1982: Small Town Bloodline Records

Without mercy, there is also no redemption.

"I didn't expect that kid from Wayne's family to be so capable this time."

After leaving the hotel, Ravenna Hicks and his companions wandered aimlessly through the streets.

Thanks to the heavy snow, the train they took was delayed for a whole day. By the time they arrived in Brodika Town, the first key person in this case had already fallen into the hands of the competitor.

"Look, that's not our purpose." His companion was a strong, big man with a conservative estimate of 180 pounds. "Then it's okay to give him a little bonus. Don't forget to find what we really need."

Ravenna Hicks stuffed her frozen hands into her pockets, trying to warm them up, after all, keeping fingers flexible at all times was the most important thing for a witcher.

If some terrible dark creature suddenly jumped out of the shadows, and his hand was too cold to pull the trigger, then there is a high probability that he will stay here with his life—if he really loses his life in this way, I am afraid that his group of cold-blooded His siblings could laugh him alive at his funeral.He moved his fingers and said with a lack of interest, "That's right."

To be honest, he didn't believe at all the conclusions drawn by those old men in his family who spent all day in the library studying those books that were almost burnt to ashes.

If you ask him, instead of spending so much time looking for a weapon that might not be finished, he might as well trust Barrett in his hands.

"Why do we have to come here?"

It's snowing again.Ravenna exhaled, took out the kettle from his waist, and took a sip of warm vodka, "I hate snow days." The spirit flowed down his throat, he shook the snowflakes from his hair, and asked his companion if he wanted Come a little of this flowing flame.

His companion was not polite, and took a big sip from the tin water bag, "Because someone saw the vampire related to Daybreak here. I remember it was called... Edson...or something."

"Edgar Fogelsang. You came here without even knowing this?" Ravenna smiled mockingly, "It is said that he is the only dark creature who left the Daybreak Underground Fortress alive. related to the secret research of Dawn."

"Yes, this is it, Edgar Fogelsang." The big man was not at all ashamed, and handed him the kettle, "The old men believe that the last test subject did not die, but was quietly taken away by this vampire Because according to the old Hannah who participated in the rescue, she saw the vampire's companion hurried away with a big suitcase after rescuing his friend."

The tin kettle was passed between them, and the two of them took a sip from each other, and quickly dispelled the severe winter cold with the heat brought by alcohol.

"Well... if that crazy woman didn't get old enough to lose her mind, it would be interesting."

Ravenna pondered for a moment, and did not continue to refute his companion's words.

Because the ancient books left by the fire were really badly damaged, the people in their family did not find a way to restore them until last spring, and began to slowly interpret the things recorded on them.

The more they read, the more thrilling they will be: Ivan Oscar is undoubtedly a genius, but he is gentle and friendly, while Thomas Raleigh, who has inherited all his wisdom, has embarked on a more extreme path.He came up with a shocking idea, and quickly put him into practice.For hundreds of years, countless people died, and countless people joined their glorious and great plan. They hid themselves in the dark night, just to carry on this terrible research.These remaining files are their experimental records, which record some things that Ravenna can't even imagine.

The vampire named Edgar must have taken something from the underground world: it may be an ancient book recording magic, or it may be an ancient magic weapon, but considering that these are not of much use to vampires, And such a big box is really suspicious, so the old men in their family suspect that the vampire took away the precious experimental body—the experimental body that has condensed the wisdom and painstaking efforts of countless spellcasters for nearly four centuries.

"If anyone really knows the whereabouts of the experimental subject, there is no doubt that it is the vampire." Sensing the movement ahead, Ravenna silently held the pistol in his pocket, "You said what we are going to do, catch Hold him and torture him?"

"I don't know." The big man said honestly, "But I don't think this is the best way..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a change in the distance caught his attention.

The screams, as well as the breath of dark creatures they were all too familiar with, all touched their sensitive nerves as demon hunters.

"Go and have a look!" Ravenna made a decisive decision.

As early as the second they came to this small town, they noticed the bloody aura of dark creatures raging under the peaceful and peaceful appearance.

If the witcher hadn't intervened earlier, the tragedy at the town hospital would have only been the beginning of another killing spree.

