He followed the scent toward the curtains.
And then...soone suddenly jumped out in front of him.
Startled, Jake instinctively threw a punch. But the other person caught his hand easily and pulled him into a hug.
Jake froze.
That sll... that feeling... it was so familiar.
His eyes widened as he slowly pulled away to look at the man’s face. "Jacob?" he whispered. "Impossible..."
Jacob smirked. "What’s impossible?"
Jake stared at him, completely speechless.
His heart raced as he reached out to touch Jacob’s face, as if to make sure he was real. "You’re alive..." he breathed.
Jacob chuckled, his eyes soft. "Seems like I am."
Jake’s lips trembled. He suddenly punched Jacob’s chest...not hard, but enough to make his point. "You idiot! You made think you were dead!"
Jacob laughed, rubbing his chest. "I deserved that."
Jake shook his head, tears in his eyes, but a smile on his face. "You really ca back..."
Jacob grinned. "Yeah. And this ti, I’m not leaving again."
Behind them, Su Jiyai and Qiang Zhi watched the reunion with wide smiles.
The day passed in laughter and old mories. It was warm. It felt like the dark tis were far away.
Jacob sat back and wiped his eyes. He laughed softly. "I will tell you the truth about Jake," he said. "But it is a silly story."
Jake raised an eyebrow. "Oh no. What did I do now?"
Jacob grinned. "You burned the undergarnts of His Majesty Kevin."
Everyone froze and then burst into noise. Qiang Zhi and Su Jiyai looked at each other and then at Jake. Jake’s face went red.
"What? No way," Jake said, but he could not hide his smile.
Jacob smiled and nodded. "Yes. You burned them. Kevin was angry."
Kevin had been furious. Jacob told the story while the others listened with big eyes.
"Kevin was so angry," Jacob said. "He made Jake go without any blood for three days. He wanted Jake to learn a lesson."
Jake rolled his eyes. "I almost fainted, but only almost."
Jacob looked at Jake with a small smile. "That is not the whole thing. I secretly fed him. I gave him a little blood each night. I did not want him to suffer."
Su Jiyai gasped. "Father, you did that? You risked Kevin’s wrath."
Jacob rubbed his neck. "I know. I felt it was my duty. But then Kevin thought Jake had suffered enough. He lifted the ban. He even let Jake drink a little more."
Jake laughed at the mory. "I drank and I felt proud. I thought I was safe."
Jacob looked sad. "But then Kevin realized sothing was wrong. He saw that Jake’s cultivation fell. He was tricked."
Whenever a vampire consus a high amount of blood, they temporarily lose their cultivation a bit.
Su Jiyai’s face hardened a little. "So Kevin was tricked by both of you."
Jacob nodded. "Yes. He was very angry. He punished us both. He made Jake and go on a hunger strike for three days. We had to endure it."
Qiang Zhi put his hand on Jacob’s arm. "That must have been terrible."
Jacob smiled weakly. "It was. I regretted helping him a little. But I could not leave my brother to faint."
They all laughed together. The room felt alive.
Su Jiyai looked at Jake with a curious expression. "Jake, how were you adopted? From Kevin’s previous deed, I don’t think he might adopt soone unrelated by him!"
Jake smirked. He loved telling strange stories. "Well," he said, "I am kind of related to you. And kind of not."
Su Jiyai blinked. "What do you an?"
Jake took a breath.
"I was made from a clone of His Majesty. But there was a problem. The clone’s blood percentage matched his majesty only by five percent. So when His Majesty tried the ritual process, the result made , who was only linked to him by 5%."
Everyone beca very quiet. Qiang Zhi squeezed Su Jiyai’s hand.
Jake continued slowly. "At first, Ronald and the 3rd Prince were not born. They ca later. I think His Majesty was desperate when I and Jacob ran away. He used the eting ritual then. I rember nothing about Ronald or the 3rd Prince. I never saw them."
Su Jiyai frowned. "So we are related? In so way?"
Jake nodded. "Yes. In a way. The clone made a child. People thought it was a miracle. Many wanted to use the clone technique to grow more vampires."
Jacob sighed. "But it caused problems. Many tried and failed. It beca a problem. The vampire world almost had an uproar. In the end the technique was banned. No one could find the true formula. So they stopped."
Su Jiyai sat very still. Her mind moved fast. She thought about her mother. Anna was weak and barely awake. If clones could make life, perhaps a clone could hold her mother’s soul or mind.
Her heart beat fast. She looked at Jake.
"What if we make a clone? What if we can put Mother into a clone? If we use her blood, or my blood, maybe we could bring her back."
Jake’s face turned serious.
"That is not easy. You cannot just move a soul like that. We do not even know if Anna’s soul is still inside the body. It could be gone. Or the ritual could fail. It could make things worse."
Jacob cleared his throat. "There are many risks. Let list the problems."
He spoke slowly and clearly. "One. The soul might be lost. Two. The clone might not accept the soul. Three. The blood mix could cause strange effects. Four. The ritual might attract the wrong kind of spirit. Five. We could wake sothing dangerous. Six. The law and the elders could punish us. Seven. If it fails, your mother’s body might break. Eight. We do not know the long-term effects."
Su Jiyai listened without blinking. Her breath ca in small waves. The list made her stomach hurt. She felt foolish for thinking it would be simple.
For a long ti, she said nothing. Then she smiled a small, sad smile. "I was thinking too easily," she said. "I wanted it to be quick. I am sorry."
Jacob took her hand and patted it. "We understand," he said. "We know you are desperate. But forbidden thods can cause trouble. There could be bad effects. We must be careful."
Jake nodded. "We will help you. But we must be smart. We must think of safe ways."
Qiang Zhi hugged Su Jiyai from the side. She relaxed into his arms. The room felt quiet and warm again.
After they talked, Su Jiyai decided to rest. She needed sleep.
Tomorrow she would hunt. Even if the apocalypse were ending, there were still bad people. There were people who hurt others and would hurt more when the law returned.
She thought about the Aurora base. She thought about Rui Wang and the horror of what her brother had done. She rembered the report. Her body felt heavy.
That night, she dread of Anna. She dread of light. When she woke up the next morning, she felt strong. She had a new plan. She would work hard.
Outside, Xi Ping, Qin Feng, Jake, and a group of soldiers waited. They bowed and greeted Su Jiyai.
"Can we leave now?" a soldier asked. His voice was steady, but his eyes were sharp.
Su Jiyai nodded. "Yes. We go now."
They used teleportation. In a blink, they were at Aurora base. Soldiers surrounded the area. The base looked like a small fortress. It had tents and labs. People moved like shadows.
Su Jiyai gave orders in a soft voice. "Stay where you are. Do not rush. We surround them. I will go in."
She motioned for the soldiers to wait.
She put on the veil. She turned invisible. Her heart beat steadily.
She slipped through the gate. The guards did not see her. Inside the base, things were loud. Machines humd. People talked in low voices. She moved like water.
She found the best house. It looked nicer than the others.
In the hall, a man with silver hair sat at a table. He looked almost like Rui Wang. He was handso and cold.
If it weren’t for the cruel words slipping out of his mouth, no one would have known his inner evil.
Another man stood near him. He had a hard face and many scars.
"You know the plan," the silver-haired man said, voice low and hard. "We cannot let any witnesses live. After the governnt forms, they will dig. We must erase the proof now. All the innocents around will be gone. No one will know."
Su Jiyai’s blood boiled. She moved closer to the door and listened.
"What if they trace you?" the scarred man said. "What if soone survives?"
The silver-haired man smiled like ice.
"Then we kill them. We will make it look like an epidemic. No one will suspect us."
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