Recaps

Lucian rejected Draco’s offer to help the werewolves, choosing to pursue their plan with Michael still in Draco’s hands. Draco and Trillian followed the pack to a train station, where a noble woman detected werewolves and ordered her party to prepare for an attack.

• Lucian admitted that Michael was essential but asked Draco to hand him over, and Draco warned that their agreement would be void if the werewolves acted alone.
• Lucian compromised with Draco, then led the werewolves through the sewers while Draco and Trillian followed.
• Draco and Trillian watched from a ventilation opening as a steam train arrived at the station and a slick-haired man signaled to someone aboard.
• A noble woman left the train with four maids carrying silver cases and a guarded entourage.
• The noble woman sensed werewolves, ordered her guards to ready their weapons, and the maids opened cases containing plasma bags and syringes as a wolf howled.

A noblewoman and her vampire forces fought Werewolves attacking their train, while the noblewoman took plasma to prepare for battle. After escaping her carriage, she fled through the station but was intercepted by Lucian and Raze, whose silver bullets wounded her as she tried to get away.

• The noblewoman ordered her guards and council members to defend the train, then had her maids inject her with plasma and help her drink more.
• Werewolves attacked the train from the roof and windows, and vampires fought back with silver bullets while the Werewolves used ultraviolet rounds.
• A Werewolf squad stormed the noblewoman’s carriage, killed her guards and maids, and forced her to transform and escape through a window.
• The noblewoman killed the Werewolf she used as a shield and fled across the platform as the squad leader pursued her.
• Lucian and Raze blocked the noblewoman’s path and shot her with silver bullets, but she dodged most of their fire and kept running toward the exit.

Lucian and Raze pursued Amelia to the vampires’ headquarters, but stopped at its security perimeter and asked Draco to intervene. Draco refused to commit to killing the vampire elder and teleported everyone back to the train station, leaving Amelia to alert the guards at the manor.

• Lucian and Raze chased Amelia in werewolf form with special weapons, while Draco and Trillian discussed the werewolves’ ambitions and Draco’s willingness to use force if needed.
• After their guns ran out of bullets, Lucian and Raze continued after Amelia until they reached the vampires’ security perimeter and returned to human form.
• Lucian asked Draco to capture Amelia, and Raze revealed that she was one of the three vampire elders and warned that she might retaliate against the werewolves.
• Amelia cried out to alert the guards at the manor, while Trillian blamed Lucian and Raze for acting rashly and causing trouble.
• Draco offered to take Lucian and Raze back rather than promise to eliminate Amelia, and Lucian reluctantly apologized before Draco teleported them all to the train station.

Draco and Trillian learned that Lucian and Singe sought to create a werewolf-vampire hybrid, a plan rooted in Lucian’s lost love and the belief that the two species shared an ancestor. Singe revealed that Michael carried the Corvinus gene needed to unite their bloodlines, leaving Draco and Trillian to consider Michael’s role in the experiment.

• Amelia reached the vampire manor and collapsed, while the surviving werewolves reported heavy losses after failing to capture her.
• Draco returned with Lucian and Trillian to werewolf headquarters, where Singe explained that the failed operation had been meant to advance his hybrid-life-form research.
• Singe described the plan to fuse vampire and werewolf genes so a hybrid could overcome both species’ weaknesses.
• Lucian revealed that he had conceived the idea with Sonja, the vampire he had loved, and that they had once planned to test it on their child.
• Singe explained that vampires and werewolves descended from Alexander Corvinus and that the original Corvinus gene could prevent rejection between their bloodlines.
• Trillian inferred that Michael was a direct descendant of Alexander’s third son and carried the gene Singe needed.

Draco, Trillian, Singe, and Lucian discussed the cruelty of the food chain and the risks of scientific research, then Trillian confronted Singe over his experiments on Corvinus descendants. Draco ended the conversation by mocking the group for having too much time on their hands.

• Singe explained that Michael was an ordinary human who carried Corvinus genes, and Draco and Singe discussed how living beings were exploited according to their value.
• Trillian joked about lying flat and relying on Draco for protection, while Draco challenged her ideas about avoiding hardship and work.
• Draco said science might be beneficial outside biological research, and Raze remarked that their conversation had left him with days of worries.
• Trillian questioned Singe about his failure to create a Half-blood life-form and discovered that imperfect test subjects had been used in his experiments.
• Lucian defended the experiments as a last resort to end the conflict between the two races, while Draco said the vampires' pro-war faction would be purged.
• Lucian promised to try to restrain his people, and Draco quipped that they all had too much time on their hands.

