The town was still burning.
Not all of it.
Just the edges. The parts closest to the forest where the infected had broken through first. Orange light flickered across rooftops, painting the quiet streets in shades of fire and fear.
Elena landed silently on a rooftop at the edge of Rheinland, her dark wings folding behind her like a closing wound. Below, she could hear it — the chaos spreading street by street. Screaming. Glass shattering. Dogs barking until they didn't anymore.
Her jaw tightened.
> "How many?" she asked quietly.
> "Too many to count," Turichie replied. "The infected from the crash site have already reached the residential streets. And the vampires… they're using the chaos as cover."
> "Of course they are."
Elena crouched lower, her eyes sweeping the dark below.
She could see them now. The infected moved in broken, twitching waves — not fast, but relentless. Like a tide that didn't know how to stop. A woman ran screaming from her front door. Two infected turned toward the sound.
Elena moved.
---
She dropped from the rooftop like a stone, landing between the woman and the infected with a crack that split the pavement beneath her feet.
The woman screamed again — at her this time.
> "Run," Elena said flatly. "Don't stop. Don't look back."
The woman didn't need telling twice.
Elena turned.
The two infected lunged.
She moved like water — fluid, instinctive — sidestepping one and slamming her palm into its chest with enough force to send it crashing through a garden wall. The second clawed at her arm. Her blood rose instantly, forming a thin red edge along her forearm, and she drove it forward.
Clean.
Fast.
Done.
She stood still for a moment, breathing slowly.
> "You're getting faster," Turichie said.
> "I have to be."
---
Three streets over, the old vampire watched.
He stood in the shadow of a collapsed doorway, his ancient eyes tracking Elena's movement across the rooftops as she leapt from one to the next, cutting down the infected with quiet, precise efficiency.
Behind him, two of his newly turned stirred restlessly.
> "She's strong," one of them muttered. A young man — turned only days ago. His hands wouldn't stop trembling.
> "She's new," the old vampire said. "Strength without experience is just noise."
> "Then why aren't we moving?"
The old vampire didn't answer right away.
He watched Elena land again. Watched how she hesitated for half a second before each strike. How her eyes moved — scanning, reading, calculating.
> "Because," he finally said, "she's learning. Right now. In real time."
He turned away from the street.
> "Let her clear the infected. We'll take what's left."
---
Elena didn't know she was being watched.
She was too focused on the street ahead.
A group of survivors — maybe seven people — had barricaded themselves inside a small pharmacy. She could hear their heartbeats from the outside. Fast. Terrified. Alive.
Around the building, four infected circled slowly.
She landed on the pharmacy roof without a sound.
> "Turichie. If I feed the infected through here, they'll scatter. But that risks the people inside hearing the commotion and panicking."
> "Then go quiet," Turichie said. "No noise. No blood blade. Use your speed."
> "That drains me differently."
> "Yes. Choose."
Elena closed her eyes for exactly one second.
Then she moved.
---
It happened in under thirty seconds.
Four infected.
Four takedowns.
No sound louder than a body hitting soft earth.
She crouched in the shadow beside the pharmacy wall, hands braced on the ground, chest rising and falling steadily. Her body felt thinner now — like something had been scraped out of the middle of her.
The hunger stirred.
Low. Patient. Growing.
> "You need to feed soon," Turichie said. Not a suggestion. A warning.
> "I know."
> "Not on a person."
> "I know," Elena repeated, sharper this time.
She pressed her back against the wall and looked up at the red moon still hanging heavy above Rheinland.
She thought about her mother sitting in the dark.
Her little brother.
Her father worn down by grief.
They were somewhere in this town.
Right now.
---
She didn't let herself finish the thought.
Instead, she pushed off the wall and kept moving.
---
Two streets north, something stopped her cold.
A child.
Sitting in the middle of the road.
Alone.
A little girl — maybe six years old — clutching a stuffed rabbit to her chest, staring at the smoke rising from a house across the street. Her eyes were dry. Past tears. Just... empty.
Elena landed a few meters away, approaching slowly.
> "Hey," she said softly.
The girl didn't flinch. Didn't scream. Just looked up at her with those hollow eyes.
> "Are you the one with wings?" the girl asked.
Elena blinked.
> "...Yes."
> "I saw you flying." A pause. "Are you an angel?"
Something cracked quietly inside Elena's chest.
> "No," she said. "I'm not."
> "Oh." The girl looked back at the burning house. "My mom went inside to get my jacket. She didn't come back out."
Elena didn't move for a long moment.
Then she crouched down to the girl's level.
> "What's your name?"
> "Mia."
> "Mia." Elena held out her hand — cold, pale, steady. "I need you to come with me. Somewhere safe. Can you do that?"
The girl looked at her hand. Then at her face.
Then she took it.
---
Elena stood up slowly, the small warm hand wrapped in hers.
The hunger inside her whispered.
She ignored it.
> "This changes things," Turichie said quietly.
> "I know."
> "You can't protect the whole town and watch over a child."
> "I know that too."
A beat.
> "Then what are you going to do?"
Elena looked down at Mia — still clutching her stuffed rabbit, walking beside her without question, trusting her completely.
She looked back up at the smoke-stained sky.
> "I'm going to figure it out somehow," she said.
And somewhere in the shadows behind her, three pairs of glowing eyes watched her go.
Waiting...
---
End of Chapter 23
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