Chapter 31: Condemned to be hunted
The Porsche sped through the city, its headlights sweeping across the deserted streets. The park loomed on the horizon, its dark trees standing like sentinels. Over the past few weeks, the jogging path had turned into a bloodbath, with bodies found drained of blood. If Ben was out there, out of control, time was running out.
Sabrina broke the silence, her voice trembling. "Hugo, I know you hate me. But Ben... he’s not evil. He’s just lost. The blood bond, the transformation... it changed him. We have to save him."
Hugo grunted, rubbing his aching temples. "Save him, huh? You’ve got a funny way of saving people. But yeah, I’ll help. Not for you. For Ben."
She nodded, her eyes glinting with an odd light—fear and determination mingled. "Thank you," she whispered.
"Save your thanks," Hugo cut in. "Focus on the road. If Ben’s out there, we’ll have to stop him. And if the Zodiacs find him before we do..."
He left the sentence hanging. Sabrina swallowed, her hands shaking on the wheel. The Zodiacs didn’t take prisoners—they hunted to kill.
Inside Hassan’s luxury Ford, the atmosphere was heavy, almost suffocating. The engine roared, but the silence inside was deafening, broken only by the screech of tires on asphalt. The news Hugo had dropped on the phone—Ben, a vampire, out of control—was hard to believe. Hassan, his hands clenched on the wheel, kept glancing nervously in the rearview mirror, as if the answers would appear behind him.
Carter, slumped in the backseat, chewed on a toothpick, his brow furrowed. Yuki, next to Hassan, stared straight ahead, his face unreadable, while Kaiser, still buzzing from dopamine, fidgeted in the passenger seat, his dilated pupils giving his eyes an eerie glow.
They were all thinking the same thing: Was this really the Ben they knew? The guy who cracked dumb jokes, the shy otaku around girls who had them laughing until their stomachs hurt? A Wunder. A vampire. None of them had seen it coming.