#Chapter 190: Reaching

Amelia The sunlight in the vampire quarter filtered through high-rise grime and smoke, casting a permanent gray over the streets like even the sky had given up. It felt different here, not just quieter, but heavier, like the air carried the weight of being forgotten. I had just handed out the last of the cookie baskets when a woman brushed her fingers against my arm and looked up at me with hollowed eyes. Her touch was feather-light, as if she expected me to flinch or vanish. Her voice cracked when she asked if I had any spare blood rations, not for herself, but for her brother, who hadn’t fed in four days and was too weak to leave his cot. She whispered it like a confession, ashamed of needing anything at all. It wasn’t a one-off situation, and I’d known that before I even walked through their door. Every room echoed the same quiet horror: missed deliveries, spoiled rations, blood pills that caused seizures, vomiting, or hallucinations, and a grim sort of resignation that had