It was night and so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your eyes. At least if you are a human. Lan Zhan, as a vampire, the faint moonlight had been enough to see his surroundings. He followed Wei Ying through the forest. They had been searching for traces of werewolves for an hour.

They had already found a very old trail. But it led nowhere. Wei Ying had explained to him that werewolves often lay different tracks to make it more difficult to find their nest. When it started to rain, Lan Zhan was afraid that they would have to stop the search, because they couldn't find anything in this weather anyway.

But after they had walked through the huge forest for another half hour, Wei Ying had found a trail again. When Wei Ying told him that the trail was fresh, Yibo was excited. He felt the beast inside scratching and wanting to hunt. Since he had learned from Wei Ying not to suppress his inner demon anymore, he released it and moved almost silently and quickly through the forest.

Now Lan Zhan was no longer running behind Wei Ying, but beside him. Hunting fever had him completely in its grip. Soon Lan Zhan had the smell of an animal in his nose. It smelled like wet dog and he followed the scent. A few minutes later he had found the source. Or the source him?

Suddenly he was standing there. A huge werewolf almost 2 meters tall. He bared his teeth, hissed and growled. Lan Zhan bared his fangs and drew his sword. The silver blade flashed briefly in the faint moonlight. He saw that the werewolf realized what kind of blade it was. But still he showed no fear, only grew angrier.

Lan Zhan turned to Wei Ying, who had stopped about three meters behind him. When Wei Ying nodded, Lan Zhan threw himself into battle with the creature. The creature howled loudly and lunged at Lan Zhan as well. The thing was fast, faster than Lan Zhan had thought. But not fast enough.

Lan Zhan managed to wound the werewolf in the arm with the silver blade. The werewolf howled in pain. Lan Zhan grinned. He was now fully united with his inner demon. No human feelings stopped him from hurting the creature. He really enjoyed it and plunged his blade into the creature's back.

The creature went howling to its knees. Suddenly, a second, even larger werewolf appeared. To his own surprise, Lan Zhan let out a cry of joy. For now he could even kill two of these beasts! And he knew that as long as Wei Ying held back and did not interfere in the fight, everything would be all right.

The vampire Lan Zhan wanted much more to play with the big werewolf. So he killed the smaller werewolf by simply cutting off its head. This really pissed off the big werewolf. He grabbed Lan Zhan, yanked him up in the air and threw him against a tree. But Lan Zhan was so much in his fighting frenzy that he didn't feel anything.

He got up from the ground and jumped on the werewolf. He tore a piece of flesh from its neck with his teeth. The werewolf gasped, pushing Lan Zhan off of him. But Lan Zhan immediately jumped on him again. He slammed his sharp fingernails into the wound on his neck, watching as the creature's blood ran onto his hands and then dripped onto the floor.

Wei Ying tossed Lan Zhan a silver knife and shouted, "Take your time and have your fun. But be mindful!"

"Thank you." Replied Lan Zhan and plunged the knife blade into the werewolf's shoulder. He felt that the demon inside him was extremely happy and enjoyed the unequal fight. Because of the blood of Wei Ying, Lan Zhan was much stronger and faster than the werewolf.

Within a few minutes, Lan Zhan had inflicted more than 30 non-lethal but very painful wounds on the creature. He could have continued this endlessly, but suddenly he felt something that caught his attention. He knocked the werewolf's head off and looked around searchingly.

"Can you feel that too Wei Ying?" He asked.

"Yes." Replied Wei Ying curtly.

"What is it?"

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before."

"You see it?"

"Yes. It's sitting over there under the big oak tree. It's watching us."

Lan Zhan looked in the direction Wei Ying's mentioned. However, saw nothing. "I can't see anything there."

"Yet it's there." Replied Wei Ying and ran off. Lan Zhan followed him. Suddenly Wei Ying had disappeared and reappeared only a second later. He was reaching for something that Lan Zhan could not see.

When Lan Zhan finally caught up with Wei Ying, he saw him holding something upside down in his hand. It was a small creature that wriggled and hissed. Wei Ying shook it and the thing growled at him. "What are you?" He asked, sounding playful, which Lan Zhan found fascinating.

"It can't speak. It's a hybrid of vampire and werewolf." Said someone whose voice sounded familiar to Lan Zhan. It was Essam, who was searching for Lan Zhan and Wei Ying.

"How do you know?" Wei Ying asked excitedly.

"Now don't leave it upside down all the time. Turn it around. It's harmless to us." Essam replied.

Wei Ying turned it around and held it in his arms. "How old is it?" He wanted to know.

Essam put his hand on the creature's forehead. It growled at him and tried to bite him. "Oh wow. It's been around a hundred years. A werewolf fell upon his family and injured him. A vampire found the injured boy and gave him some of his blood." Essam tilted his head and frowned. "A vampire with the same blood as Lan Zhan." He said.

"What?" Lan Zhan asked with excitement.

"Well, I suppose it was your brother who gave him his blood."

"My brother?"

"Mhm. He accidentally created a hybrid. But actually, that shouldn't be possible. A vampire's blood doesn't usually affect werewolves."

