Chapter 5.2 - The beginning of the plan

At that moment, the word organization came to Ben’s mind. Maybe he was not the same guy. They just set a certain point and suck blood there. Humans would believe it was a serial murder because it was a similar case of murder accompanied by assault. As the number of unsolved cases increased, they sucked blood safely.

The more humans were driven into fear and doubted each other, the safer they were. That was because they weren’t human. He felt nauseous when he thought about it. They filled their stomachs by skillfully exploiting the humans psychologically.

It was so dirty and sticky that it didn’t compare to the smell the night Ben met Miller. The moment Ben was about to walk through an alley…

“U-uck.”

He heard groans on the street. The sound felt as if it was difficult to breathe.

Without hesitation, Ben ran quickly down the alley, turned right and aimed the gun.

It was a different face from the one he saw in the photo Miller gave him, but this guy was worth seeing at least his face.

As the vampire was surprised at the sudden appearance of Ben, he stopped moving. A woman was lying on her stomach as if she was trying to crawl away and her face was a mess. As he pulled his hair, he tried to put his mouth on Ben’s neck.

It was obvious that he was a young one who couldn’t control his desires. He seemed to have been going around sucking blood ignorantly and indiscriminately without caring about it.

The long fangs sparkled sharply under the moonlight. Ben fired at him without hesitation. It was just one shot.

The woman fainted and the guy shot in the shoulder jumped like a beast as if he had swallowed a fireball. The quiet London night was filled with screams.

Feeling that his body was strange, Ben ran and hit his head with a barrel to knock him out before the unruly fellow caused further disturbance.

Ben, who was about to pull out handcuffs to take the guy who fell, stopped his hand.

Damn it , it isn’t just one person . If it was an organization, then it was true. Ben counted the numbers, slowly turning around in the direction where their presence was felt. One, two, until six. It could be dangerous with just a single error.

He had to give up buying time for interrogation. If he moved clumsily and attacked again, it would be dangerous. All bullets have to aim at their heads.

After finishing the calculation in his head, Ben shot two bullets in a row as soon as he turned around. The two men, who were hit accurately in their temple and forehead, fell down without even screaming.

The guy on the roof rushed toward Ben and he shot at him, but he narrowly missed it and shot his ears. Ben spat swear words as he missed the bullet.

In that situation, he could feel the other guys’ flashing eyes. Ben checked the location of the knife he had around his waist as a habit, but his hand ended up empty.

I should have taken it.

He had no choice but to use a knife if he didn’t have bullets, but he left it as he was too dependent on the gun.

Ben touched the snow to check the floor. He wanted to know if there was anything to use instead of a knife in case of an emergency. He was trying to calculate quickly in his head and put it into action, but suddenly the vampire grabbed his own ear and let out a creepy scream. Lucky for Ben, some of the bullet fragments seemed to have torn his ears.

Ben ran quickly, hit the screaming guy with the same barrel as before, handcuffed him and hung him on a pipe out of the wall.

When he was done, he shot the guy walking out of the right alley, and another one to the left. Next time, both of them. Ben caught his breath for a moment when he saw the guys who were shot in the head fall back.

The sound of his breath was loud. He had to chase the remaining one, but his smell was suddenly fading.

Now that it had come to this, he had to catch as many as possible. In a hurry, Ben ran out to the end of the alley. He looked left and right, but he couldn’t see anything.

He took a deep breath to check the smell before it faded, and when he opened his eyes, a short, skinny man stood in a crooked position. He was sure there was nothing before.

Ben swallowed his dry saliva and stared straight at his opponent. Ben didn’t know whether he smiled or opened his eyes wide in surprise, but he then turned around and began to walk.

Ben aimed the gun but couldn’t shoot it easily. Thinking that he might be a human, he couldn’t put strength to pull the trigger. While hesitating, the man was now out of range.

It didn’t feel unfamiliar to the back he saw, wearing a suit that fit his body. A relaxed walk and an unpleasant look. Ben came to his senses and ran back to the place he was before, thinking of a person reminiscent of the stranger.

There was no trace except for the faint woman. He didn’t know exactly who came and took care of it or whether he ran away before the holy water spread. However, those who were hit by bullets were destined to die anyway.

Ben checked where the handcuffs were, but as expected, they were broken and dangling from the pipe. Clicking his tongue, Ben grabbed the broken handcuffs.

Ben kept swearing in his heart as he grabbed handcuffs. He was worried about Miller’s nagging because he couldn’t catch a single one alive.

I’m sure he will be like ‘can’t you even do anything this easy?’ and he’ll start by asking what’s the use of my ability then.

His head was already pounding and full of doubts. When he came out of the alley hugging the woman who was still hiding with a sigh, an ambulance and a black sedan were behind them.

When Ben saw the person getting out of the sedan, he turned his head and eyes away and handed the woman over to the paramedics. He really didn’t like it when he thought that the reason why the MI6 director was sent to the scene was because he didn’t trust him.

As he told the paramedics about the woman’s condition, he felt a presence behind his back. Ben took a breath. As he turned around, he felt like he would hear an unpleasant remark.

