1982: Small Town Bloodline Records

The bell of doom is approaching.

"The beginning of the matter can be traced back to the early sixteenth century, when a wizard named Ivan Oscar founded a witchcraft group called Daybreak..."

Before Edgar could finish speaking, the incandescent lamp above his head flickered twice and then went out.

In the empty living room, only the dim light of the fire in the fireplace illuminated their faces.

"I'll go to the storage room to see if there is a replacement light bulb, and by the way, see if Marmon is awake."

Marmon was Sheriff Croft who was tied up and placed in the guest room.Mr. Morrison struggled twice, trying to get up from the sofa, but before his legs landed, someone grabbed the corner of his clothes.

"That's it, let Edgar finish talking like this." Carl said in a low voice, "If I wait any longer, I will be too scared to listen to anything."

"Okay," Mr. Morrison stared at him for a long time, and finally reached out to touch his cheek, "let me add some more wood to the stove, otherwise the fire won't last long."

While he was busy, Carl's gaze fell on Edgar, who was also looking at him.

From the appearance alone, Edgar is so young and handsome, but through something settled in his eyes, Karl can feel the traces left on him by the cruel and ruthless time.

"Okay." Because of the addition of some firewood, the fire in the fireplace became brighter. Mr. Morrison patted the ashes on his hands and sat back in his previous seat. "Please continue."

Edgar withdrew his gaze, cleared his throat and continued his narration.

"The struggle between human beings and dark creatures has lasted for hundreds of thousands of years, and it is impossible to finish it even in three days and three nights. The topic returns to Daybreak. And the wretched poor provide shelter—even in a vampire-infested plagueland, dawn means safety and peace. Soon, Oscar gained his first disciples, and he provided them with food, jobs, and more. There is a place to stay, and they believe in him as a god. As more and more refugees are taken in at Daybreak, Oscar's work becomes more and more complicated. In order to lighten the burden, he is getting old and chooses a quite A gifted boy, teach him how to cast spells, and hope that he will become his heir. This boy is the leader of Daybreak and the most important person in the whole thing, Thomas Rayleigh."

Carl, who still didn't know what these things had to do with what had happened in the past few nights, blinked blankly.

I don't know if it was his illusion, but he felt that he had vaguely heard the name Thomas Raleigh somewhere.

"I……"

He was about to mention this matter to Edgar, but Edgar shook his head lightly, stopped his behavior, and then continued: "It's okay for you to feel familiar, because you have Thomas Raleigh in your body." blood."

"Thomas Raleigh's parents died in a vampire attack, and his parents' inheritance was embezzled by his relatives. He was living on the streets. If Mr. Ivan Oscar hadn't taken him in, he would not have survived that winter. He is a deep-minded and talented person. The boy, who soon mastered the basics of witchcraft, moved towards more complex areas. Oscar was very pleased with this, and even gave Thomas the key to the library, telling him that as long as he wanted, everything in it belonged to His. In this way, more than ten years passed, Oscar became more and more weak, and almost entered the coffin, and Thomas Reilly ushered in his most powerful young and middle-aged age. When suffering from illness Oscar was once again in a coma, and Thomas knew that everything was ready to start implementing the great plan he had been planning since he was a teenager."

"Great plan?" Carl repeated the key word, with a vague guess in his mind.

The tongue of fire in the fireplace licked the dry wood, and the wood was cracked and the skin was peeled off. The hot wind made people's cheeks flush.

"Yes, a terrible and unimaginable plan." Edgar's voice revealed unconscious sadness, "Oscar only provided shelter for those poor people, but ignored the burning revenge in their chests Flame, and Thomas Raleigh was different from his teacher, he had personally experienced that kind of despair and pain. For more than ten years, this group of undead living underground have not forgotten their desire for revenge for a day, which is almost integrated into their Every inch of flesh and blood...they came together, fused by hatred, to form a monster that no longer believed in others. Oscar gave them a second life, but his indecision made them miserable, and they needed someone like Thomas Ray unscrupulous men like Lee to become leaders."

As the night gradually deepened, Edgar's voice echoed in the house.

