176. BLOOD ON THE FLOOR

~ISSA

My hands were trembling. 

My blood was slowly growing cold like ice fire was licking at my skin. 

It was almost as if I could touch the terror that was eating at me. 

The moon shone brightly in the sky, almost as if it was casting the way for me to get to the holy temple of the goddess. 

As if on queue, the high structure of the Moon temple came into view. 

It stood, a gray contrast to the silver moon above, almost as if it was waiting to collect the moon from the sky, drinking in her glory every chance it got. 

I soon parked my car at the lot of the temple and broke into a run the moment I jumped out. 

The scent in the air was wrong. A bitter metallic taste hit my nose and transferred to the back of my throat. 

My teeth began to tremble and I felt goosebumps scatter across my skin. Whatever this was, it was not good. 

Every step that brought me closer to the entrance, took every power from me not to roar. 

And by the time I entered the temple, I saw it and I froze. 

My heart stopped for a split second as my eyes grew wide in shock. 

All the helping maidens of the temple were all pinned to the wall, their blood flowing down and painting it with messages of the horror they must have felt right before the end. 

My hands balled into fists. Anger, raw unadulterated rage from the very depth of my core threatened to tear out of me. 

The maidens were dead. All four of them. Gutted at their throats, pinned to the wall like Albus had been. 

I took another step in and followed to the sanctuary of the space and that was when I found the main priestess barely alive. 

"What happened here?" I demanded the moment I got to her. 

She was barely able to speak. 

"We— we have been compromised. . . Th— that was not me at the ceremony. . ." 

I clenched my teeth hard as my suspicions were instantly confirmed. 

"Who was it?" 

She looked me straight in the eye with the same horror from all the now lifeless pinned women. 

"H— Helena. . ." 

And she breathed her last. 

It was at that point that I released a roar from the very depth of my core. 

It vibrated through the very walls of the temple. It echoed through all of the Blue Lake pack and I was sure anyone standing miles away had heard me. 

Helena had gone too far. . .

 She killed our High Priestess and her maidens!

She left us empty!

Unprotected. Unguarded. 

She purposely blinded us so that no one would be able to stand up against her. 

So that she would have full and easy access to Yulia. 

I needed to stop Helena. 

"She must be gutted!" 

Even if I could not fight the Darkness for Yulia, I could fight Helena for Yulia. 

Bringing down Helena, who was the Darkness' most trusted and greatest player at the moment— would be a big hit to the Darkness. 

"The best way to find Helena, would be to find Deucalion first!" 

With that, I waltzed out of the temple. I dialed Miles' number as I reached outside. 

"Get a team of people to come clean up the temple. Helena has struck again and she's killed our High Priestess." 

I heard him exclaim but I ended the call before he could add another word. I had somewhere to be. 

I needed to mobilize my team of private shadow hackers. Finding Deucalion would be the best job for them. 

So I got into my car and zoomed out of the lot. I knew where to drive to. The flower shop which was my hive in disguise. 

I stopped in front of it and got in, the front desk already knew what to do when she saw me. 

She ushered me in immediately and we were going down the elevator to the underground hive of where all the networks of things usually happened. 

"Boss, I didn't think we would be seeing you anytime soon." A man came forward and bowed to me. 

"Assemble everyone immediately, Spider. Tell them to drop off every other project they have at hand because this is the most important of them all." I stated as I made my way to the center. The spot where we held the important meetings. 

Spider bowed and in an instant, he sent the message to everyone without having to lift a finger. Everyone was connected by tech in this place and I liked how smoothly communication took place. 

In no time, every worker began to show up at the center. They all took their seats while I remained standing. 

When the hall was finally filled with all the hackers, I cleared my throat. 

"You probably guessed it in your minds already. We have someone to find." 

They nodded slowly. 

"I need to find Deucalion because only him can lead me to Helena." I instantly projected every information we had on both husband and wife to the large screen behind me. 

It had all the history of her Child of Light Days to her embracing the Darkness to how far she was willing to go. Including killing her own son and hurting her daughters. 

Then I dropped the previous information of her slaughtering the High Priestess and her maidens. 

There was shock on all the faces of the workers present. Even they could not comprehend just how evil she was. 

"We need to locate her and stop her or she will do more harm to the world." 

I thought of the sacrifices that led to finding Yulia and the second sacrifice she made again when she was trying to get Yulia. 

What was to say that she had not yet succeeded this time?

"We will find her," Spider muttered and I nodded at him. 

I also took my seat behind my computer while everyone went to their stations and together, we began to search the world for Deucalion. 

We hacked into all street cams, car cams, satellites and everything that could point the way to Deucalion. 

The edge we had over him was the fact that no one knew about this underworld network I had built. Thus nothing could prepare him enough to know to hide from me. 

No one could hide from me. 

It was only a matter of time before I found him. 

And when I did, I was not going to let him go. I would torture him if I had to.

I was ready to do anything to protect Yulia.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I know I said I was going to give three free chapters if we got to 10k views by last month end, but we didn't. Either ways, I still decided to give a free chapter anyways. 

I am dedicating it to every one of you readers who have read and stuck with me up until this point despite all of my inconsistent updates. I am a student you see, and it's really hard to study and write at the same time but I am here for you guys. 

Thank you so much for giving my book(s) a chance. I have more hot stories in store for you. Just keep encouraging me to continue writing by sharing, voting and posting reviews for the book. It all goes a long way. 

I love you all so much. Xoxo❤️