After watching Emlyn leave, Cyril entered the house at an unhurried pace and closed the door behind him.
Once he was sure the faint gaze resting on him had vanished, he suddenly turned and approached the half-open bay window beside him. His figure quickly faded, merging into the glass.
Across the street, Cyril's figure flickered across the window of a café that had yet to open.
At a round table on the café's second floor, near the window, a tall, slender young man with silver hair and red eyes, wearing a black tailcoat over a white shirt, suddenly paused with his coffee cup in hand and lowered his gaze toward the spot below.
His eyes, a vivid scarlet as though concealing blood, seemed capable of seeing through the walls and into the scene beyond.
After watching quietly for a long while, he finally looked away and murmured:
"A presence in the mirror, a passing Demoness, or a Wraith?"
As he pondered, dense black mist suddenly surged from within him. His body abruptly broke apart, turning into a swarm of vampire bats caught between reality and illusion. They beat their wings and flew out of the café.
A few minutes later, an illusory vampire bat suddenly flapped out of the shadows in a corner, then scattered into a wisp of black mist in the morning light.
After the vampire bat destroyed itself, Cyril's figure silently appeared in the glass window beside the spot where the tall, silver-haired, red-eyed young man had been.
He glanced at the place where the illusory bat had destroyed itself, took a step back, and disappeared into the glass once more.
At 15 Minsk Street, Cyril's figure flashed across the windowpane, and a moment later, a knock sounded from outside.
Klein opened the door with a dark