Chapter 780: Let It Go

Mingyue returned while Alex was checking the mark above Thepes’s knee.

"The worst of the wounded are being moved into Edonia," she said. "Selene has people receiving them. Dorian is keeping the streets around the beds clear."

Alex nodded. Vesa had checked the approach after Arachne’s strands withdrew, then reopened the Edonia route with receivers waiting beyond it. The first beds had crossed without the pull that made her cancel the earlier entrance.

"The human patients?"

"Those who need it. Their attendants are going with them."

"Keep their attendants with them," Alex said.

Alex stood and let Mingyue inspect the ice at Thepes’s wrist. The bandage beneath his clothes had stayed dry since the last check. He could lift his left hand without the shoulder opening again, though holding it up still hurt.

"Selene can spare a search party now," Mingyue added. "The people who couldn’t wait are across. The others have attendants."

Vesa remained on the broken brick beside the wall. She had been quiet since telling them about the conversation with Alucard, but she looked up when Alex moved toward her.

"We can try a small call," she said. "Master can guide the beginning. He can’t hold it open for us."

"Then he doesn’t."

Alex sat on a piece of broken stone, leaving room for Mingyue beside him. He kept Thepes within sight.

The restrained Progenitor watched them without speaking.

Vesa brought the faint voice into their connection.

"Let the blood carry who is calling before you ask it to carry words," Alucard said. "Start with what the two of you share."

Alex held out his hand.

A small amount of blood gathered above his palm. Mingyue raised her uninjured hand beside his, and the two traces of power moved toward one another.

They had combined their strength in attacks before. This time, Alex kept the movement slow, letting Vesa follow the change without forcing more energy into it.

He recognized the inherited power more clearly once he stopped trying to shape it into a weapon.

Mingyue closed her eyes for a moment.

"There."

Alex felt the faint response she meant.

It was not a voice. Something beyond their small gathering had answered the presence in their blood, then gone quiet as he instinctively pressed toward it.

"Don’t chase it," Vesa said. "Let it answer."

Alex eased the pressure until the response steadied. He held there, resisting the urge to reach farther.

"This is Alex," he said. "Mingyue is with me. If you can hear us and need help, answer."

The blood above his palm trembled.

For several breaths, nothing else happened.

Then a man’s voice reached them.

"Who is this?"

Alex looked at Vesa.

She nodded once, keeping her attention on the contact.

"A vampire who can hear you," Alex said. "Are you hurt?"

"How did you find us?"

There was movement behind the voice. Someone else spoke too quietly for Alex to make out the words, and the man stopped answering. Alex waited.

The contact gave him no view of the room and no way to count the people listening. He could only hear the man’s fear of what answering might cost.

"We aren’t asking you to come to us," Mingyue said. "Tell us what’s happening where you are."

The man breathed heavily.

"The roof fell. One of ours is under it."

Alex straightened.

"Where?"

"Under the western freight entrance. The old passage beneath the loading platform. We were away from the fighting until the ground started breaking."

Alex repeated the location to Vesa.

She sent the description to Dorian while Mingyue asked the man what had fallen and whether the trapped person was still breathing.

Dorian’s reply came through Vesa a moment later.

"Vampires under the freight platform? We passed above it."

"They heard the call," Alex said.

"Then let them see who answered."

Vesa told Alex which fighters he was sending. Two had just come off the perimeter; they were less exhausted than the men who had carried beds through the web.

The caller answered Mingyue’s question.

"A beam across his legs. We moved the stone off his chest, but the rest shifts when we try to lift it."

"Then leave the beam for a moment," Mingyue said. "Don’t put another person beneath the part that’s moving."

"We can’t leave him there."

"We aren’t telling you to. Someone is coming."

Alex watched the blood over his hand.

He had invited someone to ask for help. Now a man was waiting for him in a passage that might collapse, while Alex sat beyond the reach of the falling roof.

He wanted to get up.

Mingyue caught his wrist before he broke the contact.

"Dorian is closer to the street entrance," she said. "Let him send people who can lift."

Alex looked down at her hand, then toward the bandage beneath his clothes.

His side throbbed when he shifted. If he left, Vesa would also lose his part of the call.

He sat back.

"Vesa, tell them to take support for the roof and something to carry him on."

"Dorian has sent a group."

Alex returned his attention to the voice.

"What should they call when they reach the entrance?"

The man hesitated.

"Say you came for the people under the beam."

He hadn’t offered a name. Alex passed on the words he had given them.

Another response touched the edge of the connection while they waited, its voice clearer and colder.

"You use his blood."

Mingyue opened her eyes.

"Alucard’s," she said.

"Then tell us where he is."

"We don’t know," Alex answered. "We’re speaking to him through a limited connection."

A short silence followed.

"And you expect us to follow you?"

"No," Mingyue said. "We asked who needed help."

"We have heard promises about his successors before."

Alex felt the response begin to withdraw.

"Wait. At least tell us where you are."

He strengthened the call toward the fading voice. They might be injured too. He could hardly send anyone to help them with nothing more than a complaint about Alucard’s successors.

"Keep out."

The answer struck sharply through the gathered blood. Mingyue caught Alex’s wrist before he pushed farther.

"Let it go."