"The blood shed must be repaid with an equal amount of blood. They believe in this. Thomas Raleigh relied on this and his cruel plan to win the support of others. If they are only revenge on the vampires who have hurt themselves , maybe Daybreak will not be reduced to the most notorious group of spellcasters in history, but the problem lies in this, they are not satisfied with just revenge at first, they want to be law enforcers in the dark, and the basis for law enforcement is their own justice. "

Even the most ruthless demon hunter family strictly abides by the rule of not harming humans, but Dawn is different. They gradually get lost in the pleasure of controlling other people's lives, and become demons in another sense.

"Just those vampires who have committed the crime of massacring human beings are fine, but the problem is that they have never spared human beings. I heard such a story. There was a poor girl in a conservative remote town. Her young The lover was dying of tuberculosis. A passing vampire turned her lover into a vampire because of the favor of a girl. Even though the time between humans and vampires is not equal, her lover decided to marry her until she died A short life... It was originally such a beautiful story, but I don't know who spread their story to Li Xiao's ears. The girl's lover was dragged to the market at noon and exposed to ashes, and the girl was marked with evil creatures. Adulterous whores, abused to death by crazy men, as for their families, they can no longer survive in this town and have to flee before things get further out of control."

"Did they... escape?"

Edgar showed a sneering smile, "No. The executioner of Daybreak was waiting for them on the only way to leave the town, and even the girl's sister who was just three months old and a baby daughter was not spared."

That was the first time he saw Eugene cry.

It was Eugene's young blood who died, and he said that he would never forget the pain and hatred in his life.

"Then...Thomas' teacher, didn't Mr. Oscar say anything?" Carl's eyes widened in shock, and he couldn't believe what he heard. "This is too much."

"As I said, Ivan Oscar was too old. In the last years of his life, he was under house arrest in his studio and not allowed to meet anyone except Thomas. Oscar was vaguely aware of his own His disciple was going to do something, but he was too old and too weak to stop his crazy plan. He could only watch everything spin out of control... In this way, Thomas gathered a group of young spellcasters, most of them It was a poor child who lost his parents because of vampires like him-it turned out that Thomas had been teaching them to cast spells secretly for this plan in the past few years. They spent many years creating a huge magic circle and calculating the date. Laid many traps and caught a creature that should only exist in mythology on a blood moon night."

Mr. Morrison was already speechless in astonishment, but Carl closed his eyes, and the endless soft white sand, the bloody full moon in the dark night, and countless black iron crosses appeared in front of his eyes again.

A huge bird-shaped creature tied to a cross, with flames of anger and hatred burning in its eyes, raised its jet-black wings high.

"They summoned a real angel."

For the first time, he found Edgar's voice so harsh.

"Don't say it...don't say it..." He hugged his head and curled himself up, "Please."

Seeing tears pouring out of Carl's eyes unconsciously, even Mr. Morrison was a little shaken, "Stop..."

Edgar was unmoved, and spoke out the core of the whole matter in the most gentle and least personal tone.

"Their purpose is to create gods, gods who can kill freely even in the dark night that belongs to dark creatures. They captured the angel and bound it in a different-dimensional space built with magic, as the most precious generation of experimental products Passed down from generation to generation. Thomas Raleigh and his descendants tortured this angel with cruel methods unimaginable even by dark creatures, until its kind and gentle soul was completely blackened with anger and hatred...then they killed took the angel, pulled out its soul, and injected it into the body of a newly formed baby."

"Three months later, the child who was the container of the angel's soul was born, and his father named him Eddie Reilly." Edgar stared at the scar on Carl's back, what left him more than any People knew, because he was the one who led that boy named Eddie Reilly out of the pit of despair.

On a snowy night, he took the boy for a long walk.

Excess silver and cruel experiments nearly destroyed him, and there was no one to trust except Eugene.

The boy's body was as cold as ice, with only a little heat remaining in his chest, he could only hold him in his arms harder to ensure that he would not be frozen by the raging snowstorm.

Where are they going?And what will be waiting for them at the end of their fate?

"That boy..." Mr. Morrison couldn't help looking at his child.

