Page 131 of Dark Souls

1826, 11th April - DU killed his own mother and consumed her blood, showing true savage form. Killed three coven members and escaped with his mother’s remains.

1826 - Hunt continues. No sign of DU.

1831, 4th December - sighting of Lukas and Hana in Italy. Escaped capture.

1843, 16th February - sighting of Hana in Romania by local coven. Disappeared before we arrived.

1879, 18th March - Sighting in Iceland of both. Meeting of Demonski Upir Slayers to discuss plans to capture as they are believed to be the last remaining DUs alive.

1910, 26th May - Hana Nezera sighted in a Russian town. Group of Elite Slayers sent to investigate.

1910, 13th June - Captured Lukas Nezera in Russia. No sign of the female but we know she must be close by.

1910, 20th August- DU refusal to show demon form regardless of torture, dark magic and summoning. Meeting of the coven - majority agreed to find a means to control the demon for the coven’s purposes rather than kill it.

1911, 24th November - first attempt at soul possession and control through a combined coven’s dark magic. Failed. Vampire died and resurrected. Hunt for the female continues.

1913, 18th July - Soul possession unsuccessful after four magical soul division attempts in recent months.

1916, 24th September - Soul possession unsuccessful. Believed to be partly due to Lukas’ starvation of his demon side. He is too weak to proceed.

1920, 19th March - Lukas Nezera escaped captivity by finally shifting into demon form and killing six coven members.

1932, 4th April - Hana Nezera captured. Tortured for one week before she showed her demon form. Control of the soul failed even in Demon form. The coven’s magic was not strong enough. Seek assistance.

1932, 7th April - Attack on coven by Lukas Nezera to free his sister. We now have both in captivity.

1934, 29th November - Soul possession unsuccessful. Both Demonski Upirs are deceased.

As Rue’s violence exploded out of me, forcing my vampire form to the surface, I screamed and launched my phone across the room in a fit of rage before I flipped the oak desk over and destroyed everything within my immediate reach. Seeing Luka’s past trauma written so coldly in black and white, bullet-pointed like a shopping list with no regard for the lives they were ruining was too much. Years. He endured centuries of torture, capture, and brutality. All because of one coven’s evil motives.

I had never hated anyone more in my life. The primal predator in me was ready to murder anyone who ever thought they could hurt our mate for just being who he was. Heaving angrily, I closed my eyes and tried my best to count my breaths until I calmed down, but the anger wasn’t dispersing. I needed an outlet. No. I needed to see Luka. Or Heathen. I needed to know for sure.

Storming across the room, I grabbed my phone from the floor and swore loudly when I noticed the smashed screen.Damn temper tantrum. I couldn’t even call him.Them. I growled in frustration, knowing I couldn’t stay in this house a moment longer. Not like this. I’d end up destroying the place. And I couldn’t risk damaging any more evidence that could help me figure out how to free them from whatever hold The Devil had over them.

My gaze fell upon Luka’s laptop on the sofa and I raced over to it, tapping my thighs while I waited for the screen to come to life.

“Shit!”

Of course, it was password protected. I tried Hana’s name first and then a few random numbers. I was on my last attempt before it locked me out, and I fell back onto the sofa as I chewed at my thumbnail. Maybe he’d changed it recently? Maybe…

I licked my lips as I leaned forward and typed I.R.B.

The screen changed, revealing a monthly calendar.Oh my god, it worked!Checking today’s date, I saw the name of the event and location.

Murder Maze. Frendal Gardens, London. 9pm.

Murder Maze? Jesus, that should scare the shit out of me, but all I felt was adrenaline and excitement because that sounded exactly like the outlet I needed, along with seeing my mate. I quickly found the location online and groaned when I realised it was a two-hour drive from here. I searched the nearby areas to see if there was a place I had been to before so I could transport myself there and figure out the rest at a closer distance. Bingo. It was near a woodland I’d visited as a child with my family.

I raced into the bedroom to change my clothes and froze in the doorway. My jaw dropped as I stared at the clean, beautifully decorated bedroom. The dated wallpaper had been stripped, and the walls were now completely black with hand-painted pink flowers and skulls similar to the ones I always scribbled in my journal when I was bored. He’d replaced the broken window and silk curtains now draped around the magnificent view over the clifftop. And most importantly, there wasn’t a single cobweb in sight. Luka did this? I had wondered what he had been spending his time up here doing when I was researching, but when I’d asked, he just told me it was nothing. My chest tightened at the sweet gesture, knowing how much it meant for him to fix this place up for me to feel more comfortable. But now, after knowing all I did, I also understood why he’d allowed this place to rot. It didn’t deserve to be cherished.

After quickly changing into a pair of leather trousers and a black top, I hid my knife in my combat boot and threw on my black wig. To disguise my pink eyes as red, I would stay in vampire form during my time there. There was no doubt Luka would be furious that I showed up, but once he realised I figured out who he truly was, I think he’d understand why this couldn’t wait.

Completely isolated and miles from the outskirts of London, I found myself on the grounds of an old, abandoned estate. The crumbling Victorian architecture of an old manor towered behind me on a sloped hill and under a moonless sky that cast an eerie darkness over the scene.

The gardens were overgrown with weeds, vines and thorny bushes choking the beautiful wildflowers that struggled beneath. At the very front of the estate was a decaying stone fountain with a sinister goblin carved water feature that seemed to spill black inky water into the circular base. Roughly forty supernaturals huddled around it; some talked quietly, but many stood alone and silent, their expressions menacing. The atmosphere was completely different from the otherUndergroundevents I attended. This felt sombre. Morbid almost. It reminded me of the beginning of a funeral, when nobody really dares to speak for fear of saying the wrong thing and just waits for the impending gloom to begin. I smiled a little as a happy shiver ran up my spine. This was my kind of scene.

I gazed past the fountain and crowds of people, noting the imposing wrought-iron gates that seemed to block the entrance to a larger section of private gardens. But what was really peculiar was the blanket of dense fog that was seeping through the gates, which could only mean one thing. The fog was an illusion, put there by magic to add mystery and confusion to whatever was beyond. Turning quickly, I walked higher up the steep hill towards the manor to get a better view of the land and try to see what the fog was cloaking.

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