Chapter 21: A Cushion

Lily smiled happily as I walked with her in my arms. Her eyes were glowing a bright shade of yellow as she gazed up at the night sky.

“No full moon today,” she asked.

“No, not yet. But there will be one soon.”

Isabella slowly trailed behind us, her face even paler than before. She looked as if she would faint at any moment. I slowed my pace with Lily so that I could talk to her.

“Since you’re dying, tell me something. Who is this person that is so important to you?”

For a second, I didn’t think she would answer me, but she did.

“My mother. She is the only family I have left. She served the Veylmont clan for centuries. From the moment I was born, she taught me how to be a servant, and later on, I was given to young master Victor as a present. It was one of the greatest honors one could ever be given, and it was given to me because of my mother’s reputation as a formidable assassin.”

“Hmm… were you and your mother close?”

“Uh? What do you mean? She was my mother,” she said, sounding a bit irritated.

“My sisters and my mom are close. They would always go out shopping and curl up on the couch together to watch a movie. At times, they would throw Derrick, my dad, and me out of the house so they could have their so-called girls’ night. They shared everything together.”

She held down her head, and a bitter smile rose on her face.

“Sounds nice, but no. My mom and I weren’t like that. The only thing my mother taught me how to do was to kill but it doesn’t matter. A child’s only purpose is to earn their parent’s love.”

“That’s not true. A child’s purpose is to receive love from their parents and spread that love to others. You may not have had a family to offer you that, but now that you are a part of my pack, maybe you could come to see my mom as yours.”

“You don’t understand. I love my mother even if she doesn’t love me. Even if she only sees me as a useless daughter or worthless. It doesn’t matter. No one can replace her.”

“Who said you can only have one mom?” I asked. “This is your family now. I know you can feel their connection strongly. You are tied to us. Things are tough right now, but over time you’ll come to see Liora as your sister, and she’ll come to see you as hers.”

“I-I can’t.”

Isabella clenched her fists and held down her head, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes.

I knew that this was the perfect time to earn her trust. Since she was a newborn, her emotions were heightened and all over the place. She seemed confused by her own feelings. What she needed now was a cushion, someone to latch onto.

It’s only by manipulating those strong emotions could I make her mine. I also knew that stealing her heart would take the charisma of someone cute and innocent. It was sufficient to say that I didn’t have any of those qualities. But I knew someone who did…

Seeing Isabella’s reaction, Lily quickly reacted and jumped into her arms to comfort her.

“No crying,” Lily said, wiping the tears from her face. “No more crying, okay big sis Isa?”

Isabella looked at her with a baffled expression. But in the face of such cuteness, she had to comply. Isabella wiped away her tears and put on a smile for Lily.

“That’s better. Big sis Isa is much prettier when she is smiling.”

Isabella nodded along without saying a word. She then wrapped her arms around Lily and hugged her tightly. It was dark so I could see her tears but I knew she was still crying and Lily was the one who comforted her. Lily’s tiny hands patted Isabella on the top of her head. Isabella carried her until Lily eventually fell asleep after a few minutes, a satisfied smile was on her face. Isabella looked Lily’s sleeping face and a smile rose on her face.

Since she was sleeping, we decided to go back inside the hospital. As we neared the entrance, I started to smell a strong scent of fresh blood. An ominous feeling rose inside me, and from the look on Isabella’s face, I could tell that she had smelled it too.

The two of us hurried our pace, and when we got to the doorway, the guards posted there were lying in a pool of their own blood. Their bodies were brutally mauled, with limbs and pieces of their flesh spread across the hall. Luckily, Lily was asleep, so she didn’t have to witness such a grotesque scene, but still, Isabella made the effort to shield her.

“What could’ve done this?!”

The first thing I noticed was that the guards’ guns were still in their holsters. They didn’t even have the chance to draw their weapons. A zombie couldn’t have been that quick. We were most likely dealing with another monster, and it was now inside the hospital.

Liora’s legs should’ve been healed by now, so I didn’t have to worry too much about her. Plus, if it came down to it, Derrick would protect her.

“We should hurry and get to the others,” I suggested.

The two of us walked at a brisk pace through the hospital. The further along we went, the more mutilated bodies we found. I activated my thermal vision, but the large building and crowded space made it hard to locate the monster.

Soon, the entire building erupted in chaos as more people started to drop like flies. We fought our way through the panicked crowd, looking for Derrick and Liora. While moving, I spotted the woman who had been shouting before. She was crouched down on her knees.

“He’s here! He killed my boy, and now he’s here to kill us!”

I couldn’t help but wonder who she was talking about but in the end we ignored her and continued to search for the others. The bodies became more horrific the further we went. Soon, we were pushing through a crowd of stampeding people, and in that crowd, I could see a black shadow flickering as people fell to the ground.

In the midst of it, I felt a murderous bloodlust, stronger than anything I had ever felt before. It was as if an endless darkness was swallowing up the hospital itself. In that instant, I grabbed Isabella by the hand and dragged her forward, away from the crowd.

I pulled her into one of the rooms and closed the door behind us.

“Did you see it?” she asked.

“Only a glimpse.”

“Me too. What should we do? Can you even fight that thing?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to find out. Our first goal is to find the others and escape.”

She looked at me with a frown on her face.

“Why is your first option always to run away from a fight?”

“Because I’m not a battle-crazy nut. I fight only when it’s necessary.”

“You don’t seem afraid, so what’s the real reason for your cowardice?”

“If you stick around, maybe I’ll tell you.”

She quickly turned away, her gaze looking a bit flustered.

“I already told you. Anyway, what will we do now?” she said.

At her question, I activated my Phantom Pack skill. Immediately, a pack of shadow hounds led by Cerberus came crawling out of my shadow. Isabella was immediately on guard when she saw them.

“What are those?”

“Consider them a sub-branch of my pack. We can use them to find Derrick and Liora rather than running around the hospital.”

I turned to Cerberus and instructed him on what to do with just a single thought. He let out a loud growl, and he and the other pack members disappeared into the shadows. I looked back at Isabella to see she was holding Lily with a look of conviction on her face and after her gaze fell on me.

“I’m only doing this because of Lily, okay?” she muttered.

“Hmm?”

The white part of her eyes suddenly turned a shade of black, and her iris was a deep shade of orange. Two pointed fangs protruded from her mouth, and pointed claws grew from her fingers. Her skin was as pale as snow making her look like a beautiful ghost. Her transformation was mesmerizing.

So this is what a half vampire, half werewolf hybrid looks like.

“Just hold still so I don’t rip out an artery.”

Huh?

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