A short distance away in the dark streets surrounding the backyard, Stiles was running around like a madman.
His breath was ragged, his eyes wide with sheer panic and terror, clutching his head as he looked around desperately for anyone to save Scott before he got killed.
On the opposite sidewalk, Lee and Carter were walking with heavy steps, their expressions deeply frustrated as they argued in sharp tones.
Lee turned to Carter and let out a heavy sigh, saying:
“You can’t blame them, Carter… I mean, some animal ripped a car apart and took the Malroux brothers? How do you expect them to believe that? We don’t have any proof.”
Carter exploded in anger, waving his hands in furious frustration:
“The car *is* the proof, Lee! It is literally shredded into scrap metal! And after all that, they accuse us of negligence, saying we crashed the car, destroyed it, and let the Malroux brothers escape! On top of all that, they docked my pay!”
Lee rubbed his forehead alignment with exhaustion and exhaled, trying to calm him down:
“We’ll figure something out, Carter, don’t worry.”
Carter kicked a small pebble on the ground with all his might and shouted desperately:
“This town is cursed, Lee! Let’s just leave, and let that girl Sara go to hell with her money!”
Lee opened his mouth, about to reply and calm him down, but then he spotted Stiles and said:
“Isn’t that Stiles?”
Carter looked over, his face contorting in flat-out rejection, and yelled:
“Hell no! Whatever mess the Sheriff’s spoiled brat made, I want absolutely no part of it! Let’s go, Lee!”
But Lee said, keeping his eyes on the boy:
“He looks terrified, Carter. Let’s check it out, it’s our patrol anyway.”
Lee walked over to Stiles.
Carter called after him in deep annoyance:
“Lee! Lee! Don’t go, Lee!”
Lee turned around, reassuring him:
“Carter, nothing’s going to happen, don’t worry.”
Lee reached Stiles and asked:
“Hey Stiles, what’s going on? Is everything alright?”
Stiles looked at him, his eyes filled with tears of pure terror, and panted frantically:
“Thank God! My friend is about to die, he needs help right now!”
He immediately bolted toward the old, ruined building where Damon and Stefan had jumped moments earlier.
Lee turned to Carter in bewilderment.
Carter shook his head with heavy sarcasm and grumbled:
“The Sheriff’s kid is a walking trouble magnet, Lee! Let’s just ignore it… I mean, he’s obviously lying, what kind of danger could his friend possibly be in?”
Lee spoke firmly as he geared up to move:
“We have to check it out, Carter. It could be an actual emergency.”
He ran after Stiles.
Carter cursed his partner but followed him reluctantly.
The three ran through the dark alleyways, led by Stiles whose heart was hammering against his ribs.
The moment they reached the backyard of the destroyed building, Stiles’s breath caught completely, while Lee and Carter took a step back, paralyzed by the sheer horror of the visual spectacle before them!
The place looked like an actual war zone—the wooden roofs shattered and scattered, brick walls demolished, and there lay Stefan’s corpse on the ground with a snapped neck.
But the most horrifying sight was Damon Salvatore.
Damon stood in a towering rage, sinister black veins framing his darkened eyes, with his hand buried completely and brutally into the center of Scott’s bleeding chest.
Scott was lying on the ground, his face deathly pale, groaning in pain as he drew his final breaths, while Damon’s fingers gripped the beating heart inside his chest, ready to rip it out completely at any second.
Stiles froze in his tracks, his eyes wide with unspeakable horror, while Lee and Carter instantly drew their service weapons, staring in absolute shock at this bloody, supernatural scene!
The two inspectors witnessed the scene in complete disbelief—the demolished walls, the corpse with the twisted neck, and a strange man digging his hand into a teenager’s chest as if he were looking for his car keys in a coat pocket!
Lee didn’t hesitate for a single second.
He planted his feet firmly on the ground, raised his service pistol with both hands, and channeling the commanding tone that had once terrified Hong Kong gangs, bellowed at the top of his lungs:
“Drop the kid right now! Raise your hands and get on the ground… damn it, get on the ground and take your hand out of his chest!”
