Seamus knew that look in their eyes too well, the mix of awe and fear, like he wasn't even human.

'Well… I'm not,' he thought, turning his head to stare at the corpses scattered across the floor instead.

A light touch on his arm broke the thought. Maria stood there, holding out a folded handkerchief.

"Here. You need this more than I."

He hesitated, but decided to take it. For a second he dared to meet her eyes.

She, like David, tried to hide her worry by fussing over the corpses, but the tension in her shoulders betrayed her.

Sam didn't even bother to hide it, his mouth was still open in shock.

Seamus gave a faint smile and wiped his hands with the cloth she'd given him. He was glad that at least they didn't see him as someone 'different' or 'terrifying'.

The black blood stank, but at least they were used to the smell. They'd have to get used to his powers the same way.

David broke the silence first. He slapped Sam's arm and jerked his chin toward the bodies.

"Check them."

"Fine," Sam muttered.

He crouched beside one of the twisted scavengers, turning it over. "No Vitalis Core… but then how are they moving?"

"Dominion blood style?" Seamus said quietly.

Sam shot him a look. "You think vampires that were being controlled with that blood style are dead? They're not corpses, they're still… alive with their core intact.

He rubbed his chin, eyes tracing the crude stitches across the mutant's chest. "There are syringe marks everywhere. Must be some kind of experiment."

David straightened, face set. "Then the lab won't be far. Move."

Without waiting, he started forward into the dim hall, his boots crunching on the frost and dried blood.

The others followed, the air growing colder and thicker with the smell of decay as they moved deeper.

The hallway narrowed into a warped arch of scorched metal. Rust flaked down with every step. Sam's light skittered over the walls, peeling hazard signs, claw marks blackened with age.

Maria stayed close to Seamus's elbow; he could feel her eyes on him even when she pretended to scan the shadows. So the rest of their gaze keeps burdening him.

"Isolde planted a Vitalis Core in me…" he lied.

It was better than leaving the elephant in the room untouched.

Maria snapped her gaze toward him, disbelief written plain on her face as if she was saying: Are you serious? He only shrugged, letting her decide whether to blow up his lie or not.

"Oh, must be an S-rank. Can I see it? You know those are rare," Sam said casually.

Seamus narrowed his eyes, unable to tell if it was sarcasm, a joke, or if the man was actually serious.

"Don't mind him… I'm just glad you're safe and sound, especially considering her." David rubbed the back of his neck. "Hard woman to deal with."

"She is…"

Seamus's hands clenched tight. He couldn't stop the memory of Viviane's death, and the rage still burned raw in his chest.

So when Isolde's name was mentioned, it felt like he was swallowing a hard disgusting pill.

The corridor ahead changed as the dark stone gave way to pale white walls, tiled from floor to ceiling. Dust and dried blood had stained them brown, but this section of the underground still looked better kept than the rest.

Rooms lined both sides like some old mental ward he'd once seen on TV as a child. Each door they opened revealed filth and ruin, until one opened onto a lab. Rows of giant tubes stood there, each large enough to hold a person.

"Wow. Looks like they were running some serious experiments here." Sam let out a low whistle.

"Stay sharp. Split up, but don't stray far," David ordered. "It is possible that this lab has active traps,"

Seamus hung back with Maria. She wasn't the fighting type, if something went wrong, she'd be the first to get hurt.

"Seamus, are you really alright?" she asked softly. "I heard your father married Isolde."

Her sigh was heavy. "What's in his head? Money?" she muttered.

He chuckled under his breath. "I'm fine, Maria. I can take care of myself."

They came to a table lined with water-filled tubes. Inside floated human remains. In one, a little girl's severed head.

Maria's voice wavered but didn't break. "Still… They're vampires. Did they ever hurt you?" Her hand brushed the glass, reading the label beneath. "Lilac. Exp-600."

"No, they aren't—"

Her words cut across his. "Wait. Lilac? I've heard that name before."

She called the others over. David and Sam joined quickly.

