Liam looked at Dickson and shook his head.
"You have no choice here brother. You are really fucked."
Dickson looked like a man who had just received a death sentence.
He rubbed his face with both hands and sighed heavily.
"The mother of my child is gonna be a whore."
"Cough cough"
Liam imdiately interrupted him.
"I think you ant children."
Dickson froze.
Liam raised two fingers.
"There are two of them rember?"
Dickson stared at him.
Liam stared back.
For a few seconds neither of them spoke.
Then Dickson looked up toward the sky like he was asking the universe why it hated him.
Liam was no help at all.
Not even a little.
Instead of comfort he was receiving mockery.
Instead of support he was receiving reminders that he had sohow managed to get two whores pregnant at the sa ti.
Dickson’s shoulders slumped.
He looked completely defeated.
Then suddenly his expression hardened.
"Fuck this."
He pointed at himself.
"I’ll fix this shit myself."
Liam imdiately raised an eyebrow.
"That’s your plan?"
"Yes."
"What plan exactly?"
Dickson paused.
"...I don’t know yet."
Liam burst out laughing again.
Dickson didn’t even bother responding.
He simply walked past him.
Even his own friend was making fun of him.
There was no justice in this world.
Liam followed behind him with a grin still stuck on his face.
As they approached the others, the group was already gathering near the private jet.
The two new girls were standing together talking quietly.
Whenever their eyes landed on Dickson, they seed unsure whether to smile or apologize.
Dickson imdiately looked away.
anwhile, several maids had begun descending from the aircraft carrying luggage.
Suitcases.
Travel bags.
Boxes.
There was a ridiculous amount of luggage.
Liam watched for a mont before pointing toward the row of vehicles waiting nearby.
Three black SUVs stood parked beside the private terminal.
"I rented those."
The maids nodded imdiately.
Without wasting ti they began dragging the luggage toward the vehicles.
Everyone slowly started moving.
Eventually they reached the SUVs.
Liam headed toward the front vehicle.
The mont he opened the driver’s door and got inside, he heard footsteps behind him.
Lilith.
She was clearly about to sit in the passenger seat.
Then suddenly—
Whoosh.
Vanessa vanished.
The next second she appeared inside the passenger seat.
Lilith stopped.
The corner of Liam’s mouth twitched.
Vanessa stuck her tongue out proudly.
Lilith stared at her.
"What if soone saw you?"
Vanessa shrugged.
"Nobody saw."
"You don’t know that."
"I checked."
"You checked?"
"Yep."
Lilith pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Childish."
Vanessa only grinned wider.
Liam chuckled quietly.
So things never changed.
Lilith eventually shook her head and climbed into the back seat.
A few monts later everyone else settled into the remaining vehicles.
The convoy slowly pulled away from the airport.
The city moved past the windows.
Traffic flowed steadily.
People walked along sidewalks completely unaware of the monsters sitting inside these vehicles.
For a while nobody spoke.
The engine humd quietly.
Then Lilith broke the silence.
"Lana told about this Cain person."
Liam’s expression shifted slightly.
The smile disappeared.
Imdiately.
Lilith noticed it.
"So?" she asked.
"Was he really that strong?"
Liam let out a short laugh.
Not an amused laugh.
The kind of laugh soone gave when rembering sothing unpleasant.
"Strong is an understatent."
Lilith frowned.
Vanessa looked over.
Liam kept his eyes on the road.
"He is frightening."
The vehicle beca quiet.
Liam rarely talked like that.
Especially about opponents.
Normally he would joke.
Smile.
Act confident.
But there was none of that now.
"I fought him."
His fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel.
"And honestly..."
He shook his head.
"There is no way to defeat him."
Both Lilith and Vanessa looked surprised.
Liam continued.
"He attacks without moving from his position."
"What?"
Vanessa blinked.
"What do you an?"
"I an exactly what I said."
Liam rembered the fight.
The white eyes.
The burned face.
The pressure.
The impossible attacks.
The feeling of helplessness.
"He stood there."
"And?"
"And he beat the hell out of ."