Draco and the others discussed the dangers and past abuses involved in werewolf-vampire reproduction before Singe asked to speak with Michael. Outside the villa, they encountered the injured Kraven fleeing Selene’s armed group, and Draco stood between the pursuers and the werewolves.

• Draco proposed that a willing vampire and werewolf could try to conceive, but Lucian explained that most mixed-species embryos caused miscarriage or deadly harm to the mother.
• Trillian challenged Lucian over the fate of failed experiment subjects, and Lucian admitted he had used any means to reach his goal before Draco urged him toward reconciliation.
• Singe asked Draco for permission to see Michael and let him choose whether to participate in the experiment, and Draco agreed.
• Draco, Singe, and Trillian returned to the villa entrance, where they found Kraven and a slicked-back-haired man fleeing Selene’s armed pursuers.
• A vampire fired at Draco’s group, but the bullets vanished; Draco told Kraven and his companion to stand behind them.
• Selene stopped near Draco and politely asked him to hand the two men over.

Selene confronted Kraven, but Draco persuaded her vampire soldiers to withdraw rather than fight. Kraven revealed that Victor had orchestrated Selene’s family’s slaughter and manipulated her into serving as his weapon, leaving Selene shaken and determined to learn the truth.

• Draco warned Selene and her vampires not to provoke the wizards, and Selene ordered Kahn to take the squad back to the manor.
• Nathaniel objected to retreating, but Selene took responsibility for the decision, and Kahn led the soldiers away.
• Kraven accused Selene of pursuing the wrong enemy and claimed Victor had slaughtered her family and used her to hunt Werewolves.
• Draco challenged Selene’s certainty about what she had witnessed, and Kraven said he had seen Victor create a false impression during the massacre.
• Hermione opened the villa door, and Draco, Trillian, Singe, Kraven, and the slick-haired man went inside; Selene followed to learn the truth.

Trillian recounted the failed werewolf-vampire plot and revealed that Michael’s bloodline could be used to create a powerful half-blood life-form. Kraven then asked Draco to speak privately, and the group prepared to discuss the century-long deception while Michael was left with Singe and Soren.

• Michael poured water for Trillian, Singe, Kraven, and the slick-haired man, and Draco conjured clothes for Kraven and his companion.
• Trillian told Hermione that Lucian and Kraven had colluded to capture a vampire elder and Michael for a werewolf experiment.
• Trillian revealed that Michael descended from Corvinus, and Singe confirmed that Michael’s blood could help create a half-blood life-form.
• Kraven asked Draco for a private conversation, and Draco agreed to go to the study with Hermione, Trillian, and Selene.
• Michael tried to join them, but Kraven said Soren would stay behind with him and Singe.

Kraven admitted that he had concealed Victor’s role in Selene’s family’s murder because he feared losing his chance at power, then condemned the vampires’ centralized hierarchy for controlling nearly every part of their lives. He left Trillian asking why he dared speak so openly.

• Trillian accused Kraven of delaying the truth about Victor’s murder of Selene’s family for his own benefit.
• Kraven admitted that he had put his ambitions and safety ahead of Selene, whom he considered too brainwashed to trust with the truth.
• Kraven explained how the vampires’ rulers monopolized resources, information, education, wealth, positions, thought, and individual freedom.
• Trillian listened to Kraven’s account and asked why he still dared to say all of it.

Kraven explained why the vampire community’s powerful leaders maintained control by turning its members against one another, and why he had stayed silent. Selene reconsidered their history as Kraven revealed that his doubts had begun eight hundred years earlier, when he still hated werewolves.