Edgar nodded, "Of course, that name is no longer used, and now his name is... Carl Morrison."

When the hands of the clock point to 11, it means that the night is already very deep.

Carl returned to his bedroom at the strong request of Mr. Morrison, changed into blue and white striped pajamas, and lay on the bed like an ordinary 16-year-old boy waiting for sleep to fall.

A half-old desk lamp by the bed was on, and the soft orange halo blurred the uneasy look on his face.He raised his body slightly, and met the eyes of the vampire who was sitting on the head of his bed.

The windows were tightly closed, and Karl could imagine the scene of waking up in the morning covered with solid frost—so hard that even a breath would not melt—there were so many times when Edgar stood at the window to catch him, Only this time he came in.

His room is not much different from any 16-year-old boy's room. There are comics and sports magazines piled up in the corner of the desk, and there are specimen photo frames on the wall. The only unusual thing is the antique cello.

For this cello, he could even go to the suburban Wilbert Manor to explore alone... Thinking of this, he remembered that when he went to school on the last day, Rooney and Ronald beat him, and in retaliation, he told them about the jewelry. It's hidden in the basement of the Wellbert Manor.He hasn't seen those two people since that day. Are they alive or dead? Did they encounter a blood-sucking monster...Suddenly a vicious thought popped up, it's better to die, the scum like them is dead That's good, lest I become a social scum in more than ten years.

— Without them, he wouldn't need to go to the hospital at all, so his mother wouldn't die.

Once evil thoughts came out, the anger and hatred engraved in his soul burned together, and the wound behind him was about to move. He took a deep breath and forced himself to forget those things.

"What are you thinking?"

Sensing Edgar's gaze, Carl lied subconsciously, "It's nothing, maybe it's too cold." His voice was trembling, even though he knew he wasn't cold at all.

Edgar didn't expose his lie, and raised the quilt for him, "You need to rest."

Karl wanted to say something, but finally shut up, watching the blond vampire silently.

"I see."

Those things in the first half of the night became an unspoken secret, and for the sake of the peace that might be destroyed at any time, none of them took the initiative to mention it.

Edgar sat there, and Carl quietly reached out a hand to touch his fingers on his lap.

"Are you... are you leaving?"

Of course he knew Edgar had so many things to attend to - vengeance, hunting and whatnot - that he couldn't stay by his side forever, but he wanted this moment to last as long as possible.

Edgar didn't speak, and Karl found that he could already distinguish the subtle expression changes on the vampire's face.He acquiesced, he read such an answer.

"...What will happen to us, or me...?"

In the end, he couldn't help but break the wordless agreement and asked something disturbing.

Once the transformation started, it couldn't be stopped. One day he would no longer be able to maintain his human form, and would completely turn into a monster. That day wouldn't be too long.

What kind of purgatory does the vampire named Ignatz want to turn this town into, when will the witcher come to him, and where will his fate lead?

Sorrow welled up in Edgar's blue eyes as deep as the vast sea. He tilted his head, and the profile of his profile was like a beautiful stone statue under the light.

"I don't know." He said softly, and he didn't know what kind of future the cruel fate would lead them to.

Because Pandora's box has been opened, all disasters will come to them overwhelmingly.

"At that time...will you still be by my side?"

Edgar showed the first smile of the night, "I swear to you by my ancient family name, I will always be by your side. Well, go to sleep."

"This is enough." Carl retracted his hands into the warm quilt, "This is..."

Before he finished speaking, the vampire lowered his head.

The vampire's lips were as cold as ice, but the moment they touched the skin of his forehead, a fire ignited in his heart.

"No." He wanted to push Edgar away, but the strength of the vampire was so great.

"Why?" Edgar sat up straight again.

Just a normal good night kiss, exactly like the one he'd gotten every night when his mother was alive.

"You...shouldn't touch my body actively." He said such a sentence with difficulty, as if there was a lump in his throat.

If it was him who took the initiative, then at least he could consciously control the unskilled power. If Edgar took the initiative like this, he was afraid that he would lose control in the next second.

—I can't hurt him, no matter what my nature is, I can't hurt him.

