XXXVII

The second kiss Aurum and Kimi shared was softer and slower, like they weren’t drunk on lust. Afterwards, Aurum led Kimi to his room and watched him retire for the night, a small smile on Kimi’s face.

The moment Kimi shut the double doors, Aurum’s jovial expression gently fell. He pushed his fingers through his hair, walking through the quiet hallway. He didn’t go to his room and went straight to the mansion’s library. Moving nearer to the library’s large double door, he curled his fingers into tight fists and wore a serious, blank expression. Aurum exhaled a short breath and pushed the double doors open. In the bright library sat the Pristines and their spouses.

“Lord Caedis welcome,” Haruna said, moving to give him the files in her hands. “This was all I could get.”

“Thank you Haruna,” he said, taking the files from her. He raised his head and looked at the room. “As you all know, the reason I had called you here is to discuss about the crisis in our town. The Mayor and his council may be looking for ways to find its cause and find a solution to it.” He narrowed his eyes. “But we know the truth.”

Elvira heaved a small sigh. “We might know the truth, but we still don’t know the whole truth,” she said, raising the steaming cup in her hands to her mouth.

“And that’s why these are here,” Aurum said, raising the files. “They’ll be a small start to solve this mystery.”

Yūgen shook his head, his brows knitted, a confused look on his face. “But who could do this? Cadavers don’t eat human flesh and we only drink blood. Could these killers truly be humans?”

“Cannibals,” Meraki said in a calm tone, resting against one of the tall shelves. He folded his arms over his chest. “Humans who eat other humans.”

Anxo snorted. “Aren’t they already satisfied with the surplus amount of food around the world?”

“Obviously, there’s a hidden motive behind their actions,” Tobe said, pushing up his glasses with his knuckle. “But don’t you think it’s scary that humans are behaving like this? We are the ones who are supposed to be the senile demons. They’re killing innocent people. For what? Their hearts?”

Jiaozi shook her head. “This is not normal,” she said under her breath.

Aurum heaved a silent sigh, striding to one of the many tables in the library. He placed the files on the table and spread them across the table. His eyes jumped from one file to another, reading their names.

“Let’s start with this.” He picked up the file that had ‘Mr. and Mrs. Quinn Mikaelan’ written as a headline on it. “Haruna?” he said, opening the file.

Haruna stepped closer to him and clasped her hands together. She stood beside him and watched as he pulled out pictures from the file. He held it before the both of them and her breath hitched up at the image on the picture. She cleared her throat and the room waited for her to talk.

“Before the autopsy, the cause of their death seemed unfathomable. There were no bruises or stab marks to show that they were stabbed or strangled to death. But after the autopsy report had been made, we found out the real cause of their death. They had been poisoned and they had consumed the poison through their mouth.” She scratched her neck. “But the most confusing thing was that we couldn’t match the poison to all samples of various poisons that we had. But now we know what it is.”

Aurum nodded. “Claret.”

“And there was the stabs around their abdomen. It looked like the person had used a force strong enough to stab them so that the bones around the area could break. Their hearts had been missing, and so did their lungs and some other organs like intestines and liver.” She swallowed and watched as Aurum tossed the pictures on the table and they flew onto it, spreading out on the table. “The hospital had put in their cause of death as food poisoning after we found nothing useful to us. We had thought it was some killing of some sort. The government had still set up a task force to find these killers. We had thought that it was the end.”

“But it wasn’t,” Jiaozi said, folding her arms over her chest. Her worried gaze was locked on the floorboards. “Their extended family members and in-laws were killed.”

Haruna nodded in confirmation. “And they had the same cause of death and marks: Poisoning through the mouth and stabs around their chest area.”

Aurum inclined his head to the side, reading the names of dead Mikaelans that was written on various files. “And their children? What about them?”

“The first Mikaelan couple who were murdered had just one son and he’s the recent murder case. He’s Richard Mikaelan. Quinn Mikaelan’s elder sister had no spouse or child. His younger sister had a fiancé but he was not killed.”

Aurum threw the file to the side and picked up the one with ‘Mr. and Mrs. Mikaela’ on it. He opened the file and picked out the pictures in it. A tremor shook him as he looked at the female version of Silver, her face torn and pale.

