NOVEL WEB Chapter 53: Ancient evil
Kaine pressed the buzzer for Gwen's apartment. Her voice crackled through the intercom almost immediately.
"That was fast."
"Had motivation," he replied grimly.
The door buzzed open, and he and Marcus climbed three flights of stairs to her floor. The hallway smelled of coffee and old books, punctuated by the faint scent of something burning in a kitchen somewhere.
Gwen opened her door before he could knock, her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail and there were dark circles under her eyes. Research mode. He recognized the signs.
"You look like hell," she said by way of greeting.
"Feel worse. That coffee I smell better be strong enough to wake the dead."
"Considering your condition, that might be literal." She stepped aside to let them in. "I've got a full pot brewing, plus some sandwiches. Figured we'd be here a while."
The apartment was exactly what Kaine had expected considering the ongoing investigation. Sheer organized chaos with books stacked on every available surface, newspaper clippings pinned to bulletin boards, and a laptop surrounded by empty coffee cups and takeout containers.
The two books Mrs. Miller had loaned her were spread open on the coffee table, surrounded by notebooks covered in Gwen's neat handwriting.
"Marcus can wait in the hall," Gwen said, eyeing the ghoul with obvious discomfort. "No offense, but he makes me nervous."
"He makes everyone nervous. It's part of his charm." Kaine nodded toward his companion. "Guard the door. Anyone comes up those stairs who isn't supposed to be here, handle it quietly."
Marcus tilted his head in acknowledgment and slipped back into the hallway, closing the door behind him with barely a sound.
"I'll never get used to that thing," Gwen muttered, heading toward the kitchen. "The way it moves, the way it looks at people. It's like having a conversation with a corpse."
"You are having a conversation with a corpse. That's what makes him so good at his job."
As they got to the kitchen, Gwen pulled a tray of sandwiches from the oven—some kind of grilled cheese and ham combination that smelled better than anything had a right to at this hour.
"Been cooking?" Kaine asked.
"Stress response. When I'm researching something disturbing, I need to keep my hands busy or I start chain-smoking again." She poured coffee from a pot that looked like it could caffeinate a small army. "Plus, I figured you'd be hungry. Killing supernatural creatures probably burns a lot of calories."
They moved back to the sitting room, where Gwen had arranged the research materials on every available surface. The ancient books were open to pages covered in dense text and disturbing illustrations—woodcut images of ritual murders, detailed diagrams of symbol placement, maps of villages that no longer existed.
"All right," Gwen said, settling into an armchair with her coffee. "Here's what I found, and it's worse than we thought."
Kaine dropped onto the couch, accepting his coffee and a sandwich. His body didn't strictly need sustenance anymore, but it still craved the familiar comfort of warm food and caffeine.
"Worse how?"
Gwen picked up the first book—the one bound in what looked like snakeskin. "The X&O killer isn't just some random psychopath with a supernatural twist. He's an agent. A servant of something much older and much more dangerous."
She flipped to a page covered in spidery text and disturbing illustrations. "His name, as far as I can decipher from this ancient script, was Vlad Hallar. And he wasn't always a monster."
"Let me guess. Heartbreak."
"Close. Dead true love." Gwen traced a finger along the text, translating as she went. "Hallar was a believer in the purity of love. Thought it was the only clean, genuine emotion left in a corrupt world. Until one of his closest friends murdered the woman he loved because he wanted her for himself."
Kaine bit into his sandwich, tasting melted cheese and ham but finding no pleasure in it. "So he snapped."
"Completely. Killed the friend, but that wasn't enough. He decided to cleanse the world of evil people like his friend, and that love was the only thing pure enough to cleanse the world of evil, to please whatever gods might be listening and grant forgiveness for humanity's sins."
She turned the page, revealing an illustration that made Kaine's jaw clench. A figure in robes standing over two corpses arranged in ritualistic positions, hands raised toward a sky filled with dark symbols.
"Sacrificing lovers became his mission," Gwen continued. "He believed that by offering pure love to the supernatural forces, he could cleanse the world of corruption. Started with willing couples—people who believed in his cause. But it escalated."
"It always does."
"He gained power through means the text doesn't specify. Supernatural abilities that made him nearly impossible to kill. And he became obsessed with purity. Young couples only, because he believed age corrupted love. No married couples, no long-term relationships. Just the white-hot intensity of new romance."
Kaine set down his sandwich, appetite gone. "How many?"
"Hundreds. Maybe thousands. The records are incomplete, but this went on for years. People became terrified of falling in love. Villages would separate young men and women, forbid courtship, anything to avoid attracting Hallar's attention."
"What stopped him?"
Gwen's expression darkened. "Eventually, he ran out of willing couples. Started targeting anyone young, whether they were in love or not. Just grabbed kids off the street and arranged them in ritualistic positions. The world ganged up against him."
She flipped to another page, this one showing a mob of villagers surrounding a figure chained to a stake. "They borrowed power from vampires. Made deals with the very evil Hallar claimed to be fighting against. Used blood magic and supernatural bindings to kill him."
"But he didn't stay dead."
"No. His spirit never rested. The text says he was buried in an unmarked grave, but his essence remained tied to the world. Waiting."
Kaine leaned forward, studying the ancient illustrations. "Waiting for what?"
"For agents. People who stumble across his grave, who get close enough for his spirit to inhabit them. He transforms them into extensions of his will, gives them purpose and power. They look human, act human, but they're driven by his obsession."
"The X&O killer."