"I'm sure one of them is a vampire—"

Just as they were rushing towards the direction of the noise, a disheveled girl rushed out from another alley.

"Help me, you're talking about vampires, right?" She leaned on the wall with her bloodied hands, and weakly asked the two witchers for help, "My name is Daisy Willard, my father... my father put his soul Betrayed to a vampire and murdered my mother, please help me."

39 Wilgelson Ave.

Edgar silently pushed open the half-hidden door at the end of the corridor on the second floor, and as expected, he only saw an empty bed and burning candles.

He had sensed it the moment the blood rope was untied, but at that time he was in a hurry to torture another blood descendant of Ignatz: Ignatz used magic to eliminate his breath, in order to track down him He used the most primitive and most effective method, which was to slaughter his descendants, reduce the number of minions who worked outside for Ignatz, and forced Ignatz to leave his safe house. to him.

When he came back, he only saw such a scene: Carl had left with the vampire named Todd Croft.Even if he didn't know where they went, he knew instinctively that something terrible had happened.

He didn't trust Todd, never had.He would not trust anyone or anything that had anything to do with Ignatz, it was an instinct that went deep into his bone marrow.

The reason why he didn't crush Todd's heart the first second he found was also because of Karl - he never liked humans, except for Karl, as long as Karl asked, he would do it for him.

Suddenly something on the floor caught his attention.

Vampires have excellent night vision ability, even without artificial light sources, they can see what it is: a black feather, light and soft black feather, shining with a metallic luster.He knew that such harmlessness was just an appearance, after all, he had seen such a feather cut the neck of his own kind with his own eyes.

A vampire doesn't have a heartbeat or body temperature, but the moment he thought about what this feather meant, he still felt his blood freeze into ice, and he even forgot to breathe.

The last time he had such a hunch, what greeted him was Ignatz's betrayal.

Driven by an invisible sense of crisis, he didn't even have time to go downstairs. He opened the glass window on the second floor and jumped down. Anyway, the vampire wouldn't be hurt.

Ignatz was lurking in the dark, he didn't know how much he already knew, and the greedy and insatiable demon hunters had come to this town. If the secrets of the year were revealed, he couldn't tell how those people would treat Karl.

He must find Carl before it's too late.

Brodica is a small town with a conservative estimate of [-] households. Even at the speed of a vampire, it would take a long time to follow the same kind of smell coming from all directions.

Fortunately, Todd Croft drank his blood, and there was some kind of subtle connection between him and the boy.

Edgar rushed in the direction of the other party's scent.

Large flakes of snowflakes fell from the thick clouds, and when they fell on the ground, they didn't melt immediately, but piled up like gravel.

Connected to the fact that Carl at the bedside didn't return to the place in time, Edgar thought, he knew where they went: the book told a story between a father and a son.

As long as the boy named Todd said that he wanted to go back to see his father, no matter how difficult and painful, Carl would grant his wish.Carl is like this, even if he hurts himself, he will pay for his friends.

Just like that time...

Because they are not of direct blood, the connection between Edgar and Todd is sometimes strong and sometimes weak, generally speaking, it depends on the distance between them.

But this is not right, this connection is rapidly weakening, so weak that he is about to lose his way.He followed the location of Sheriff Croft's house in his memory - hurry up, hurry up, Carl has already shown signs of "awakening", if...

Seeing that he was about to step into a safe distance, he could control his actions by instilling his thoughts directly into Carl's mind, and the bloody connection between him and Todd disappeared, as if it had never existed. .

There were also screams—he swore that this must be Carl's voice, and it was absolutely impossible to misidentify it.

What happened?

He rushed in the direction of the screaming, and when he saw the scene in front of him clearly, instinctive fear seized his heart.

Only the street lights were on, and the rest of the space was covered by dark shadows. The shadows seemed to come alive, stretching out countless tiny tentacles, wriggling slightly.

And in the middle of the darkness where even the light cannot penetrate, there is something curled up.

The dark wings wrapped around his disheveled body, and the irregular black texture spread to every inch of his skin, even strangling his throat, forcing him to look up and hiss with difficulty.

"Carl, is that you?"

The creature whose name was called turned his head blankly, and aimed at him with bottomless eyes.

