Chapter 28

• The air in the ravine grew heavy, the very stones seeming to weep with an ancient, palpable despair. Kael’s senses, honed by centuries of survival, flared with a heightened awareness. The fragmented whispers, the warped trails, the scent of manipulation—all of it had culminated in this moment. They had navigated the labyrinth of vampire deception, sidestepped the crude illusions designed to send them astray, and now, the culmination of their desperate hunt lay before them. The vampire lair.
• It wasn’t marked on any map, not even the ancient ones that chronicled the territories of his ancestors. This was a place born of shadow and secrecy, a wound festering in the heart of the wilderness, deliberately hidden from the world. The entrance, when Kael finally discerned it, was a masterclass in obfuscation. A sheer rock face, indistinguishable from any other in the rugged terrain, gave no hint of the darkness it concealed. Yet, Kael felt it, a tremor in the earth, a dissonance in the natural order that spoke of ancient, forbidden energies. The vampires had woven their defenses not just into the stone, but into the very essence of the place, creating a ward that was both physical and metaphysical.
• Borin, his massive shoulders hunched, his breath coming in slow, controlled puffs, nudged Kael’s flank with his muzzle. “The energy is… strong, Alpha. Corrupted. Like a sickness clinging to the earth.” His voice, usually a low rumble, was laced with a rare note of apprehension. Finn, younger and perhaps more prone to the overwhelming nature of the arcane, shivered, his fur bristling. “It feels wrong, Alpha. Like a place that shouldn’t exist.”