“Blood Shadows in the Alleys”

Gabriel

London was not alive. It whispered, it pulled us in, filling our lungs with fog, smoke, and death.

The gas lamps cast flickering shadows, sliced by our steps, as we followed a man whose loyalty was still hidden in the dark.

Salvatore.

He moved with the ease of a man who had no fear.

Or rather—a man who knew fear with the precision of someone who had faced it many times.

I wasn't sure if that was reassuring or unsettling.

"So you say you have a place?" Raphael asked beside me.

Salvatore nodded.

"Not far from here. Safe enough for one night."

Michael pulled a face.

"Safe is a relative term in London."

Salvatore grinned.

"That's why I'm here and not dead."

Michael

I didn't like him.

Too calm. Too casual.

His style wasn't like ours. No code, no faith.

He seemed like a man who still fought on our side only out of principle.

I didn't trust him.

And yet we followed him.

That alone told me how miserable our alternatives were.

"This way," he said, turning into a narrow alley.

The air was heavy with stagnant water and the metallic scent of old blood.

I tensed.

Salvatore stopped abruptly.

I instinctively reached for my sword.

"Something's off," Gabriel murmured.

"Not something," Salvatore corrected quietly.

"Someone."

Raphael

A step, barely more than a shadow in the sound of the night.

Not rushed, not panicked.

Calm. Calculating.

I slowly turned in the direction of the sound.

"Come out." My voice echoed through the alley.

Silence.

Then… a laugh. Soft. Almost amused.

A man stepped out of the shadows.

Tall, gaunt, wrapped in a long coat.

His skin was too pale for an ordinary human, his eyes too calm for a hunter.

"You're louder than I expected," he said gently.

My grip on my lance tightened.

Salvatore remained motionless.

Then he spoke.

"I know you."

The man smiled.

"Of course, you do."

Isaac

I didn't need to see him. His voice alone was enough.

He was one of those vampires.

Not the usual kind.

Not the gutter creatures that relied on hunger and instinct.

He was something else.

I slowly lifted my head.

"So Gideon already sent you to clean up his mess?" I asked.

The man laughed.

"Gideon? No, no."

His gaze wandered over us.

"I'm here for my own reasons."

Michael's voice was a low growl.

"And what would those be?"

The vampire studied us, then his eyes settled on me.

"Isaac Crowe."

My name was a statement.

A memory.

I felt the exhaustion settle in, heavier than before.

He knew.

I saw it in his eyes.

Gabriel

The air was heavy like before a storm, charged with unspoken danger.

The vampire stood there as if he had all the time in the world.

We, on the other hand, had none.

"What exactly do you want here?" Raphael's voice was sharp.

The vampire tilted his head.

"Nothing… for now."

Salvatore's expression barely changed.

"Then leave and let us be."

Another smile.

"Oh, but I'm not here to fight."

His gaze drifted to Isaac again.

"I'm just here to watch."

Then… as if he had never existed, the fog swallowed him whole.

Only his laughter remained.

It sounded like a curse.

Michael

I felt my muscles slowly relax again.

"What the hell was that?"

Salvatore remained silent, his eyes still fixed on the spot where the vampire had vanished.

Then, quietly:

"Someone who doesn't want you dead. Not yet."