Chapter 2896: When Night Falls (25)

"Brother." The black-haired Latin girl wanted to call out to the figure walking ahead. She took two quick steps, approaching her dear brother through the dark corridor.

But her brother did not stop to wait for her as he usually did. Instead, he slowed his pace and stood silently in place, his head slightly bowed.

"I sensed you were in danger," Janna said, her voice thick with tears. "For a moment, I even felt like you were already dead. Are you..."

"My dear Janna," a slightly deep youth's voice echoed in the silent corridor. Janna heard her brother say, "Do not ask a question to which you already know the answer. We have always been in sync, haven't we?"

Tears finally fell. The petite girl crouched to the ground, sobbing, and then she heard her brother say:

"Now is not the time for tears. Wait until the judgment ends and the guillotine is placed against my neck before you cry."

"No! That won't do!" Janna shouted like a madwoman. "You cannot die! You cannot... you cannot leave me all alone! We promised we would always be together!"

Janna finally couldn't bear it anymore. She stood up, rushed over, hugged Zan from behind, and said through her tears, "We haven't been apart since we left home. You said you were going on patrol, and I was worried. I should have stopped you back then!"

Shiller, controlling Zan's body, turned around and pulled Janna into his arms, gently stroking her head and back.

Janna could not feel any body heat from him; it was as if she were holding a stone. Yet, such gentle movements felt warmer than the temperature of blood.

"I won't let them kill you," Janna said. "Even if you have become a vampire, you are still my brother. And you haven't done anything, have you? They cannot judge you!"

"Don't say that, Janna. Have you forgotten the oath you took when you joined the Justice League?"

Janna pushed her brother away, gritting her teeth and saying, "Yes, I said I would dedicate my life to the cause of justice, but they didn't even give us that chance! They always treat us like children and errand runners!"

Janna's eyes were filled with hot tears. A surge of emotions erupted as she looked into Zan's eyes and said, "No one here respects us because they think we are helpless, that we only joined to take advantage of the resources and equipment here, that we are thieves eating for free!"

Shiller frowned and said, "No, Janna, don't say that. They think we are young, so they..."

"Age? Please, we are aliens! What are we talking about age with humans for? Besides, is Superman old? What about Green Lantern? Didn't Batman become a superhero in his early twenties?"

Janna wiped her tears with the back of her hand and said, "You used to comfort me like that before, but don't try to fool me now. Especially that Green Lantern—he spent half an hour adjusting the security system but sent you out on patrol. If it weren't for him, you wouldn't have..."

She pressed her lips tightly together, then couldn't help but bite her lower lip. "What have we done here? Served tea and poured water for them, ran errands, did trivial little jobs. And now, you've been... No matter what they want to do to you, I will never agree to it!"

She stepped forward again, staring into Zan's eyes. "You aren't thinking of turning yourself in, are you?! Have you lost your mind??? They are all furious right now, especially Hal. They might even want to execute you!"

"What else can we do?" Shiller shook his head, appearing resigned. "The headquarters has been attacked. They will definitely interrogate everyone one by one. I don't think I can hide it from them. Once I am identified as the culprit, I'm afraid my time will be up."

"But you didn't do it! You have an alibi!"

"Do you think they care about evidence right now?"

Janna took a deep breath. "That doesn't matter. You cannot turn yourself in, and you cannot admit to something you didn't do. You taught me that yourself."

Shiller turned to leave. Janna grabbed his arm. "You cannot give up hope. We will hide it as long as we can. If you really want to drink blood... you can drink mine."

Shiller shook his head. "I won't hurt you, Janna. But you were right about one thing: if it weren't for this patrol, I wouldn't have been ambushed."

Janna's brow furrowed instantly because she heard the implication in her brother's tone. She said hesitantly, "You were ambushed? I'm afraid that's no coincidence."

"About 20 minutes ago, an emergency alarm went off. Superman announced over the broadcast that someone had been attacked and ordered everyone to gather immediately to avoid being picked off alone. I was the only one on patrol who hadn't returned. I thought you had already..."

"I was waiting in my room, feeling restless, so I wanted to call to remind you, but I had left my phone in another room, and Superman wouldn't let us go out."

"If it weren't for the attack delaying things, perhaps I could have warned you, and you wouldn't have been bitten. The timing of the attack is too coincidental. Could it be that someone knew you were going to have an accident and created a disturbance here to delay us?"

Shiller appeared frustrated. "It's no use saying that now."

"No!" Janna stepped in front of him again, blocking his path. "This proves there is another vampire in headquarters right now. Otherwise, they couldn't have timed the attack so precisely. As long as we root them out, no one else will care about you!"

