Taylor walks into the room. It was dead quiet in there and the vibe was somewhat ominous.

He had been called to this location with no explanation. But the call came from the Demon Heart vampires so he couldn't say no.

After a quick glance around he saw that most of the people here were vampires. Many of them were stronger than Taylor too.

Taylor didn't recognize some of them, so he assumed that they were from other families.

There was also a witch. When Taylor's eyes land on her, his eyes open in surprise. It was Maggie. Why was Sylvie's sister here?

Over 10 years had passed since Taylor met her, and she still looked like the same big-breasted beauty he saw that day. Sylvie herself had matured over the years, but they both maintained the same witch youthfulness.

Maggie sees Taylor and smiles. “Have a seat, Taylor. We're about to begin.” She says with an elegant voice. Taylor had always known her to be quite crude, but I guess she was prepared to do business today.

Taylor takes the nearest seat.

“Since everyone is here, let us begin.” Maggie says as she stands up. “Hanz Riverman, the leader of the Mountain Climber family is once again making a move. Since the day the vampires made a move to eliminate him, he has disappeared. Not a shadow seen or a whisper of his whereabouts.” Maggie begins, setting the stage for the meeting. “That day, the vampires made a grave error. They looked down on Hanz Riverman. A Vampire King is a threat to the whole world, not just the other vampire families, but they kept the rest of the supernatural world out of it and decided to take care of it themselves. Now he is gone, his location or actions unknown. But his family have begun to move. They are beginning to gather materials once again, for what we must suspect is another ritual, to crown himself the Vampire King.” Maggie says her tone serious, before gesturing to her side. “Gregory, if you would.” She asks politely.

Taylor looks over at the man leaning on the wall beside Maggie. He had a pair of long black wings peaking out from behind him. Taylor immediately recognizes him as a Crowman. The Crowpeople were the shapeshifters of this world. As they would explain it, the gods could not be bothered to look after the whole world, so they were created to be witnesses to the passing thoughts of men and women, to all the secrets of the world.

They could shapeshift into anything, man or woman, cat or dog, fly or bee. In addition, they could read minds. These were abilities all the Crowpeople were born with.

The Crowman leans forward and takes a step to speak to the crowd. “Many of my kind have died in our search for Hanz, but the effort was not fruitless. A Heaven Core has been predicted to form in Hell's Canyon. A fitting setting for what Hanz intends to do with it.” Gregory begins to explain. “His family has begun to move. A small group is beginning to gather there from various locations. A Duke among them. This party has been formed to hunt them down. Hanz must be guarding this secret well, but I expect that he has yet to realize, that the whole world had turned against him.” He says before leaning back against the wall.

“This party will split into groups to hunt the Mountain Climbers in different locations. A group of Crowmen will be on standby in addition to a second party of hunters. If anything unexpected happens, the Crowmen will inform the second party of any precautions or necessary actions that have to be made. If there are any mistakes, or if any of the Mountain Climbers escape, it will be an embarrassment to the whole supernatural world. But if everyone does their job, we’ll be able to catch them all before they even make it to Hell's Canyon.” Maggie says before moving onto the finer details of the plan.

Taylor almost groaned. Am I really necessary here? You have two hunting parties ready to go for a small group who are spread out around the country. What is a third stage cultivator like me going to be useful for? Taylor thought to himself. Sure, Taylor didn't think he was the weakest one here, but he was pretty close. And Taylor had just started a family with Sylvie; he had no desire to be cannon fodder in the hunt for a Vampire Prince. The only reason he didn't just walk out is because Maggie was here.

“Fuck,” Taylor exclaims, causing some eyes to gather on him. But Taylor didn't care. Fuck these guys, Taylor thought to himself. He very much wanted to leave, but he had the feeling that he was going to get involved in this whether he liked it or not.