"Turn around slowly."A voice which she recognized as Kaiwan's, said.
She made to turn around just like he'd ordered but lashed out her leg to hit the detective in the stomach before she dashed out of the building.
"Grab her." An officer was saying on her way out.
"Block the doors."
"We can't let her escape."
"Where's she? I can't find her."They were all screaming at the same time.
She found out her speed was unbelievably fast as she zoomed past building's rooftop. She'd care about that later, but she had to avoid getting caught for now.
The traffic that night was high and she decided to take a break at a rooftop.
She should have lost them to that point, she thought to herself. Thanks to her speed and the high traffic, there was no way they could get to her and she hadn't left any clues at the club either.
"Father, I did it." She sighed as she looked out at the amazing view that night. He could finally rest in peace.
Her mind shifted uncontrollably to that investigator...
"Turn around slowly." He'd said and she'd slowly turned. From the corner of her eye, she'd seen that he'd been surprised to see her. She'd been expecting him to arrest her on the spot but he'd said.
"Hit me and run."
It was just like before. He let her go despite knowing who she was.
Why was he helping her?
Thanks to him, she was able to get out of that situation, but...
"Just to obtain your heart, vampires across the country will follow you into hell. It was the father this time, right? Wherever you are, they'll follow you and kill everyone around you." Lucian's words crawled back into her head and she frowned.
Father had explained she was the one they wanted and with the way things were going, there was no way her siblings would be safe.
"I can't stay here any longer. I'll need to take down those bastards before they come knocking on our door...but I don't have any intel...What do I do?" She thought to herself.
She pushed the thought aside and decided to check on her siblings first. She needed to say her goodbye too.
Sliding the hood over her head, she dashed for home, jumping over rooftops and scaring animals who found solace there for the night.
She was there in less than a minute.
She reached for the door but was too scared to open it. She was no longer the Zuriña they knew, how was she to face them.
"What should I do? Leave a letter?" She wondered.
She was still at the entrance of the door, contemplating on what to do when the kids walked up to her from the bend around the corner.
"Riña, why did you come home so late?" Rietta asked as Henry pulled off his jacket and threw it over her hair, before he glanced at the hallway.
Thankfully, no one was out by that time.
"How can you go outside like this?" He asked as he entered the passcode and pushed her into the apartment before someone spotted her.
Henry waited for Rietta to come in before he closed the door behind them.
"Are you okay? Do you need your crown of..."
"I'm okay."
"You're sure? Your hair...."
"It's okay, Henry. It'll probably go back to normal later." She replied and turned to look around before she asked. "Did you guys have dinner?"
"Of course." Rietta said.
She was confused. "Then why were you..."
"Rietta said she was feeling bloated so we went downstairs for a walk."
"Henry, you weren't supposed to leave the apartment." She protested.
"We just went for a walk downstairs. We didn't leave the building." He sighed.
She sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair. She'd probably tell them about it the following day.
"It's late. You guys should go to bed."
"What are you not saying, Riña?" Henry asked and she raised her head to look at him.
"Huh?What are you talking about?"
"I know that look, there's something you're not saying. Spill it out." He ordered.
There was no use lying, he'd know anyway.
"Hey guys, I have something to tell you...I have to stay away for a while."
"Stay away?" Rietta asked and Henry slid an arm over her shoulder.
"Will you be okay without us?"
"I should." She replied, trying hard not to war her heart on her face.
"We get it."
Rietta was about to protest when Henry yawned.
"Come on, Rietta. We've got school tomorrow." He said.
"Goodnight, Riña."She said before she turned to head for bed with her brother.
She waited for her siblings to fall asleep before she sneaked into their bedroom. Giving both a kiss on the forehead, she dropped a goodbye letter before she slipped out of the room.
"Oh man, what a headache."Josh raked his fingers through his hair as they walked out of the investigations office that night.
Everyone had heaved a sigh of relief when Kaiwan had said he was fine in spite of the punch he'd received from the vampire.
"We were lucky that all the mixed bloods at the club were dead, but what do we do if the one that got away causes problems?"
"How in the world did she disappear so fast anyway?I'm sure she was a girl...Should we release a sketched profile?"
"I didn't see her face clearly."Josh said.
"Let's give it some time."
Kaiwan sighed despite the conversation. She'd probably been there last night to kill Lucian for killing the priest.
"Inspector, someone's here to see you." An officer said and turned to see who it was Miss Zuriña and he screamed in fright.
"Are you okay, detective? Who's she?"
"A friend of mine... Excuse me."He stuttered and turned to grab her out of the station.
He walked her to a place he felt was safe for a private conversation and roughly released her hand.
"Where do you think this place is for you to come here with your two feet? What in the world were you thinking? This is a bloody police station and I'm a police."
"I'm sorry." She said, her head bowed.
"You're sorry? I thought I was going to have a heart attack on seeing you here. Why did you come here anyway?" He asked.
"I'm sorry."
He raked his hands through his hair with a sigh, feeling relieved he was able to vent out a little. "Are you okay?"
"Kinda."
"So you can change your appearance at will, I mean your white hair." He asked
"Usually yeah, but I can't right now so I'm wearing a wig and coloured contact lens."
She must have been provoked back then at the club, he thought to himself.
"I see, what brings you here?"
She swallowed, as if she was scared to ask him. "You saved me despite knowing who I was and I know it's shameless for me to ask but I need your help in keeping my siblings safe."
"Are you leaving them?" He asked.They were little kids.
"Yeah. There's something else. I intend hunting down every vampire in the world and I need your help."
He scoffed as he walked past her. "So you need Intel on vampires...I can't believe you came here to ask me something like that." He paused for a minute before he turned back to her. "But get this, I'm not helping you, you're the one helping me... since this is my line of work."
A smile crossed her lips and he was about to reciprocate the smile when he remembered he was supposed to act nonchalantly.
"How did you know I was a vampire anyway? And why did you help me knowing that?" She asked as they turned to walk towards the roof of the building.
"The answer to your first question is a secret...and the second..."His voice trailed off.
"What?"
"Nevermind. Vampires are spreading like cancer cells all over our society. They have a hand in government, schools, the police...It's a head to head race in this hell like situation if we go after them. Are you ready for this?" He turned to her and asked.
"We can do it. If we work together, we can put an end to this hell." She replied.