Lupus non timet canem latrantem

The next day, after my farewell with Kaori, I was in search of a place where I could repair the mask and access the data I had managed to upload to the server in Kazakhstan.

"Do every act of your life as if it were your last.," I repeated over and over again as I searched for ideas.

I managed to access a technical institute in Seattle, where I began making the necessary repairs. I finished before the guard took his routine walk and controlled the cameras long enough. I put on the mask, infused myself with my singer's essence, and headed to the specific places Jennifer had mentioned.

One of those places was a poor neighborhood in the suburbs. "God, it's hard to get used to my singer's essence, but I'm making progress, little by little," I thought as I uploaded the data from my recent encounters.

Before my encounter with Kaori, I had designed a system with specific algorithms and an Artificial Intelligence program that allowed me to record all the battles I had had, from my first confrontation with Od to my last encounter with the two vampires heading to Folks. Translating my mind into machine language wasn't easy, and it took me several days to turn a simple imaginary face into usable code and then into pixels.

Now the system was finally working and providing me with an analysis, albeit not exact, that was quite acceptable for improving and responding to different scenarios. However, there were two missing elements that I thought would be good to add. First, I needed a way to alert me about suspicious movements or activities of other vampires; I needed a sixth sense that combined real-time data and my technopathic gift. Despite my exceptional senses as a vampire, when it comes to facing another vampire, things level out, and an ambush could put me in a tight spot.

I incorporated a small device into the mask that could detect and alert me to the presence of vampire venom within a moderate radius. This would be useful in case my sense of smell wasn't available, both to avoid ambushes and to track potential threats that needed to be eliminated, without compromising my training with the mask and my singer's essence.

But I needed something more, something that would help me escape or provide an advantage against other vampires. I came up with the idea of creating boots with propulsion that would allow me to fly, even if only for a brief moment. So, I would have to visit other places where I could get what I needed for this project.

I spotted a suitable place in southern California called "SpaceWing Dynamics," where they worked with aerospace technology. According to the data I managed to obtain, they had everything I needed for my personal project, so I set out to head there, down south.

As I approached the Mexico border, my new detection radar started giving the first signals. "I can detect them. Let's see if it works." I followed the signal and indeed located a vampire.

The man had recently bitten a young person, but he hadn't drunk his blood and had left before I arrived. I saw the boy, who couldn't have been more than 16 years old, screaming.

"Help, aaahh! It burns me!" he cried out in pain.

I felt the same, I had gone through that.

"It lasted for five damn days," I thought as I inspected how much the venom had progressed.

I realized it hadn't spread beyond his leg. After a deeper analysis, I deduced that I could extract it by sucking the wound and then suturing it, even though I lacked much medical equipment.

"If I had this willpower back then, I would have saved my singer..." I thought, but then corrected myself: "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature."

As I repeated the words from the book, my radar quickly detected the presence of another vampire, and I managed to jump before he collided with me.

"What are you doing?! This territory is ours. Don't feed off our recruit!"

"Excuse me?" I said, surprised.

The boy was in the process of transformation and had barely begun. The man was transforming him to form a coven. I decided to act quickly, without hesitation or much reflection. I used my taser and cut the man in half with my saber. I took the boy and examined the bite again.

"We have to amputate, friend." How good it felt to finally speak in my native language.

"Aaaahhh, no, no. I'm scared..."

"Look at me, look at me. The pain is temporary, but if I leave you like this, you'll have a fate worse than death, believe me."

The boy stared at me, looked at the man's ashes, examined his wound, and nodded his head, though skeptically. I took the dagger and quickly cut the leg where the bite was.

"¡Aaaahhhhh!" he screamed again, and I managed to somehow bandage the wound. I took him to a nearby hospital while he complained, barely able to keep his eyes open.

"Hold on, hold on, we're almost there," I told him, and then added, "Did you know that the art of living resembles more fighting than dancing? When we get there, you'll feel better." He just looked at me strangely.

Finally, we arrived at the town's hospital, and I was able to hand him over to the nurses. I hurried away before they started asking questions about him. However, my mind was more focused on the words the vampire had spoken before I ended his existence.

I headed to Mexico City. Although the urban areas weren't infested with vampires, I could access data and maybe find patterns. My experience in Himmelsburg had prepared me to analyze cases of vampire victims, which at the time I didn't know were vampire-specific cases. With this background, I could begin to piece together details.