There is no distinction between the pupils and the whites of the eyes, it is completely a diffuse blackness, and Edgar's appearance is reflected in it, and his expression remains motionless, as if he can recognize a vampire at all.

"Is Todd with you?"

Hearing such a name, the curled up body flinched, and a small whimper came out of his throat, but there was no other response.

The worst thing Edgar had ever imagined had come true: his boy had turned into this monster again, a monster driven by instinct without reason.

"I see. It's okay, it's not your fault."

Through Carl's reaction, he can roughly guess what happened 10 minutes ago.

If it is not life-threatening, maybe he can delay some transformation time.Delay it a bit more, one month is fine, one day is fine, anyway, don't do it at such an urgent time.

But Edgar also knew that his power was not endless, as long as Karl's soul essence remained unchanged for a day, he would become what he is now sooner or later.

The power of the shadow is more turbulent.Even though Karl's expression didn't change, his instinct to defend against threats and dark creatures caused the feathers on his wings to stand up again, shining a gloomy luster under the lonely streetlight.

A monster without reason but instinct, a monster created by dawn-they call this a god.

For a moment, Edgar thought he had returned to ten years ago.

Those were the most unbearable years of his long life.

Betrayed by those who were once friends, passed around as a rare commodity, and ended up in the hands of the notorious Daybreak: who slaughtered vampires, and those humans associated with vampires.He thought that Daybreak would kill him right away, but no, sometimes he even wished that the guys at Daybreak had already done him, because it was too painful to be alive, too miserable.

Even vampires, as long as they are kept underground for a long time, their perception of the passage of time will become extremely weak.Those guys in robes will come in one by one and do some terrible experiments on him: drawing blood is the lightest, injecting liquid silver into blood vessels is the norm, and there are some spells that he can't name, all of which will be used on him body.The day and night torture almost drove him crazy. In order to maintain his sanity, he slept or meditated most of the time.

He was keenly aware that the group of people in the dawn did not really want to kill him, they just wanted to separate some kind of power from him and use it for a certain experiment.

He still remembered that it was a rare free time that day, and all the spellcasters let him go and did not continue to torture him.

Something pushed open the door, and a thin shadow appeared in his peripheral vision—probably bigger than a pet dog, with a small and bony body, staring blankly at him bound on the stone bed.

……

The little tentacles were already touching Edgar's ankle tentatively.

Different from the cruel treatment of the prey before, the tiny tentacles protruding from the shadow seemed to be a little afraid of something about the vampire, so they only dared to linger between touching and leaving.

Edgar ignored them, took a small step cautiously, and stretched out his hand towards Karl, hoping to bring back some of his sanity.

It was this small step, those tiny tentacles waved like crazy, trying to drag him in place.

"Listen, Carl, come back with me, there is almost no time." Edgar's pupils turned light red unconsciously.

Because of the tragedies of the previous period and the arrival of cold winter, Brodika was as quiet as dead at night: everyone hid in their houses, locked the doors, and anxiously waited for the sun to rise in the new day .

It’s okay if it’s just like this, but the demon hunters with evil intentions have come here. They not only want to hunt those creatures in the dark, but also want to find out the truth ten years ago. It’s not sure whether such a big movement will alarm people They have sharper noses than hounds.

- Absolutely don't let those guys discover Karl's existence.

This was the consensus reached by Edgar and Eugene back then.When Eugene rescued him, he also secretly took Carl away, and left a corpse of a boy stolen from the cemetery as a substitute. For the next ten years, they kept tight-lipped, never talking about that day, that day. What exactly happened in a few years.He had left something on Karl, and if he hadn't tracked down the whereabouts of the despicable traitor Ignatz in Brodica, he might never see the boy again until the spell expired.

"..." Carl's lips moved, but what he made was a sound that humans would never be able to make.

"What did you say?"

Edgar knew that this was the language of another creature, which he had heard Karl speak in his sleep.

The creature squatting on the ground blinked, changed its posture on all fours, and then jumped up from the ground in the next second.His movements are as sensitive and brisk as a beast, even a vampire can only catch a faint trace.

Cold fingers were pressed against Edgar's neck, and the black flames were already on the verge of igniting again, and the countless little hands at his feet finally let go of their last scruples and wrapped themselves around his body recklessly.