As for Carter, his bulging eyes locked onto the scene, and he took a step back as if his soul were about to leave his body.
He began waving his gun around erratically, cursing in a frantic loop:
“Holy shit! Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it! Lee… what is this?! What in the holy hell is this?! The guy is wearing a sleek leather jacket and performing open-heart surgery with his bare hands! Is this a religious cult?! Are we in a cheap horror movie?! Damn it!”
At that moment, Damon slowly turned toward the source of the noise.
He was furious and annoyed that the poetic climax of killing his opponent had been ruined by human police officers.
When he turned his face fully toward them, Lee and Carter saw a vampire’s terrifying face for the very first time.
The jagged black veins under Damon’s eyes bulged like poisoned thorns, his irises shifted into a deadly dark hue, and his long, sharp fangs protruded from his mouth as he unleashed a sharp hiss that vibrated through the dark courtyard.
Seeing this monstrosity, Carter’s jaw nearly hit the ground, and he yelled in a mix of pure terror and comedic hysteria:
“Oh my God! Look at his face! His face looks like an old mop! Lee, he’s got buck teeth but in a really terrifying way! Shoot him! Shoot this psychopath!”
While Damon was relishing the wave of terror he had struck into the hearts of the two cops, locking his lethal gaze onto the barrel of Lee’s gun, he made a fatal mistake… he completely forgot that the pup lying beneath his hand was still alive.
Scott seized those few seconds of external distraction.
Gathering every shred of his remaining energy and life force, in a desperate, lightning-fast move, he snapped his mouth wide open and bit down onto Damon’s hand buried inside his chest with feral force, burying his fangs deep into his wrist!
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Damon’s piercing scream ripped through the silence of the night.
He felt the werewolf venom pump once again like a burning acid through his veins, corroding his cells and paralyzing his movements.
Spurred by agony and shock, he violently yanked his hand out and stumbled backward, releasing Scott.
He dropped to his knees, clutching his bleeding wrist, his eyes blazing with insane rage and hatred.
Meanwhile, Scott collapsed onto his back in sheer exhaustion, beginning to take deep, labored breaths.
His torn chest was bleeding profusely, but the werewolf’s supernatural healing factor began working slowly to mend the internal tissues.
Seeing his friend break free, Stiles let out a cry mixed with terror and relief:
“SCOTT!!”
Stiles bolted like a madman past Lee and Carter, throwing himself onto the ground beside his friend.
He held Scott’s head, desperately trying to apply pressure to the wound with trembling hands:
“Damn it, buddy! Breathe… please breathe! Don’t die now, my dad will kill me if he finds out I took you vampire hunting over the weekend!”
On the other side, Carter was still having a full-blown panic attack, looking at Lee and yelling in a trembling voice:
“Lee… did you see that? The little kid bit the wolf-man… no, the wolf-man has a mop face… Dammit, I don’t understand anything! But that fanged thing looks really pissed off right now, and I think he wants to have us as a midnight snack!”
“Focus, Carter!” Lee snapped angrily, keeping his sharp gaze locked onto the agonizing Damon as he firmly re-cocked his weapon.
Scott continued to groan from his severe injuries, blood pooling around him, while Stiles leaned his entire body forward, gripping his friend’s shoulders with all his might to slowly drag his heavy frame backward across the dirt, cold sweat pouring down his face.
Despite the raw terror etched on their faces, Lee and Carter stepped forward in unison, forming a human shield ahead of the boys.
They raised their official firearms with steady hands, aiming them directly at Damon’s chest.
Damon knelt on the ground for a moment, then rose slowly, dark blood dripping from his bitten wrist.
He looked at the gun barrels pointed right at him, his expression of pain melting away into a mask of pure coldness.
Then, a sadistic, dark smile crept onto his lips, and he spoke in a tone dripping with mockery:
“What do we have here? Brave police officers? Do you really think these little toys are going to save you?”
Carter couldn’t take the provocation anymore; his nerves snapped completely, and he roared at the top of his lungs:
“Go to hell, you freak!”
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!*
Carter fired multiple times in rapid succession.
