Ethan didn't slow down—he kicked the door in and swept the house in a blink. Empty. No lights, no voices, no movement. Luck, for once, was on their side.
"Come inside. Close the door," he ordered.
He was already moving, carrying Selene down the narrow hallway. He pushed open the bedroom, laid her gently on the bed, then snapped on the lamp beside it.
His eyes went straight to her shoulder.
The burn marks were gone.
Ethan let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Thank goodness… it worked."
The UV damage had been brutal—sunlight had burned her from the inside. As a vampire, she had no beating heart to compare against, no pulse to check. All he could do was estimate how long before she woke up.
It wouldn't be long.
His blood should already be doing its job.
He adjusted her position slightly, making sure she was comfortable, then stepped back. After one last look, he turned and quietly closed the bedroom door.
Outside, the house felt too silent.
Michael was in the living room, gripping a water bottle with both hands, drinking like his life depended on it. Water sloshed, spilling down his chin as he gasped between swallows.
Ethan glanced at him. Calm. Controlled. As if the last twenty minutes hadn't been absolute chaos.
Michael ran a hand through his hair, voice tight. "Can you tell me what's happening? The last hour just… shattered my entire worldview."
Ethan leaned back on the sofa, shoulders finally relaxing a fraction. "I already told you. The werewolves want you. You saw it yourself—how rabid they were, how far they went just to get their hands on you."
Michael swallowed. "So… is there anything I can do? Any way out of this?"
He hesitated. "I don't want to spend my life running from monsters."
Ethan studied him for a moment before answering. "You can try. Leave the city. Leave the country. Go somewhere remote, somewhere quiet. Places like that exist."
But the chances of Michael escaping the city were very low.
Currently, Lucian is hell-bent on getting his centuries-old revenge. With the strength he has now, it's not enough—not to challenge the covens, not to reach Viktor. He needs more power.
And there's only one way to get it.
Hybrid blood.
If Lucian injects it and becomes a hybrid, he gains what he's been denied all this time—the power to strike back, to tear through the vampire hierarchy and finally kill Viktor.
Which leaves Michael with a grim truth: the moment the Lycans marked him, his chance at a normal life was already over.
"What do they even want from me?" Michael asked, panic creeping into his voice. "I'm a normal human. Not like you—a vampire. If anything, shouldn't they be hunting you?"
In every movie he'd ever seen, werewolves hated vampires. So why, in reality, were they chasing him?
"Didn't I already tell you?" Ethan said flatly. "Your blood. And you don't even know what your last name means. Corvin isn't just a name—it carries a thousand years of very bad history."
He wasn't in the mood to explain all that ancient nonsense in detail, but after saving Michael's ass this many times, it was time to take some benefit from it.
Ethan reached into his coat and pulled out an injection syringe—the one he'd grabbed from Michael's apartment earlier. Good thing it hadn't been lost during the chase.
Michael immediately stepped back.
"Wait—why did you take that out?"
"Didn't I say I needed your blood?" Ethan replied calmly. "Not much. Just this syringe. About fifty milliliters. Don't make it harder than it needs to be." His eyes narrowed slightly.
"I've saved you more times than I can count tonight. So you give me this, and I keep doing that. Or I take the blood myself, dump you outside, and let the massive dogs deal with you."
The choice was obvious.
Only a fool would pick the wrong option—and after everything Michael had seen, Ethan was sure he wasn't a fool.
Michael swallowed, staring at the syringe.
"That… that isn't used, right?" he asked.
"No. It's from your apartment," Ethan said.
Michael let out a shaky breath, then sighed. He took the syringe, drew the blood with unsteady hands, and handed it back.
"Good choice," Ethan said, taking it.
"So how are you going to help me?" Michael asked.
"Well, give it a week," Ethan said lightly. "By then, both the Lycan and vampire worlds will be… rearranged. Priorities will shift. Wars will move on."
He smiled, thin and knowing.
"And when that happens? No one's going to care about you anymore."
What he didn't say was that he planned to collect their blood as well. He was already close—dangerously close—to hitting the required points. One more haul, and the system shop would finally unlock what he needed.
---
[Vampire Progenitor Blood]
[40k Blood Points]
Ethan paused.
'Huh? I remember this being fifty thousand.'
'Did the cost drop because I got stronger? Telekinesis, maybe?'
Whatever the reason, it worked in his favor.
[Do you wish to recycle Corvinus blood?]
'Yes.'
[30,000 Blood Points earned]
As expected, the Corvinus blood—the origin of both Lycans and vampires, the most powerful blood in this world—delivered exactly what he'd anticipated.
A massive surge.
Thirty thousand points.
More than anything he had collected until now.
His gaze returned to the option he hadn't expected to reach this fast.
[Would you like to purchase Vampire Progenitor Blood?]
'Yes.'
*****
A/N: The Patreon version is already updated to Chapter 117, so if you'd like to read ahead of the public release schedule, you can join my Patreon
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