My Blood Legacy: Bloodlines

Chapter 175: It’s been a long time since we last saw each other.

The conversation was still beginning to take shape when the side door of the room opened.

Mirella, who was standing before the map spread across the table, did not even need to turn her face to know who had arrived. The energy that entered first was too cold, controlled, and disciplined to belong to anyone from Squad Six. Soon after came other presences, all silent, sharp, and carrying that dangerous elegance vampires seemed to treat as part of the uniform.

Natasha entered first.

She wore dark, practical clothes, with no flashy detail besides her posture. Her eyes passed through the room in a quick assessment, measuring doors, windows, positions, and people before finally landing on Victor. Behind her came Alexa, with a more curious and less rigid look, followed by the other three vampires in the group. They did not speak immediately. They only entered and positioned themselves naturally around the table, as if they had already participated in enough similar meetings to know the first rule was not to look lost.

Mirella rested one hand on the table. "Finally."

Natasha ignored the comment for an instant and gave Victor a small nod. "It has been a long time since we last saw each other."

Victor returned the nod with the same dry calm. "It has."

Outwardly, the exchange looked normal. A simple greeting between acquaintances. But Natasha noticed the way Victor tilted his head slightly, leaning in just enough that the next question would not reach the others’ ears.

"Did the blood bags run out?"

Natasha froze for half a second.

It was brief. Almost nothing. But enough for Alexa to notice and narrow her eyes with interest. Natasha’s serious expression lost its firmness for an instant, and a faint blush rose to her face, contrasting absurdly with the cold posture she was trying to maintain.

"No," she answered, also quietly. "I still have three."

Victor nodded, as if that were only important logistical information. "Then it is fine."

Natasha looked away. "You say that as if you are taking inventory."

"I am."

"That does not make it better."

Alexa looked from one to the other. "Blood bags?"

Natasha turned her face to her far too quickly. "It is none of your business."

"Now it sounds much more like my business."

Mirella tapped two fingers on the table, interrupting before Alexa’s curiosity could turn the meeting into an interrogation. "Can you two stop whispering strange things and come to the meeting?"

Victor looked at Mirella. "They were not strange."

Natasha murmured, "They were a little strange."

Mirella pointed to the chairs around the table. "Sit."

The vampires obeyed without complaint, although Alexa still kept that small smile of someone who had found gossip and intended to keep it for later use. Natasha sat with her back straight and arms crossed, making a clear effort to recover her composure. Victor, for his part, remained standing beside Nera, as had been determined earlier, with his usual neutral expression.

Mirella waited for everyone to settle before continuing.

"Now that Natasha’s team has arrived, we are going to align the functions between the two groups. The mission remains capture, not execution. I repeat to avoid any creative interpretation: capture."

The twins, who were leaning near the wall, smiled at the same time.

Mirella looked directly at them. "I am mainly talking to you two."

One of them placed a hand over her chest, fake offended. "How unfair."

The other completed, "We understand the difference between arresting and killing perfectly."

Mirella held their gaze.

The two went silent.

"Good," Mirella said. "Keep understanding."

Natasha rested an elbow on the table. "What is the target’s current status?"

Mirella picked up a marker and touched a point on the map. "We still do not have direct visual confirmation since the last movement. What we have are movement traces, interference in two supply routes, and three poor testimonies. Natasha, your team will handle external containment and escape blockade. You have better mobility and discretion at night, so you will close the secondary routes."

Natasha nodded. "How many points?"

"Three main ones and two possible. Alexa will take one of the main points. The other three vampires will divide among the rest with remote support."

Alexa tilted her head. "And you?"

"I stay at the center of the operation," Mirella replied. "Coordinating advance, capture, and communication with the other team."

Victor looked at the map. "And me?"

Mirella pointed to a region marked in red. "You and Nera will enter through the quietest sector. I want you two on the left flank. If the target notices the external containment, he will probably try to flee through there, because it looks like the least watched route."

Nera looked at Victor. "Stealth, then."

Victor shrugged. "I can disappear from anyone’s radar."