Haruna inhaled a deep, long breath that raised her chest. “Now... their deaths were the most confusing of them all.”

“Why?” he said quietly, spreading he pictures on the table.

She swallowed and shut her eyes. “They had been poisoned through the nostrils. But... But... But...” Her words got stuck in her throat and she blinked rapidly in order to drive away the tears that were gathering around her eyes.

Meraki stared at his wife with an unwavering gaze, his face stoic. But deep down, his chest was twisting because of the ache in his wife’s voice.

Aurum looked at her, narrowing his eyes. “But...? Haruna?”

She fisted her hands and shut her eyes. “They had been poisoned and made weak, but they weren’t killed immediately. They had been beaten when they were weak. And... And violated.”

“Oh my goodness,” Elvira whispered, her face contorting into a frown.

Jiaozi’s mouths flew to her mouth. “The two of them?”

Haruna nodded. “But that wasn’t even enough for them,” she said, her voice rising. She tightened her fists that started shaking. She locked her jaw, her eyes squinting in anger. “They had made their little son watch everything. Those bastards! Even after taking their innards they still weren’t satisfied. They had done it. Again and again. Once wasn’t enough. Twice wasn’t enough. They were already dead for crying—!”

“Haruna,” Meraki said firmly, trying to keep his wife’s emotions in place. His face was still blank but his only show of emotion was the twitches in his jaw. “You need to calm down.”

Haruna nodded and wiped off the tears that had rushed down her face during her outburst.

Aurum looked to the ceiling and shut his eyes. When will this end? Are humans this cruel? Even to themselves?

“The autopsy report had come. We found out the poison was similar to the ones used for the Mikaelans,” Haruna said and sniffled.

Aurum dropped the file and folded his arms over his chest. “Why had they killed all the Mikaelans’ nuclear and extended families?”

Yūgen quirked a brow. “Did they have something in common?”

Anxo scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Obviously it was a heart.”

Aurum turned his head and glared at Anxo. “Anxo that’s not funny.”

Anxo bent his head and looked the other way, a small frown on his face.

Hanami stared at Anxo from the corner of her eyes, her lips pursed. She lightly shook her head and looked at Aurum. “Lord Caedis, what if their deaths had to do with their ages. Because they had the chance to kill Richard Mikaelan back then. Why now? When he’s...” She dragged out the last word, thinking of his age.

“Twenty-one,” Haruna said, picking up his file. She opened it and read his file. “Apparently he had just celebrated his twenty-first birthday before he was killed.”

Aurum held his chin. “The age of adulthood.”

Tobe lifted a brow. “Are you trying to say that they are only after adult Hunters?”

“We can’t be too certain.” He folded his arms. “What about John Mikeelson?”

“His autopsy identified poisoning through the nostrils.”

“And the Mikhers?”

“Their autopsy reports hasn’t been made but everyone is speculating that they had been killed by poison that had been injected into their bloodstream because of the puncture marks on their necks,” Haruna answered.

“And where had they been found?”

“In their car.” Haruna tugged at the edge of her sleeves, her expression uncomfortable. “Whoever that did it had entered their car and attacked them.”

Elvira’s brow squeezed together in confusion. “Someone entered another person’s car and nobody knew?”

“Except if that particular person was someone they knew.” Aurum turned to Haruna and lifted a finger. “And what about their daughter?”

“Still unconscious. The shock was too much for her.”

Aurum inhaled a long breath and exhaled it, his shoulders sagging. He scratched the back of his head, his face squeezed in tremendous confusion.

Jiaozi cleared her throat. “Lord Caedis? Uh... Meraki I hope this doesn’t annoy you. I apologize in advance.”

Meraki quirked a brow and he and Aurum exchanged a look.

She rubbed her palms together. “It’s about Michael Mikaelis, the first Hunter who had been murdered.” Meraki’s arms fell to his sides—a frown taking form on his face—and she quickly said, “I’m really sorry. It’s just... he was the first to be killed and he wasn’t killed by these humans. But his wounds had been similar to theirs.”

Aurum frowned at the files. His gaze swam over all their names. He looked at all the names very well and came to a sudden conclusion. His head raised and he turned to stare at everyone, his eyes wide.