He will never forget the panic and despair he felt when he woke up from the abyss and saw Todd's ashes and Edgar burning with flames.

Edgar bowed his head.He couldn't read what the look on his face meant.

"Are you angry?" he asked timidly.

"No." Edgar looked at him, "I'm just...very sad."

Why are you sad?Edgar said nothing.

"Good night."

After speaking, the vampire left his room, closed the door for him, closed his eyes, and the world returned to silence.

Coming out of Carl's room, Edgar stood in the unlit corridor, the pale moonlight slid down the window at the end and onto the floor, like an unsightly sore that hadn't healed for a long time.

Geoffrey Morrison came up with a candle to see just such a scene.He knocked on the tray in his hand, attracting the vampire's attention, "Come and see Mamon with me before you leave, by the way... I always feel that you have something else to say to me, but it's just because Karl is here Never spoke."

Edgar nodded, not surprised by the man's sensitivity.

They walked in tandem up the wooden stairs, the heavy and irregular footsteps belonging to Mr. Morrison, and the almost inaudible ones to Edgar.

Edgar glanced at the moon outside the window, "What day is today?"

"What?" Mr. Morrison, who didn't understand what he meant, stopped, "If it's the date, it's the 21st, November."

"That's it." Edgar closed his eyes, even though the bright moonlight still penetrated the eyelids and fell on the eyeballs, "It's almost here, the eternal night is coming, when all the dark creatures will come to the front of the stage , to lift the curtain of the show."

It's only been a little over two months since he arrived in this small town, but everything has changed.

With the pace of December, the polar night in northern cities is coming.

The endless night, even a vampire can walk the streets at 12 noon, no longer need any cover.

He couldn't think of a better time for that perverted guy than now.

Mr. Morrison didn't say anything, because he knew that this was a world that he, as an ordinary person, could never get involved in.

"Carl and Todd...what the hell is going on with them?"

They had nearly reached the room in which Marmond Croft was kept, when Geoffrey Morrison stopped to ask the first question that had been on his mind.

Why did Marmon Croft accuse Carl of killing Todd, but Carl just bowed his head but didn't refute.

"Because what he said is true." Edgar's voice was emotionless, "If killing Todd's body is also called killing him, then Carl is indeed the murderer."

The fat, balding middle-aged man catches his overtones, "What if?"

"Todd Croft was turned into a vampire." Edgar didn't mention the incomplete transformation of these too complicated things, "The human part of him has long since died, and all that's left is a murderous and cunning vampire." , A vampire full of lies. If he is not killed, it will be Karl, and it is the instinct of the killing angel to hunt."

Mr. Morrison opened his mouth wide, "...this is too exaggerated." He shook his head, "To be honest, I still can't believe that my child is actually a creature that only existed in mythology."

"When I first heard the news, I couldn't believe it." Edgar stopped outside the door, "The group of people at Daybreak have gone completely crazy. They have been planning for hundreds of years, condensing the blood of generations, creating Such a creature has emerged. The worst has happened, and there are others besides us who know about it, and they will stop at nothing to get him."

The instinct of being a father overcomes the confusion of the unknown, and Mr. Morrison asked subconsciously, "Who is it?"

"It's the demon hunters who came after the real culprit of the tragedy. Somehow, they got to know about Li Xiao's research."

"What will they... do to you and Carl?"

Edgar gripped the doorknob with his fingers and didn't look back.

"Maybe they'll kill me, maybe they won't, but that doesn't matter, what matters is that they will treat him cruelly, deprive him of all human rights, forcefully control him through violence and magic, turn him into a A puppet without emotion and self-awareness, and then pumping his powers to the max. That's it."

The horrific message contained in that sentence left Mr Morrison frozen in place.

"……why?"

Edgar ignored him and continued to finish his sentence, "It is only used as a weapon, because a weapon does not need an ego, it just needs to be used by others. Even if it is damaged, it will only get a last word of 'what a pity' .”

"No, I won't allow this to happen." Mr. Morrison said with a pale face, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"I want to take him away, out of this town."

