Chapter 3: Veins of Betrayal

Elena's Perspective: The Blood - Descendant in the Rusty Mirror

The copper door of the laboratory slammed shut behind her, and the stench of mold and preservatives stung her nostrils. Lane's "mistake" was far too blatant - he had deliberately spilled the coffee, revealing the hidden compartment beneath the archive floor. At this moment, the metal nameplate that Elena's fingertips grazed bore the engraved name of her mother: Lillian Dracula - Lupin.

"This can't be..." She kicked aside the rust - covered cryogenic chamber, and within the shattered glass shards, a female mummy was curled up. Moonlight slanted in through the ventilation duct, and the silver ring on the mummy's ring finger suddenly glimmered faintly - identical to the family ring that Elena had inherited.

The holographic diary lit up on the chest of the skeleton, and her mother's voice tore through time and space: "Forgive me, Elena. When the werewolf blood in your veins awakens, the Dracula family's coffin will become your execution ground... Go to Witch Maggie. Only she can temporarily seal your Nightborne characteristics..."

Suddenly, the laboratory trembled, and the overwhelming aura of the vampire prince crushed all the light sources. In the instant Elena turned around, the silver - haired man had already pinched the back of her neck, his fingertips digging into the wound that Cain had bitten last night. "You filthy mongrel, you actually managed to reach adulthood?"

The prince licked his blood - stained fingertips, his pupils dilating with excitement. "What a perfect experimental subject... Your heart can restart the 'Blood Moon Altar' and grant eternal life to the pure - blooded vampires!"

Elena's fangs grew abruptly, and the shadows transformed into sharp blades, lunging towards the opponent. However, they were swallowed up by an invisible barrier before they could reach the prince. "Why do you think the Dracula family adopted you?" The prince chuckled and flung out a yellowed photo - a young her lying on the altar, with catheters inserted into her chest, the other end connected to the unconscious Cain. "You two have been the key and the lock since birth."

Cain's Perspective: The Blood Moon Crest in the Collar

The hybrid girl huddled into a ball in the cage, and the Dracula family crest on the inside of the collar was smeared with mud. Cain wiped the silver manacles with wolf - bane serum when the girl suddenly grabbed his wrist, and her pupils glowed with a red light in sync with the Blood Moon Stone. "That white - clothed brother... He said Sister Elena would turn into a star."

Memory fragments flooded in along the point of contact - Lane was drawing an inverted pentagram in the orphanage basement, and glowing chips were being implanted into the blood vessels of the hybrid children. "They call us 'batteries'," the girl trembled as she revealed the miniature device under her collarbone. "To charge the 'angels'."

Selena burst through the door of the interrogation room, the muzzle of her gun aimed at the girl's temple. "The Silver Claw Alliance won't tolerate the offspring of traitors!" Cain crushed the gun barrel bare - handed, and his wolf howl shattered the glass. "Then you'll tolerate this even less - the patrol records show that you privately requisitioned sun - burning bombs last night."

Suddenly, an emergency alarm popped up on the holographic screen, and Witch Maggie's face was distorted with fear. "The Blood Moon Stone is going out of control! It's absorbing the earth vein energy of Crescent City..."

When Cain dragged Selena and rushed into the church basement, Elena was being pinned to the altar by the prince's blood chains. The Blood Moon Stone hovered between the two of them, and the silver - red threads inside the crystal were twining wildly. Elena's right eye faded into a wolf - like vertical pupil, and Cain's fingernails began to ooze the unique black blood of vampires.

"Kill her!" The prince hurled the Dracula Holy Sword. "Unless you want to watch your blood vessels burst one by one!"

The moment Cain caught the sword, memories from three hundred years ago surged into his mind like a tsunami - he had once been Lillian's werewolf bodyguard and had personally decapitated her during the Blood Moon Marriage ceremony. But he had been cursed to reincarnate due to accidentally injuring the infant Elena.

The tip of the sword trembled as it stabbed towards Elena's heart, but it halted at the last inch. Cain's wolf claws suddenly pierced his own chest, and he dug out half of his beating heart and pressed it into the altar's groove. "In the name of Lupin, I willingly become the symbiotic anchor of the Nightborne."

The Blood Moon Stone exploded with a bang, and the energy wave sent the prince flying. Elena's fangs pierced Cain's neck, and the blood of the werewolf and the vampire blended on the prophecy altar. On the dome, the totem of the first - generation Nightborne emerged - twin snakes coiling around the Blood Moon, with their names engraved in the snake pupils respectively.

Lane opened the hidden door in the church cellar, and the mechanical operation sounds were like a giant awakening. Hundreds of hybrid children were imprisoned in glass pods, and their blood vessels were connected to the six - winged metal angel in the center. When he injected the mixed blood of Elena and Cain into the control console, the stone pupils of the angel oozed blood.

"Welcome back, Lord Lucifer," Lane's cross tattoo burned his skin. "It's time to cleanse these filthy bloodlines."

Meanwhile, Selena huddled in the corner of the church, with the pieces of Cain's heart that she had stolen lying in her palm. The witch's powder was turning it into a blood - red ring.

Next Chapter:

When the wings of the mechanical angel blot out Crescent City, and when Elena's wolf claws tear through the sunlight for the first time; "Kill me," Cain grasped her hand in a pool of blood. "Or I'll become the Holy See's butcher... just like in the past life."