"Huff… huff…"
Joe stumbled into the narrow alley, boots scraping against damp stone as he barely managed to stop himself from collapsing. He pressed his back to the wall, chest heaving, lungs burning as if filled with shards of glass.
He laughed weakly—short, bitter, and breathless.
"I really thought… I'd made it," he muttered. "The human realm, of all places…"
His fingers trembled as they brushed his chest, right where the concealed artifact rested beneath layers of cloth and binding spells.
"…So there were already demons here."
That realization hit harder than the exhaustion.
He had severed his horns at the border.
Endured inspections that peeled away dignity along with blood.
Even as a hornless vampire—or what humans would mistake for one—he had been examined, searched, and scrutinized.
And yet—
They were here.
"No… focus," Joe hissed, forcing himself upright. "Questions later. If I don't move now—"
The killing intent he had felt earlier wasn't imagined.
It was real.
