The dark blade strikes faster than the human response can handle.
But the second before he shot, Adrian was already moving. Instead of drawing his sword, he yanked Emily back and kicked over the bar stool. The heavy wooden stool hit the blade with the sound of the wind, buying them a few precious seconds.
"Bang!" The blade smashed the stool with one blow, sending wood shavings flying. He didn't pursue, just stood where he was, his face turned to Lilith under the hood, and hissed in displeasure.
"Lilith, are you going to meddle in your master's Affairs?"
Lilith raised her hands gracefully, a professional smile on her face. "Sorry, Shadow Blade. On My Turf, follow my rules. No fighting, or the drinks bill doubles."
Adrian took the opportunity to pull Emily back into the corner, away from the other guests. Not a single customer came up to the bar to help. They were all in the mood for a good show, and a few even hissed excitedly.
"Let's Go!" Adrian whispered to Emily.
He grabbed Emily, turned around, and rushed to the back door of the bar. The dark blade seemed in no hurry to catch up. He looked at their backs and let out a deep laugh. Then he turned to Lilith and said, "The bill, put it on Master Silas."
With that, his body dissolved into the shadow of the ground and disappeared.
Through the back door of the bar, down another filthy alley. Adrian and Emily walked through the maze of alleys for more than ten minutes, making sure no one was following them, before stopping at an abandoned phone booth.
"Was that. . . Silas's Man?" Emily gasped, her heart still pounding.
"It's dark blade, Silas's strongest hound." Adrian's expression was very grave, "He's not a nightwalker, he's a human, a mercenary who's been modified by a Strigoi. More trouble, more difficult to deal with."
"So what do we do now? Go to the Slaughterhouse?"
"Yes," Adrian said, looking at the scroll. "The presence of the blade means Silas knows we're onto him. We have to get there and find Jonathan before he moves."
The site of London's former abattoir, in an industrial part of the city, had been abandoned for years. The huge building, like the skeleton of a giant steel beast, lies silently on the grassy ground. There was a strange smell of rust and old blood in the air.
It was completely dark. By moonlight, they ducked off the main road and slipped through a broken barbed wire fence.
"According to the map, the entrance is in the underground cold storage of the main plant," Adrian whispered, pointing to the largest building in the distance.
They crept gingerly into the main building. It was empty except for a few abandoned slaughtering machines, standing like the skeletons of prehistoric monsters in the darkness. There were dark red stains on the ground, rust or dried-up blood.
In a corner of the factory they found an iron sliding door that led underground. Adrian pulled open the heavy sliding door and the stench of rotting meat and chemicals hit Emily, making her gag.
The temperature in the basement freezer was so low that the walls were covered with hoarfrost. The stench in the air grew stronger. They turned on their tactical flashlights, and as far as they could see, huge rows of hooks hung empty from the ceiling, but they seemed to sway slightly in the light.
"Spread out," Adrian said. "Stay alert. Use your whistle."
Emily nodded, gripped the silver dagger Adrian had given her, and walked alone to the other side of the freezer.
She walked past the rows of hooks, the rustling of her feet on the frosty floor. The sound was amplified in the dead silence, making her own heartbeat audible.
Suddenly she stopped.
On a hook in front of her, something hung. It wasn't a body. It was a khaki-colored jacket with several sharp-edged cuts.
It was Jonathan's jacket, and Emily's heart tightened.
She stepped forward and reached for the jacket. Just as her fingertips touched it, something happened!
The ground beneath her cracked, and a net of wire sprung from the ground, covering her in an instant, and quickly tightened, lifting her off the ground.
"Emily!" Adrian shouted from a distance.
A few shadows rose out of the darkness and surrounded Adrian. Nightcrawlers, at least a dozen of them.
Meanwhile, a man in a white coat and wire-rimmed glasses emerged from the depths of the freezer. He looked suave, even with a kind smile on his face.
"Welcome, Miss Carter, Mr. Van Helsing." The man adjusted his glasses and smiled. "I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Renfield. I'm Master Sellars' ... Chief Researcher."
He walked up to Emily, who was suspended in midair, and looked at her with interest, as if admiring a perfect experiment.
"Perfect material. The Carter bloodline, plus Van Helsing's indentured power. . . fantastic."
"Let Her Go!" Cried Adrian, fending off the nightcrawlers. His sword is sharp, each sword can cut over a nightwalker, but those things are not afraid of death, fall down one, immediately another to fill.
"Don't worry, Mr. Van Helsing," said Renfield slowly. "Soon you'll be together again. In another form, of course."
He snapped his fingers. The walls of the cold storage suddenly opened to reveal a vast hidden space behind. It was a laboratory, or... ... a conversion plant.
In the numerous transparent incubators, the creatures are immersed in a variety of forms. To make matters worse, some of the operating tables are still tied up with comatose humans, their bodies wired up with tubes and tubes, and a thick, black liquid is slowly being pumped into their veins.
In the very center of the lab, a huge cocoon of flesh and blood vessels was beating like a giant heart.
Emily's pupils twitched. She recognized it. It was the same as what she had seen in her vision.
Jonathan was in there!
"Where's my brother? !" She screamed at Renfield, struggling.
"Your brother?" Renfield smiled and pointed to the huge blood cocoon, "He is honored to be at the heart of our greatest creation, the flesh-and-blood puppet. When the ceremony begins, he will be reborn as master Silas's most loyal servant."
Despair and anger erupt in Emily's chest like a volcano. She struggled frantically, but the wire mesh tightened and the sharp wire cut her skin.
"Don't waste your energy." Renfield shook his head. "Soon, you will be a part of this art."
He took a syringe full of black liquid from his assistant and walked step by step to Emily.
Looking at the gleaming tip of the needle, Emily's mind went blank. She thought of Adrian's training, of Lilith's warning, of Jonathan's wild face in the video.
No, she can't Die Here!
She gave up the struggle and let her body hang in the net. She closed her eyes and concentrated on feeling the ring on her finger. She remembered the searing energy that had flooded through her when she had made the pact.
"Lead with blood..." she remembered the words on the sarcophagus.
With all her strength, she pressed her wire-cut finger into the ring's two-headed snake's eye.
Blood seeped into the dark red stone.