21 2030-08-13: Is he a friend or an enemy?

Rhine closes the distance between them and gently fondles her lower lip with his thumb before giving her a kiss. Breaking the kiss and stepping away, he holds her hands then speaks in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry for acting like that, earlier. It's just the stress from being occupied. I'll make it up to you, alright? By the way, what's up with this surprise visit?"

Like a girl who is blindly in love, Dianne believes her boyfriend and this sweet action of his, "No, I was wrong. I should have tried to understand your situation first. I'm sorry, too. Oh, that- I overheard the vampire king and the Grand Elder talking about the Empress. Apparently, she already left the island by herself."

"What?!"

His reaction is a shock to her with jealousy taking over her, "Why does it sound like you're so affected by that news of her? Are you attracted to her? Hey- I'm talking to you, Rhine."

He goes on the offensive in dealing with her while showing how annoyed he is, "What? No. Where is this sudden jealousy coming from? Sometimes, I just don't understand you. But right now, I have a lot of things to attend to. We'll discuss this, later."

Then he turns his back on her and trudges towards his desk. On how things escalate, Dianne walks out of the office with heavy steps. He, on the other hand, has his hands over the table as he is mulling over something that causes his brows to furrow. Coming up with a decision, he grabs his leather jacket and puts it on during the time that he locates Dionne's post. 

"Captain, did I miss a meeting or something? Or do you have some personal orders for me, to make you appear here?" Dionne remains standing on guard upon his appearance.

"At ease. No, and yes. You'll be the Acting Captain while I'm away. I have some matters to handle outside the island. Receive order."

"Order received, Captain. You can count on me," he sends a salute to his direction after responding with confidence.

Rhine sprints to where the boats are, and he concludes that the Vampire Empress might have swum to Cordova because there is no missing watercraft. It is not unimaginable since she attempted to swim away from Lionel before. He rides to the opposite direction of Montague Island in his black jet ski- guessing that's the only option for her.

In spite of being a small town, it has access to technology so there will be video surveillance somewhere that might catch her on tape. To his dismay, none of them contains any indication that she came into that direction, 'Where could she be? I need to know her location. Think, Rhine. If she's in Alaska, we should have heard something about her. But we didn't. This is ha-'

He cannot concentrate because of the two loud women gossiping with one another, "Did you hear that Hilda's husband might lose his job?"

"Why? He had that job for years and he's a diligent employee, I heard."

"It was during his night duty yesterday and they found out that some CCTV footage is missing. They don't- AHH shit shit you scared me, young man!"

Rhine is standing in front of them all of a sudden but he doesn't care besides asking them a question, "Where does he work?"

"Excuse me? Do you know him? Are you even from around here?" These two don't recognize him for the reason that they are old enough to be on social media often. Only young ladies are aware of what the captain of the elite vampire guards looks like.

His patience is testing him and it results in him silently threatening the woman as he whispers to her ear- him being so close to her neck, "I'm a vampire and I can kill you faster than you can scream. Answer me and you live. And you're not stupid enough to tell on me, right? Let your friend walk ahead."

Feeling his repetitive puffing of the air on her back, she stays still and nods a little. He deliberately moves away from him causing the woman to be more fearful. It actually works seeing that she is obeying him, "Oh, I'm getting forgetful these days. He stays near my neighborhood and his mom told him to relay something to me. Can you walk ahead and I'll follow you shortly?"

The other woman is starting to be suspicious of the young man and she's worried about leaving her alone, "Are you… sure? I can just wait for you." 

"Yes. This is quite personal so… Go ahead, I'll be quick."

"Oh, okay. Sorry haha"

After the woman is far enough from them, she directly gives him an answer, "He works in security at Glacier Bay National Park And Preserve."

"Remember my warning." That's his last words before going back to his watercraft. No one notices somebody is listening to their exchange and disappears as if he vaporizes into thin air.

Arriving at the National Park, Rhine goes straight to the security office where the staff there are familiar with his identity. He's been there a few times as per the vampire king's instructions, so they deduce he is here for the same reason and let him do his job. He bumps fist with the head security and casually inquires, "Man! Hey, can I browse your security footage from the past few days?"

The head security opens the door to the CCTV control room and gives a heads-up to the guy inside, "Sure, man. Help yourself. Ian, can you give him some privacy? Thanks."

Rhine gets to it as fast as he can and skims through the footage yesterday. He finds… nothing, no traces of the Vampire Empress except for the missing videos. After returning everything back to normal, he knocks on the door so they will know he is finished.

"You done? That was quick. You have nothing else to do?"

"Yup. By the way, where... is the missing footage for yesterday? Who was on the night shift? Is he here?" He acts like he recently learns about it. 

"Oh yeah, poor guys. That's one of them, over there- the one wearing a cast. You can ask him." The head security points to a man outside the office.

Rhine pats him on the shoulder and smiles at him, "Thanks, man."

"Hey, what happened to your hand?" He befriended this guard before so he is positive that obtaining the information will be a piece of cake for him.

"Rhine, long time no see. Oh, I have no clue. It suddenly hurt so much yesterday. I... don't know how I ended up breaking my hand," it is obvious from his tone of voice how dismal he is currently.

"About the... surveillance footage yesterday, what happened? Maybe I can help you," he sounds like a true friend saying this.

Help. A word no one has offered him yet. Hearing this gives him a small glimmer of hope that lightens up his mood a little which reflects in his eyes. Nothing can change the fact that he is perplexed, "That's the problem, no one can comprehend what exactly happened. There were three of us, we don't really remember anything unusual or odd at that period of time."

"How… is that reasonable? Are you saying the footage -magically- vanish?" He couldn't help but questions him with the most unbelievable tone possible and a touch of sarcasm.

The guard's head is drooping again and, at the same time, he feels more of a disappointment, "I'm sorry if I can't be of any help. The situation is completely unexplainable and baffling even for us."

'And here I thought I'll have some progress in finding some traces of her. But I'm freaking back to having no knowledge of her whereabouts.' Rhine decides he has to move on and search somewhere else by rummaging around this part of Alaska, "I'll see if I can do something to assist you. Hope everything goes well for you, bro."

"Thanks, man. I… appreciate it." After he is gone, the guard unexpectedly stands up like a robot and marches to an inconspicuous spot, out of sight.

A male hiding in the Shadows opens his eyes and they are literally glowing in red as he locks eyes with the guard. All the guard's memories about last night resurface then perish permanently. And everything in the radius of the National Park is unexpectedly surrounded by an invisible dome of mixed white-red light, only perceptible for someone like him. In a blink of an eye, all of the people's memories inside it are now altered alongside the disappearance of the dome and the male.

He peregrinates over Gustavus Airport and pursues Milla thereon. Unlike what he did with the people back at the National Park, he only seizes both the airport manager and employee's memories of the Vampire Empress. He doesn't modify or change what she permits them to remember. But what is his reason for following her, and what is his identity? Is he a friend or an enemy? Who knows.