I took refuge in an abandoned building to spend the night and fed on some rats I found. When night came, I headed to the police department. After going through several alleys, I entered the range of data. I closed my eyes and started infiltrating the network. To access the police department's network, this time I used a combined "wifi hijacking" attack with a rogue network.

Basically, I flooded the wifi signal for a few seconds and copied the network with the same name, but this time under my control. This way, any unsuspecting person mistaking the original network would enter mine, where I could enter the password.

"Bingo!" I restored the original network and entered the password. I entered, interpreting all the protocols and systems the router used and took control of it, logging all the networks, both wired and wireless. I scanned all available services on that network, recording all MAC addresses. A computer's MAC address is like the name on a letter. The IP address would be your home address, and the MAC would be you, your name on a network, something unique and unrepeatable. This number is physically registered on each computer, making it easy to identify.

Digitally, I moved towards the server area and accessed the missing persons database. I started comparing it to the list I myself remembered from my investigations when I was human.

I examined the data from the forensic department, and there I found them. Among the disappearances without a trace, the strange decapitations, and the bodies cremated without a trace, just like the cases I had faced. If the vampires I'll be facing are newborns like I was, they'll be much less cautious and will have left traces in the areas. Additionally, I have to filter out victims that have been targeted by hitmen or executions related to drugs.

The bites left by the vampires were quite peculiar. Even around the broken bone of the victim, a circle would form, identical to that of a human bite. In the case that the victim was decapitated, there would be more than one broken bone and it wouldn't look like a clean cut like that of a bladed weapon. I made a list and then proceeded to map all the geographical areas that the police considered as possible points of interest. I used an algorithm to condense and filter the data I uploaded to my private cloud. It was evident, as I supposed, that most victims were humble individuals, homeless people, individuals whom society would completely ignore, people that no one would remember.

I marked the key points: five towns between southern Mexico and Guatemala. I assumed that there would be significant organized crime activity there, small communities in general, lawless and disorderly places, perfect for forming a clan with human livestock, something similar to what Yui had planned in Japan. Thanks to Kaori, that plan was thwarted in time in Japan. But this time, I'm alone. This time, I'll have to attack them individually and stealthily. Assuming they are forming a new coven, I dare say they are new vampires and don't know much about strategy, self-control, or stealth. They might even be fighting among themselves. In any case, the humble people always lose in these situations. I observed the blood samples that Dr. Petrov had given me for my training in the bunker. "The most precious blood of vampires, pure and potent." And then, the blood of my singer, the memory of my fall. With this, I can distract and attract the newborns to extract information and then gradually eliminate them, one by one, before reaching their creator.

"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way…"

As I headed south, I sharpened my senses to pick up any scent that seemed suspicious to me. I prepared the radar and soon began detecting signs of the venom. I reviewed the data from my encounter with Takeshi, Yui's newborn vampire, and analyzed his fighting style along with my own experience as a newborn, memorizing the simulations.

The smell of death was evident in the vicinity of the village. I found a man's body near the river.

"First victim, this doesn't look good."

I heard screams from a corner and ran there. Three newborn vampires were feeding on two people under the direction of a fourth vampire. Another individual had been bitten but didn't seem to want to attack. I felt the uncontrollable urge to intervene, but I knew that rushing wouldn't get me to the bottom of the matter; I had to observe, listen, and then act.

I realized that one of the newborns, Constanza or "Coni," was sent to monitor and perform tasks.

"When is it my turn?" she asked desperately.

"Shut up, idiot! Go check if anyone's coming and watch the newbie who's turning."

One of the newborns finished eating, wiped his mouth, and asked Coni.

"Coni, did María say anything? How many more do we need?"

"Just this one, we don't need more. She told me... that we need to be more careful," she timidly repeated, looking at the burly man.

"When we're done, take this one with you. We'll go for one more."

"Can I...?"

"Watch out! And then you're gone," the burly one finally affirmed.

The girl was short and very young, maybe no more than 15 or 14 years old.

"So, this girl is a messenger, an informant, and she's thirsty," I reflected.