Muzzle flashes erupted from his gun, and the bullets tore precisely into Damon’s chest and body.
Shreds flew from his leather jacket, but the horrifying twist was that Damon’s body didn’t even flinch backward.
He remained standing right where he was, and the bullet holes in his body began closing up, healing instantly as if nothing had happened!
Lee’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief, experiencing a shock unlike anything he had encountered in his entire career in law enforcement.
He turned his head slightly back and shouted in utter astonishment:
“Stiles! What the hell is going on here?! What is this thing?!”
Lee began firing as well out of pure survival instinct—*BANG!
BANG!*—as he and Carter slowly began backing away to shield the two teenagers.
Stiles screamed as he desperately tried to pull Scott’s heavy body:
“He’s a vampire! Normal weapons won’t work on him! Bullets don’t kill him!”
Carter turned to Stiles, his face a mix of pure rage and panic, and yelled at the top of his lungs:
“You son of a bitch! You brought us here to face a vampire?! A real-life vampire?!”
Lee shouted as he fired another round to delay the enemy:
“Focus, Carter! Focus on the target and keep moving back!”
Carter fired back hysterically while slamming a fresh magazine into his gun:
“Screw you, Lee! I told you! I told you the whole way here not to follow the Sheriff’s damn kid! This kid is a literal disaster magnet, and now we’re gonna die because of you!”
Damon’s sadistic laughter echoed through the dark courtyard; the cops’ comical and panicked reactions were music to his ears.
He said as he advanced toward them slowly, thoroughly enjoying the moment:
“Haha! You guys are hilarious… seriously hilarious! Maybe I’ll change my mind and keep you alive as little pets for entertainment!”
Suddenly, Damon’s face turned dead serious.
With terrifying speed that the naked eye couldn’t track, he lunged toward them like a dark blur, aiming to rip out their throats.
But inches before he could reach them, another shadow blasted from the ground with immense kinetic force!
It was Stefan, who had snapped back to life after his broken neck healed thanks to his supernatural vampire physiology.
Stefan tackled his brother Damon away, throwing him hard into the debris, then turned toward the officers and Stiles, screaming at the top of his lungs with his facial veins bulging:
“Get out of here right now! Run!”
Carter let out a shriek of terror, stumbling back two steps as he pointed a shaking finger at Stefan:
“Damn it! Weren’t you dead with a broken neck literally a minute ago?! What is wrong with this freakin’ town?!”
Lee grabbed Carter by his jacket forcefully and yanked him backward, yelling a stern warning:
“Shut up, Carter! Shut up for heaven’s sake and let’s get out of here right now!”
Stiles grabbed Scott again, hauling him up with the help of Lee and Carter, who abandoned their useless weapons.
The four of them ran at absolute top speed, bolting toward the interior door of the old building to take cover inside.
The four rushed into the dark building, the sounds of their panting mingling with the echo of their pounding, terrified hearts.
Stiles was dragging Scott with the help of “Lee”, while Carter turned his pistol backward, looking left and right like a madman.
But before they could take any more steps toward the emergency exit, the side wooden wall shattered violently, and Stefan’s body flew through the air, crashing hard onto the concrete floor directly in front of them, creating thick dust.
Stefan was bleeding profusely from his head and chest, his body trembling from the force of the blows before he vomited dark blood in pain and helplessness, his red eyes weakening and slowly returning to their human nature.
The four froze in their places.
As they turned toward the gap in the wall, the darkness parted to reveal Damon Salvatore.
He was advancing towards them with slow, cold, and exceedingly confident steps.
With his other hand, he flicked blood from his leather coat, his eyes glinting with a deadly sheen.
Terror and panic seized Stiles, Lee, and Carter; the creature before them was unkillable and tireless.
They instinctively retreated backward, and “Lee” and Carter raised their pistols again out of pure fear and squeezed the trigger repeatedly:
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Shards flew from the building walls and Damon’s coat, but he didn’t even bother to dodge the bullets.
He advanced with a sadistic smile, enjoying the doses of fear etched on their faces.
At that critical moment, under the influence of adrenaline and the instinct to protect his friends, Scott endured his terrible pain.