Facing this creature that was born to kill, Edgar instinctively felt a trace of fear.

This is death, a complete omen of death, even in the dark night that belongs to dark creatures, it can easily end their lives.

Seeing that the black flame was about to spread to his neck.

"Carl?" he called softly.

Perhaps something from the same source in their bodies resonated at this moment. In short, Karl's expression was no longer as numb as before.

It took him a while to figure out the current situation, and his pupils became bright again.

The berserk tentacles retreated into the shadows again.The overwhelming shadows returned to invisible places like the receding sea water, leaving only their lonely shadows overlapping together.

"...Edgar?" He found with some panic that he was strangling the vampire's neck.

He quickly let go of his hand, but the charcoal-black handprint left behind was even more shocking against the pale skin.

Even the most stupid person should know that if there is a few seconds delay, something irreparable will definitely happen.

"Did I do it?" He quickly glanced around and asked the question that Edgar would never be able to answer, "...Where's Todd?"

The fatigue caused by overuse attacked him, and before Edgar could come up with a good excuse, his body shook twice and fell straight down.

Edgar turned his head and found that someone with a gun had already discovered their existence - between the two men was a very familiar girl, who seemed to be called Daisy Willard.

The witcher discovered his and Karl's existence.

Knowing that things could not be delayed any longer, he picked up the collapsed Carl, jumped into the house, and took advantage of the night to leave the scene quickly.

Because he didn't know if the witcher would follow, Edgar didn't immediately return to No. 39 Wiggerson Street.

He first went to the basement on the outskirts of town, and placed Carl on the old sofa covered with blankets, while he pulled down the iron gate and spent the last few hours before sunrise quietly.

The hunger caused by not eating for a long time scorched his nerves, keeping his eyes bright red in hunting state all the time, and his fangs were also ready to move.

There was still a little blood in the cupboard at 39 Wiggelson Street, just get through the worst of it and get back there before the sun came up.He comforted himself like this, but he still vigilantly paid attention to even the most insignificant noises around him: he smelled the smell of some terrible beast, and the mouse got out of the can shell and ran away screaming.

Sensing a groan from the people around him, Edgar hurried over to check.

Karl was still in a coma and hadn't recovered his sanity. The pair of black wings had disappeared at some point, leaving only two deep bony scars on his shoulder blades.

The wound did not bleed, which was probably the only good thing tonight, otherwise Edgar didn't know if he could stabilize his mind.

Seemingly affected by the pain of the wound, Carl's brows were furrowed, his face flushed abnormally, and large beads of sweat slid down his forehead, obviously feeling very uncomfortable.

He needs a doctor.This was Edgar's first reaction, but with the incident at the town hospital, the medical system in Brodika Town was paralyzed, and the townspeople would rather exercise than set foot in the hospital.

And he couldn't tell if the human doctor would discover Carl's secret.

"...Edgar." Carl cried out in deep pain.

If it weren't for the fact that his eyelids were still glued together, he would almost have thought Karl had woken up.

"Dad...Mom..." Carl continued talking in his sleep.

Suddenly a thought entered my mind.He stood up excitedly as if he had grabbed a savior - he knew who he should go to.

Seeing that there are still three hours before the sun rises, and Karl's condition is still deteriorating, Edgar knows it's not too late, he hugs Karl's hot body, wraps them in a slightly cleaner blanket, and enters the haze again. In the hazy snowy night.

For a vampire, the pain perception is much slower than that of a human being, but at this moment, he did feel some kind of anxious torment and pain.

He was going to Mr Morrison.Mr. Morrison should be the last human being he can trust in this town of Brodica.

The couple in the small hotel took the boy from him ten years ago, and they have regarded the boy as their own son since then, and raised him until he was so old that they could even give their lives for him.

He is a creature of darkness, and a witcher can hurt him with impunity.Generally speaking, no matter how powerful the dark creatures are, they are unwilling to offend the demon hunter family because they are too vengeful. Unless their entire clan can be guaranteed to be wiped out, they will come to you for revenge even in the past few hundred years.

But the witcher can't harm human beings, he must deliver Karl to Mr. Morrison, only he can guarantee Karl's safety.

