Bloodbound to an ancient
Auriella lay motionless, her gaze anchored to the silver sliver of the moon. Two years had bled into the next since her father's passing, and this patch of earth—his grave—remained her only sanctuary in a world that felt increasingly abrasive. Her aunt's cruelty was a constant weight, and the world was a cacophony of noise she wished to escape. Reaching up, she unclipped her hearing aids, plunging her world into a blissful, velvet silence ,she enjoyed the silence In the cemetery ,nobody ever came here and especially not by this time of the night .
She closed her eyes, drawing the biting evening air into her lungs. The cemetery was cold, but her heart was colder; she didn't mind the chill of the dead.
Suddenly, a vibration hummed through the granite beneath her. she felt the rhythmic thud of footsteps. She froze. At this hour, the cemetery should have been hers alone. She had been coming here for the past two years now and has never seen anyone coming here ,not even an animal .
Fear, sharp and jagged, pierced her chest.
Who would be here? Why now? And by this time ,The living always haunted her, now even in her place of solitude she still has to deal with them .Compelled by a terrifying curiosity, she closes her ears and focuses on her hearing ,after confirming that ,the footsteps she heard must have been at least five meters far from where she relaxed a bit , maybe there just naughty college students she thought ,""not like they could hear or see her from that distance, The whole cemetery was dark with only the moonlight reflecting on the grave stone ,so she decided to just lay back and wait for them to leave .
thanks to her keen sense of hearing she could hear what must people couldn't , the cemetery was big with it's length expanding to the thick forest.
She listened closely,"" if they're planning anything creepy I'll just run for it she thought to herself, before they could get to her she would most likely be back in the village.
"...certain he was buried here, Jared?"
"Of course I am," a rough voice snapped. "I did my homework. I'm not about to have that hot-tempered Ancient throwing a tantrum because we couldn't find xaviel"
"Then start digging. Kai gave us three hours before he starts taking our heads as trophies."
Auriella's blood turned to ice. From her father's grave, she listened to the two men—foreigners by their accents—heaving shovels into the dirt. They didn't sound like locals from Peruh; they sounded like foreigners.
Digging ,"" what could they possibly want with a dead person ,""she thought .
"Why bury yourself?" one of them, Phil, grunted.
"If you're hiding from the kai, where's the one place no one would looks?" Jared replied.
"The grave I guess Phil said with a chuckle
"Raven, you just going to stand there like a statue?" Jared called out to a third man.
The man named Raven didn't move. His gaze was fixed on the freshly disturbed earth. "Hurry," he commanded, his voice a low, lethal vibration. He suddenly scanned the perimeter, his eyes like a predator's catching the light. "Are you certain we are alone?
Auriella's heart hammered against her ribs.
Are they some kind of a cult .
The sound of metal hitting wood echoed through the trees. Tug. They had hit the coffin.
"Alright, Xaviel," Jared growled, punching the lid with a force that should have shattered his hand. He ripped the wood away and hauled a body out.
The man who emerged wasn't a corpse. He was covered in soil, a lazy, arrogant smirk playing on his lips. "Seriously, guys? Can't a man die in peace?"
"You actually did it," Phil muttered, leaning against a tree. "You played dead."
Xaviel brushed the dirt from his expensive clothes. "It's only been a year. I just wanted to experience the Great Beyond. It was actually quite pleasant. The first few weeks were torture— I couldn't breathe,dying and reviving over and over—but then I fell into a deep sleep."
"What kind of sleep?" a new, icy voice cut through the air..........