• Kraven described how vampire leaders used swindlers, rotten bastards, fools, and beasts of burden to preserve their power and punish dissenters.
• Kraven said that speaking out would only strengthen the community’s control and expose him to punishment, so he had chosen to protect himself.
• Draco understood that Kraven was calling Selene a brainwashed fool, while Hermione considered his analysis and Trillian asked if he meant Selene.
• Kraven said he had hinted at the truth to Selene for centuries, but she had mistaken his efforts to keep her away from danger for attempts to attract her.
• Selene recalled how Kraven had obstructed her missions and eventually left her to form her own squad and operate independently.
• Hermione asked when Kraven’s doubts began, and Kraven said that eight hundred years earlier he had hated werewolves and blamed them for every trouble.

Kraven began explaining how he overcame his hatred of werewolves, while Michael rejected becoming a hybrid because immortality could endanger his family and the human world. The chapter ended with Hermione asking Kraven where he got the blood he drank.

• Kraven described how vampire propaganda had once made him intensely hate werewolves, and said he changed after hitting a brick wall.
• Draco conjured food and sent Trillian to bring some to Michael, Singe, and Soren in the living room.
• Michael told Trillian and Singe he would not become a hybrid because he feared immortality would separate him from his family and trigger a dangerous human pursuit of eternal life.
• Singe agreed that humans obtaining vampire or werewolf genes could cause a catastrophe, while Trillian questioned why the two races were still fighting instead of preparing.
• Kraven declined Draco's food and drank from a blood bag, prompting Hermione to ask where he got his blood.

Kraven explained how vampires’ dependence on blood, toxin buildup, and periodic hibernation had driven their leaders to exploit werewolves as laborers and blood reserves. He argued that vampires should transfer power and retreat to the Wizarding World, then began describing why he had once hated werewolves.

• Kraven, Trillian, and Hermione discussed how human authorities might suppress knowledge of immortality and secretly capture vampires and werewolves.
• Kraven said vampires needed to transfer power and separate from human society, proposing the Wizarding World as a refuge.
• Draco complained about inheriting more problems, while Hermione suggested sending the vampires to the more accepting North America Congress.
• Kraven explained that combat accelerated vampires’ virus and toxin buildup, forcing them to hibernate about once a century and consume huge amounts of blood.
• Kraven revealed that Victor had made werewolves into laborers and reserve blood supplies, and that their rebellion left lower-class vampires doing the work themselves.
• Kraven began recounting how he had hated werewolves while attending vampire school.

Kraven explained how vampire overpopulation and labor conditions left him without a place among the privileged, then admitted he wanted Draco’s help to break the rigid class structure and secure a path upward. Draco agreed to help while warning that Kraven would have to seize the opportunity himself, and he challenged Hermione to see how self-interest shaped people’s choices.

• Kraven described how vampires became expendable laborers, while werewolves took on the exhausting work and vampire branches grew through frequent childbirth.
• Selene explained that families often kept having children until they had a boy, and Hermione and Draco discussed the historical and practical reasons for son preference.
• Kraven argued that earlier generations controlled resources and passed opportunities to their descendants, and Draco agreed that his own family had benefited from its long legacy.
• Draco asked Kraven what he really wanted, and Kraven admitted he needed help reshuffling the social order and creating a path upward for himself.
• Draco promised that he and his allies would help, but said Kraven would need the ability to seize his chance.
• Draco told Hermione that interests governed how benefits were distributed, while Selene added that the weak could also bully those weaker than themselves.

Draco discussed why the weak sometimes bully those weaker than themselves and explained his views on helping others to Selene, Hermione, and Trillian. Trillian joked that her past as a thief explained why police noticed her, while Draco teased that her appearance and magnetic field might still give her away.

• Selene asked whether a gatekeeper was protecting his own interests, and Hermione explained how refusing entry could protect his livelihood.
• Draco explained that people might bully the weaker to compensate for their own weakness, and said helping others was a personal choice that he often made when able.
• Draco proposed that helping the weak could balance a powerful family's fortunes, then warned that helping solely for repayment could shape a person's appearance and magnetic field.
• Trillian examined herself in a mirror after Draco joked that she had a thief's face, and she concluded that her past profession had attracted police attention.
• Hermione revealed Draco was teasing, and Trillian said she had left thieving behind to serve as his maid.
• Selene glanced at Kraven, who insisted that pursuing profit did not make him a snob.

Draco explained how self-interest shaped acts of charity, family affection, and the way parents treated their children, while Trillian and Hermione challenged his conclusions. The chapter ended with Hermione doubting that a child could calmly accept being treated unfairly, even if the experience helped them grow.