Elvira lifted an eyebrow. “Lord Caedis? Is everything alright?”

“No,” he said in a breathy tone, shaking his head. “I think I have a clue. Michael’s death had not been coincidental. Kara had called me because she was scared of her husband’s attitude. Michael had been killed by Orpheus but Orpheus’ presence was not supposed to be a coincidence.”

“Yet it was,” Meraki said in a tight voice. “Because you had sent him.”

“No.” Aurum shook his head. “Because it had been intended to be me who would have killed Michael.” He rushed and picked up Michael Mikaelis’ filled. He plucked out a picture and showed it to the room. It was a picture that had been taken of Michael’s corpse at the crime scene. “When a Level A or Pristine kills a Hunter the claret springs out the Hunter’s blood. Look at the picture. There’s no claret.”

Tobe frowned and mumbled, “because it had been collected before the police had arrived.”

Anxo groaned and rolled his eyes. “You know Tobe, if you want to talk speak out and stop being like the dead man you are.”

“You know I can cause the blood in your body to spill out this instance,” Tobe said in a small, firm voice.

“How?” Anxo shook his head and rolled his eyes. He turned his head to the side and caught Aurum displeased face.

Aurum pointed at him. “This isn’t the time to bicker Anxo.” He threw the file to the table. “I had been intended to be the killer but I wasn’t there. Do you know why?”

Anxo quickly nodded. “You had been mistakenly given blood. By... By... me,” he said, the last word coming out small.

“Correct.”

Haruna frowned. “What are you trying to say Lord Caedis? That one of—”

“It doesn’t matter Haruna.” He pointed at the files. “Whoever that did this was carrying out an aged-long plan for some unknown reason. But what is their plan?”

He held a hard gaze on the files. His jaw clenched and unclenched every second, his eyes cold.

“These people are after both Hunters and cadavers,” Aurum whispered, pressing his palms on the tabletop. “If they’re after two kinds who have the same creator, then they’re after her.”

“Our creator,” Yūgen asked, clasping his hands behind his back.

“Yes.”

“Why? What do they want with her?” Elvira shrugged. “It’s not like she’s alive. We don’t even know where those two things are.”

Haruna frowned. “What two things?”

Meraki stood off the shelf. This time, a big, worried frown was on his face. “Her heart and the cup which held what that made us cadavers and Hunters.”

Tobe leaned his head back and smirked. “And we don’t have those things.”

Aurum said and stood straight. “And I know what they’re after.”

“And that is?” Jiaozi asked with a lightly terrified face.

“Her heart.” He turned around, an unemotional smirk on his face, the corner of one side of his mouth raised. “And it’s obvious that they believe the heart is in one of the Hunters.”

Elvira sighed and shook her head, closing her eyes. “Just to bring  her back they’re doing all of this?” She suddenly flinched and threw her eyes open. “What if they’re doing this to destroy our kind? What if they kill her? If they do we’ll—”

“Be dead and fade away before we know it,” Aurum said, gripping his chin. “I want you all to do something for me.”

“Anything Lord Caedis,” they answered in unison.

“Whatever that’s being said here shouldn’t leave this place. It should die here and only resurrect when we meet again to discuss about it? Is that understood?”

“Yes Lord Caedis,” they all answered.

“Good. Meraki?”

“Lord Caedis?”

“I want you to set up a meeting with all the representatives of the Hunters’ families. Just them.”

“Yes Lord Caedis,” Meraki said with a dip. He turned to walk out of the library but stopped. He turned back around, one of his brows lifted. “But Lord Caedis, one of the Hunter family’s representative is not present.”

“Who?”

“Kara Mikaelis. Will her son—?”

“No,” Aurum said firmly, turning back to the table. “Leave him out of this.”

“Yes Lord Caedis.”

Aurum looked down at the files, the sound of Meraki walking out behind him. He gritted his teeth, placing his hands on the edge of the table.

Why had they kidnapped Kara and hadn’t killed her on the spot? he thought, sliding his eyes to Michael Mikaelis’ file. And why had Michael tried to kill his own flesh and blood?

Author’s Note: and the solving of the mystery begins. Please leave a comment about your thoughts on things. And yes, they are really cannibals. But... who do you think is responsible? Please vote and stay safe.