In the blink of an eye, all the vampires were slain by the members of the Knight's Guard. They were wielding weapons surrounded by a golden aura, just like Jirni's spear.

"Did you really believe that I got this old by sheer luck? That I would fall for such a blatant trap?" Jirni said while piercing with her needles Kaelan's four limbs and head.

He tried to shapeshift into his mist form to slip through the restrictions, but his flesh refused to move. Then the vampire summoned the mana from his blood core, to use true darkness magic to kill the wench that dared to stand so close to him.

Yet the mana went haywire and exploded inside his body, making his veins burst open as he coughed out a mouthful of blood. The pain and weakness almost made Kaelan faint.

Almost.

'What does she mean obvious? I studied Manohar's pattern and played it by the book…'

"Let me tell you a secret. Manohar would never attend a black-market auction. He would simply 'liberate' the ingredients from criminal's hands in the name of the 'greater good'. His own." Jirni's words derailed his train of thoughts.

"That was your first mistake. Your second mistake was forgetting that it's the army array blocking dimensional magic, hence the army can turn them on and off at will. The moment you jammed my amulet's signal, you signed your death warrant."

She poured a flask of blood on Kaelan's head. His skin absorbed the red nectar as dried earth would do water. It healed his wounds and gave him new strength, but just enough to not die.

"Your third and fatal mistake was thinking yourself better than Balkor. The weapons we made are devised to block all of your powers to more easily capture live specimens. You undead are hard to kill and even easier to keep alive, since you can't stop yourself from feeding."

Jirni poured another flask and Kaelan abandoned all hope. The sweet pleasure he derived from the blood only made the suffering from the golden metal pieces piercing his flesh more intense.

The woman in front of him could bide her time, whereas as soon as sunrise came the vampire would become more helpless than a child. He had seen it happening to other members of his race, he had done it himself a few times.

Move the prisoner to a safe place and then let the hunger do its thing. An undead could die of starvation, but it was a long and excruciating experience that would reduce them to little more than beasts willing to do anything just for a drop of blood.

Jirni didn't even bother asking questions. There was no need to. Soon, it would be the vampire to beg to be interrogated.

"Great job spotting the footprints." She said to Kamila. "You have a keen eye for details, but you have to learn how to put the pieces together."

"Couldn't you warn me beforehand? I almost crapped my pants!" Kamila was still quaking in her boots. The vampires had been scary, but the Knight's Guard was terrifying.

Aside from Orion, no one spoke, focusing solely on their surroundings. They acted more as golems rather than as humans.

"Sorry, kid. I needed them to buy the act and your nervousness might have compromised the mission. Vampires have amazing instincts and can feel the blood pressure of humans from a distance. It allows them to read our emotions.

"If you knew about them, you would have been afraid, whereas if you knew about the Guard, you would have been too cocky." Jirni replied.

"What about you?" Kamila asked, giving voice to Kaelan's thoughts. They had followed the women for a while, to make sure they had no detail and that they were unaware of the trap.

Kaelan had checked on Jirni personally, feeling her thrill for the hunt at first and then her resolve to die fighting once the ambush had been triggered. None of it made sense.

"Controlling my emotions is second nature to me. You'll learn it in time."

Kaelan was now calm enough to listen to the heart of all those presents. Kamila was still shaken while the members of the Knight's Guard were excited from the fight and ready for more.

He could feel their cold determination in pursuing their mission, the passion for their jobs, and even the tension in their muscles despite their apparently relaxed stance. Only Jirni Ernas gave him no reading.

To him, it was akin to listening to a person taking a nap.

Her pulse was steady and the only smell he could pick from her was the stench from the sewers. She was a blank slate, a mannequin ready to wear the next mask.

"What do you want to know?" Kaelan asked.

There was no point in delaying the inevitable. He knew that she would show no mercy, hence begging was pointless. Making her angry was impossible as well. Hoping that she would lose control and kill him was a pipe dream.

Even now, she wasn't gloating in front of her defeated opponent. She didn't feel superior for besting him, nor did she threaten him with promises of pain. Kaelan knew her type.

For Jirni, he was nothing more than a tick on her checklist.

The silver lining was that after being stripped of his title, Kaelan had no loyalty left for the Night Court. Once he would have fought to the death for them, but now he rejoiced at the idea that they would pay for what they had done to him.

Jirni Ernas would be the instrument of his revenge, leaving him the only regret of not being able to see the fall of his enemies with his own eyes.

***

City of Laruel, Erlik's Hideout

When the sun was about to rise yet Kaelan refused to pick up on his communication amulet, Erlik knew that something was wrong. Only newbies would make the mistake of being away from their lair at such an hour.

"It's time to move." His roar was filled with hatred.

The incompetent vampire risked destroying all of Erlik's meticulous preparations

He quickly explained the situation to Gremlik while activating his dimensional amulet to store all of his possession and earth magic to cover himself with the soil from his burial ground.

"Even if Kaelan was captured, I don't see the rush." Gremlik said. "No one knows where we are and he wasn't even a member of the Night Court in the first place. Isn't that the reason why you chose him in the first place?"

"No one?" Erlik sneered. "For someone so sly, you're surprisingly naïve. Even though we picked only fellow Jierans, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them accepted to keep tabs on us in exchange for a nice position in the Courts.

"Kaelan knows nothing about us, but knows a lot about the Courts As for the reason why I picked him, it was because he had all to gain and nothing to lose from our bargain, which makes him dangerous to us as well.

"If captured, he will spill the beans about his ex-associates who in turn might know about us. If Leannan attacks while the sun was is up, half of our followers will be either paralyzed or incapable of exerting their full strength.

"We would have no chance of victory or escape. There's no time to lose."