Natasha looked at him from the side, as if she were still trying to decide how much of that sentence was exaggeration.

Alexa smiled. "Anyone?"

Victor did not answer.

His silence was enough to make the question more uncomfortable than the answer would have been.

Mirella continued: "The idea is simple. Natasha closes the perimeter from outside. My group pushes from within. Victor and Nera cut the most likely escape route. If the target resists, immobilization. If he attacks civilians, priority shifts to evacuation and isolation. If he tries to kill someone from the team, proportional defense. But no one starts with lethal force."

One of Natasha’s vampires, tall and dark-haired, asked, "And if he cannot be arrested?"

Mirella looked at him. "Then I decide. Not you."

The vampire went silent.

Natasha did not seem offended. On the contrary, she nodded slightly, as if approving the firmness. "Of course."

Victor observed the exchange without commenting. Mirella was direct, dry, and did not seem willing to leave room for individual pride to ruin the mission. That was good. Large teams always had the same problem: too many people wanting to prove something at the same time. If no one controlled it from the beginning, the mission stopped being a capture and became a competition.

Mirella pointed to another part of the map. "This is the problem point. We have an abandoned residential area, but not all the houses are truly empty. There may be people hiding. There may be traps. There may be magical interference. Natasha, can your vampires sense life through walls?"

"Depends on the distance and the protection," Natasha answered. "But yes, under normal conditions."

"Normal conditions rarely appear when we need them," Mirella said. "So consider the reading incomplete until confirmation."

Alexa raised her hand. "I can do a quick rooftop sweep."

"Only when I authorize it. No climbing to high points before we are certain there are no observers."

Alexa lowered her hand. "You are much less fun than you look."

"Do I look fun?"

"No."

"Then it was your fault for creating expectations."

Nera let out a low laugh.

Victor looked at Natasha again, keeping his voice low. "Are three bags enough?"

Natasha closed her eyes for an instant, as if asking patience from some god she probably did not believe in. "Victor."

Mirella slowly turned her face toward him. "I told you to stop whispering things."

"It was a logistical question."

Natasha murmured, "It does not help when you call it that."

Alexa rested her chin on her hand, now openly interested. "I really want to know what this story is."

"You do not want to," Natasha said.

"I do."

"You do not."

Mirella slapped her palm on the table, not hard, but with enough authority to cut off the subject. "Meeting."

Everyone fell silent.

Mirella took a deep breath and returned to the map. "Very well. Let us review the pairs. Victor with Nera. The twins together, but under Samuel’s direct observation."

"That is prejudice," one of them said.

"It is experience," Mirella replied.

She continued distributing the functions with precision, explaining routes, signals, schedules, and action limits. Natasha listened in silence, occasionally asking pointed questions. Alexa seemed relaxed, but her eyes were attentive to every detail. The other vampires observed the map like soldiers accustomed to obeying clear orders, although one of them still cast curious glances at Victor and Natasha from time to time.

When Mirella finished the first part, she folded her arms. "Questions?"

Victor looked at the map for a few more seconds. "When do we leave?"

"After the meeting with both full groups," Mirella replied. "I still need to make sure no one here is going to turn a capture mission into a demonstration of power."

Victor nodded.

Natasha looked at him from the side. "Does that include you?"

He shrugged. "I only exaggerate when necessary."

Mirella stared at Victor.

Nera murmured, "That phrase is not reassuring."

Victor looked at her. "It was meant to be honest."

Mirella sighed. "Great. We are surrounded by dangerous honesty."

Alexa smiled. "At least it is not boring."

Natasha, still with a faint blush that refused to disappear completely, placed her hands on the table and tried to recover focus. "Then let us finish quickly. The more time we spend standing still, the greater the chance the target changes position."

Mirella nodded. "Agreed."

Victor remained silent, but his gaze returned to the map. The small conversation with Natasha had ended. The meeting was now a mission. Routes, target, containment, capture. And, by the way Mirella conducted everything, she did not intend to allow vanity, curiosity, or whispers about blood bags to get in the way.

At least not before the mission began.