"And where is my brother? He wouldn't have left him alone, would he?"

Once again Essam touched the hybrid's forehead and shook his head. "He took the boy with him to the city, intending to raise him himself. But after a short time, he realized the boy was different. He walked on all fours most of the time. Did not speak and ate only raw bloody meat. People in the town were afraid of the boy. They found the boy to be scary and evil. He constantly tried to bite all the people around him. He bit a servant girl who worked for your brother in the leg. She became seriously ill and died. Your brother understood that he would never be able to control this creature and took it to the forest to the werewolves. Since then, the werewolves took care of the hybrid."

"And now I've killed the werewolves of all people who controlled it?"

"No. There are more. Those two were just sort of guardians."

"Oh okay. Because I don't want to have to deal with this thing."

"Well, you couldn't. Honestly, someone should kill it. Not because it's the only one of its kind. But because it never gets older. It will always need werewolves to take care of it."

"Um, so I don't kill it."

"Me neither." Said Wei Ying, playing with the creature and teasing it by holding it upside down over and over again.

"I have another idea."

"And what is that Essam?" Lan Zhan asked.

"I'll take it to the underworld to our father."

"To Father?" Asked Wei Ying.

"Yes. I'm sure he'll find such a creature interesting."

"I don't care where you want to take it. But tell me, why are you here? Weren't you supposed to be on your way home by now?" Said Lan Zhan.

"Okay, if you don't care, then I'll take him to Father. And I'm back here because I was looking for you guys. I was already at the port about to leave when I overheard a conversation between two sailors. They were talking about strange murders that had taken place in their village. They were talking about two dots on the neck and that none of the dead had any blood left in their bodies. And I thought you guys might be interested in that."

"Well, vampires murdering humans is not new to us now." Said Lan Zhan. Wei Ying agreed with him.

"That may be. But vampires killing humans and working for a vampire who looks like Lan Zhan's nemesis the Inquisitor William does, doesn't it?"

"What are you saying?" Now Lan Zhan completely forgot about the hybrid and also that he would have liked to hunt more werewolves. Because when it came to the Inquisitor, nothing was more important than his revenge. Well, not quite. At least not anymore. Because above everything for him now were Wei Ying, Youn and Ali. But right after that came his revenge.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. I knew you'd be interested. And that's why I made my way to that village. And yes, I could definitely feel the aura of a Mighty Vampire. But unfortunately, they had already moved on. I suppose it shouldn't be hard to retrace their trail, though."

"You're really sure it was him? So what am I going to do now? Actually, Zhan and I want to look for my brother. But on the other hand, such a chance to finally kill the Inquisitor certainly won't present itself again so soon."

"Tell me, has it occurred to you that your brother might be looking for the Inquisitor, too?"

"Sure thing. But... well... it seems he had always stayed in or near the city. So it doesn't sound rather like he was looking for him."

"Maybe he stayed there because he was waiting for you. After all, he knew what the Inquisitor did to you. He knew you had become a vampire as well. So maybe he was waiting there for you all those years."

"That may be so, and perhaps you are right in your guess. Unfortunately, I didn't know that the Inquisitor had also turned my brother. And without that knowledge, I had no reason to return to my hometown."

"That's quite clear. You thought your brother was still human. And people die eventually. Some sooner and some later. But they do die. So you had to assume your brother died too."

"Yes. But what are we going to do now? I definitely want to find my brother. But I also don't want to miss the chance to finally get revenge on William."

"How about I go on the search and you go look for the Inquisitor? You and I are connected to each other in a special way and will always find each other wherever we go." Suggested Wei Ying.

Lan Zhan's eyebrows drew together and his forehead furrowed. His expression turned from perplexed to restless. "What do you want?" He asked, audibly sucking in air loudly between his teeth.

"Well um well, that was just a suggestion." Replied Wei Ying, feeling it was safer to cover.

"Not a very good suggestion. I understand that you were just trying to help me with it. But I don't agree with it. I don't want to be away from you even for a day. You understand that, don't you?"

"Yes of course I understand that. It was just an idea."

"But not a good idea."

"Then I will look for your brother and you will look for the Inquisitor. And if I find your brother, I'll follow with him. Then I can pick up Yanli and Cheng on the way. I don't want you babies to have to separate." Essam now suggested with a grin.

"So I'm okay with that. As long as Wei Ying is with me, I'm okay with anything." Lan Zhan replied and kissed Wei Ying.

"It's really strange that you two still call each other by your full names." Said Essam.

"Only until the next name change. Then we will both have the same last name."

"And what last name will you go by?"

"Wang. The same as my mother's name."

"Okay. And your first names?"

"We'll decide that when the time comes."

"Good. I'd say I'll take the hybrid to Father now, and you take care of the remaining werewolves. Exterminate the nest and make sure none of them survive."

"We will. And you be careful that the little one doesn't bite your fingers after all." Lan Zhan replied. He was grateful that Essam will search for his brother while he himself will search for the Inquisitor together with Wei Ying.