"Woof!"

  Just as Lin Tao was feeling frustrated, a sudden, loud bark echoed from upstairs. His heart tightened in arm. Without a second thought, he abandoned the peanuts in his hand and dashed toward the second floor. Lin Tao knew that Michael would never bark without reason, especially at a time like this—something had to be wrong.

  With his gun raised, Lin Tao sprinted upstairs and immediately spotted Michael standing outside Zhang Hong’s room. The dog’s fur bristled, his mouth curled in a low growl, and his powerful limbs were poised to strike. His sharp eyes were locked onto something inside the room.

  Lin Tao cocked his gun and cautiously approached the door. The scene inside made his blood run cold.

  The window, which should have been shut, was wide open. Pale curtains fluttered violently in the night wind. On the bed, Zhang Hong y naked, her legs sprawled apart. Her once-beautiful, lively eyes were now dull and lifeless, staring bnkly at the ceiling. Her porcein skin had turned an unnatural bluish hue. At the base of her right thigh, two puncture wounds oozed fresh blood, staining the pristine sheets with dark red blossoms.

  "Let her go, and I’ll spare your life!"

  Lin Tao struggled to contain the fury surging within him. His right hand clenched around the gun so tightly that it trembled, his knuckles turning white. Veins bulged on his forehead as his face flushed with barely restrained rage.

  "Oh, I sincerely apologize," a sharp voice drawled from the darkest corner of the room. "As a gentleman, I detest such impolite behavior. But your dog—your dog is simply terrifying. It makes me quite uneasy. Would you mind asking it to step back a little? I believe we would all feel much more comfortable that way."

  The eerie voice sent a shiver down Lin Tao’s spine. He flicked on his fshlight, and its beam illuminated a young European man standing in the shadows. The stranger was dressed in a meticulously tailored bck suit. His long, chestnut hair was neatly groomed, and his slender figure exuded an unnatural elegance. His sapphire-blue eyes were mesmerizing, almost too perfect. But his complexion—his skin was disturbingly pale. Not sickly, but a ghostly, deathly white, like a corpse that had just crawled out of its grave.

  "Don’t shine that thing at me!" The man snarled, his awkward Chinese giving his words an oddly comical effect, like a duck squawking. Yet his revulsion to the light was unmistakable. He tightened his grip on the hostage he held—a woman. And not just any woman.

  Bai Ru.

  She had come upstairs looking for Zhang Hong but had instead fallen into the hands of this monster.

  Bai Ru’s slender frame was held firmly in his grasp, her fair complexion flushed red from ck of oxygen. Yet, despite her predicament, she showed no trace of fear. Instead, she struggled and spat, "You're dead, you freak! He’ll make sure you die a miserable death!"

  "Shut your filthy mouth, you whore!" The man’s grip tightened around her throat, cutting off her words. Satisfied, he extended a blood-red tongue and lewdly licked Bai Ru’s cheek. His eyes lit up with twisted delight. "Oh, what a surprise! Look at what I’ve discovered—you’re still a virgin! Though your mouth is foul, your blood smells divine. It’s making me tremble with excitement! Ah, my body is already reacting. How I’d love to pin you to the ground, take my pleasure, and then sink my fangs into your artery—draining you dry, savoring every st drop…"

  The man shivered in ecstasy, seemingly lost in his depraved fantasies. "Mmm, such exquisite pleasure. Don’t worry. I promise to take you to the peak of bliss before I sink my fangs in. Just like that little slut on the bed—oh, she fought, she resisted, but in the end, I made her climax. And at the height of her pleasure, I bit down. The sensation—it etches itself onto your soul…"

  His mouth stretched into a grotesque smile, revealing two elongated, bloodstained fangs. His eyes burned with hunger as they fixated on the pulsing vein in Bai Ru’s neck.

  Bang!

  A gunshot shattered the tension in the dimly lit corridor.

  Lin Tao stood, gun in hand, his expression cold and merciless. "I told you—let her go. Otherwise, even if you drain her dry, I will blow your head off."

  The European man’s eyes flickered with fear as he gnced at the smoldering bullet hole near his feet. He stumbled back a few steps, cursing, "Damn it! What the hell is this? Why does it burn?!"

  "Little bat, I’d advise you to let the girl go and fly your way out of here before things get ugly," Michael growled beside Lin Tao, his cws digging into the wooden floor.

  "Gravekeeper?!" The man’s sapphire pupils shrank in horror. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He muttered curses under his breath. "Damn it! I knew anyone traveling with a hellhound wouldn’t be easy prey! Why did I have to run into such a freak?!"

  Reluctantly, he loosened his grip on Bai Ru’s throat and forced a smile. "Alright, alright. Let’s be reasonable. The other night, I was merely hitching a ride on your vehicle—I had no intention of harming you. But you shot me—twice! I suppose I had this coming. How about we call it even? You put your gun down, I let her go, and we part ways peacefully. Doesn’t that sound like a fair deal?"

  Lin Tao kept his gun trained on him, eyes unreadable. The European man, watching his every move, slowly released Bai Ru. As Lin Tao lowered his weapon slightly, a murderous glint fshed in the stranger’s eyes. He lunged forward with a skeletal, cwed hand, aiming straight for Bai Ru’s heart.

  A fireball the size of a fist materialized out of nowhere and exploded in his face before he could strike.

  "Argh!" he screamed, stumbling back, his elegant suit now scorched and tattered. Without hesitation, he turned and bolted toward the open window.

  Michael barked in ughter. "I knew you’d try something dirty, you little bat! Let’s see if you can outrun me!" With a powerful leap, the massive hound unched himself after the fleeing vampire.

  The European man plummeted from the second floor, but just before hitting the ground, enormous bck wings unfurled from his back. With a powerful gust, he soared into the night sky.

  "Trying to escape?!" Michael, cking wings, found himself losing altitude. Frustrated, he sucked in a deep breath and unleashed a fireball rger than his own head.

  The scorching heat roared toward the vampire like a homing missile. Sensing the imminent danger, the man panicked. "Damn dog! It knows big fireballs too?!"

  But it was too te.

  The inferno struck him mid-air, detonating like a gasoline explosion. Fmes burst across the night sky like fireworks. His charred, smoking body plummeted like a downed fighter jet, crashing into the ground with a resounding thud.

  Michael nded beside him, grinning. "Idiot. You really thought you could fly away from me?"