New York was smothered by a thick fog rolling in from the harbor, turning skyscrapers into specters of concrete and glass.
Alice arrived not as a passenger — but as a contained storm.
The city's cold didn't touch her. On the contrary, the blood now running through her veins — Dracula's blood — generated its own heat, a nuclear furnace of ancient, forbidden power.
She could hear the heartbeats of people in the airport terminal like distant thunder.
The world felt slower.
Fragile.
She went straight to the safe apartment where Rose and Ruby were waiting.
When she opened the door, the air inside shifted.
Atmospheric pressure dropped.
Rose was leaning against the window, arms crossed, staring out at the street. Ruby sat on the couch, chewing her nail, anxiety plain on her face.
Both turned when Alice entered.
Silence stretched for several long seconds.
Rose studied her sister.
She searched for the Alice she knew — the literature student, the reluctant protector.
She found something else.
Alice's eyes, once brown, now bore a permanent ring of glowing crimson around the iris.
Her posture was regal.
Lethal.
"You did it?" Rose asked, her voice barely above a whisper, afraid of the answer.
Alice walked to the center of the room.
"I did." Her voice was deeper now, vibrating with an authority that made the hair on Rose's arms rise. "He's with me now. The power the Council tried to hide — runs in my veins."
Rose uncrossed her arms and stepped forward, stopping at a cautious distance.
Sadness clouded her gaze.
"Alice… I can smell him on you. It's ancient. Dark." She shook her head, eyes shining. "I can see what it's doing to you. It's eating the part of you that was still human."
"The human part died with Kara," Alice replied coldly. "What's left is only what's necessary to do what must be done."
Rose wanted to argue.
Wanted to scream that vengeance wasn't worth her sister's soul.
But the words died in her throat.
She knew it was too late.
She respected the pain — even as she feared the monster born from it.
Ruby broke the tension.
The red-haired vampire stood and walked toward Alice.
She didn't stop.
Ignoring the terrifying aura of Dracula, Ruby wrapped Alice in a tight embrace.
"You came back," Ruby whispered against Alice's neck. "That's what matters. You're alive."
Alice stiffened for a moment.
Then the familiar scent of Ruby — the last thread tying her to a past where she had once been happy, before Kara — made her shoulders relax, just slightly.
She returned the hug, closing her eyes for a brief second.
"Thank you for waiting," Alice said.
Ruby pulled back, cupping Alice's face with both hands.
"Don't let him erase you, Alice. Use the power— don't let it use you."
Alice nodded — but her eyes were already drifting toward the door.
Toward the night.
"I have work to do."
The Vault nightclub was neutral ground, frequented by underworld diplomats and Council messengers who believed themselves safe on American soil.
The electronic music thudded, but to Alice it was only background noise.
She slipped through the crowd like smoke, her senses locked onto a single blood signature.
Seated in a private booth, surrounded by human bodyguards, was Valerius.
A Council bureaucrat.
Arrogant.
Careless.
Sent to oversee the situation in New York after the Romanian disaster.
Valerius was laughing, sipping champagne, when the booth curtain was pulled aside.
His smile died when he saw Alice's red eyes.
"Von Richter…" Valerius tried to stand, knocking over his glass. "Guards!"
The two humans reached for their weapons.
Alice didn't even look at them.
With two sharp, precise flicks of her hands, she hurled them into opposite walls of the booth, knocking them unconscious.
Valerius bolted — but Alice caught him by the throat and slammed him into the glass table, which exploded beneath the impact.
"Be still, Valerius."
"You can't touch me!" the vampire choked, terror flooding his face at the force pinning him down.
It was like being held by a mountain.
"I'm a diplomatic envoy! I have immunity!"
Alice leaned close.
Dracula's aura poured off her, making Valerius whimper.
"Immunity ended when you murdered my family."
"What do you want?" he shrieked. "Money? Forgiveness?"
"I want you to do your job and deliver a message," Alice said calmly — terribly. "To James Butcher. To the Baroness. To all of them."
She tightened her grip just enough to make the veins in his eyes burst.
"Tell them I'm not hiding. Tell them I'm back —and that I carry Dracula's blood. And tell them…"
Her voice dropped to a lethal whisper.
"…that I'm coming for them. One by one."
Alice released his throat — and before he could suck in air, she snapped his arm with a dry crack, just to ensure the message would be taken seriously.
"Start running, Valerius."
She turned and walked away, leaving the vampire screaming amid shattered glass.
Dawn approached, bringing that bluish stillness before sunrise.
Princeton Cemetery lay deserted.
Fog blanketed the grass like a shroud.
Alice walked between headstones until she reached freshly turned earth.
The marble stone hadn't yet been set.
Only a temporary marker bearing the name etched into Alice's soul.
Kara Sullivan.
Alice knelt in the damp soil.
Dracula's power — always demanding blood and action — fell silent before that grave.
Here, Alice was just a girl who had lost the love of her life.
She pulled a single red rose from her coat.
Its color was violent.
Alive.
A brutal contrast against the cemetery's gray.
She placed it on the earth.
"I failed to protect you, my love…" she whispered, voice thick but dry. The tears were gone. All of them. "I wanted to be strong enough. Fast enough."
Her fingertips brushed the soil.
"I won't fail your memory."
Alice stood.
Grief hardened in her face, turning into cold marble.
"They will pay. Every one of them. There will be no mercy, Kara. No negotiation. I will burn their throne until nothing remains but ash."
The wind stirred the rose.
Like an answer.
Like permission.
Minutes later — atop the tallest building in the neighboring city, where the wind howled and the metropolis sprawled below like an endless sea of lights — Alice stood.
She no longer wore student clothes or discreet coats.
She was clad in tactical combat gear.
Black leather molded to her body for full mobility.
Heavy boots.
A long black coat snapping in the wind like bat wings.
She stepped to the edge.
Her feet dangled over the abyss.
Her eyes swept the horizon.
Her expanded senses — fueled by the blood of the Original — heard the city's heartbeats, tasted fear and power in the air.
She was no longer the Alice who hid in libraries.
She was the Huntress.
The Heir of the Tomb.
Vengeance.
Alice closed her eyes for one second, letting the beast inside her fully awaken.
When she opened them, they burned with brilliant red, defying the rising sun.
And with a leap, she plunged into the darkness,
ready to paint the world red.
The End.