The snow was falling even harder, and it would not melt on the skin.

The cold wind howled like a knife and cut his cheek, but vampires don't feel cold, so Edgar only needs to worry about Karl, who is unconscious in his arms.

Karl's body was like a piece of hot charcoal. For a vampire without body temperature, this temperature was so ominous, even to the point of frightening him.

It was the same snowy night when he took Carl out of that hellish place many years ago.

Long incarceration had left him without much of his strength, so weak that even the slightest bit of sunlight could kill him.And Karl was even worse, he looked like a stunted little mole, no matter how experienced a woman looked at it, it was impossible to believe that this scrawny child was already six years old.

Eugene is a heterogeneous vampire. He is far away from his own group and makes a living by doing business in human society.Concerned about his physical condition, Eugene decided to take him to hide in his manor for a while. As for the child... none of them had thought about what to do.

Vampires were not supposed to raise human children, and they had too much to worry about, so they had to send the boy away.It cannot be a dark creature, but it must not be related to a demon hunter. This is a consensus reached between them.

Eugene said he could try his luck with some partners in his human society to see if any of them would be willing to adopt a boy of unknown origin, but before that, he met a couple who apparently came from abroad. The fleeing couple.

It turned out that his choice was right, and the couple adopted his boy without any qualms, treating him like their own.

The brown-red brick wall of Morrison's house could already be seen not far away, and Edgar lowered his head to take a deep look at Carl's sleepy face.

The Morrisons brought him up very well, and the past suffering has disappeared from him, and there is no trace of the poor little boy he once was.

Without those things, he should be a very happy child, with parents who love him, and friends who grew up with him, and his biggest dream is to leave this remote town and enter a good university, and then... Anyway, it shouldn’t be like this of.

The heavy snow had already covered all the road under his feet, and Edgar left a line of shallow footprints on it.

All the windows of Morrison's house were dark, and Edgar went up to knock on the door, wondering if anyone was inside.

—If no one was around, he might have to take Carl back to 39 Wiggelson Street.Before that, he might have to make a trip to the town pharmacy.

After a few minutes, the door opened a crack, revealing the face of a haggard middle-aged man.

"..."

They stared at each other in silence until Mr. Morrison took a step back and opened the door fully, revealing the scene inside.

Edgar lifted the blanket and turned Carl over, "Sir, I'm back with your son."

Mr. Morrison looked down and saw the hideous wound on the boy's back in Edgar's arms, panic instantly flooded his cheeks, "What's wrong with him?" He wanted to touch it, but he was afraid that it would make the wound worse, The hand stopped abruptly in mid-air.

"The matter is more complicated, you take him in first." Edgar did not say anything too bizarre, "The wound on his back is not bleeding, but he needs antibiotics and reasonable care. These are things I cannot give his."

The wind and snow were raging, and in just over ten minutes, his blond hair was about to be completely dyed white by the snowflakes.

Mr. Morrison stretched out his hand tremblingly, and hugged the unconscious Carl into his arms.

After losing his wife, he only had one child, and no matter what, he couldn't let him have any more accidents.

After Edgar confirmed that he was standing still, he whispered thank you and wanted to leave like this.But before he had gone far, warm and generous hands grabbed the corner of his clothes.He looked back and saw Mr. Morrison's anxious face, "I need you to stay."

As if afraid of his refusal, Mr. Morrison rolled his eyes and said the words that Carl could not say at the beginning, "Come in. I invite this vampire in front of me to enter my home, in the name of the master." Facing Edgar's surprised expression, he looked a little proud and a little sad, "After that night... I checked a lot of information about vampires, and I know that you need the permission of the host to come in."

Even if the barrier was removed, Edgar still hadn't moved.

"I'm a vampire." He narrated calmly. "Like the real culprit behind the hospital tragedy that night, I'm a monster that feeds on human blood. I haven't eaten for two days."

Mr. Morrison rolled his eyes, "If you don't mind, I can provide you with blood. Come in, my son needs treatment, and only you know how he is, so you can't leave."

He pulled the vampire into the living room, "If my wife was still alive, she would say the same. You are a friend of our family and saved our family from the abyss of despair."

