The Crown of Humatora

Shared Burden (Part 2)

I look at Rylan’s face, and the moment my eyes met his eyes, I know that he already suspected both of us. No, the correct term is he knew.

“Look, men, I can explain.” Rafe is panicking.

But then, Rylan snorted and laughed, and so does Riftan. I saw both of them with a gaping mouths.

“Why… why both of you were laughing?”

“Isn’t it obvious? They already knew, Sabine.” I turn my attention to my brother, he walks towards us with a grin, “They knew that Rafe is your true mate.”

“Hell! You both knew?!”

“Sabine, it’s very obvious from the way you have treated the necromancer, you’re all over him, that’s how we react towards you.” Answered Riftan.

I let out a sigh. “Alright, for now, let us complete our mission and safe the citizens, we can talk about this later.”

“Agreed, the citizens came first.” Rafe agreed with my suggestion.

“Easy for you to say, you have already got some energy from our mate.” Teased Rylan.

“Oh man, come on! Stop the tease.” Grumbled Rafe.

We laughed at his reaction, Somehow, I remembered Shakira’s words. The third mate will become the balance between your dark and light, she was telling the truth.

The tension between Riftan and Rylan finally have calm down. We regroup and discussed the best way to approach the tomb.

“The tomb caused something to the nearby camp, but why now?” Said Fajir, he looks around the area.

“I maybe knew the answer,” Rafe tells us while he raises his right hand.

I tilted my head and asked Rafe. “What are you doing? You could just confirm to us without raising your hand.”

“What? You don’t know about the superiority of raising one hand in a meeting?”

“No!” Said the other three elven men.

“Tsk… fine, alright, so, you know that I was a part of a dark sorcerers group, well, they’re what you called the grave robber.”

All of us looked at Rafe with confusion on our faces.

“Grave robber? Never heard the terms here.”

“Means an elven that desecrated tomb to gain fortune.”

“For hell! That’s a taboo, a very heinous crime!” Said Fajir to Rafe.

“Oh, don’t worry, I have another reason to join their group, I’m doing some undercover job, for some higher up,” We look at him with more questions than before, he senses our curiosity pique, and then grins at us, “That’s a story for another time, for now, the tomb and citizens?”

“Right, of course, so… what happened to the citizens?”

“I don’t know the exact reason, but maybe because this tomb is already being robbed by the group.”

“For hell! So, the tomb is already being desecrated?!”

“Yes, I don’t know that what you guys meant as a tomb was this cemetery.” Said Rafe with a pang of guilt ridden on his face.

“Cemetery? What’s that?”

“A graveyard, where humans put their death.”

I look into Rafe’s eyes. “Tell me, you were not doing the same thing as they were, back then?”

“No, it was worse than that, I watched without even doing something to prevent it to happen.” His face says it all, he was ashamed, witnessing something taboo and not even having the power to do something.

Sympathize at Rafe, I hold his shoulder and said. “You couldn’t do anything, don’t be so hard on yourself.”

He smile gratefully at me, and after, we decide to take preventive action, two will stay behind to guard, while the others walked inside the tomb.

“I’ll be here, on guard with Fajir, I couldn’t transform inside a cave, so it’s best I was here.” Said Rylan.

“Then, I will be going inside with Riftan and Rafe, both of you, be safe.”

“You too, be careful.”

We separated in the middle of the pathway, both Riftan and Rafe running beside me, and when we saw the cave, the tense atmosphere, engulfed the three of us.

“This is the mausoleum, one of the group already open the door, but the high Vampyr inside the mausoleum, is too powerful for them, they just robbed outside the cemetery and gone.”

“and let the door open, like this?” pointed Riftan.

“We aren’t powerful enough to close the door once again, his aura is too powerful.”

“His?” I asked Rafe.

“Yes, the insignia describe him as a male of higher-level Vampyr.”

“Rylan also has some knowledge about this?” Said Riftan.

Rafe smirked. “Then the Weredragon is hiding something from us, only an elven that familiar with the Vampyr clan has the knowledge to read the insignia,” He walks slowly to the door of the mausoleum while continuing to explain, “My master lover is a high Vampyr, he is the one who teaches me to read the insignia.”

“How about it? Could you reach the door?” I asked Rafe, once again

“Yes, it means, the high Vampyr is gone.”

“Hell, I hate this, and to be the higher Vampyr as well,” Riftan glances at me, “I do hope this one is your father.”

With a sad smile, I shake my head at the two of them. “No, the insignia is different, it’s not a rose, but peonies, with an ax.”

“Ah, I see, you’re searching for your father’s tomb?” Asked Rafe.

“Yes, that’s where my journey started, among other things.”

“As you said earlier, let us finish our business here, first.”

“Business?”

“Err… later.”

Riftan called the two of us, apparently, after we make sure the tomb is empty, Riftan already went ahead.

We walked slowly towards the dark Nephilim, he pointed us into a red light from the far away pathway.

“We should go there.” Said Riftan.

“What’s that red light?”

“The heartbeat of the recently awaken high Vampyr, for one day of every color of the sun and the moon, it will emit a red light, for it to be charged with the power of darkness, one if it, was blood.”

“Blood?! Then the citizens?!”

“They need their blood, hell! Come on let us go there!”

We run as fast as we can to the source of the high Vampyr heart, I transform into my wolf form and am ready to battle.

When we have arrived at the place, a horror is unraveled in front of us. Corpses, plenty of mangled corpses, not even one drop of blood, visible.

We look above and there he was, a higher Vampyr, with a long white hair and with his red eyes, staring intensely at the three of us.

On his hands, there’s a heart, a bleeding heart, he was at the time, enjoying the heart. He smiled at us.

“Well, well, three more sources of food, seem more powerful than the weak citizens.” He said while he crushed the heart on his hand.

I growled at the sight, how dare he to think that the precious life of everyone was just the source of food for him.

“Sabine, relax, don’t you get offended by it, we need to remain calm.” Whispered Riftan.

Though I tried, I was too furious to see that there was a man with power who once again, was corrupted by their strength. I jump into one of the rocks and tried to reach the high Vampyr.

I’ve heard Riftan shout, but I couldn’t see Rafe, everywhere. He was missing, as soon as the higher Vampyr saw us. My jaw already goes to his neck, but he could easily dodge my attack. He laughed so hard, make me wanted to defeat him, even more.

The high Vampyr tried to slice my back with his elongated claw, but Riftan came to rescue me, he push the high Vampyr to the ground.

The higher Vampyr looking at us with a smile on his face. Riftan and I share a glance, he is too powerful for both of us.

“I could feel the passion of yours to protect your mate, but, let me tell you this, both of you will fail!”

“Not really, *sshole!”

Our head turn into the screaming elven, it was Rafe, with a strange pattern below his feet, he then begin to conjure a spell.

The ground shook so hard, especially below the feet of the higher Vampyr, a very bright light then surrounded the higher Vampyr, we close our eyes because of the bright light.

I could still hear Rafe conjuring his spell. Riftan carried me back to the ground, after a while. We slowly open our eyes, what we are seeing in front of us is something that we can even comprehend.