Lucius knew very little about bats. The few encounters he'd had with them had been during his years at the Hydrina theatre, but they had been far away and he'd never wished for the opposite. So how was he supposed to know what to do with some eerie amalgamation between that and a human?

Some of the younger adults had said they were blind, but Samueli had claimed differently and Lucius trusted his judgement. Oh how Lucius wished they were though, since he was currently in a pitch black room and realised he was the one struggling with sight.

A gunshot sounded behind him and Lucius muffled a scream. It was on the other side of the door he had entered through, and he could guess that damned Derek had decided to destroy the doorknob.

The vampire screeched at this, and Lucius gritted his teeth as shivers ran down his spine. Too many of those screams and he'd end up with ear damage not so dissimilar from Ivan.

If he ever made it out of there of course.

He sure wouldn't if he didn't move though, so Lucius hurried to crouch down and move as quickly as he could to the side of the room. With a wingspan like that the creature would with all certainty have problems moving around the space, much like the garm had down in the sewers, and Lucius was determined to utilise this to his advantage just like back then.

The problem was the fact that the vampire did not need to move around much in order to be a threat, and Lucius didn't have time to curse before he was flying across the room again as it swung its large wing right into him, landing him against what he guessed was the wall furthest into the room.

He groaned as he got up from the floor, readying himself to dodge the next attack but caught a glimpse of light in the corner of his eye.

There was an opening to another room where a thin beam of moonlight was shining through thick curtains. He exchanged caution for speed and dashed in there, thankful both for light and a possible escape route.

To make things even better the creature was much too large to fit through the doorway, and Lucius took the liberty of sneering in its direction before pulling the curtains to the side.

The window had been nailed shut with an array of planks, only allowing the pale moonlight through irregular cracks.

"Fucking shit," Lucius whispered under his breath as he immediately got to work trying to tear them away.

A crashing sound reached his ears, and he pinched his lips together in dread before looking to the side, now able to discern the undesirable sight of a vampire-beast staring back at him from the doorway while using its monstrous hand to tear away pieces of the wall as if it was a brittle, rotten tree log.

"This is so unfair!" Lucius had to exclaim in its direction while trying to remove more planks from the window. It was a slow process, covering his hands in splinters and for every plank he managed to pull down, the creature did the same thing to pieces of the wall.

Finally, it managed to cram one of its wings through the door, now Lucius' pain of splinters stuck in its skin, and swung it towards Lucius, who just managed to step back enough to dodge it. He drew a breath through his nose, trying to swallow his fear as the creature let out another shrill scream.

It wasn't so easy, and he stood paralyzed for a good couple of seconds before moving again. The next plank he removed caused a couple of its neighbours to loosen as well, and Lucius breathed out as moonlight hit his face.

The creature however, let out another devastating noise as its wing was illuminated as well, and Lucius watched in confusion and wicked relief how the creature's skin instantly paled before shifting into a much darker, almost black shade, and it hurriedly retracted its hand from the light.

Lucius knew what it was. He'd seen it before when an old woman from the Hydrina had died from being outside in the winter cold for too long.

"Frostbite," he confirmed both to the creature and himself, turning his head to look at the moon. "The moon gives you cold burns."

So as long as he stayed in the moonlight he'd be safe, Lucius figured, another wave of relief flushing over him. He wouldn't stay longer than necessary still, but at least he'd have the time to climb through the window.

Then a table crashed into his side.

Admittedly, Lucius felt kind of stupid as he rose from the floor, trying to stand up straight but grimaced in pain as his back protested. After all, who said vampires couldn't use projectiles?

His priorities remained, and he stumbled back into the moonlight with a scalding glare in the creature's direction. So he'd have to watch out for flying objects as well?

The creature tore down another piece of the wall, allowing its other wing to enter the room, followed by its body. It was a struggle, but with great effort it managed to stay away from the light, and Lucius chewed on his lip as it stood in front of him.