Vanessa looked stunned.
Lilith’s expression grew serious.
Liam exhaled slowly.
"I’m lucky to still be alive."
Silence followed.
The seriousness in his voice was impossible to miss.
For several monts only the sound of the engine remained.
Then Liam spoke again.
"And then there is Alexander."
Lilith frowned.
Vanessa tilted her head.
Lana had told them about Cain.
But neither of them had heard that na before.
"Who is that?" Vanessa asked.
Liam glanced at her briefly.
"A vampire."
Vanessa’s eyebrows rose.
Liam nodded.
"Apparently he’s the adopted son of the vampire king."
He paused briefly.
"Brother to Boris."
The mont Boris’ na left his mouth, both Lilith and Vanessa exchanged looks.
The na clearly ant sothing.
But before either woman could ask further questions, Liam’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Even now, rembering the fight with Alexander made his chest tighten.
Because unlike Cain...
Alexander was still holding back.
And sohow that thought was even more terrifying.
Liam took his ti as he drove through the city streets.
The traffic was lighter than he expected. Buildings slid past the windows while the convoy of black SUVs followed behind them in a neat line. The airport was already far behind, but inside the vehicle nobody seed particularly interested in the scenery.
Lilith sat quietly in the back seat.
Vanessa was in the passenger seat with her legs crossed and her attention completely fixed on Liam.
For the last twenty minutes he had been explaining everything that had happened since they arrived.
The werewolves.
Irina.
The vampires.
Cain.
Alexander.
The attacks.
The alliance forming in the shadows.
The more he talked, the quieter both won beca.
By the ti he finished, the atmosphere inside the SUV felt completely different.
It was heavy.
Lilith slowly turned her head and looked out the window.
People walked casually on the sidewalks.
Cars moved normally.
Shops were open.
Everything looked peaceful.
Yet according to Liam, a storm was building behind the scenes that ordinary people knew absolutely nothing about.
After a long silence she finally spoke.
"Who do you fight for?"
Liam glanced at her through the rearview mirror.
"What do you an?"
"I an exactly what I asked."
Lilith folded her arms.
"You’re risking your life. You’re throwing yourself into battles against monsters. You’re making enemies everywhere you go."
Her golden eyes narrowed slightly.
"So who exactly are you fighting for?"
Liam thought about it for a mont.
Then he shrugged.
"I fight with the werewolves."
Lilith rolled her eyes imdiately.
"That wasn’t my question."
Vanessa nodded.
"Yeah. That’s not really an answer."
Liam chuckled.
He drumd his fingers lightly against the steering wheel.
Then he finally answered properly.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Lilith frowned.
She clearly didn’t understand what he ant.
Liam noticed her expression and continued.
"The Crimson Hand."
The mont he ntioned the na, both won beca serious.
That na carried history.
Bad history.
"We never found them."
Liam made a turn at an intersection before continuing.
"They disappeared."
"Vanished."
"No traces."
"No leads."
"We knew they ca here eventually, but after that everything went cold."
Vanessa nodded slowly.
That part she knew.
The Crimson Hand had caused enough problems for all of them.
Liam continued.
"But here’s the thing."
"The more I investigate, the more I realize sothing."
His expression hardened.
"The Crimson Hand."
"The Ravens."
"The vampires."
"And Cain’s people."
"I think they’re all moving toward the sa objective."
Silence filled the SUV.
Even the engine suddenly seed loud.
Lilith leaned forward slightly.
"You think they’re working together?"
Liam nodded.
"Maybe not directly."
"Maybe not perfectly."
"But they’re moving toward the sa destination."
His eyes remained fixed on the road.
"I don’t know what their final goal is."
"But I know one thing."
"They all seem interested in waking soone up."
Vanessa’s brows furrowed.
"The ancient vampire?"
"Yeah."
Liam nodded.
"The ancient vampire."
He rembered everything Irina had told him.
The warnings.
The fear.
The uncertainty.
Just thinking about it made him uncomfortable.
"This isn’t so old vampire king."
"This thing is ancient."
