Shadows of the Heart

Eyes, peeled from their conversations and their activities to look at the young man with ashen hair. Silence quieted the third floor of the hotel as women were glued to the man. Some men even looked at this intimidating figure who now offered competition to the women.

Cyrus walked forward as the eyes of both men and women tracked his movements. Ever since his attributes had increase during his time in the castle. His body had undergone improvements, his strength made him appear muscular and well toned. While his intelligence stat seemed to affect his facial allure. He hadn't looked in a mirror in a long time so the changes went unnoticed.

Cyrus gave off the aura of a confident young adult who could take the world in his hand. While deep inside he was a chihuahua shaking uncontrollably due to stress and anxiety. He didn't particularly like the stares he was getting. But he had a mission to accomplish and he had to put on a strong face.

A few women approached him asking for his title, who he was, if he was wealthy, if he betrothed anyone yet. All these questions kept him distracted from his goal. The ladies received no answer as he passed by, all sighing at Cyrus' back.

"The strong silent type," one said, leaning on the woman to her left.

"A total dream boat," the middle one said as the last lady seemed infatuated with Cyrus' presence.

"A perfect specimen of a human untouched by a woman's hand." All three sighed in utter admiration as he walked away. Cyrus had turned into a handsome young man. It just proved to be more difficult to manage with the circumstance he was in. Though he heard all the comments it didn't help his mind go deeper into a dark corner.

Cyrus continued to walk around using his Wolf's Senses to try and feel out the possible hidden shadow amongst the guests. Finding the shadow was top priority, but spending some time looking from the top floor to the bottom floor. He found no existence of the shadow, not even a trace of it. This was a problem, it was like the shadow creatures seemed to have been hiding from him. If he had enough point to upgrade his skill then maybe he could find it.

Going to a corner and pulling a book from the shelf. Opening it up to disguise him using his stat screen. Attempting to upgrade the Wolf's Senses seemed the right way to go. It only cost the 3 points he had from earlier.

[Wolf's Senses lvl 2: Your senses are more powerful than an average Hellhound! Increased radius of energy detection by 5m and allows one to see remnants of energy. This works only if something you have smells like the target you are searching for.]

As soon as he acquired the upgrade, he could feel the energy of all the vampires within 10m. Even through the floor, as he could visually see them as spheres of light in the center of their chests. But for those he could see they had the aura of the energy within them. As the vampires appeared to have a dark blue color.

Though he even regretted upgrading it for he could see through doors of rooms he shouldn't have looked into. Cyrus cut down on the range or even the ability to see the spheres through walls at the moment. Focusing his attention on locating things he could see in front of him. Putting the book back on the shelf and returning to the main lobby he caught the scent of something.

It was abnormal and smelled like thick smoke. But to vampires seemed to not have noticed. He decided to follow the scent, leading him towards the stairs and right through the wall of the stairwell. He bent down and tapped on the wall. An echo was heard as it reverberated through an empty space.

Victoria saw him bent over and tapping against the stair. Walking over she tapped him on the shoulder, "What are you doing Master Reinhard?" He turned toward the sound to see Victoria above him.

He blushed for a moment, "I uh... smelt something coming from behind these stairs." She narrowed her eyes at him, "But I'm serious, is there like a secret panel or something? I read one time in a book about a person living under their relative's stairs."

Victoria gently pushed him aside, other women seemed to glare at her. But Victoria ignored them as she pushed aside a panel by lifting it and sliding it to the right. When she did that, the smell of something foul hit her nose. Covering her face she backed away, allowing Cyrus to peer inside. When he got his head in, he saw the body of a man in a black suit withered and dried out. Like all his fluids had been drained from him.

Reaching over to get a look at the man but as he touched the corpse it turned to ashes. The smell of the thick smoke remained. Cyrus managed to grab the clothes and drag them out. The smell of the smoke seemed to be coming from the clothing. But as he sniffed it more closely, he managed to pick out a certain smell. A perfume, something sweet that was buried under layer of smoke.

Victoria stared at Cyrus smelling the clothes, "You are strange even for a human," standing and closing the door. She didn't understand why he would need to smell the clothing closely. She guessed maybe humans had developed over the centuries she last seen them. But Cyrus gave off something different from most humans. Her thoughts drifted to it coming to him being a Reinhard.

Cyrus had tossed the clothes back inside for others didn't seem to notice the smell or cared. For the whole hotel smelled of some chemical that was mixing scents together. The vampires smoked and puffed substances that would bother his nose if he didn't focus. If he got hit with the smoke directly he would lose all his sense of smell temporarily.

"I think I might be able to find who did this or who is infected." Though he had to hurry, he only had a few hours. He guessed it may happen sooner than that, so he had to be quick. "A perfume that is sweet to smell, it was stuck on the man's clothing."

Victoria place a hand to her chin and thought for a brief moment, "A perfume? Well mostly women wear perfume, but you said sweet smelling." She never would think a man would have a sweet smelling perfume. So it had to be a woman from her guess. That is when Cyrus had stood next to her and gave her a whiff.

For a moment she was about to strike him, but then he backed away. "Sorry, I had to know if I could trust you! I'm sorry for invading your personal space." He said looking ashamed and blushing at the same time. She then relaxed and realized that he had a much sharper sense of smell. Plus his reaction was abrupt and his look now made him look adorable.

Sighing at him, Victoria just karate chopped his head gently. This made him flinch a little, "Just ask next time you dolt, you shouldn't invade a lady's space like that unless you mean to kiss her." This just made him turn away and start to walk away. 'Oops, probably a little too far.' She thought, following him to the next floor.

Cyrus had to distract himself from continuing to look flustered. So he followed the sweet smell to the stairs, leading to the second floor. He had to figure out how it was hiding but finding it via smell was difficult. If he was to view the auras and energy of a person it may be easier. But seeing through walls was a detriment to his mind and innocence. However he was being pressured into having to do so cause of the strong smells.

Cyrus allowed the sense of energies return as the walls became riddled with small spheres. He tried to focus on the smell and as he did, he found that the smell had turned into a phantom of a figure. He was confused as to how he was able to make that happen. But it seemed to stop and look at him.

It was talking to someone, then it watched something leave. Then going to sit down, it was then taken with the smell of the body they found. Cyrus couldn't think of where he had seen it happen from how flustered he was. But he guessed he ran into the person at some point.

He continued to follow the scent of sweet nectar. The shape seemed to have went into a room and then vanished. But as he thought it was gone, he turned around and found the smell coming from behind Victoria. She stopped and looked at Cyrus as his hands reached out and pulled her close to him.

From behind Victoria was a glowing sphere Cyrus saw. As it was mixed with the energy of a Vampire and the sudden expulsion of energy that a shadow being emits. It came from within the person's chest, deep in her heart. As he could feel it ready to explode violently.

For he saw a woman in a blue dress with silver trim, and fair dark tan skin. Instead of a smile with blue lipstick, it was leaking a shadowy smoke. It was the woman he had ran into after meeting Victoria. She was a walking time bomb of shadows.