I waited for Coni to approach the bitten boy and move away from the others. I leaped and threw one of my gas bombs. I paralyzed two of them and immediately eliminated the burly one with my saber. As one tried to recover from the taser, the other charged at me, imitating the tactics of Takeshi and my own at some point. I recognized the pattern quickly and, jumping with the saber, managed to decapitate him, replicating the technique Kaori used to evade other vampires. While I found this somewhat flashy, the data suggested it was the best choice at that moment. The third, who was kneeling, received a cut before he could attack me.

The girl was paralyzed, and the boy continued writhing on the ground.

"Hello, Constanza, right? Can I call you Coni? Would you like to help me?"

She looked at me with a mixture of thirst and fear. "I can't, María would kill me, I won't say anything."

"Not even for this?"

I took one of the blood samples from Dr. Petrov's lab and opened it. Coni started salivating and prepared to pounce on me. I took out my saber again and activated it.

"Calm down, girl. I'll give you this if you promise to help me: one part now and the other when the deal is finished."

She looked at the sample and tried to control herself. "To hell with it, friend! Give it to me! I'll help you!"

She began to drink the sample greedily and seemed to enter into a kind of trance. Of course, this sample was one of the most prized possessions of the organization "Blood Moon." on which Dr. Petrov worked for. Very few humans possessed such potential.

"What is this, friend? I've never tasted anything like it! Where did you get it?"

"I'll give it to you at the end of the deal, and I'll give you another portion." I pointed to the boy in the midst of transformation and asked, "And what are they supposed to do with him?"

"We were going to take him to Sergio, María's second hand. She's our leader," she commented.

"Tell me everything about María and Sergio, from the beginning."

Coni recounted that María was an ancient vampire who had been in Mexico for many years. She was very cautious and didn't show herself much in public.

"From what I know, she was alone until she met Sergio."

"And why is she turning more vampires?" I asked.

"It seems they want to form something more stable. These places, where the press and the police don't dare to enter due to all the gangs, seem perfect for settling."

She added, "Since she stopped creating armies of newborns, she's been hiding. She doesn't want trouble with the Volturi."

"Army of newborns..." I thought to myself. "That sounds terrifying."

"What else do you know, Coni?"

"Well, I only know they're looking for people to recruit, I don't know for what. But I don't think it's been going very well for them so far."

I paced around, analyzing the situation. "Army of newborns..."

Newly turned vampires are extremely difficult to control. I can't even imagine what it would be like to handle an army. And for what, exactly?

"Alright, Coni, where do you have to take the boy? And do you know if there are more vampires in these surroundings?"

"There are three vampires watching in each village. They come and go to report. I just take Maria's messages to each place. Maybe they'll convert more people."

"What was the last thing she told you?" I asked.

"She told me to take this boy and to contact the next village to pick up another. I have to go, or Maria will worry."

Before she left, I discreetly placed a small transmitter on her back. Something told me I didn't have a good feeling about this. Why create an entire army when there's no one here to oppose? Will there be a war with another coven? And ultimately, what is an army of newborns? I can speculate, but I have no idea how it could be controlled; a vampire in their freshly turned state is very difficult to eliminate.

I reached the next village, with the radar activated. I inhaled the scent of my singer and ventured into the nocturnal village. The place was immersed in darkness, almost in a wild state. People survived as they could, and I noticed certain individuals passing by in trucks, as if they were watching. There was no visible police presence, and the town hall was practically abandoned. I slowly headed toward the area where the signal was no longer faint.

"Halt, man! Don't go that way!" someone shouted at me.

It was a middle-aged man, bald and covered in tattoos. He approached with two other guys who looked me up and down.

"Looks like this one's a tourist," one said, laughing as he patted his protruding belly.

The three of them shared an identical tattoo: a cross surrounded by a sort of halo.

"Carnal, if you venture in that direction, you're asking for trouble. Don't go to that neighborhood," the bald man warned.

"Hey, are you lost, chaparrito?" the burliest one inquired.

"Man, check out how fancy this dude looks!" the third one chimed in, eyeing my saber on my back and the dagger on my waist.

"What do you have in that backpack, wey? Do you intend to take on those from the other area? You're completely nuts, you have no idea what they're capable of," he continued, showing his rifle, which appeared to be an AK-47.

The other one pulled out a shotgun and displayed it. "Not even one of these will hurt them! One of those monsters took my sister yesterday! I hate them. But alright, let's cut the crap, hand over that beautiful knife you're carrying and the backpack."