"One of the first."
"Maybe older than every vampire currently alive."
Neither Lilith nor Vanessa spoke.
They simply listened.
Liam continued.
"If even half the stories are true then we’re talking about sothing completely ridiculous."
"The kind of monster that changes the rules just by existing."
Vanessa slowly leaned back into her seat.
"That’s comforting."
Liam laughed.
"It wasn’t ant to be."
Lilith remained thoughtful.
Then she asked the obvious question.
"If waking him up is so important, why haven’t they done it already?"
Liam shook his head.
"Because it isn’t simple."
He rembered Lana explaining so of the information she had found.
"There are requirents."
"Conditions."
"Preparations."
"You don’t just walk into a room and shake him awake."
Lilith nodded.
That made more sense.
"What kind of requirents?"
Liam exhaled.
"Blood sacrifices."
The atmosphere instantly beca colder.
Vanessa’s smile disappeared.
Lilith’s eyes narrowed.
Neither woman liked where this was going.
"How much blood?" Vanessa asked quietly.
Liam was silent for a second.
Then he answered.
"Potentially hundreds."
Nobody spoke.
The answer was worse than expected.
Outside the window the city continued normally.
People laughed.
Friends talked.
Children crossed the street holding hands with their parents.
None of them knew there were groups discussing the sacrifice of hundreds of human lives.
Vanessa slowly rubbed her forehead.
"I don’t like this."
"Neither do I," Liam admitted.
Lilith stared ahead.
"So if they need sacrifices, that’s probably why people have been disappearing."
"Possibly."
"Or at least part of it."
Another silence followed.
Then Vanessa suddenly sat up.
"Wait."
Liam glanced toward her.
"What?"
She pointed a finger at him.
"You’ve ntioned the Crimson Hand."
He nodded.
"You’ve ntioned the Ravens."
Another nod.
"The vampires."
"Yep."
"And now Cain’s group."
Liam already knew where she was going.
Vanessa stared at him.
"Liam."
"What?"
"Do you realize how ridiculous this sounds?"
He laughed.
"It sounds pretty ridiculous."
"No."
She shook her head.
"It sounds suicidal."
Lilith actually smirked at that.
Vanessa continued.
"Let’s count."
She began raising fingers.
"The Crimson Hand."
"Cain."
"The Ravens."
"The vampire king."
"Alexander."
"An ancient vampire."
"And probably fifty other things we don’t know about yet."
She stared directly at him.
"And we’re supposed to fight all that?"
Liam couldn’t help smiling.
"When you say it like that, it sounds bad."
"It IS bad."
Lilith actually laughed.
For the first ti since the conversation started.
Vanessa threw her hands into the air.
"I think we’re on the losing side."
Liam shook his head.
"No."
"Not necessarily."
Both won looked at him.
His confidence hadn’t changed.
Not even slightly.
"We aren’t alone."
Lilith raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?"
Liam nodded.
"The werewolves are already involved."
"And eventually we’ll need more."
He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
"The witches."
Vanessa blinked.
"The witches?"
"Yeah."
Liam’s expression beca serious.
"If we’re going to survive what’s coming, we’ll need every ally we can get."
He rembered Sarah restoring an entire neighborhood like it never happened.
Magic wasn’t sothing to underestimate.
"The witches are powerful."
"Much more powerful than most people realize."
Lilith slowly nodded.
That part she could agree with.
Liam looked ahead as the hotel finally appeared in the distance.
A small smile appeared on his face.
"With the werewolves."
"The witches."
"And everyone standing with us."
He looked back briefly at the two won.
"I think we can win."
Neither Lilith nor Vanessa answered imdiately.
The enemies still sounded terrifying.
The odds still sounded terrible.
But looking at Liam’s face, neither of them could deny one thing.
He genuinely believed it.
And sohow that confidence was contagious.
The SUV continued toward the hotel while the convoy followed behind.
For now they still had ti.
For now they could still prepare.
But all three of them understood the sa thing.
The real war hadn’t started yet.
And when it finally did, the entire world might feel it.
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