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Isabelle and Edgar moved at a light jog, working to keep the sounds of the Beings' retreat within easy hearing while not coming upon them too soon. Isabelle figured out they were tailing the Beings, but upon trying to determine the reason, Edgar did not respond, prompting her to remain as quiet as possible as they tracked the creatures.

The two vampires followed the Beings as they retraced their steps. Without any trouble, the Beings returned to where they abandoned the human, finding him unconscious in the middle of the street with a small pool of blood under his neck. Isabelle's bite had already closed, and the wound was in the process of healing, thanks in large part to some of the anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties of vampire saliva. The Beings examined the blood and the wound, then made a quick search of the area, during which Isabelle and Edgar retreated to prevent discovery. When it appeared the Beings had completed their minimal search, the vampires moved into a hidden position from where they watched as the creatures hoisted the human between them and walked away, letting the man's feet drag. Once the Beings gained enough of a lead, Isabelle and Edgar followed.

With the human once again in their custody, the creatures made slow progress, making it easier for the vampires to track them. As if to ensure there was nothing to be found in the vicinity, the Beings circled the nearby buildings, then began heading south through the city along one of the main boulevards.

As they crossed through one of the more dense sections in the city, Edgar was taken aback by how it was stacked. At times it seemed they were moving through a massive tunnel, but it was no more than another street built above the one they walked supported by the buildings on either side reaching to the sky. This part of the city dwarfed those they had traversed the day before and earlier in the evening and its scale put Edgar in a state of awe. He had lived through incredible times, and borne witness to wonders of all kinds, but there was magic in the ancient world. At the turn of the twentieth century, wonder had all but winked out of existence. The industrial revolution tuned human vision to productivity, and out went whimsy. Even art was created with purpose, such that humans saw fit to raise machines to churn it out, as if the mechanical reproductions were in league as their human-created counterparts. Imagination was in decline, and nations opted to support one another to the ends of increased productivity or fight one another for the acquisition of resources, rather than push the ingenuity of humankind in the realms of marvel and fascination.

Edgar looked upon this marvel of architecture and infrastructure in a way he had not marveled at anything in the last millennium. Part of him rebelled at this being nothing more than the ongoing trend to stack people over one another in densely populated areas in an effort to continue to drive productivity and profitability. However, the sheer mechanics of layering city over city made him wonder what else might have arisen over the last few centuries illustrating the application of true imagination to culture and society. Dead and broken tubes of varying colors laced the walls and columns and the doorways and windows, and he briefly imagined a brilliant neon wonderland of concrete and metal rising to the heavens.

Continued after the break

The vision lasted naught more than a brief moment. When he returned his full attention to the hunt, he found they were traveling up and up and up over stairwells, causeways, ramps, and bridges. Before long, he and Isabelle were struggling to find places in which they might remain concealed as asphalt gave way to thick, transparent interlocking plates making up the streets, the walkways, and enclosures. Debris was almost nonexistent, and Edgar realized the Beings had gone to painstaking lengths to clean up around their base of operation. In considering this, Edgar was taken aback; he had assumed, for some unknown reason, the Beings were holed up in a series of caves underground rather than taking up residence in one of the many substantial buildings in the city.

Then were the senses of the Beings he couldn't figure out as well. He and Isabelle held preternatural powers, part of which expanded their senses. They could hear, see, and smell farther than humans, and had a powerful sixth sense. They were faster and stronger than humans. In engaging the Beings earlier, he determined they were matched in physical ability. However, he had not thought well enough of the test to understand the extent of their senses. To all appearances, the Beings did not indicate their awareness of the two vampires shadowing them, which led them both to believe the Beings were unaware.

Isabelle stopped and turned, causing Edgar to look around. She pointed at their feet, and it took some time for Edgar to realize she was indicating something through the walkway: a flurry of movement happening below them. They watched through the scratched and scarred panes as a flood of drones were released out of a bay in a building to one side. The drones poured out into the wide space below the two vampires, then scattered, groups of them flying off in different directions. Edgar looked up to keep track the Beings, but they were nowhere to be seen. The heavy buzz drowned out any other noise in the area, blocking the vampires from determining where the Beings may have gone.

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