He pointed the weapon at me. They were about to rob me. A foolish idea – if I let them shoot, I'll alert the vampires on the other side and lose the element of surprise. But I can't give up my weapons either; I'd be defenseless against the vampires and face certain death.

"I'm one of them, and I can prove it. I'm here to eliminate them," I told them in a hushed voice.

The three looked at each other and burst into laughter. "Haha, this carnal is quite amusing!" the bald one mocked. "Do you see any resemblance to them? Not even close! Plus, you're much shorter and, on top of that, you're clearly out of your mind."

I grabbed a rock from the ground and another piece of metal. "Take these, try to break this rock by squeezing it with your hand."

"Stop talking nonsense pendejo! What the hell are you doing, Toño?"

The bald man grabbed the rock and tried to crush it, but it was in vain. Then the other one tried, equally without success.

"You're a bunch of weaklings!" the burly one yelled while attempting to shatter the rock, only managing to cut his hand. "Mier..!"

I could smell the blood, but this time, I had enough self-control. I felt excited and proud, knowing that all my training was paying off.

"Alright, chaparrito, now it's your turn," they challenged me.

I took the rock and broke it between my index finger and thumb. Then, I grabbed the iron bar and snapped it with my teeth. "See that?"

Before I could explain anything, the radar started detecting the signal.

"They can smell his blood!" I warned them.

The burly guy panicked and, as if he had seen the devil himself, started to run, followed by the other two.

The three vampires immediately chased after me, and I put on my mask. I threw a taser, but one of them managed to dodge it.

"I need something quick and stunning."

I grabbed one of the old stun grenades I had stolen nearly a year ago from a police station, detonated it a few inches from them, and immediately threw a gas bomb. The mask partially shielded me from the blast and allowed me to filter the gas. I killed one on the spot and used a taser on another. The second one tried to attack one of the guys, but I decapitated him with my saber, and I split the third one in two; both started to burn instantly.

As the bulky one bled, he approached the head of one of the vampires, who was burning, and kicked it.

"This is for my sister, you damn son of a b...!" he exclaimed amid the flames.

The three dropped their weapons, and more people had gathered. They stared at me intently, and the bald one spoke to me.

"Friend, you have no idea how grateful we are. Are you going to take care of the rest?"

"Do you know where they are?" I asked.

"I know there's a village to the north and another to the south, but the one to the south is the worst, from what I understand. No one has managed to escape from there. My uncle went with a well-armed group, but they never came back."

I was coming from the north, so I was sure Maria was further south, probably in that village.

An elderly woman approached me and, touching my face, said, "Take care of yourself, child. We'll pray for you."

I left the village and started heading south, but before entering, I needed to do some reconnaissance. I activated the tracker and played back the recording I left. I heard several murmurs and recognized Coni's voice; it sounded like she was talking to a woman who wasn't using the local language or had a modern tone. I immediately assumed it was Maria. I also recognized another man's voice.

"He's coming, he killed the three newborns you left in the village," Coni said.

"The blonde was right," Maria confirmed.

"He uses some kind of sword and other strange devices."

"We need to go together, let's hunt him!" the man added enthusiastically.

"No, he needs to come to us. We have the numerical advantage, and he'll probably try to eliminate us one by one."

"For how long, Maria? I can't keep the newborns at bay much longer. They're starting to get thirsty."

"They were waiting for me... Anastasia," I thought. It had seemed odd to me that they needed such a large number of vampires to form a coven. It seemed unnecessary to create a massive amount of vampires just to establish a group. In Japan, Yui seemed to want at most four members, while here I had already faced seven and counting. It seemed like they were going to confront a group, and in reality, the enemy was me.

Anastasia must have come here seeking refuge, and she probably told them about me. However, her knowledge of my inventive abilities is limited, and she might have suspicions about my technopathy, but she has no idea to what extent I've evolved since my confrontation with Od.

Therefore, Maria, foreseeing that I would pass through here, created this army to try to overpower me and kill me with sheer brute force. Most vampires are not familiar with technology, so it was a clever strategy to hide the transmitter in Coni. I assumed that being a child, she would be easily manipulable, and in any case, she would eventually reveal everything to her "boss".

