The Brotherhood Of The Damned.

Across the City.

The rooftop offered a panoramic view of Sharman's restless sprawl. Neon lights flickered over shadowed streets, where the mundane and the monstrous coexisted. Rex crouched low, methodically sharpening his argent blade. Beside him, Faith stood leaning on her rifle, the tension between them tangible as the city buzzed with distant life below.

"He's on the move," Faith muttered, peering through the rifle's scope. Her voice was tight, frustration barely restrained. "Heading right into the belly of the beast. If we're gonna take him out, it has to be now."

Rex didn't look up, the sound of his blade against the whetstone deliberate and calm. "Sniping him's reckless. You don't even know if a bullet will work. Hell, we don't even know what works."

Faith's head snapped toward him, her jaw tightening. "Reckless? He's walking into a meeting with Williams Conrad. An elder vampire, Rex! If Conrad gets his claws into him, we'll all regret sitting here twiddling our damn thumbs. You've heard the rumors—this kid's something else. We can't let him walk away from that meeting alive."

Rex paused, his eyes lifting to meet hers. "I've heard the rumors. Half-human, half-vampire, using Flux like he's been doing it his whole life. It's not something you forget."

Faith's brows furrowed. "Then why the hell are we hesitating? Why aren't we hunting him now?"

Rex's jaw tightened as he stood, slipping his blade back into its sheath. He leaned against the ledge, his gaze fixed on the glow of the distant skyline. "Because we're not the only hunters in this city. Sharman's crawling with them. Every half-rate bounty hunter, every rogue faction sniffing around because they heard whispers about some anomaly who's breaking every rule we know about vampires and Flux. You take the shot now, you draw attention. And not the good kind."

"Great," Faith snapped, throwing her arms up. "So we just wait? Let everyone else take their shot first? That's your plan?"

"No," Rex said evenly. "We wait for the right moment. You know how this works. If we make the wrong move, the rest of them'll see us as competition. It's a feeding frenzy out there. One slip, and we're the ones on the menu."

Faith groaned, dragging a hand down her face. "This is insane. The whole city's buzzing because some kid with Flux in his veins happens to be part vampire. That's the stuff of horror stories, Rex. You can't just sit here and—"

"—rush in blind?" Rex cut her off, his voice sharp now. "You think I don't get it? I was the one who found him in the first place, remember? The one who saw what he can do. My argent blade barely scratched him. And that was before Conrad showed up. If I hadn't gotten out of there when I did, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Faith stepped closer, her expression softening slightly. "Yeah, and I've been meaning to ask, how did you know it was him? The half-vampire, I mean. The kid."

Rex's lips twitched into a grim smirk. "It wasn't hard. The Flux signature was like nothing I'd ever felt. Raw, unstable, and... off. Like two forces fighting inside him. And then there was the blood trail."

Faith's eyes widened. "The blood trail?"

"Yeah," Rex said, his voice lowering. "It wasn't human. Not entirely. Half-vampires are rare enough, but one with Flux? That's something we've never seen before. If he ever gives in... who knows what kind of monster we'll be dealing with."

Faith frowned, her grip tightening on the rifle. "So you're telling me he's a ticking time bomb. Great. Even more reason to take him out now before someone lights the fuse."

Rex shook his head. "That's exactly why we can't rush this. If we screw this up, we'll make him a martyr. Do you really want to be the one to turn every hunter in this city against us because we got trigger-happy?"

Faith sighed, leaning back against the ledge. "Fine. But what happens if Conrad convinces him to feed? What then?"

"Then we're all screwed," Rex said bluntly. "But that's why we need the Moon Tree. It's the only thing that might level the playing field."

Faith scoffed. "You and your damn Moon Tree. You know that stuff's basically a myth, right? Even if we could get it, the Nomads don't just hand it over to anyone."

"I know," Rex said, his voice calm but firm. "But if there's even a chance it could work, we have to try. You've seen what he can do already. Imagine what he'd become if he ever took blood. Flux alone lets him walk in the sun. Add vampirism to the mix, and we'd be dealing with something we don't know how to kill."

Faith shook her head, her frustration bleeding through. "Fine. Let's say we get the Moon Tree. Let's say we make the perfect weapon. Do you really think the other hunters are just gonna sit back and let us take the shot?"

"No," Rex admitted. "But we're not in this for them. We're in this to stop him. If that means taking out a few competitors along the way, so be it."

Faith studied him for a long moment before finally nodding. "Alright. But if this kid survives the meeting with Conrad and comes out stronger, I'm blaming you."

"Noted," Rex said with a faint smirk.

As Faith slung her rifle over her shoulder and headed toward the stairwell, Rex remained, his gaze fixed on the city below. Somewhere out there, Kyon was walking into a meeting that could change everything.

In the distance, faint echoes of movement stirred through the streets, the shadows alive with unseen figures. Hunters, drawn by the same rumor that had brought Rex and Faith to Sharman. The city had become a hunting ground, a volatile mix of ambition, fear, and desperation.

Rex's grip tightened on the hilt of his blade as the wind picked up, carrying with it the faintest trace of something metallic, something wrong. He closed his eyes for a moment, his mind replaying the memory of that Flux signature, raw and impossible to forget.

"You're not unstoppable, kid," he murmured under his breath. "Not yet."