Chapter Two: A Photograph That Would Not Pass

Su Mi sat bound to a chair with silver thread. She raised luminous red eyes. Her mouth was covered in her own blood. “Don't come closer,” she whispered. “I'm hungry.” “You're a vampire?” “Only since tonight.” Su Mi laughed through tears. “Everday called it dormant-blood awakening. They told me to lure you to screening. I refused.” Applause sounded overhead. Shang Xian sat on a steel beam. He wore the gray suit Jianyue remembered from financial galas, but his face was blurred in the real world. His features appeared clearly on the glossy surface of every hanging photograph. “Touching loyalty,” he said. “Unfortunately, hunger is older.”