"That's the missing child," Sam said flatly. "She should've been my age. I remember when kids were vanishing everywhere. The police couldn't stop it or find anything about it. Guess they all ended up here."

The dim light flickered as David ran a hand along the wall, finding a switch. He pressed it.

With a heavy click, the room hummed alive. White light flooded the lab, harsh and sterile.

"So there was a switch! Should've done that sooner." Sam gave a dry laugh. "Look closer, every piece here belongs to children."

Maria clapped a hand over her mouth. "This is… horrible."

David's fists clenched at his sides. He said nothing, but Seamus caught the way his eyes flickered with something raw. 'He's thinking his daughter's part of this mess.'

Seamus turned away, scanning the corners. A stack of crates caught his eye. He pried one open bare-handed. Inside, crystals gleamed with a faint shimmer.

"Vitalis Cores." His voice drew them over.

David's jaw tightened. "So it's true. They've been experimenting with these."

His face turned grim. "We'll call in the clean-up team. They'll need to investigate every inch of this place."

Maria nodded quickly. Sam, however, was still pacing, eyes narrowed. He stopped near the far wall, gaze snagging on something.

"Oi, strange boy," he called out. "Give me a hand with this crate."

Seamus nodded and started shifting the crates one by one. When he reached the last stack and dragged the final crate aside, he paused.

Something about this one felt different, he couldn't say why. The moment he moved it, the ground trembled. A seam cracked open in the wall ahead, splitting into a narrow room.

The lights inside flickered weakly, casting sickly flashes over shelves of charred papers. Black burn marks scarred the walls. The smell of scorched documents still hung in the air, mixing with the rot of old paper.

"Must be their important records—" Sam began.

But David was already running in, grabbing at anything that wasn't completely destroyed. The others followed suit.

Seamus crouched near the far shelves and lifted a half-burned folder. The top page bore a grainy photo of a child, the same head he'd seen floating in the tube.

His breath caught, then escaped as a heavy sigh. He still couldn't believe anyone would do something this monstrous.

And yet, someone like Isolde existed, someone who had driven her own daughter to suicide, who harvested human organs and sold them to the black market she herself had built.

This should not have shocked him, but it did.

He flipped through the brittle sheets. Most words had burned away, but a few phrases remained: The Crow. The subject failed. The subject does not react to the substance. Vitalis Core is incompatible. Died.

His brows drew tight. "The Crow…" he muttered under his breath.

Too little to form a conclusion, but enough to point toward a truth: Lady Crow was the result of some nightmare experiment, the first success after six hundred attempts, maybe more. That poor child in the tube had been number 600.

"David—" he began.

The floor shuddered violently. This time the quake didn't stop. Dust rained from the ceiling, tubes cracked and toppled, spilling dark fluid.

"Fuck! Grab whatever you can and move!" David shouted.

They all obeyed, clutching what documents they could salvage as they sprinted for the exit.

Seamus caught a glimpse of David hesitating, his tired eyes flicking back to the lab. His eye bags looked deeper than before, his face older and lined.

Seamus knew that look. He knew what it was to lose someone and to cling to any lie that offered a chance to bring them back.

Isolde had done it to him with Viviane.

Even if it took centuries, even if it was just a manipulation, he would have tried anything to make resurrection real.

He and David stood on the same ground now. And in that moment, Seamus made a silent decision, he would help him.

***

Seamus stood motionless on the rooftop as fragments of memory and burned paper crowded his mind.

Every document he and the others had salvaged pointed to the same conclusion: someone had been using Vitalis Cores to engineer a "perfect creation", a being capable of holding more than two blood styles permanently.

Whether they had succeeded or not was still unclear.

'But considering how powerful the Lady Crow is…' His thoughts drifted, unsettled.

A sudden surge of power slammed against his senses, making him shiver. He snapped his head to the right.

The energy was coming from the C Building, only a short distance away, but it pulsed like a living thing.

"What the hell…" Diane's voice was tight as she stepped up beside him, eyes fixed on the building. "We need to go there."

Seamus gave a short nod, sliding his hands into his pockets to steady them.

He had a bad feeling about this.

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