Dozens of vampires still press against the campus perimeter, circling like starving shadows, waiting for the shield to fray, for a single gap to open so they can surge forward. The Zhao family climbs swiftly to the rooftop—Dad, Rosella, Jared—ready to monitor and reinforce from the highest vantage point. The moment they reach me, they see it: I have nothing left to give.
“Rose?” Dad’s voice cuts sharp with alarm, his hand reaching out before I can sway.
Voices call my name, but my vision blurs, edges turning black as smoke. My lungs burn with every ragged breath; sweat streams down my face, dripping onto the concrete in steady drops.
“Stay with us, Rose,” Rosella pleads, stepping close enough to steady my shoulders.
She glances upward. The crimson moon begins to pale, its deep bleeding hue fading back toward silver. The eclipse is nearing its end.
“Rosella, Jared—move to your assigned posts,” Dad commands, steady and urgent. He looks back at me, his expression tight with fear he rarely lets show. “Stick to the plan, just in case.”
They nod—but a faint, ragged sound stops them all.
“No…”
I force the words out, clinging to consciousness by a thread thinner than spider silk. “I… I can still hold it.”
“Rose, don’t push yourself any further,” Jared says gently but firmly, his hand hovering near my arm.
“You have done more than enough,” Rosella adds, her voice soft but unyielding. “Let us carry the rest.”
They try to guide me away from the edge, to let go of the power that is eating me alive from the inside out. But I cannot. Not yet. Not while danger still waits outside the walls, not while thousands of lives hang on the line I alone have drawn.
Minutes stretch like hours. Slowly, the deep red hue recedes from the moon, fading back to familiar silver. Down below, human students laugh and drift toward their quarters, calling out goodnights, completely unaware of how close they came to disaster. I should feel relief. Instead, a heavy unease settles deep in my chest. Tonight has changed everything. And somewhere deep inside, that strange, ancient connection stirred by the howl still hums—a bond I cannot explain, a memory I never knew I held, a truth waiting to be revealed.
I lift my gaze toward the mountains rising dark against the sky. A final howl rolls across the horizon—soft, resonant, unmistakable. It carries no threat, only something old and steady. It feels like a promise.
“Rose!”
Dad’s shout is the last thing I hear before the darkness takes me.
The barrier was supposed to be lifted automatically.
But that’s not what happened, the barrier unravels—splitting into thousands of individual motes of glowing crimson light, each one carrying the essence of Rose’s protection. They hang suspended for an instant while the protective energy desipates leaving only the blood. Then they streak downward with purpose, striking every vampire still pressing against the perimeter. One by one, they drop. Silent. Instant. No struggle, no sound—just stillness where hunger had been.
The Zhao family stands frozen, staring in stunned silence.
“How…?” Rosella breathes, her hand pressed to her mouth.
None of them recall reading of such power in the ancient texts or prophecies. Whatever this is… it is something entirely new.
 Rose’s powers are getting more and more mysterious. Mysterious that they don't remember reading those kinds of powers from the book prophecy, nor any kind of book.
By some miracle, the last students enter the buildings. No one is hurt. No one sees what truly happened. For the humans, the eclipse is nothing more than a passing wonder of nature. For the supernatural world… it marks a turning point.
Across the city, at Majestic Academy, Lord Wang stands at his window, watching the fading red moon. A slow, cruel smile curves his lips. Dark blood still drips from the corner of his mouth, staining the silk of his cuffs. The grounds lie quiet now—his kind have run wild, answering the moon’s call, giving in fully to hunger and power tonight.
Far out, in an abandoned building on the city’s edge, Andrei and Zyber struggle through the last moments of the eclipse. They have locked themselves inside a suppression chamber—a place designed to dampen their strength, to keep them hidden from the moon’s pull and from innocent lives. But tonight the call is too strong, thrumming in their veins like a drumbeat they cannot silence.
Zyber gasps, driving his nails deep into the plaster walls, then binds his own wrists tight with heavy cord, fighting the shift that threatens to overtake him. Andrei clenches his fists until his claws pierce his palms, blood welling dark and thick between his fingers. He groans—not from the cut, but from the agony of restraint, of holding back the beast that howls to be free.
Their veins rise dark and sharp beneath their skin, burning with the urge to run and hunt. Only when the last trace of crimson light leaves the moon do the urges recede, leaving them weak and trembling on the cold stone floor. 
Zyber stares up at the ceiling, breath ragged. “I… really… hate this.”
Andrei nods slowly, wiping blood from his hands. “So do I.”
They lie still for a long time, letting their strength return in quiet waves.
“Andrei…” Zyber says after a while, his voice quiet in the dim room. “Do you ever wonder… what happens if one night we cannot hold it back?”
Andrei is silent. He has wondered it everytime.
“Then we make sure we are locked away where no one will get hurt,” he says at last. “That is all we can do.”
Zyber nods, though neither of them feels truly reassured. The night may be over—but the real fight is only just beginning.