Unpleasant sensations flowed down his spine. He was already sensitive and felt even worse today. He was going to take a deep breath and turn around and say let’s talk tomorrow, not today, but then.

“Are you hurt?”

He thought there would be a sarcastic nagging about not being able to capture them alive, but what came out of his mouth was completely unexpected. As Ben opened his eyes wide, wondering if he heard it right, Miller rolled up the corners of his mouth.

“Good job. Go home and get some rest.”

Scrubbing Ben’s cheek with his thumb, Miller opened his mouth again. The fingers that touched his face were cold. Thanks to the cool temperature, the heat of his body, which seemed to explode at any moment, was out. The soft words quickly changed the mood and made him feel at ease.

The discomfort that had been sticking persistently disappeared, and Ben rubbed his cheek slightly in his touch. He wanted to lean endlessly on the kind hand. He couldn’t help feeling spoiled when someone worried about him and did it every time.

Miller looked at Ben’s blonde hair shaking with a calm gaze.

***

He was dazed, lying in his bed and his cell phone rang. Ben looked at his cell phone making a loud vibrating sound. Ever since he received it from Miller, he thought that the cell phone was never quiet.

He just looked at his cell phone without even picking it up. He was out of his mind after work. This time it had been particularly harsh. He thought it was because he had dealt with several guys at once.

Ben didn’t want to answer the phone, as if he didn’t know it was ringing, but the calls didn’t stop as if the person wasn’t willing to let it go.

“Hello?”

“What are you doing?”

As he expected, Miller’s voice was heard over the phone. Ben sighed quietly. The complaint about the late answer was obvious. Otherwise, Miller O’Donoughue was asking a really stupid question. What am I doing? I’m still tired because there was such a fuss yesterday.

“What’s going on?”

Ben checked the clock on the wall, saying in a low voice. He fell asleep and woke up repeatedly, so he had no idea of what time it was.

“Get ready for dinner. I’ll pick you up by seven.”

Miller briefly said the purpose of the call and ended it before Ben even answered. Ben sighed at the already hung up phone.

He thought he’d call back and tell him not to come, but he didn’t think things would change. Perhaps Miller wanted to go out for a meal, so it was clear that he would try to keep his word and Ben’s opinion won’t be that important for him.

Lying in bed, Ben rolled his eyes and began to pull up his drooping body.

Miller rang Ben’s house doorbell at exactly seven o’clock.

Ben, who was sitting on the edge of the bed after getting ready to go out, opened the door at the sound of the doorbell and came out.

Miller frowned slightly at Ben’s torn jeans, leather jackets and old sneakers, but Ben didn’t mind. Perhaps he didn’t like Ben’s attire because Miller’s restaurant pick was full of elegance.

However, he didn’t intend to wear a suit when he was just going to have a meal, nor did he have a luxury suit as the one worn by Miller.

The two had nothing special to say until they arrived at a high-quality restaurant similar to where they first ate together and started. Yesterday’s tiredness and Miller’s smell left Ben still in a daze. He didn’t have the strength to argue with him as usual.

“You did a great job yesterday.”

“Well, it’s just work.”

Miller opened his mouth first as he ate the dessert.

“…There was something else there yesterday, other than them , the victim and me.”

Miller nodded at Ben’s words.

“It’s proof that you’ve done enough being the bait. And–”

“And?”

“A Dhampir who was born on Saturdays is not common, so I think he wanted to see it in person at least once.”

“You know who it is.”

Miller lifted the cup of black tea gracefully and nodded at Ben’s words.

“McDowell Jonas, our ultimate goal.”

“The Boss?”

“It’s hard to call him Boss. He just picks a good place to suck and makes a plan.”

“It was always successful, and that’s why the rest of them followed him naturally.”

“It’s similar.”

“And so far it’s been speculated that the vampire you’re looking for is also part of Jonas’ organization.”

Since he first heard about the organization, he vaguely thought it would be like that, so Ben nodded. He felt dizzy maybe because of shaking his head. The aftermath had never been this long, so it was strange.

“When I connected the scene, the letter M meant McDowell.”

“Maybe. He’s a show-off guy, so it’s probably that.”

“It sounds as if you were familiar with him.”

Ben spat out his words and Miller stared at him.

“You look tired. Should we stop? You can’t even eat well.”

Ben tilted his head to one side and looked at Miller, who couldn’t answer immediately. He felt like he had to listen to something more. His smell was still uneasily good.

“Would you like a drink?”

Ben, who didn’t stand up when he spoke, regretted it instantly in his heart. He couldn’t think straight when he was with him. He couldn’t resist drinking with him, even though he didn’t have the energy to eat properly.

Miller raised his eyebrows at Ben’s suggestion. Even though he was tired, he asked to have a drink because he wanted to hear something.

“Aren’t you tired?”

Looking at the shaking Ben, Miller quickly calculated the situation in his head. It was important to make him believe in him before he realized it. No matter how good his sense was, he thought there would be a good chance of winning if his energy was weakened like this. Maybe tonight was an unexpected opportunity for Miller, and Miller was never the one to miss the opportunity.