Piles of broken glass and dry, crumbling ash littered the hallways. Once ornate stained glass windows now hung in shambles from where stones and bodies had been forced through. Doors were ripped from hinges. Deep gash marks lined wooden walls where desperate claws had dug in. The occasional spattering of blood stained the stone floors, seeping into ancient cracks and into he catacombs below . For the first time in many a century, full unbridled daylight cascaded into the vampire’s manor. And it told a story of heartbreak.

Asema looked over the papers splayed out on his desk. Reports from those who survived, and were able. Who the attackers had gone after. Where they’d entered from.

And who they had seen ashed.

Children had been found, running with as many infants and toddlers as they could carry, away from the danger. Some turned up bruised, charred and exhausted. Followed close behind by the ones they’d been guarding. Others found sobbing over piles of ash that had once been loved ones.

“They went after the kids” Asema said, tallying up the numbers in his head. “They knew Finch was here”

“Well obviously they were after him but” Edward said, sitting across from his brother, puffing shimmering smoke from a stick thin cigarette,  “It’s not like they were able to find his room. They didn’t even come close. I don’t think they knew what he looked like.”

“They hit where they thought he’d be. With all the other kids. His old room.” Asema said shaking his head and dropping his glasses onto the table, “We’re lucky I moved him when he got back”

“Ok so... It was someone who knew where his old room was?" Edward said, rolling his cigarette between his fingers,  "That should narrow down who the rat is right?” Edward said, “Did we find everyone? Maybe whoever it was ran off”

“Everyone was found in one way or another. Except Finch.” Asema said, “No sign of him. No call, no hint...It can’t be a kid. They knew he’d been moved so. A parent maybe. A worker?”

“I think you’re looking too far into this” said the old man, leaning in the doorway, listening to his two sons' back and fourth

“Father as much as I appreciate the input, we have an entire wing of the hospital filled with victims of this, I don’t think there is thinking too much into it right now.”

“Forty confirmed dead... More might not make it with what the hospital is saying... and you think he’s looking too far in?” Edward hissed, pointing the glowing end of his cigarette at him, "How can you even--"

“No, no. Of course the dissemination of our family is a travesty. What I mean is I think you’re missing the obvious culprits. Clearly it was one of those new hires. We have gone for centuries in this home, without a single uprising, no attacks, no riots, we have good repore with the other inhabitants of this town. But those new hires. They don’t know our ways. They’re new to this world, who knows what sort of vendettas they held coming here.”

“He...has a point. Those guys did come in with stuff to take down vampires, not humans so...if it was a human informant they’d have been fine” Edward said, pressing a hand to his mouth in thought, “I’ll pull the files we have. See if there’s anything that was missed.”

“I suppose you have some sort of point but. This is Arx. It’s not like people struggle for a life here, why would someone even bother to apply for this kind of work if they had a vendetta? Why come near the thing you don’t like?”

“You’re too naive, son. These people come from worlds with problems you could never even imagine. You’ve been lucky enough to have had most of your life here, shielded from that but. A grudge is a powerful thing.”

The three fell silent. Distant echoing footsteps the only noises as workers rushed around, frantically repairing the busted windows by any means necessary. Plywood and tarps, shuffled furniture and rearranged paintings. The house had been searched top to bottom the night after the incident, when any vampires who’d come out of the ordeal fit enough to walk combed through wreckage. Still it took them three rounds of searching before they found the first hidden infant, buried under piles of blankets and pillows in a desperate attempt to keep them safe.
Vampires were notoriously good at hiding after all.