As the three of them filed out of the room, the weight of their judgment felt heavier than any physical blow. Hana didn't even glance at me this time—she just hummed a tune, her earlier, mocking laughter still ringing in my ears.

  ?Is this what it means to be one of them? I wondered, watching their silhouettes vanish into the corridor.

  ?I thought vampires were supposed to be emotionless, brooding monsters. But this... this felt petty. This felt cruel. Maybe that was the point. Maybe they weren't monsters because they lacked emotion; they were monsters because they had sharpened those emotions into weapons.

  ?Vaughn waited until the door hissed shut, leaving us in a heavy silence. He looked at the crimson spike still vibrating in the wall, then at me.

  ?"Let's change places, shall we?" he said, gesturing toward a private access door further down the hall. "I think we need some fresh air."

  ?We stood on the edge of the rooftop, the wind whipping through my hair and whistling against the concrete. Below us, the NYC skyline stretched out like a galaxy of artificial stars—the same city I’d delivered kimbap in just a week ago. The city hadn't changed, but the eyes I was using to look at it were no longer human.

  ?Vaughn leaned against the railing and lit a cigarette. The orange ember glowed in the dark like a dying star.

  ?"I know what you’re thinking," he said, exhaling a long plume of smoke that vanished into the night. "First, you believe there wasn't enough explanation given. You feel cheated."

  ?"Was there?" I retorted, my voice tight. I was waiting for him to give me some corporate excuse—some HR bullshit about how they'd provided all the necessary materials in a pamphlet I missed.

  ?"If you look at it from a human perspective... yes, you're right. The briefing was nonexistent," Vaughn said calmly, watching the smoke curl. "But by vampire standards? We provided every explanation necessary."

  ?"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, turning to face him fully. "I didn’t even know who was in charge of that room!"

  ?Vaughn raised an eyebrow. "You didn’t know Jin was the team leader?"

  ?"No! No one introduced him! No one said a word!"

  ?"Actually," Vaughn said, glancing at me sideways, a faint smirk playing on his lips. "The moment you stepped through that door, he made it quite clear who was in charge."

  ?"How?" I threw my hands up in frustration. "He literally didn't say a single word until the end!"

  ?"It was in his Signature," Vaughn explained. "The same thing I mentioned back at the lab. Every vampire radiates a presence—a frequency. Jin was broadcasting his authority loud and clear. You just weren't tuned in."

  ?I blinked, trying to process the concept. "So... it’s like how dogs sniff each other to figure out who’s the alpha? Is that what we’re doing?"

  ?Vaughn winced slightly, a look of mild distaste crossing his refined features. "A crude analogy... but essentially, yes. It’s a biological hierarchy. We don't need introductions because our blood speaks for us. But you? You’re deaf to it."

  ?Deaf to it. The realization washed over me. No wonder they were laughing.

  ?He stepped away from the railing, pacing slowly toward me. "Your transformation was too perfect, Eun-Woo. That’s the problem. Normally, a newborn goes through several violent hunger crises within the first forty-eight hours. They lose their minds, they kill, and in that madness, they are forced to master this new sense—the 'Sixth Sense' of the Ichor—just to survive."

  ?"Sixth Sense?"

  ?The words triggered a memory, hitting me like a physical blow.

  ?The woman back on my first day—the one I had almost lost control with. At the time, I thought I was just dizzy from hunger. But now, looking back through the lens of Vaughn’s explanation, I realized what I had actually seen.

  ?I hadn't just been looking at her neck. I had felt the rhythm.

  ?I recalled the way the air around her seemed to thrum with a dull, golden heat. I remembered seeing the faint, branching lines of blue and crimson beneath her skin, pulsing in time with a heartbeat I could hear from across the room. The world hadn't been a collection of objects anymore; it had been a landscape of flowing, pressurized energy.

  ?"You’re like a house cat that never learned to hunt," Vaughn said, his voice snapping me back to the present. "Perfection has its flaws. You skipped the struggle, so you never developed the instinct. You can still learn, but that’s not the pressing issue."

  ?"Issue?" I asked, my stomach twisting. "What other issue?"

  ?Vaughn turned fully toward me, the neon lights of a distant billboard reflecting off his sunglasses. "Now that you’ve shown the team how weak you are, they don’t see a teammate, Eun-Woo. They see a meal."

  ?"A... meal?" I stammered. "I heard Jin say 'devour' in the tunnel. What does that actually mean?"

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  ?"It means they want to drain the Ichor directly from your veins," Vaughn said flatly.

  ?I took a step back, my heel hitting the concrete base of the railing. "What? Why would a vampire eat another vampire? Isn't that... cannibalism?"

  ?"There are only two reasons why one of us would drink another's blood," Vaughn explained, holding up two fingers.

  ?He tapped the first finger. "First, Intimacy. Lovers share a small amount of blood—a drop or two—as a pact. It’s a bond. Negligible. Harmless."

  ?Then, he dropped that finger, leaving only the second one pointing directly at my chest.

  ?"And then, there is the Devour. This is strictly forbidden by the Council, but out here in the shadows? It happens. To devour someone is to drain them to the last drop. You don't just take their blood, Eun-Woo. You take their power, their memories... and their very essence."

  ?A deep shiver ran down my spine. I thought about the way Jin had looked at me. The way Hana’s eyes had turned that predatory shade of crimson.

  ?"You’re a B+ Newborn," Vaughn continued, stepping closer until he loomed over me. "To an E-rank or even a D-rank vampire, your blood isn't just food, Eun-Woo. It’s a shortcut. It’s a cheat code. They look at you and they don't see a teammate; they see a winning lottery ticket that doesn't know how to defend itself."