"They won't let us go so easily, they will hunt me down, sticking to our backs like sharks smelling blood, we can never stay in one place for too long, years, dozens Years, hundreds of years have been wandering like this, without a fixed place." Edgar's tone revealed paranoid madness, "But I don't care. I'm the same as you, and I absolutely can't allow that to happen to him."

It took a long time before Jeffrey Morrison broke free from the weird atmosphere.

"Okay, let's go in." His expression was unnaturally stiff, and he was eager to say something to cover up the shock and panic in his heart. "I guess Mamun is already awake."

He hastily opened the door, just in time to meet a pair of eyes shining with complicated light.

Marmon Croft, strapped to a chair, appeared to have been awake for a while, and perhaps overheard some of their earlier conversation - if that was the case, how much did he hear, and what happened again? What happened to your own son?

"Sorry," Jeffrey knelt down and loosened the rope for Marmon Croft a little, "I don't want to do this, but it's necessary."

Marmon Croft turned his eyes to the other side, "I'm very confused now, and I don't know who to trust." He was almost sober, and his whole body exuded a terrible twilight, as if most of his body They all lay in the coffin, "I don't know what happened to me. At that moment, I really wanted to kill all of you to avenge my children... Now I still want to do it, but it's not as strong."

"You've just been brainwashed by vampires. Vampires are born liars, experts at human manipulation."

"No," retorted Marmon Croft weakly, "I'm not being manipulated."

Edgar closed the door at the same time as he came in, his cold blue eyes lingered on Marmon Croft, "You are controlled by a female vampire who has just been transformed, and she was the first time she saw you Time has sucked your blood. Generally speaking, it is difficult for such a young vampire to control his own abilities, so he must establish a certain connection between himself and his prey through blood sucking." Even though he has tried very hard to restrain himself, the words Still unconsciously sarcasm, "Should I praise that I am worthy of the blood of Ignatz Dulles? When I was about the same age as her, I couldn't even control my hands and feet."

Speaking of this, the expression on Marmon Croft's face can no longer be described as a single shock or pain, "...that's right, there's nothing wrong with it. Melinda is back as a vampire, she's back You can't imagine how happy I am. As long as she can come back, I am willing to die a thousand times. I don't know if she has brainwashed me. The moment I was ready to continue hurting her, all the anger and hatred came from my heart."

Edgar didn't speak, and Geoffrey Morrison lowered his head, "I'm sorry."

"Even though I heard you say that he has become an utterly evil vampire, I still..." Cloudy tears rolled down Marmon Croft's old face, "I still can't accept this reality. He is my last Precious treasure... I will never forget the winter night 16 years ago, when I touched his little palm for the first time, it was so soft and fragile. At that time, I swore in my heart that I would protect him. Even if He was found to have a serious genetic disease, and I never thought of giving up on this child. I fought against fate and death for him, until that night, my whole world fell apart."

He sank into the abyss of despair until Edgar spoke again, "What did she tell you? Your wife, how did she describe the whole thing to you?"

Marmon Croft took a deep breath, "She said that that night, she and Todd were rescued by a passing vampire who had to transform them into their own kind because they were so badly injured... ..." After speaking, his voice gradually weakened, "She also said that Carl colluded with the evil vampire, that is, you, you killed Todd, and she managed to escape..."

Reason gradually returned to his body, without Edgar saying a word, and he himself became suspicious of this statement full of loopholes.

Why did he believe it so deeply at that time?

Seeing all his doubts and uncertainties, Edgar took something out of his pocket, "If you must know, the person who has been taking care of Todd Croft during this time is actually Karl."

It's a fountain pen that looks like it's been around for quite some time.

There was no way Marmon Croft didn't know whose it belonged to—it was a gift he'd bought Todd three years ago to celebrate his promotion.

"Why do you have this?" He looked up sharply, meeting the vampire's expressionless face, "You said Todd was with you? What about Melinda? Didn't you see Melinda?"

Edgar pointed to Jeffrey Morrison beside him, "He can testify that I was also in the hospital that night."

Jeffrey nodded, "Yes, my wife was missing at that time, and Karl's condition was not good. I can only pin all my hopes on him."

"I don't believe it, I need evidence!"