"Better not try anything," he said, pointing over his shoulder. "Don't want to burn your skin more than necessary, do you?"

Then, as if reality itself had chosen to turn against him, Lucius was made painfully aware that shifter vampires had more in store than just their strength.

He was too late to cover his ears, and it wasn't until the window behind him had shattered Lucius managed to cover his ears from the paralysing screech sounding through the air.

The entire room was silent after that. At least it seemed like it. All Lucius could hear was a high-pitched, ringing note, and if he wasn't mistaken something was running down from one of his aching ears.

His heart refused to slow, pulse pounding hard in his chest and a growing frustration struck him as his legs refused to move. It was so dumb, he could only watch while the vampire grabbed debris from the wall and hurled it in his direction.

A piece of wood hit him in the face, busting his lip and sending an excruciating surge of pain through his nose. Only then was he able to move, and he turned around to the shattered window.

It wasn't optimal. All that glass was sure to cause their fair share of cuts, but what choice did he have?

As predicted, his fashionably voluminous sleeve stuck to a large shard on the side, succeeding in cutting his arm, impairing his movement, and thereby causing his knee to halt right over another jagged edge. His nose scrunched up as the glass pierced his skin, but he couldn't stop.

Just as he'd swung his good leg over the ledge another piece of rubble hit Lucius' already aching back and almost sent him head first down on the ground. It failed to do so only because he made the painful choice of grabbing the windowsill, thus inviting additional shards into his forearm.

He sucked air through his teeth, fighting away the searing pain taking over his entire body at this point. Then he let go of the ledge, landing hard on the ground but thankfully on his feet, only tumbling over afterwards from the impact. The cold night air was more than welcome though, and his quick breaths slowly calmed down. He'd made it out, and with the moon still shining on a cloudless sky there was no way that vampire would follow him.

All was not well though. With the immediate threat of a giant bat-monster fading, the initial betrayal from the BBT's side grew, and despite his body's wishes to collapse Lucius slowly began making his way back to the manor.

***

Damien was still there when Lucius entered his office for the second time that evening. He'd positioned himself at his desk, looking exquisitely shocked at the tattered, blood-covered sight in front of him.

Before he could open his mouth however, Lucius had limped up to his desk and slid a sheet of paper across it, only smeared slightly by dark red fingerprints.

"What is—" Damien began, but Lucius' dry, unusually loud voice interrupted him.

"My fees." He turned the paper so Damien could read. "And additional compensations."

"... What?"

Lucius leaned closer to read aloud, not sure just how loud since he could barely hear himself speak.

"Two bugs and four spittles for the assignment, including the short notice fee and extra time it took to travel there." Lucius ran his finger down the poorly scribbled list. "Three extra bugs for poor instructions regarding the task, the lack of appropriate preparations and undisclosed dangerous environment."

Damien only stared at him, and Lucius took immense joy in his astonished expression.

"As for compensation," Lucius moved on, sniffling through the blood in his nose. "That's eight spittles for a torn shirt, one bug and six spittles for devastating damage to a very nice waistcoat, a bug for ruined pants, four bugs for injuries sustained on duty as a consequence of aforementioned flaws in preparation, eight spittles for potential medical costs should an infection occur..."

Lucius held up the paper closer to Damien's face and pointed to the last line on the list.

"Additionally, twenty bugs..." He spoke slowly without breaking eye contact. "... For me not telling Anthony about this."

He let go of the paper and took a couple of steps back.

"That's roughly twenty-eight bugs, so let's say we round it up to thirty." He faked a smile. "Pleasure doing business, angler."

Then he spat blood on the floor.

"Pardon."

Even if Damien had objections or opinions on the matter, which he most certainly did, Lucius didn't care to hear them. Instead he used his sleeve to wipe away excess dribble before turning around to exit the room, happy to be expecting a smaller fortune in return for actually shutting up for once.

"So nice to give people what they want," he mumbled to himself, this time with a genuine smile on his lips.