Chapter 103: Flames Over Winston Tower

At the Hale estate, the quiet night broke apart in seconds.

Evelyn’s voice cut through the hall as she called for Victoria.

"Victoria. Come here. Look at this."

Victoria stepped out of the kitchen with Kassia close behind. The large television in the main hall was already switched to a news channel. On the screen, shaky phone footage filled the frame.

A man lay collapsed on a city street, body shaking hard while black energy sparked around him. People stood in a rough circle. Some raised phones. A few looked ready to help. Most only watched.

The headline at the bottom of the screen made Victoria freeze.

B-Rank Hunter Who Punched S-Rank Julian Collapses on Public Street

The video played again from another angle. This time the camera caught his face more clearly before the black energy forced the crowd back. Comments flooded the side panel almost as fast as the clip refreshed.

He deserves it.

Panic attack? More like karma.

Who does he think he is, hitting an S-Rank?

Let him stay down.

First he causes a scene, now this.

Evelyn’s expression tightened.

"It’s all over social media too," she said. "Different angles. Different accounts. The same video keeps spreading. Some people are calling it a public breakdown. Others are treating it like entertainment."

Before Victoria could answer, another clip jumped to the top of the trending list.

This one was filmed from a nearby apartment window.

Green light exploded across the top of a skyscraper. The camera shook as flames spread over the roof of Winston Tower. Shadows moved through the fire.

One figure held a staff. Others looked half-beast. The person filming cursed under their breath as the light flared again and forced them to step away from the glass.

The caption under the new video was even louder.

New SS-Rank Awakener Roxanna Sterling Fighting Werewolves on Winston Tower

Victoria’s face went cold.

Now she understood.

The cut phone call.

The dead communication skill.

Daemon not answering.

Roxanna vanishing into silence.

None of it had been random.

"Evelyn," Victoria said, already moving.

"Go check on Daemon first," Evelyn told her. "He’s already been taken to the hospital. Tell Sana to head for Winston Tower."

"I was already thinking that," Victoria replied.

She turned to Kassia. The worry on Kassia’s face was plain. Her fingers were tight against the edge of her sleeve, and her eyes kept drifting back to the television even after the channel changed. Victoria took her hand and squeezed once.

"Don’t worry about him," Victoria said. "Things like this happen to him more often than they should. Nothing is going to happen to him. We’re with him."

Kassia nodded, but her fingers still held on for an extra second before letting go.

"If he is hurt..." Kassia started.

"Then I’ll bring him back," Victoria said. "That’s all."

Victoria then looked at Calista.

"Calista. Look after both my mother and Kassia. Understood?"

Calista stepped closer without hesitation. For a moment she looked more serious than her usual playful self, as if she understood exactly what was being placed in her hands.

"I will protect them," she said. "Nothing is going to happen near them. You go help your husband and your sister."

Victoria paused.

Lately, Calista had started opening up more. She spoke what was on her mind instead of hiding behind silence or small actions. The change was small, but it was real. There was less distance in her voice now. Less careful holding back.

Victoria touched her face gently.

"Thank you, dear."

Then she contacted Sana at once.

"Sana. Go to Winston Tower and help Roxanna. I’m going to Daemon first. After I check on him, I’ll join you."

Sana’s reply came fast.

"I’m already near the building. I can see the top of the tower from where I am."

There was a short pause. Through the connection, Victoria could almost hear the night wind around Sana and the distant noise of the city below the tower.

Then Sana muttered under her breath, almost to herself,

"Tonight is going to be long."

Victoria did not disagree.

She left the estate at once.

At the top of Winston Tower, the wind still carried the smell of scorched concrete and blood.

Roxanna finally forced the last of the poison out of her body. Green light faded from her wounds as her breathing steadied.

Her body still ached, and her arms still felt heavy from overusing life energy under pressure, but her mind was clear again. She raised her head and looked at Kaine.

He was standing several steps away, frozen in a way that did not match the arrogance from earlier. Sweat ran down the side of his werewolf face.

His claws hung open, but he was not attacking. His shoulders were tight. His breathing was uneven. He looked like a man who had just seen something that should not exist.

Roxanna followed the direction of his eyes.

And stopped.

Someone was hovering in the air above the rooftop.

At first she could not even call it a man. The entire body was covered in black flame. The head was fully wrapped in fire, making any clear identity impossible to read.

The figure hung there without effort, silent against the night sky, as if the air itself was holding him up. The flames did not thrash wildly. They clung to him in controlled waves, black and deep orange, like they belonged there.

Roxanna’s eyes narrowed.

She looked again.

Closer.

Harder.

The shape of the shoulders.

The way he hovered.

The presence under the fire.

Then her eyes widened.

"Daemon..."

The name left her mouth before she could stop it.

She moved at once, raising her shaft as life energy gathered around her hands. If those flames were burning him from the inside, she had to stop them.

She had to reach him before the fire took more than his clothes. Her first instinct was not fear. It was the need to pull him back.

But then he turned.

Red flaming eyes locked onto her.

Roxanna’s feet stopped on their own.

A fear she had never felt from him before crashed into her chest. It was not ordinary danger. It was deeper than that. Whatever stood in the air above the tower wore Daemon’s shape, but the presence pouring off him was not the man she knew.

There was no warmth in that gaze. No recognition. Only pressure, heat, and something ancient enough to make her body refuse the next step.

If she approached without thinking, she would die.

That was the feeling that filled her in a single breath.

Her fingers tightened around the shaft, but she did not take another step. The life energy around her hands flickered and held, caught between the urge to heal and the sharp warning in her bones.

Then the rooftop filled with sound.

Growls.

Claws scraping stone.

Heavy bodies landing one after another.

A large group of werewolves poured onto the top of the building from every open side. More than ten. More than twenty. The number climbed until Roxanna stopped counting properly. They came over the edges, through the stair access, and across the open roof in a rising wave of fur and teeth.

Nearly fifty.

Maybe more.

They spread out fast, surrounding the rooftop in a rough ring of glowing eyes and raised claws.

The night wind carried their combined presence like a wave of heat and bloodlust. The concrete underfoot seemed smaller with every new body that landed.

Kaine’s face finally showed relief.

His werewolf form was still shaking, but the arrival of his subordinates gave him back enough confidence to speak.

He wiped the sweat from his jaw, forced his breathing under control, and pointed one clawed hand toward the burning figure in the air.

"Kill that man."