Chapter 168

• Hybrid. The word echoed through my mind, heavy with implications I struggled to grasp.
• There was no credible evidence that a creature could exist as both werewolf and vampire. Legends spoke of a faint possibility—a child born of both species—but no records had ever confirmed it. The closest thing to an answer lay in the notes provided by Dr. Caspian Blackwell, compiled after his examination of one of the degenerates.
• Caspian had identified striking similarities between these beings and common vampires, suggesting that whoever created them had to be of noble vampire lineage or at least carried a significant amount of noble blood. Yet, their relentless hunger was something else entirely, more akin to those afflicted by a commoner vampire’s bite—the vampire degenerates. Unlike traditional vampires, these hybrid degenerates lacked fangs, instead possessing massive jaws lined with razor-sharp teeth. Their claws, too, were different—not the elegant, blade-like talons of a vampire but the curved, deadly nails of a wolf. Towering at least 6’7”, their forms bore a disturbing resemblance to werewolves in their bipedal state, a grotesque fusion of both creatures.