Chapter 8 Blood Hunt
432 Words
Chapter 8
Blood Hunt
Elara kicked the door open.
The walls were covered in glowing symbols.
Ugly ones. Annoying to look at.
She reached out to touch one.
And instantly regretted it.
A voice echoed inside her skull.
“Twin Eyes… open…”
She yanked her hand back. “Twin Eyes, my ass.”
⸻
Somewhere else.
Raphael was hanging in chains.
Floating. Barely conscious.
Something was burning in his chest.
A thread of heat.
A name curled on his tongue before he even meant to speak.
“Elara?”
No one answered.
⸻
In a room full of screens, Dante was watching.
He smiled. Slow. Snake-like.
Lorenzo stood beside him. Eyes hollow. Hands twitching.
“She came,” he whispered. “The Soul Forge—she brought it with her.”
“She’s not a gift,” Dante said, not looking at him. “She’s a blade. Treat her like one. Or she’ll cut your head off.”
Lorenzo licked his lips. “And Raphael?”
“Perfect,” Dante muttered. “A clean soul. A flawless sacrifice. With him, I’ll tear the universe apart if that’s what it takes to get her back.”
⸻
Elara pressed something. A switch, a knot, a hidden nerve in the wall.
Pain hit her. Sharp and hot.
Then came the bird.
A hawk. On fire. Screaming.
She had seen it before—in dreams.
Nightmares. Visions. Whatever.
“Oh, not you again,” she groaned.
Black fire shot from her palm, curling upward into feathers, wings, a beak made of flame.
The hawk slammed into the wall.
Symbols exploded.
Behind it: a hallway. Old. Breathing. It felt… wrong.
She smirked. “Dante, your dead wife’s not coming back—”
“Shut up!”
He appeared. Just like that.
And yeah—his face looked like it had melted off.
She blinked. “Well. That’s more honest.”
“I just wanted—”
“You wanted jack s**t,” she snapped. “Don’t you dare use love as an excuse. Don’t you dare ruin death like that.”
⸻
Something shifted.
A heartbeat.
Elara froze.
Once. Then again.
Faint. Familiar.
“Raphael…”
She reached out. Not with her hand, not with her mind—something in between.
Space cracked.
A tear opened in the air. Like the world blinked, and there was something behind it. Someone.
His soul touched hers.
A resonance.
The first real one.
Her voice was steel. “Wait for me. No one’s taking you from me again.”
Black fire roared behind her.
She didn’t look back.
- Writer