He slipped his hand from Stiles, took heavy steps forward, bypassed the muzzles of the police pistols, and stood as a barrier between everyone and Damon.
Scott looked at Damon with eyes radiating an angry golden color, and said in a firm, choked voice:
– You… will never… touch them!
Damon’s sadistic smile widened, and he tilted his head with deadly mockery, saying coldly:
– Watch me do it, pup.
Damon slowly bent his knees, preparing to pounce on them and end this night with a bloody massacre.
But before his body could even rebound an inch from the ground, a loud and entirely different gunshot shattered the silence of the place; the sound of a heavy-caliber, modified bullet exploding!
BOOOOOOM!
Blood and tissue flew, and a large, disfigured hole appeared in the middle of Damon’s head from behind, exiting through his forehead.
The smile vanished from his face instantly, his eyes rolled upward, and his body fell like a dead weight on the ground, revealing the person standing behind him in the darkness.
It was Chris Argent.
Chris stood tall and steady as a mountain, wearing his long black coat, and pointing his large, stainless steel tactical pistol at the spot where Damon’s head had been, the silver disk of the “Hunter’s” special bullet having done its job perfectly in incapacitating the vampire.
Stiles let out a scream of panic and retreated, covering his mouth with his hands at the horror of the terrible sight:
– Oh damn!
Damn!
He blew his head off!
His head exploded like a watermelon!
As for Carter, he placed his hand on his chest and began to breathe as if about to faint, exclaiming in a low voice:
– Wh-who is this man now?!
Are they distributing super-weapons to everyone in this town and I’m the only one with a cheap police pistol?!
Chris lowered his pistol with extreme coldness, looked at Damon’s corpse lying on the ground, and said in an expressionless tone:
– He’s not dead yet.
Stiles, Carter, and Lee’s eyes widened at the same moment, and their collective panicked scream shook the place:
– What?!
Are you kidding me?!
You literally blew his head off!
Chris did not reply or pay them any attention.
He calmly bent down, picked up a sharp, broken piece of wood from the debris of the ceiling that had fallen on the ground, then approached Damon’s body.
Using his foot, he flipped him onto his back, and raised the piece of wood high with both hands, ready to plunge it into his heart.
But before the wood descended, Stefan, with the last of his strength, lunged forward, grabbed Chris’s hands firmly, and prevented him from moving, screaming desperately:
– Stop!
Please… he’s my brother!
Chris looked at Stefan, and without uttering a single word or changing his stern features, raised his pistol with his other hand and pulled the trigger with superhuman speed a few consecutive times, hitting Stefan’s body.
Bang!
Stefan’s body trembled violently from the impact of the modified bullets, and he staggered backward groaning in helplessness.
Before Stefan could comprehend or react to the situation, Chris reached into his tactical belt and pulled out a strange, small metal grenade.
Carter spotted the grenade, and screamed hysterically and madly as he looked around:
– G-grenade!
Lee… get down!
The madman has a grenade!
Stiles, Lee, and Carter, and Scott jumped behind the rubble of a wall to take cover.
At the same moment, Chris threw the grenade directly at Stefan’s face.
BOOOOOOM!
The grenade exploded with force, but instead of ordinary shrapnel, thick burnt dust and dark red liquid scattered; the explosion turned into a searing flame that intensely consumed Stefan’s face and body.
Stefan fell on his back, screaming in unbearable pain, fire scorching his skin as he was completely unable to stand or move.
Chris took a step towards the burning Stefan and said with chilling, biting sarcasm:
– Don’t bother trying… this is a “Feren” grenade specially designed and modified for blood-mutants like you.
Stefan clutched the ground with his charred fingers, tears mixing with blood on his disfigured face, and cried in a tone dripping with pain and pleading:
– Please…
I know he’s terrible…
I know he’s a madman who kills people without mercy, but he’s my only family!
My only family for all these centuries!
Don’t kill him… please!
Chris fixed his cold eyes on him and said in a harsh, drippingly sarcastic tone:
– This supposed family of yours has killed more than seven people in one week!
Five of them were killed today… tonight!