• Draco warned that helping the weak should not be used to exploit them, and argued that mutually beneficial exchanges could also count as helping.
• Draco told Selene and Trillian that nearly all human relationships involved self-interest, including family affection and favoritism toward obedient children.
• Draco discussed the risks of raising only children or treating siblings unequally, prompting Trillian to remark that parenting was difficult.
• Draco joked with Trillian about her work as his maid and teased her about pairing up with Hermione, who firmly rejected the idea.
• Draco suggested that an unfairly treated child might become more independent and more filial, but Hermione doubted that such a child could accept the unfairness calmly.

Draco discussed obedience, parenting, and the different paths children could take, then argued that studying and doing poorly at school both had their advantages. Trillian learned that Draco truly did not study, despite his abilities, and Hermione confirmed it.

• Draco told Trillian that children should choose when to obey and parents should avoid imposing their will unnecessarily.
• Hermione said studying could be enjoyable for children who liked it, while Draco warned that mastering magic was difficult for most people.
• Draco explained that wizardry was inherited through bloodlines, so Kraven could not become a wizard because he already had a vampire bloodline.
• Draco argued that studying offered social benefits, while people who struggled at school could focus on other pursuits and enjoy themselves.
• Trillian questioned how Draco could be powerful without studying, and Hermione confirmed that he did not study but still learned many things.

Kraven argued that freely available answer keys could help students of every ability, and Hermione reconsidered her view that teachers should confiscate them. Draco then explained that people could change part of their fate by setting their luck in motion, leaving Trillian and the others puzzled by his account of qi and the Heavenly Dao.

• Kraven argued to Trillian and Selene that answer keys helped students learn and made teachers' work easier.
• Hermione agreed that answer keys could help struggling students and proposed giving them out while monitoring their effects.
• Draco praised Hermione's changed view and said students should be free to choose while accepting the consequences.
• Draco told Trillian that people could alter part of their destiny by setting their luck in motion.
• Draco explained the Heavenly Dao and qi, then left Trillian baffled with his example of Kongming borrowing the east wind.

Draco explained how qi, fortune, and thought power worked, and why wizards could release qi while Muggles could only internalize it. Kraven began challenging the idea that focused thought could help people accomplish their goals.

• Draco described immortal cultivation, the decline of spiritual qi, and the role of sleep in restoring essence, qi, and spirit.
• Draco explained that qi circulated as luck, which could accumulate into the fortune of a child of destiny.
• Draco said wizards could release refined qi through their bloodlines, while Muggles could only internalize it to sustain their bodies and minds.
• Draco explained that Muggles could use thought power only if they believed without doubt, and said suspicion scattered their thoughts and qi.
• Trillian asked whether the people of Sakura Country could use their single-mindedness to accomplish their goals, and Draco declined to judge; Kraven began pointing out a flaw in the idea.

Draco explained how limited thought power, karma, and personal circumstances shaped people's fortunes, then discussed the consequences of harmful thoughts and good intentions. He ended by criticizing the motives behind news coverage and explaining that scammers thrive because people are easily deceived.

• Draco told Trillian that spiritual blessings were constrained by fate and karma, and joked that he was already entangled in her karma while trying to make her a witch.
• Draco explained that thought power could influence personal matters, while illness could also result from harmful surroundings such as polluted air, poor water, or people who caused distress.
• When Selene asked what someone trapped in bad circumstances should do, Draco said that wishing the suffering onto someone else was a harmful thought and that personal qi or magnetic fields could also be involved.
• Draco advised understanding the full truth before doing good deeds and said people had to bear the consequences of their actions.
• Draco criticized the purposes behind news coverage, and Trillian joked that journalism was devoted to deceiving people.
• Draco said scammers survived because fools existed, and Trillian praised his reasoning.

Draco explained how people could preserve their qi and gave the others his limited understanding of feng shui, including how a person's virtue affected whether they could benefit from a burial site's auspicious energy. The group ended up asking about the unfamiliar Old Master Ren, whose story Draco had just invoked.

