The vehicle that was being used was something in-between a spaceship and a car that used to be used in the past. Most cars these days were self-driven and levitated off of the ground slightly.
However, there were quite strict rules about using a vehicle in a certain way, due to airspace and collisions with buildings and so on, but the Vampire Corps were exempt from that.
The vehicle they were in wasn't designed for outer space, but they could go between buildings, zipping around quicker than a helicopter, as it took quick turns. Its deceleration and acceleration were quite fast as well.
Quinn imagined he could run faster than the vehicle, but avoiding all of the people on the ground would be a major issue. While looking out the window, they all noticed something.
They were leaving behind the grand buildings, and now they were going through large fields of just grass and trees. There was next to no development at all.
"Is Galanar no longer in the city?" Jessica asked.
"That's right, we managed to track down his communication device out here, and it hasn't moved for a while now," Ryder replied.
It wasn't good news, not moving meant that his body was already dead, and left in a particular place.
Eventually, they had reached a more wooded area that would be hard for the vehicle to maneuver through, so it landed and everyone got off.
"We will follow the location of the last ping," Ryder said as he moved forward.
Doing so, the other three squad members with him moved slowly. Jessica was at the back, she was trying to get access from her own communication device, seeing if there was an update from the base, but nothing seemed to be working, the whole thing was scrambled as the screen would just turn into fuzz every time she pressed it.
"That's strange, is this thing broken?" Jessica asked.
"Is it not working?" Quinn quickly tried his, but his was doing the same thing as well. "Mine's not working either."
"It must be a strong magnetic field, or maybe even a wild beast with certain powers interrupting it," Ryder said, overhearing them from the back. "Ours aren't working either."
Jessica had accepted the answer, but with Quinn being wary of everyone, he was finding it a little strange. If there was some type of magnetic field interfering with their communication devices, then how did they manage to get a location on Galanar's device? It wasn't making any sense.
Taking a step back, Quinn gave signs to both Hikel and Edvard. Most weren't paying attention to the two anyway, but they soon went off ahead, scouting out the area to see if there was anything usual.
The group continued to walk deeper into the forest, and it was only later that she noticed Hikel and Edvard had disappeared.
"Where did they go? Did they get lost? When was that?" Jessica asked.
"Don't worry, they thought they wouldn't be much help and headed back to the vehicle, they'll wait for us there," Quinn answered.
The group continued until Ryder eventually stopped in his tracks, and so did the others.
"He's right up ahead," Ryder said, his voice choking up a little as he gazed up at one of the trees. Because there, Galanar was. He had been pinned by his hands on the tree with some type of hard metal.
Blood dripped down the tree, his shirt was torn apart, and there were scratches all over him. But finally, the one thing that immediately stood out to Quinn was on his chest. There was an engraved marking of an eye with two wings. It looked like it had been drawn by a vampire's fingernail.
'Is he...dead?' Quinn thought. It wouldn't be a surprise considering the state he was in, but he wasn't. He could feel a faint heartbeat from him.
'This is clearly the work of someone connected to Immortui, though. The marking was there. So it was him all along… but Galanar was made a target. Why?' Quinn thought.
Jessica, seeing her friend, ran ahead, pushing past the others.
"We have to get him down and taken to a hospital right away! And then find the bastards who did this!" Jessica said.
She ran until she was right beneath him, but when her foot had landed on a certain area, it lit up underneath her, and she felt her whole body freeze.
"What is going on? Why can't I move?" Jessica asked.
The light wasn't fading away underneath her foot.
Quinn had seen this before. This was the power of the seventh family ability. They could make hidden traps that would hold you in place for a certain amount of time. So why was this one holding her for so long?
Quinn only had one answer. The trap had to have been done by none other than Magnus.
A marking in Ryder's eyes started to glow, and a marking on his head with it. Quinn knew he was suspicious. It looked like not even the Vampire Corps were safe from the likes of Immortui.
"My sweet girl, the person above is someone you would say you are close with. I don't know if you know, but right now, his life hangs in the balance. His body is not in a state where it can properly take in blood to heal itself.
"His insides have already been destroyed, and he is hanging on by a thread. By the time you got him to a hospital, he would die. But that's why I have decided to give you a choice. You see, I can save him. I have the power to save him, only if you are able to do me a fa-"
Before he could finish his sentence, a strong hit had landed on the back of the vampire's head, knocking him out completely. This wasn't just any vampire, but it was one of the captains as well.
"Bake, why did you do that?" Jessica asked.
"What they are saying is lies," Quinn answered. "Can't you see, Jessica? The communication devices not working, knowing where Galanar was… they were the ones behind it."
Soon, another one of the Vampire Corps members in the squad started to light up.
"Who are you to get in my way!" The man angrily said. "Don't worry, I had planned for some interference."
The man looked as if he was about to laugh, but when he looked to his left and right, no one was coming out until a few moments later when Hikel and Edvard were seen.
"It looks like there were quite a few of them hiding in the woods for an ambush, but we managed to deal with them all," Edvard said.
"Same on my side as well. It was a good thing that you managed to figure out this whole thing was a trap, Bake," Hikel added as well.
It looked almost as if the man wanted to ask something or say something, but before he could, Quinn ran forward and hit the bottom of his jaw, shattering it as it crashed with the upper jaw and knocking him out.
Moving onto the next set of vampires, he kicked and punched them, knocking them out in one hit.
"I won't let you get into her head. She can't start to think that this is her fault or there is a way to avoid all of this… otherwise, you will get what you want."
Hikel and Edvard helped pull out the strange metal stakes inside of Galanar and placed him on the ground gently.
"Here, he should drink this," Edvard said as he pulled out a flask with a number on the side.
"You still have that?" Hikel asked.
"I never knew if it would come in handy one day, and look, it seems like it has," Edvard replied.
He poured the blood out of the flask, but it wasn't red blood that was poured, it was green. As it went inside his body, it did its best to heal, but Quinn wanted to go one step further.
He placed both of his hands on his chest and wounds and started to help flow Qi inside him, trying to help his body to repair.
"Will… will he be okay?" Jessica asked.
"I hope so," Quinn replied.
Meanwhile, Barbra had just received a vast amount of information. It took a while for her to process it all, and it was hard for her to make the call, but she eventually did.
"Everyone, may I have your attention. The main suspect for the death of Stacey Lue and Gabe Lue is Jessica Clark. Everyone must find and locate her immediately!"
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