Chapter Ten: The Blood That Binds Us
979 Words
The rain had stopped, but the streets still smelled like storm water and blood.
Sabrina pressed her back against the cold brick wall of a deserted alley, her black gloves sticky with someone else’s blood. Her breathing was sharp, her hands trembling, but her eyes? Cold. Focused.
She was alone now.
Again.
Isaac had disappeared the night before. Just like the others.
But he wasn’t like the others—was he?
She wanted to believe that. Needed to. But in this world—where fangs hid behind sweet words and blades hid behind backs—trust was a dangerous game.
She replayed last night in her mind like a broken record.
Isaac’s lips had touched hers with fire. His hands trembled against her skin like he feared it would be the last time. And then… he whispered it.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you.”
He never finished.
Gunfire had erupted outside the motel. She blinked, and he was gone—vanished into smoke and night.
And when she stepped outside, there were bodies. Three of them. Her old team. Wolves. Assassins like her.
All dead.
And worst of all, the words "traitor" were written on the wall in blood.
---
Sabrina slipped deeper into the alley, pulling her hoodie low. Her wolf senses twitched—someone was following her.
“Come out,” she called coldly, no fear in her voice.
A tall figure stepped out from the shadows, face hidden beneath a hat. But the voice was unmistakable.
“I knew you’d survive.”
It was Arius.
Her older brother.
Dead for six years.
Or so she thought.
Sabrina’s fingers froze around her dagger. “You were killed.”
Arius chuckled, stepping closer, letting the streetlight reveal his pale face—his glowing, unnatural eyes.
Vampire.
“No, sister. I was reborn.”
Her blood ran cold.
Arius, once the strongest wolf in their clan, was now undead. Turned. A monster.
“I tried to reach you,” he said softly. “But they lied. Father lied. He knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That you were never just a wolf.”
---
The ground shifted beneath her.
“What are you talking about?”
Arius looked at her with something between pity and pain. “You’re not just a child of the moon, Sabrina. You carry *his* blood too.”
Her heart nearly stopped. “Who?”
Arius leaned in, whispering like a curse.
“Mother's first lover. A vampire. Isaac’s father.”
Sabrina’s knees buckled.
“No... that’s not—”
“Why do you think you heal faster? Why the full moon hurts more than it helps? Why you can walk through holy ground?”
She dropped her blade.
Half-wolf.
Half-vampire.
A forbidden mix. A cursed bloodline.
---
Suddenly, the puzzle pieces twisted. Isaac hadn’t disappeared to protect himself.
He left to protect her.
He knew. Maybe he always had.
And maybe he feared what that meant.
---
“You were trained to kill wolves and vampires,” Arius said. “But what happens when you are both?”
She met his eyes, and something deep inside her snapped. “Then I kill those who made me this way.”
---
She didn’t wait.
She ran—sprinting through the night, her senses burning.
She needed to find Isaac.
Now.
But someone else found her first.
---
In the underground tunnels of Manila, hidden behind false brick walls and centuries of history, Sabrina crashed into a secret room—and into Isaac.
His eyes widened in shock, but there was something else. Guilt. Fear.
“Sabrina—”
“Don’t you dare say you were going to tell me.”
Isaac looked tired. More human than ever. “I found out a week ago. About your blood. About your family. I didn’t want it to be true.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m the one sent to kill you if it was.”
Her world stopped spinning.
“I was given the mission, long ago,” he continued. “Find the halfblood. End her. Before she becomes a weapon neither side can control.”
“You were using me?”
“No,” he snapped. “I was trying to save you. From them. From me.”
---
Silence.
Then Sabrina’s voice came, low and broken.
“So now what?”
Isaac stepped forward. “Now we run.”
“Together?”
He hesitated. Then nodded.
“For as long as they let us breathe.”
---
But nothing came easy.
The moment they stepped out of the tunnel, ten red-eyed vampires surrounded them—Isaac’s old mafia clan.
“Isaac Hale,” one of them growled. “You chose the wolf.”
Isaac pulled Sabrina behind him. “She’s mine.”
Another vampire stepped forward, taller, colder—his father.
“You were never loyal, son. I should’ve ended you like I did her mother.”
Sabrina froze.
“What did you say?”
The vampire smiled. “You look just like her. Soft. Weak. Until I burned the wolf out of her.”
A scream tore out of Sabrina’s chest, a sound not quite human. And her wolf—the part of her that had always stayed silent—howled.
---
She didn’t wait.
She lunged.
Claws.
Fangs.
Rage.
She didn’t care what blood she carried. Wolf. Vampire. Both. Neither.
She was her mother’s daughter.
And this was war.
---
When it was over, the tunnel was painted red.
Sabrina stood over the broken body of Isaac’s father, chest heaving.
Isaac looked at her, blood on his hands, unsure if he should step closer.
But she didn’t move.
Didn’t run.
Didn’t cry.
Just stared at the burning torches and said:
“Now we burn the rest of them.”
- Writer