"I was asked by Carl to look for Todd Croft in the hospital, but I never saw your wife... I found Todd Croft in the penultimate ward on the third floor At that time, he had been transformed into a vampire, and the source was probably contaminated blood." Edgar's narration was very methodical, and even the most picky person could not find a single mistake, "He was in the unknowing In some cases, it was artificially injected with vampire blood, and this change is irreversible."

Sheriff Croft, who knew Todd's physical condition better than anyone else, turned pale.

Blood, contaminated blood, he thought of a very terrible thing.

Even if he had only seen horror movies on TV, he should know what to expect from receiving vampire blood: transformation, or first embrace.

"The hospital will become... that... Is it also related to this?"

Edgar looked cold, "Yes. Most people have turned into half-dead walking dead, only Todd Croft seems to still retain the consciousness of being a human being. I suspect that before I find him, the transformation What did his vampire do to him. Because he didn't do the right steps to transform into a vampire, he was in a very bad situation and could spin out of control at any moment."

Needless to say, Sergeant Croft knew the rest of the matter.

The consciousness belonging to Todd dies, leaving only the cruel and cunning vampire, if he is not killed, then Karl will die.

Amidst the confusing clouds of doubts, a question popped up in Sergeant Croft's mind, "Then Melinda, how did Melinda become like this?" He continued to ask without giving up, "She said she was saved..."

"I don't know when she met Ignatz." Even Edgar, who was as cold as Edgar, couldn't help sighing, "Todd Croft also said that since he opened his eyes, he hadn't seen him again." pass her."

Thinking about it now, probably the things that happened to her were the same as Todd.

She met Ignatz and was embraced correctly, but the consciousness of the gentle and kind woman in the past disappeared forever, leaving only the demon who obeyed Ignatz.

"Ignatz?"

"Ignatz Dulles, a vampire from medieval Eastern Europe." Edgar didn't want to talk too much about the entanglements between himself and Ignatz, "it was he who made Brodica what it is now of."

For the next ten minutes or so, Marmon Croft's chest rose and fell violently, apparently he was engaged in a battle between heaven and man.

"I still can't quite believe what you're saying." He said hesitantly, "Karl...if that's not my hallucination, what kind of...creature is Karl?" He paused and dropped the word "monster" Swapped to a more neutral one.

"You don't need to know." Edgar refused very decisively.

Marmon Croft glared at him, "Then why are you telling me this? My wife and children were killed by vampires like this, but I don't even have the right to know the whole story!"

"Because you are the police, the law enforcer of human society."

Sergeant Croft, who never expected to get such an answer, was at a loss for words.

"Yes, so what? I can't do anything..." He has been a policeman in this small town for decades and has always been loved by people.

He thought he was the patron saint of the town, but when the real crisis came, vampires and some creatures beyond his imagination, he realized how powerless he was as a human being.

"There are some things that can only be done by you." Edgar interrupted his self-deprecation, "The witchers have come to this town, and they will seek justice for mankind. But you know, they only Can convict dark beings, and if humans are involved, their position will get them into trouble, so they need the aid of people like you."

Such words are spoken by a vampire, even if the listener has no other intentions, a trace of absurdity still involuntarily wells up in his heart.

Dark creatures, demon hunters, and the complex laws of human society... Marmon Croft, unable to fully understand these things, swallowed, "You...need me?" He understood this, "This matter Human beings are involved behind the incident, in order to convict this person, they, I mean, the demon hunter needs my help? Does this mean that I can... personally investigate the truth of the incident? Who is that person?"

"Hangel Willard, the one who brought vampire blood into the hospital and infected so many people, and he was also a serial killer who killed prostitutes."

The moment the name was uttered, the two humans present couldn't believe what they heard.

"Doctor Willard?"

"No, it's impossible?!"

Ignoring their reactions, Edgar took out a business card and put it on Marmon Croft's lap, "Contact this man, and he will tell you the specifics."

"Antiago Wayne." Sheriff Croft bowed his head and read out the name, "...professional witcher."

Normally, he would think it was a bad joke, but at this moment, he was like a drowning man who saw the last piece of driftwood.

This is how he finally learned the truth.