Shiller frowned inwardly, thinking, *What a clever girl. * But aloud, he said hesitantly, "But how do we root them out? They are disguised so well..."

"Vampires have obvious weaknesses. Perhaps we could use sunlight and holy relics..."

Shiller shook his head again. "Can you believe it? I'm not afraid of sunlight or holy relics either."

Janna looked clearly surprised. She circled Shiller twice and said, "How is that possible? Aren't all vampires afraid of sunlight and holy relics?"

"I have a special power within me," Shiller said, using the explanation provided by Doctor Strange. "It seems to be from the one who turned me. It allows me to not fear the things vampires usually fear."

"Then no one can prove you're a vampire!" Janna's eyes widened, but then she fell into a daze. "If you can live in the sunlight and don't fear crucifixes, then what's the difference between you and before?"

"I can only survive by drinking blood."

"Oh, right!" Janna realized. "Even if vampires don't fear sunlight or crucifixes, their craving for fresh blood cannot be masked. Perhaps we can use that..."

Shiller shook his head again. "If I were really that desperate for fresh blood, I would have bitten you just now."

Janna fell into doubt again. She thought carefully and speculated, "A person who has just eaten won't be hungry. People only show a craving for food when they are very hungry. In other words, to make that vampire reveal themselves, we have to make them hungry."

After saying this, she looked at her brother. "Are you hungry now?"

Shiller shook his head. Janna calculated: if her brother had encountered the attack during his patrol, it had been less than an hour, so it was normal not to be hungry.

But he couldn't be not hungry forever. The metabolic rate of vampires shouldn't be slower than humans. If they only drank blood once every few decades, they wouldn't be a threat to humans at all—people would just donate blood voluntarily.

The reason the conflict between humans and vampires was so sharp was that vampires ate too much. A tiger only eats once every three days, but they eat a person three times a day. No species could sustain that. This made the conflict between humans and vampires irreconcilable.

Thinking this through, Janna recalled the previous attack. Although they hadn't gone to the conference room yet and didn't know the specifics, Janna guessed: could the attack have happened because the vampire hiding in headquarters was hungry?

Furthermore, Janna thought that while the plan to use the vampire's appetite to force them to reveal themselves was good, she had almost no way to execute it because she couldn't lock everyone together. No one in the Justice League listened to her.

Going to Superman or Wonder Woman wouldn't work either; they didn't have absolute authority and were easily led by the nose.

Suddenly, a name flashed through Janna's mind.

"I've got it!" Janna raised her voice. "I'll text Batman and invite him over. The excuse is ready-made: the Justice League headquarters has been attacked; how can Batman, as a leader, not come?"

Shiller sighed in admiration inwardly; this was indeed a smart and quick-witted girl, though she still lacked experience in judging people.

He pretended to say it casually: "Something this big has happened; Batman will definitely come. If you call him, you might be overheard. It's better to send a text."

Janna realized, jumped up, hung on Shiller, and said happily, "You're right. I should text him. Batman is so smart, he'll understand as soon as he sees it."

"He can find an excuse to keep everyone in the conference room for dozens of hours. When we go to the bathroom, you can drink my blood so you won't be hungry. That guy doesn't have an ally like me. When we create some bloody accident, he'll definitely lose his cool!"

Janna immediately took out her phone and began editing the message. Shiller leaned over to take a look, and he discovered that this girl was even smarter than he had thought: she sent the message to Batman in plain language, but she didn't mention the plan she had come up with at all.

She only told Batman a possibility: that this attack might have happened because the vampire was hungry, and there was no blood in the headquarters for them to drink, which caused them to go berserk and attack people.

In fact, this guess was a bit too naive because neither of them knew the specifics of the attack. It was also possible that the person attacked hadn't been bitten, or that the other party had planned it long ago rather than committing a crime of passion.

However, Janna made good use of one of her advantages: her young age. She was in the same age group as the Robins and was considered a junior by the other heroes in the Justice League. So, even if she made some naive or unreliable guesses, people would only think she wasn't mature enough.

Especially since Batman was very tolerant of teenagers in this age group. Perhaps at first glance, the guess seemed too shallow, but once he realized it was a guess from the younger twin of the Wonder Twins, and considering she was about the same age as his Robin, he wouldn't find it strange.

Moreover, Batman was very smart. He might have already thought about the vampire's food problem, but there was a layer of window paper that hadn't been pierced, or rather, he needed someone to state it openly. Janna gave him a good excuse.

Batman, standing in the Justice League conference room, put away the communicator in his hand, cleared his throat, and said:

"I believe we should indeed have a serious discussion about the problem of traitors within the Justice League."