"One of many, probably. The book mentions that Hallar's agents feed him regularly—bring couples' blood to his grave to strengthen his spirit. Once a week, according to the text."
Kaine did the math quickly. The X&O murders had started three three weeks ago. Three weeks of feeding, twelve couples carved up and drained. "How strong does he get?"
"Strong enough to break free from his grave and resume his mission in person." Gwen's voice was grim. "And Kaine? Considering how corrupt and evil the world is now compared to his time, if Hallar finds his way back, he might decide everyone needs to die."
The implications hit him hard . A supernatural entity with centuries of accumulated power and a mandate to cleanse the world of corruption.
In modern times, that could mean genocide on a scale that would make history's worst monsters look like amateurs.
"Location of the grave?"
"No record. The people who killed him made sure to keep that secret. All we know is that when an agent dies, the spirit returns to the grave until someone else stumbles across it."
"So the killer we're chasing isn't even the real threat."
"Just a symptom. And there could be others we haven't found yet." Gwen turned to the second book, the one written in English. "But I did find something useful. The feeding schedule."
She showed him a page covered in careful calculations and calendar notations. "Based on when the murders started and the pattern described in the ancient text, the next feeding should be exactly one week from today. That's when the agent will bring fresh blood to Hallar's grave."
"Which means we have seven days to find him."
"Or follow him to the grave and end this permanently." Gwen met his eyes. "The agent has to be vulnerable during the feeding ritual. That might be our only chance to take him down and locate Hallar's burial site."
Kaine nodded, already planning patrol routes and surveillance strategies. "We'll need to cover every abandoned area in the city. Churches, cemeteries, industrial sites. Anywhere someone could conduct a ritual without being disturbed."
"Day and night," Gwen agreed. "Unlike vampires, Hallar's agents can operate in sunlight. They're not undead, just possessed."
She paused, frowning. "Actually, that reminds me. I should call Mrs. Miller, see if she has any other books that might help. Her husband's collection was extensive, and we might be missing crucial details."
"Good idea. Every bit of information helps."
Gwen stood to head for the kitchen, where she'd left her phone charging. "Let me grab that coffee for you. You're going to need the caffeine if we're planning all-night patrols."
Kaine picked up the first book as she left, the ancient one with the snakeskin binding. The text was difficult to read—a mixture of Latin and what looked like medieval German—but the illustrations were disturbingly clear. Page after page of ritual murders, each one more elaborate than the last.
He flipped through carefully, noting details that Gwen might have missed. Symbols that appeared in multiple illustrations. Geographic features that might help identify the location of Hallar's activities. Anything that could give them an edge. Content first released on M_VLEM_PYR.
He was still staring at the page when Gwen returned with another coffee cup, he had finished the one she gave him earlier and a plate of cookies that smelled like they'd been burning slightly.
"Almost forgot these in the oven," she said, setting the tray on the coffee table. "Been so focused on research that I keep forgetting about real-world tasks like not burning down my kitchen."
She poured coffee into his mug, the dark liquid steaming in the cool air. Kaine reached for it without looking up from the book, his attention still focused on the strange symbols in the illustration.
The mug slipped from his distracted grip.
Hot coffee splashed across his chest, soaking through his already torn shirt and hitting skin that should have registered pain. He felt the heat, but it was distant, muted. Like his nervous system was operating through layers of insulation.
"Shit!" Gwen jumped up, grabbing a dish towel from the tray. "Are you burned? That was almost boiling!"
"I'm fine." Kaine set the book aside, looking down at his coffee-stained shirt. The fabric was torn in three places from the draugr's claws, and now it was soaked with caffeine and probably ruined beyond repair.
"You need to get that off," Gwen said, approaching with the towel. "Coffee stains set fast, and if you're burned—"
"I said I'm fine."
But he pulled the shirt over his head anyway, dropping the ruined fabric on the floor. The cool air felt good against his skin.
Gwen stopped moving.
She stood there holding the dish towel, her eyes fixed on his bare chest with an expression that was part professional concern and part something else entirely.
"Jesus," she said quietly. "You're... Bigger than I remembered."
Kaine looked down at himself. She was right. His chest and arms were more defined than they'd been when they first met, muscles standing out in sharp relief under pale skin. The system that animated his body was apparently optimizing his physical form along with his supernatural abilities.
"Dead man's gym membership," he said, trying to deflect. "All the benefits, none of the monthly fees."
Gwen stepped closer, ostensibly to clean the coffee from his chest. But her movements were careful, deliberate, the towel moving in slow circles across his skin.
"You're burning up," she said softly.
"Hot coffee will do that."
"No, I mean..." She looked up at him, her face only inches from his. "You're really hot."
For a moment, neither of them moved. The air between them seemed charged with something dangerous, something that had nothing to do with supernatural research or ancient evils.
Then Kaine stepped back, breaking the spell.
"Yeah," he said with a slight grin. "I had hot coffee spilled on me. That's why I'm hot."
Gwen blinked, then laughed—a sound that was half embarrassment, half genuine amusement. "Right. Coffee. Obviously."
She turned away, busying herself with gathering up the research materials. "You should probably put a clean shirt on. I might have something that fits."
"It's fine. I'll air dry."
"You sure about that?"
"Of course."
With that, Gwen walked way to get his shirt dry.
Kaine settled back onto the couch, trying to ignore the way his body had responded to her proximity.
Rebecca was waiting for him at home, probably still in that yoga position she'd described so vividly. The last thing he needed was another complication here but he couldn't deny the urge to indulge the dark desire welling up.