlisle started reading the message.

“Dear Carlisle, I hope you enjoyed my gift to you. I wanted to give you more gifts, but I didn’t have enough time. Maybe next time. For now, I need to go back home and tell my tales to the young ones. But don’t worry. I should be back soon, and we can continue this game. You’re my final prize after all.”

“Oh, you might be wondering who I am? I’ll let you keep guessing. You’ve hurt so many people. Just think of me as someone affected by your actions. I won’t threaten you, but I’ll certainly give you some advice. Complete any incomplete work you have because you might not get the time to do it in the future once I return.”

“This time, it was just an excerpt. I’ll write an entire book the next time I come, which will end with your extinction. Wait for me.”

At the end of the note, there was a strange character which seemed to be a bunch of random lines into one.

“Hah, so that’s who you are. A witch thinks she can kill me?” Carlisle stood up, seemingly grim. The entire letter didn’t give away the identity of the writer, but the last letter did, which was the name of the writer.

“My Lord, a Witch is behind it? Didn’t they go into hiding a long time ago after the last war?” One of the two men, Lai, asked.

“They went into hiding, but they didn’t give up their revenge. Those damn witches really think they can defeat us with such tactics?” Carlisle roared. “Those idiots couldn’t even hide their identity properly. The last letter it’s the Ancient Witch Language in which they write their names. She thought I wouldn’t know this language?’

“The witches are waging a war on us?” Lai inquired. “How did they get that much courage?”

“They are too cowardly to wage a direct war on us. They know we will annihilate them. That’s why they’re trying to weaken me by killing my men slowly. Since they know I’ll be more alert now, they left the city, planning to return again. Those idiots really underestimated me. Next time, I won’t give them an opportunity to return!” Carlisle declared.

“Go to Master Wu in the southern city and invite him respectfully to meet me! It’s time we make things a bit serious!” He commanded the two men.

“Spell Master Wu? I heard he is very arrogant. Will he agree to come for us?” Lai asked.

“He will. He owes me a favor. Just remind him that. He won’t say no. Tell him to come fast! Now leave!”

“Yes, My Lord.” The two Vampires bowed respectfully before they ran again.

Carlisle stood alone, holding the piece of paper in his hand. He glanced at the name one last time before crushing the paper. He didn’t toss it away. He just kept it in his pocket.

He picked up the body of Yovana in his arms and left the room. He entered the carriage and commanded the driver to take him back to the Castle.

Amidst the glorifying gazes of citizens, the carriage left.

Atlas watched the carriage leave, from amidst the crowd, on his knees. He kept his head down. “That letter should make him think that it’s a Witch who did this. That should give me some room to move.”

“All thanks to me, teaching you how to write a name in the Ancient Witch Language. Without that, he wouldn’t be convinced,” Lilith responded, sounding proud.

“Yeah, yeah. Thank you as well,” Atlas let out as he stood up after the Carriage left. Instead of wearing his old cloak or the lavish clothes of Castiel, he was donning an entirely different set of clothes that he had borrowed from the wardrobe of Lancaster.

He wore a beautiful white shirt which seemed to be years old. Lancaster hadn’t bought new clothes in over two years, after all. He also wore brown pants, which had six pockets. Two of the pockets had holes in them, but the rest were good.

“Lilith?” Atlas asked, walking aimlessly on the road. He couldn’t go back to Lancaster’s home. He didn’t have a home of his own either. He could only spend the night in the streets, making sure he wasn’t caught.

“What?” Lilith let out.

“How do you know the Ancient language of witches? Did Castiel teach you?”

“Master teaching me? Hah, why would he need to. I knew this language from my childhood. My mother taught me this language along with many more things.”

“Your mother? You mean you were a Witch?”

“I still am,” Lilith lazily responded.

The more Atlas thought about her response, the more confused he became. “But… Aren’t you a shadow? You were a human before? How did you turn into a shadow? Did you die?”

“Of course, I wasn’t born as a shadow of my Master. I was born a witch with my body. I just did a spell to make myself into a shadow when my Master decided to go to sleep for centuries. I didn’t want to live in his absence and die of old age before he could return. So I bound myself to him and turned myself into a shadow, so I don’t age,” Lilith explained.

“So you sacrificed your body?”

“Not really a sacrifice. It was only temporary. I can regain my body when I’m able to use my spells again.”

“And when can you use your spells?” Atlas asked.

“When you drink blood.” Lilith chuckled. “That’s when I will regain my body. That’s why I don’t want you to drink blood when you aren’t ready because you might literally kill me then.”

“How come my drinking is related to you?” Atlas inquired, stopping in his tracks.

The people who were walking beside him looked at him with weird gazes, seeing him talk to himself. Some even wondered if Atlas was crazy to talk to himself.

There weren’t only citizens who noticed it. Amongst them, there happened to be a Vampire who found Atlas’s behavior a bit odd.

The Vampire walked closer to Atlas from behind.