  ?I looked down at my hands, the charcoal-gray tactical suit suddenly feeling heavy, like a funeral shroud. "So that’s why they were laughing. They weren't just making fun of my mistakes. They were waiting for me to fail so they’d have a justification to... to eat me?"

  ?"Essentially," Vaughn muttered, crushing his cigarette under his boot with a grinding twist. "Vampire society isn't a democracy. It’s a food chain. And right now? You’re at the very bottom, carrying a prize that belongs at the top."

  ?I looked out at the city again. I came here to be a hero. I came here to save people like that kid in the intersection. But how could I save anyone if I couldn't even keep my own teammates from wanting to stick a straw in my neck?

  ?"What do I do?" I whispered, the words barely escaping my throat.

  ?Vaughn looked at me for a long beat, his expression unreadable behind the sunglasses. "You stop being a house cat. Tomorrow, we start the real training. If you can't learn to use your Blood Weaving to make them fear you, you won't survive the week."

  ?I stood there in silence, the NYC wind tugging at my suit. My mind was a whirlpool of dark thoughts. Devouring. Cannibalism. A food chain where I was the main course.

  ?I had wanted to be a "Hero." But how could a hero exist in a world where your own squad looked at you like a prime cut of steak?

  ?Vaughn must have noticed the light fading from my eyes because he let out a long sigh, the smoke from his nostrils curling like dragon's breath.

  ?"Don't go sinking your ship just yet, kid," he said, his voice unusually soft for a man who looked like he chewed glass for breakfast. "The situation isn't as dire as you're making it out to be."

  ?"How is it not?" I snapped, gesturing at the city lights. "They want to eat me, Vaughn. Literally."

  ?"Think about the numbers," Vaughn countered, leaning back against the railing. "Jin is the leader of that squad, but he's only a C-Rank—maybe C+ on a good day. Hana and Mina? They're sitting in the C-Range. But you? You have B+ Blood Quality."

  ?He pointed a finger at my chest.

  ?"Do you realize what that means? You’re like a Ferrari engine dropped inside a beat-up sedan. They’re only scary because they know how to drive, and you don’t even know where the ignition is yet."

  ?I looked at my hands again, clenching them into fists. "It's not just the power gap, Vaughn... I thought I could be a 'Hero' as a vampire. I thought I could use this strength for something good."

  ?I felt a lump form in my throat—one of those stubborn human sensations that refused to die.

  ?"But look at us. We hunt our own kind. We trick each other. We dream about devouring our teammates for an upgrade." I looked up at him, my eyes burning. "Vampires aren't exactly suited for the hero business, are they?"

  Vaughn fell silent for a long moment. He looked out over the skyline, the lights of the Chrysler Building reflecting in his dark lenses.

  ?"The reason you're hurting, Eun-Woo, is because your mind is still human," Vaughn said quietly. "You’re still trying to fit a human heart into a monster’s ribcage. You see the world through the lens of 'right' and 'wrong,' but the Ichor? It only understands 'strong' and 'weak.'"

  ?He turned to me, his expression unreadable.

  ?"Being a hero requires a choice. But you can't make a choice if you're dead. Right now, your 'human' mind is making you slow. It’s making you hesitate. If you want to be a hero, you first have to survive being a vampire. You have to be the strongest predator in the room so that you are the one who gets to decide who lives and who dies."

  ?He stepped toward the rooftop door, pausing with his hand on the heavy iron handle. "Go back to your room. Process it. Your humanity isn't a weakness, Eun-Woo, but right now, it's a blindfold. Take it off. Learn how to see without it. Only then can you learn when to wear it back."

  ?As Vaughn slowly walked away, the heavy door clanging shut behind him, I was left alone with my thoughts once again.

  ?Could there really be a vampire who saves humans and other vampires?

  ?I let out a dry, bitter laugh at myself. "I chased after my foolish childhood dream, even to the point of death."

  ?No, I corrected myself, looking at my pale hands. At this point, I'm chasing it beyond death.

  ***

  ?I carefully adjusted my uniform, ensuring every fold was mathematically precise before scrutinizing my reflection in the mirror. My life had but one purpose, and I had to fulfill it.

  ?At the very least, today I wanted to offer something worthy of the person I served. Yet… again and again, what I provided felt insufficient to satisfy a being of such absolute perfection.

  ?I am a failure, I thought, the realization stinging more than any physical wound.

  ?"Even though it is not your fault, do you still count yourself a failure?"

  ?The voice drifted from the deep shadows of the room. It was a voice that commanded the very air, carrying a weight that forced me to lower my head instinctively. I did not dare look toward the source. To gaze upon them without permission felt like a sacrilege.

  ?"Unless I produce results that interest you, it doesn't matter what I think," I replied, my voice steady despite the reverence trembling in my chest. "The failure remains mine."

  ?"You are far too strict with yourself. But I suppose that is your nature," the figure murmured. The sound was neither soft nor harsh; it was simply absolute. "Is there any news you would like to share?"

  ?"Yes. The Creation… he doesn't seem to have lived up to the opportunity he was given. His progress is quite poor at this rate. He lacks the instinct."

  ?"It is of no consequence," the voice replied, seemingly unbothered by the report. "Is there anything else?"

  ?"I have conducted the necessary investigations as requested," I continued, shifting to the weightier matter. "As you anticipated, there is movement behind the shadows. Something is beginning to stir."

  ?"I see."

  ?A heavy silence filled the hall, a silence that felt like the calm before a storm I couldn't yet see. I stayed on one knee, waiting for a word, a gesture, any sign that my service was still desired.

  ?"Your efforts are noted," the figure finally said, the dismissal final and cold. "You may leave."

  ?I bowed low, maintaining my postu re as I backed out of the room, never once turning away from the darkness.