• Draco advised the others to stay calm, avoid emotional extremes, and protect their qi from being drained.
• Trillian joked that she had preserved her qi by avoiding competition with Draco and benefiting from his powerful presence.
• Draco explained that feng shui concerned yin and yang dwellings and that a good ancestral burial site could supposedly help protect descendants.
• Kraven recalled that a wealthy blood-race family had hired a renowned feng shui master to choose a burial site but had continued to suffer misfortune.
• Trillian concluded that the family's lack of virtue had prevented them from benefiting from the site, and Draco agreed, citing Old Master Ren as an example.

Draco explained feng shui, unusual building layouts, and how spirits and ancestors might affect the living. He left Trillian convinced she should pay her respects to her ancestors, while discussing how nobody was truly idle.

• Draco explained the dragonfly skimming the water grave and described unusual buildings designed around feng shui beliefs.
• Hermione asked whether Hogwarts ghosts carried harmful yin qi, and Draco said their presence had not harmed the living.
• Trillian concluded her ancestors might have protected her, but Draco warned that they needed money and connections in the underworld to help her.
• Trillian decided she should pay her respects to her ancestors after Draco explained that even ghosts might need to bribe officials.
• Draco argued that nobody was truly idle, and Trillian complained that some people could earn money much more easily than others.

Draco, Trillian, and Kraven discussed work, reincarnation, and the possibility that every kind of living thing—and even objects—might long for human form. The conversation ended with Draco suggesting that cherished objects such as cars could develop spirituality.

• Draco argued that working too hard could burden coworkers and joked about having to work hard at home, prompting Hermione to pinch his thigh.
• Kraven and Trillian discussed how people plant trees for practical reasons, and Kraven joked that some trees were planted because they were not yet grown enough to sell.
• Draco compared wage slaves to Ox-Head and Horse-Face and described how people spend their lives waiting through one stage after another.
• Draco argued that wage slaves might choose reincarnation because ghosts could not remain idle in the Underworld or depend forever on descendants for spirit money.
• Trillian joked about reincarnating as Hermione, and Draco suggested people might instead become animals, plants, rocks, or even objects.
• Draco said that cars and other objects could gain spirituality from people's care, and Trillian asked whether they really had souls.

Draco explained how fate, feng shui, accumulating virtue, and study could shape a person's fortunes, while Trillian and Hermione questioned what virtue meant. He began tracing the history of the Chinese character for virtue, leaving his explanation unfinished.

• Draco explained that virtue and study could compensate when fate and feng shui could not improve someone's destiny.
• Hermione asked Draco to define virtuous conduct and virtue, and he admitted he could only offer a vague explanation.
• Draco wrote the Chinese character for virtue, prompting Trillian to ask about China and whether charging admission could prevent littering.
• Draco and Trillian discussed littering, corruption, and how people's choices shaped their conduct.
• Draco said the character he had written was a later form and began showing its original form.

Draco explained the Dao, virtue, righteous qi, and the different costs of success through righteous and evil paths to Hermione, Trillian, and Selene. He ended by saying that the apparent increase in evil came from bad news spreading farther through modern communications.

• Draco explained that following the Dao meant letting things be as they should and doing what people ought to do.
• Draco described virtue as upright conduct and intentions, and said good deeds should not be done merely to accumulate virtue.
• Draco told Trillian that retaliating against someone who harmed her involved karmic entanglement rather than simply creating evil karma.
• Draco explained that people could succeed through righteous or evil paths, but keeping their gains required rightful preservation, which was easier after righteous success.
• Draco said the balance between righteous and evil people shifted over time and that communications made evil seem more prevalent because bad news traveled farther.

Draco explained how resentment, reading, and cultivating virtue shaped people and their relationships, while Selene and Trillian considered his ideas. Hermione challenged his claim that people associated because they gained something from one another.

• Draco and Kraven discussed how conflict attracted attention and how believers could turn fiercely hostile when their interests were threatened.
• Kraven noted that people remained subject to others even in the relatively free Americas, and Selene said the Death Dealers squad would be different, except in its attitude toward werewolves.
• Draco explained that resentment could worsen a household over time.
• Selene asked what role reading played, and Draco said understanding principles helped people control their emotions, avoid deception, and accumulate virtue.
• Draco described self-cultivation and influencing others to follow the right path as forms of virtue, then said people gained good things from their relationships.
• Hermione objected that people could associate without gaining anything and simply enjoy a quiet conversation.