Chapter 2
1017words
No sign marked the entrance—just a smooth black glass wall reflecting the leaden sky.
The encrypted email had instructed her to ring the bell and state her code: A-27.
Emma tugged her threadbare coat tighter and checked her phone one last time.
Leo's hospital account blazed an angry red negative balance.
Liam was still sulking about her "headache," sending passive-aggressive texts dripping with "concern."
No turning back now.
She pressed the doorbell. A synthetic voice responded: "Code."
"A-27." Emma's throat felt like sandpaper.
The door hummed softly and unlocked.
Inside matched the exterior's coldness—more high-end tech startup than medical facility. Stark white walls, polished terrazzo floors, and air sharp with ozone and antiseptic.
Behind the reception desk sat a woman in pristine white, her smile as sterile as the walls.
"Emma Vance?" The woman consulted her tablet. "Please sign this confidentiality agreement."
Emma accepted the tablet. Twenty pages of dense legalese. She couldn't reveal Sanguine Solutions' existence, location, procedures, or anything she witnessed. She couldn't attempt to identify the "end users" of her blood.
The penalties for breach were… the legal jargon confused her, but phrases like "permanent economic sanctions" and "immediate recourse" sent chills down her spine.
She signed.
"This way, A-27." The woman abandoned her name, using only the code.
Emma followed her down a corridor of harsh fluorescent light. No other patients, no waiting area—just identical frosted glass doors lining the hall.
The woman opened one. Inside stood a luxury phlebotomy chair beside equipment Emma had never seen—sleek machines with pulsing blue lights.
Another uniformed nurse waited inside, masked and goggled, only her indifferent eyes visible.
"Please sit, A-27. Left or right arm?" The nurse's voice was soft but brooked no argument.
"Right."
The process was lightning-fast. The nurse worked with mechanical precision. Emma barely felt the needle—just watched her dark red blood flow into an opaque bag marked with biohazard symbols.
The bag was pre-labeled: A-27.
As the nurse worked, another machine hummed quietly, apparently analyzing her blood in real-time.
"Your vitals… are quite rare." The nurse's tone shifted slightly—the first hint of emotion, like a scientist discovering a unique specimen.
Emma's chest tightened. "What does that mean?"
"Extremely high purity." The nurse offered nothing more, withdrawing the needle and applying a bandage with practiced efficiency. She lifted the blood bag like precious cargo and secured it in a fingerprint-locked cooling case.
With a soft click, the case sealed.
"All done." The nurse turned to her. "Payment will transfer within three minutes. You may leave now. The back door will open automatically. Your next appointment is in seven days."
Emma stood, swaying slightly—from blood loss or the surreal situation, she couldn't tell.
As she reached the hallway, her phone buzzed once.
[ Bank Transfer Notification: $20,000.00 deposited to your savings account.]
Twenty thousand dollars.
Emma leaned against the cold wall, flooded with equal parts relief and shame. For twenty grand, she'd become "A-27"—food for some creature of darkness.
She immediately opened the hospital app and transferred the full amount.
…………
Across town.
In a penthouse towering above the city skyline, Elias Thorne was bored.
Six centuries of existence. He'd witnessed empires rise and fall, survived the Black Death and world wars. Now this noisy, filthy world of electronic waste left him numb in ways he'd never experienced.
Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, city lights sparkled brilliantly, but to his eyes, they were merely meaningless smears of light.
"Master," his assistant—a man in an impeccable suit with a face carved from marble—glided silently into the room. "Today's premium 'supplies' from Sanguine Solutions have arrived."
A silver cooling case appeared on the marble table.
Elias waved dismissively. The assistant entered a code, opened the case, and removed the blood bag labeled "A-27."
With practiced movements, the assistant decanted the blood into a crystal goblet. Under the light, it appeared almost black.
"Same as always." Elias didn't even glance up. These intermediaries provided blood that was clean and safe, but tasteless as distilled water—mere fuel to keep his undead form functioning.
He lifted the glass, ready to drain it in one practiced motion.
But as the glass touched his lips, he froze.
An aroma.
This wasn't mere "blood smell." This was something… long forgotten. Like a forest before storm clouds break. Like the first spark of flame in a winter hearth. With undertones of wild roses.
This was… the scent of being "alive."
Elias's pupils contracted sharply. Something awakened in those golden eyes—something that had slumbered for centuries.
He didn't drink, merely pressed his lips to the rim.
The moment the first drop touched his tongue—
The world vanished.
A scorching, violent force surged from his spine to his brain. Not fuel—lightning.
He tasted not blood but memories and emotions—her stubbornness, her desperation, her burden, and that fierce, unyielding flame burning in her soul.
Hum——
A deep rumble from the depths of his soul.
A word exploded in his mind—one he'd only encountered in the most ancient legends:
Anam Cara.
Soul mate. Destined blood.
His heart—dormant for centuries—felt seized by an invisible hand.
The numbness receded like an outgoing tide, replaced by a primal, unprecedented… thirst.
No. Possessiveness.
This wasn't "food."
This was "his."
Elias slammed the goblet down, crimson liquid splattering across marble. His assistant flinched.
"Who is she?" Elias's voice rasped low, charged with dangerous intensity.
"Master?"
"A-27!" Elias snatched the empty blood bag, hellfire blazing in his golden eyes. "I want everything on her. Now!"
"Master, Sanguine Solutions operates under strict anonymity protocols…"
Elias's hand shot out, gripping the assistant's throat and lifting him off the ground. His nails pierced skin as fangs gleamed in the shadows.
"I don't care what methods you use." Elias's voice was cold as a tomb. "Hack them, buy them out, or burn that damn agency to the ground."
He released his grip. The assistant crumpled to the floor, gasping and coughing.
Elias strode to the window, gazing down at the city. The meaningless lights had transformed into a hunting ground concealing his prey.
"Find her."
