The Crimson Reaper-Chapter 62: Arriving at the Shelter (1)

The group, along with the kids, exited from the minibus in front of the large church with three towers rising toward the sky. A little bit later, Alex and Scarlet also arrived and joined the group.

"Glad to see that you are still alive." Luciel smiled at seeing his friend once he came to his side, giving him a fist bump.

"Of course I am, who do you think I am?" Alex asked, bumping back Luciel’s fist while Scarlet rolled with her eyes at the two, crossing her arms before looking at the church.

From the illustrated windows, she could see a warm, yellow light coming from within. It was the only building in Paradise that wasn’t in the dark.

After chatting a little bit with Alex, Luciel turned his head to look at Melisa who kinda looked stiff, unsure about something.

"You all right?" Luciel glanced at the shorter vampire who crossed her arms, rubbing her elbows as she shivered a little bit.

"I am," She answered, staring at the entrance that had four pillars in front of it, "but this place is giving me the creeps."

"Creeps? But this is just the building." Luciel traced the towers to their tips with his eyes. Unlike Melisa, he felt neutral since he used to spend a lot of his time inside it.

It was a place where he spent lots of time training and learning advanced divine arts, it was basically his second home.

"I know, I know, maybe it’s all in my head, but I’m getting a very ominous feeling from that place..." She said, not being able to shrug off this uncomfortable feeling like something bad was going to happen.

"Are you sure it’s not because we are vampires and humans in the Church are our enemies?"

"I’m pretty sure it’s not that," Melisa said with a quiet voice as she looked aside, debating if she should run or not, but if she were to flee, then she might lose her only clue to saving Kai.

"Hey, is Melisa all right?" Helen whispered into Luciel’s ear, poking his shoulder before pointing at Melisa.

"I don’t know. She says she’s fine, but I doubt that." Luciel answered her, looking toward Melisa with the corner of his eye.

He believed that Melisa didn’t feel that way without a reason, but just what could have caused such a reaction? The last time he checked, the church wasn’t made from any material that would cause harm to a vampire.

"All right! Listen up!" Before Helen could ask anything else, Jack walked in front of the group once everyone gathered, ready with an announcement.

"Once we walk in, I’ll lead you towards the medical ward that we had set up. There, you will go through a detailed physical examination." He started with both of his arms behind his back.

The head hunter explained everything that the group needed to know. They were to go one by one and would be taking off all of their clothes except their underwear. After a quick inspection they went through on the field, it was a turn for a detailed examination.

Letting in just one infected human could mean the fall of the last shelter inside Paradise.

"Unfortunately, there is not enough room for everyone, so you would be required to sleep inside an underground hall along with other people." The head hunter had finished and glanced at the children who started to whisper among themselves.

Luciel and Melisa could hear some dissatisfaction among the kids, but that didn’t surprise them. After all, no one would feel happy about needing to take off their clothes and sleep among who knows how many people.

"Head hunter." One of the hunters who was guarding the entrance of the church spoke, giving a quick salute, "Excuse us for asking, but we want an explanation regarding the two vampires that you have brought with you."

Jack glanced behind him after hearing a question and couldn’t help himself but let out a sigh at the troublesome situation, luckily, he couldn’t get in contact with the Church for some time now so he would be able to keep his head on his neck for a little longer.

"Let them in. They want to help with the zombie invasion since it can infect them as well." He explained, walking closer to the hunter and putting his hand on his shoulder.

"Besides, we will either perish at the hands of the zombies or vampires," Jack added, not sounding too happy about this decision, but after that display that they had put in front of him, he couldn’t just get rid of the two.

"All right, let’s start heading inside!" Jack said that after the hunter he was speaking to, nodded his head.

As the head hunter was prompting the rescued people to head inside, he was rotating his arm, but just when Luciel and Melisa were about to get in, he stopped them.

"What do you want now?" Luciel bared his fangs at Jack, expecting trouble on the way. The last thing he needed was being locked down like a dog inside a cell and unfortunately, there wasn’t a way to control a vampire and allow it to walk among humans.

The humans tried to invent a gadget that would work as a shock collar, but they never managed to get it to work.

"Before you go in, a word of advice: hide those eyes and fangs." Jack glared at the two, especially at Luciel because of his aggressive behavior.

"We already planned to do so," Luciel replied, retracting his fangs and as he blinked, a horizontal eyelid turned his crimson eyes chocolate brown. Melisa did the same, her eyes shifting to a forest green.

Seeing the female vampire disguised as a human, Alex couldn’t help himself but whistle at the beautiful sight.

"Well, look at you, my lady." He commented, not being able to take his eyes off her perfect-looking face, even if he knew that a bloodthirsty beast was hiding beneath this mask.

Without saying anything, Melisa walked past Alex, stomping on his foot, "Please, as if I’d ever stoop that low." She glared at Alex from the corner of her eye before walking inside, following the children, but as she turned her head slightly, Luciel caught a glimpse of her pale cheeks having a dash of pink.

’Did she just blush?’ Luciel asked himself, but he wasn’t able to imagine Melisa doing something like this. In the end, he shook his head, thinking that his mind was playing tricks on him.

"Hey! What was that for?!" Alex raised his foot, grabbing it with both hands, trying to endure agonizing pain. She really didn’t bother to hold back.

"I think we should have a lesson one on one about how to get a girl." Luciel snickered as he walked past him, finding this whole situation funny.

"Hey! What is that supposed-" Luciel placed his hand on top of Alex’s mouth once he placed his foot inside the church, "Quiet. We’re in a church." He said to him, reminding him that they were now in a religious place where it was rude to shout.

Despite starting to hate the Church, there were still many innocent people who could only find peace in prayer.

"Sorry..." Alex whispered, finally staying silent.

Once the group had entered, they could see that the church was swarming with people.

Many of them were sitting on the benches or standing with their heads down, chanting a prayer.

It was late at night, but most of the humans couldn’t allow their bodies to rest after having millions of worries.

At one point, the prayers had stopped, rumors slowly started to spread and people started to turn their heads.

The two vampires could hear all kinds of comments coming from the people.

Some were saying how they felt happy to see the kids alive, some were claiming that they shouldn’t have been rescued due to the increase of hungry mouths and then, there were the ones that kept discussing how the new young man that had arrived with the kids looked identical like Luciel Ashford.

Acknowledging the gossip, Luciel turned around his head, trying to avoid preying eyes since he didn’t want any kind of unnecessary attention.

He was also glad for what Helen had done for him while they were in the minibus, if not for her, then this area would have become his final resting area.

There was a strong scent of humans lingering around that could drive any starving vampire mad with hunger after smelling this buffet.

Walking down countless stairs, Luciel widened his eyes at the scene in front of him.

"Oh god..." He muttered under his breath. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

They had arrived at the huge hall that served as a meeting point for all the corridors below the church that would lead to different areas.

The area was usually occupied by priests and hunters walking by, but now, you couldn’t even see a brown and gold marble floor because of desperate people sitting down, without a trace of hope. You could barely move between them how squeezed they were.

Even if it was dead at night, the place was slightly dim and many people still weren’t asleep.

They were quietly sobbing while hugging their children or belonging to someone else.

Seeing people as food was one thing for Luciel, but this was different.

Witnessing so many people in one place, suffering, with nonstop tears coming from their eyes managed to wake up something inside him, but it wasn’t hunger, but a sense of duty and responsibility he had when he served as a vampire hunter.