I remained in the vicinity; my plan was to eliminate the newborns one by one. It was necessary to cut the roots and advance directly toward Maria. The newborns didn't concern me, the important thing was to dismantle the power from the lowest rungs and gradually move up to reach her and her accomplice Sergio. For now, I would continue listening and attacking the newborns as they left the village.

After weeks of stalling and taking some newborn vampires down, I was presented with my chance:

"All right! You, you, and you. Go and sense any presence, then report it. You two, the thirstiest ones, can enter the neighboring village and feed; I'll accompany you," reiterated the man named Sergio. Sergio was the vampire in charge of keeping the rest under control, while Maria directed the operations. Perfect, I had to follow Sergio and intercept him.

I started running toward the village where they were going to hunt and caught a glimpse of it through the jungle trees. I took one of the samples and threw it against a tree near where I calculated they would take the route to reach the village.

"Sebastián! Pedro! What are you doing? We need to go this way, not that way!"

The newborns were thirsty and out of control. Following their scent trail, while Sergio tried to redirect them, I threw a gas bomb.

"Here it is! Focus, guys!"

I made a cut to one and then the other, who seemed more concerned about the blood than my presence. Sergio, desperate, tried to attack me with anything he could find: he threw rocks, trees, and tried to keep away from my saber.

Finally, I managed to hit him with one of the tasers, and before the second group could reinforce the assault, I had eliminated him. The three vampires tried to surround me, and just in time, I soared into the air with my propulsion boots before being torn apart.

I threw another of the samples, and the blood splattered onto one of them, while the other two tore him apart, starting to fight among themselves. When only the last one remained, I eliminated him with a final swing of my saber and incinerated them all.

Without Sergio, the army began to collapse gradually. During the following week, I ambushed the vampires as they left the village, without entering yet. I listened through the transmitter as Maria plunged into panic and frustration.

"I need another one, I need another one to control the new ones. How did he know Sergio would go hunting? Did you lead him, Coni? What did he told you? Alfonso, Francisca! Check Coni's clothes!"

Maria had discovered me or was close to doing so. I heard the transmitter moving as they searched Coni.

"I found a strange device!" a woman shouted.

"Destroy it!" Maria ordered. "And you, girl, will be executed for treason. Alfonso, Francisca, take care of her!"

After the couple executed Coni, the signal cut off; they had probably destroyed the transmitter. It was time to take action.

I adapted several blood samples and turned them into gas, just like with my singer's essence. I flooded the entire abandoned village with two rounds of gas bombs: the first to stimulate their thirst and the second with bombs adapted to the essence of the aroma of the samples. The village filled with first black and then reddish smoke; the newborns' clothes were soaked in the scent of blood, and they began attacking each other.

Maria fought bravely against her own soldiers, who were now turning against her and each other. I could appreciate her great experience as a vampire. I recorded each of her movements and added them to my database.

After several hours, the place began to calm down, and there were few vampires left. Finally, only Maria and I remained. Maria had lost a hand, her hair was completely disheveled, and her clothes were torn from the intense battle. Her eyes, an intense crimson, met mine, which had taken on a golden amber hue.

In a combat stance and feeling desperate, she said, "I have never seen anything like this in the centuries I've lived. The woman who spoke to me about you, that..Anastasia, warned me... said you would come."

"Where is she? Why did she come to you?" I asked calmly.

"When I saw the terror in her eyes, I imagined someone big and brawny, with a threatening demeanor," she laughed and then added, "Oh, how appearances can be deceiving, dear friend. We kicked her out, because our way of life no longer interests her. Feeding on animals! And she wasn't the best at newborn control, so I told her that if she didn't join us, she would have to leave."

"You haven't answered my question," I insisted seriously.

"She headed south. I don't know exactly where, but I can assure you it's far away," Then, she looked at me with a seductive and beautiful smile and changed her voice tone. "You have a bit of my dear Jasper in you, though you're much shorter and not as good-looking. Are you going to kill me, right?"

"I appreciate the compliment," I said. I looked around and then added sarcastically, "As for your question, what do you think the verdict of the people who lived here would be?"

She lunged at me in anger and vented all her frustration and anger. I dodged her attack, and with a diagonal cut, she fell to the ground and began to incinerate. Her reign of terror had come to an end.

I surveyed the ruins of what was once this village, lawless but with honest and simple people. Then, I continued on my way south, to my home, thinking:

"Life is neither good nor bad, but a space for good and evil."