And that girl there, Vicki Donovan, was also attacked and tortured by your dear brother, and you want me to let him live?!
Chris’s tone changed to become sharper and angrier, and he continued:
– All you supernatural creatures are the same… you kill and destroy, then live your lives as if nothing happened!
Guess what, you fool?
The people your brother killed in cold blood also had families who loved them and were waiting for their return… but he didn’t hesitate for a second before ending their lives.
A terrible, complete silence fell over the place.
Everyone fell silent, and Stiles and Inspectors Lee and Carter looked at Chris with astonishment and shock at his stern words and bitter truth, while Stefan moaned and groaned in severe helplessness on the dirty floor.
Chris turned his whole body towards Damon’s corpse again to finish the mission he came for, and pointed the wooden stake towards his heart, saying to Stefan with deadly coldness:
– Don’t worry… when your brother dies soon, I’ll send you to him again, and in hell, you can be as happy a family as you want.
Stefan saw the stake being raised again, and all his options vanished.
He turned his head with great difficulty towards Scott, who was lying a few meters away, his body partially healed by his healing abilities.
Stefan stared into Scott’s golden eyes and whispered in a very low voice that could barely be heard by the human ear, utilizing Scott’s werewolf senses:
– Scott…
I know you can hear me…
Please, save my brother’s life… and I promise you, I promise I will lock him up forever and he will never harm anyone again for the rest of his life…
Just please… help me…
Scott looked at Stefan with immense shock.
He hesitated strongly within himself; Chris’s words about the victims were true and painful, but the look of despair and death in Stefan’s eyes ignited the instinct within him that would not allow a murder to happen before him.
And in the last fraction of a second, as Chris was about to plunge the stake into Damon’s heart, Scott lunged like an arrow with immense force, hitting Chris with his body, throwing him violently towards a nearby brick wall, causing a crack in the wall.
Scott immediately turned to Stefan and shouted at the top of his lungs:
– Stefan!
Now!
Stefan endured all his burns and terrible pains, and with the last ounce of strength remaining in his body, he staggered to his feet, grabbed Damon’s leather coat, and in the blink of an eye, they disappeared with superhuman vampire speed into the darkness of the night through the gap.
Chris immediately regained his balance, and was consumed by a rage he had never experienced before.
Without any hesitation or thought, he aimed his pistol at Scott and fired forcefully, hitting his shoulder and body.
Bang!
Bang!
Chris roared with blind rage that shook the building’s foundations as he advanced towards Scott:
– Do you know what you’ve just done?!
You let lunatic murderers escape!
You’ve ruined everything!
Stiles yelled in shock and horror as he tried to advance:
– Scooooott!
Chris approached Scott, who was lying on the ground groaning, and with a violent and cruel motion, raised the butt of his heavy steel pistol and smashed Scott’s knees with force to ensure he was completely immobilized.
– Ahhhhhhhhh!
– Scott screamed in heart-wrenching pain.
Chris leaned over him, his eyes burning with hatred, and said in a terrifyingly threatening tone:
– Damn you, Scott…
I knew I’d seen your face somewhere before!
You were wandering outside on the last full moon night, weren’t you?
Tell me now… who turned you?!
Who is your “Alpha”?!
Scott replied in a broken, pained voice, gritting his teeth:
– I…
I don’t know what you’re talking about!
Bang!…
Chris fired another shot that hit the ground right next to Scott’s head and shouted at him:
– Speak!
And before Chris or anyone else in the explosive situation could comprehend…
A sharp metallic screech echoed; Inspectors Lee and Carter had simultaneously and swiftly drawn their official pistols, and with steady tactical steps, advanced to stand directly behind Chris, aiming the muzzles of their weapons at the back of Chris Argent’s head with absolute firmness.
“Lee” said in a cold, firm, and unarguable tone:
– Lower your weapon and step away from the kid immediately… or I’ll empty this magazine into your head before you can blink.
Carter added, the veins on his neck bulging with tension and anger:
– Yeah, you psycho hunter!
Put the gun down slowly, because I’m itching to shoot someone tonight, damn it!