On a night ten years ago, he was penniless and at a loss about the way forward.

A week ago, the premature daughter passed away due to a lung infection. For this reason, the infertile wife showed her will to commit suicide several times.

Thanks to the arrival of that child, his wife was able to recover from despair—as long as it was a child, even if her blood was not flowing on her body, she would be a good mother and seriously raise him up.

"Even if the thing in the hospital was done by a vampire, I still trust you. After all, we humans are divided into good people and bad people."

The house that lost the care of the hostess quickly became messy and deserted, and there were still unfinished scrambled eggs and cold leftover soup on the dining room table.

Edgar followed Mr. Morrison inside, took over the boy's body from him, and helped Mr. Morrison share his worries.

"Sorry, I'm not having a good time these days...well, put Carl there, and I'll find medicine for him after I do some other preparations." Mr. Morrison said wearily. I was in a daze looking at the relics of the deceased lady, so I couldn't come to open the door in time.

The funeral was just two days later, and he suspected that half of his soul had been taken into the coffin, and he would never be able to return to this world.

The room was frighteningly cold. In order not to worsen Carl's condition, Mr. Morrison quickly lit the fireplace, and the blazing flames made the interior of the room warm again.

Edgar put Carl face up on the couch in the living room, quietly waiting for the middle-aged man's next step.

The living room was illuminated by the orange fire, and Edgar sat beside Karl, wiping the sweat rolling down his forehead with a handkerchief, while Mr. Morrison was busy in the inner room, holding a half-worn The tin box came out.

"Fortunately, there are still antibiotics left, otherwise I can't think of what to do...Help me open his mouth." The middle-aged man brought a glass of water and watched Edgar hug Carl, "Feed him this go down."

Edgar carefully controlled the strength and sent the capsule into Carl's mouth.

Karl, who was in a coma, was full of resistance to taking the medicine, and the vampire took some effort to force him to swallow the capsule.

"The rest is the treatment of the wound."

Although there was no bleeding, the large area of ​​wounds was still very scary.Mr. Morrison tried his best not to let his hands shake, and asked Edgar to tear off the rotten clothes, dissolve the powder in the remaining two capsules with water, apply it little by little, and finally use The bandage was wrapped round and round, making sure that no trace of bloody wound was exposed to the air.

After taking the medicine, Edgar touched Carl's hot forehead, and the worried look on his face didn't fade away.

He didn't say what kind of creature Carl had just turned into.

In fact, even he himself didn't know how the dawn group used the power they had deprived from him and so many dark creatures.

"You..." He was stopped when he was about to discuss what happened in the first half of the night with Mr. Morrison.

Antibiotics don't work so quickly.Mr. Morrison stared at the unconscious Carl with some hesitation, and shook his head, "I know you are worried about him, but you should also think about yourself."

"I'm fine." Even if he hasn't eaten for two days, he won't die like a human. At most, he needs to spend a little more time to maintain his mind.

"It's your turn to take care of Carl. Can you tell me your name?"

Mr. Morrison was not as nervous as he was at the beginning, and he sat down gently beside Edgar.

Edgar noticed that he was still rummaging in the trunk, and there was an empty glass next to it.

"Edgar Fogelsand."

"Okay, Mr. Fogelsang, you said you haven't eaten for two whole days." Mr. Morrison found a pocket knife, rolled up his sleeve and gestured twice on his wrist, "Are you concerned about the food?" Don't you have a preference? For example, virgin blood or something..." The joking words did not relieve the tension on his face at all, the hand holding the knife trembled a little, and the blade could not fall off the skin for a long time.

"No."

For a long time, he lived on the blood of animals.

The blade cut through the skin, and the dark red blood flowed along the wall of the cup. Mr. Morrison frowned and squeezed the surrounding skin nervously to make more blood flow out.

"Okay, Mr. Vampire, drink this and go to the basement of our house to sleep. I will guard here."

The hour hand was about to point to 6, and Edgar moved his body uncomfortably.

The cup was more than half full, almost enough to fill the vampire's stomach.

Mr. Morrison wrapped a bandage around the wound hastily twice, walked over and pulled the curtain tightly, "It's okay, unless I kill me, I won't let anyone hurt you and Carl."