All Chapters of Bloodline Unknown: Chapter 61
- Chapter 70
101 chapters
Chapter Sixty
The first call rang out unanswered. The second too. On the third, the line clicked — a faint static hum before a voice came through, smooth and amused.“Selene Aurelius,” the voice drawled, “I was wondering when you’d remember how to dial.”Selene’s throat tightened. “Hello, D’Onyx.”A soft laugh. “Three missed calls? Either you’ve forgiven me or you’re finally in trouble.”“I wouldn’t say forgiven,” Selene replied, her tone even. “And trouble isn’t new to me.”“Then what’s this about?” D’Onyx asked, her tone bright with a sharp edge. “You don’t usually call unless the ghosts start whispering again.”Selene hesitated, glancing toward the bonsai she’d left half-trimmed. “We need to meet.”“Oh?” D’Onyx sounded intrigued. “After all these years?”“Things have begun to move again,” Selene said quietly. “I think you know why.”A pause. The faint rustle of fabric. Then D’Onyx replied, softer now, “You always were a woman of mystery and half sentences.”Selene didn’t answer.D’Onyx chuckled
Chapter Sixty - one
The vault door shut behind him with a hiss. For a moment, Eli just stood there, letting his eyes adjust to the dim light that filtered through the reinforced glass. The air was different here — colder, thinner, humming faintly with the low current of machines that were never meant to sleep.He’d bypassed three internal locks, two levels of biometric encryption, and one very specific Aurelius firewall that even Selene had warned him not to touch. He touched it anyway.Now, standing in the deepest chamber of Aurelius’ underground archive, Eli could feel why this place had been sealed. It was a mix of memories suspended in a room.At the center of it all stood a sphere — about his height, black glass laced with faint veins of light that pulsed in slow, rhythmic intervals. The interface console beside it glowed weakly, showing a prompt that hadn’t been seen in over a decade:PROJECT: LAZARUS — ACCESS DENIED.Eli exhaled, rubbing his hands together as if to shake off the tension that ha
Chapter Sixty - two
The drive out of his compound felt quieter than it should have, he had returned to the house he had been avoiding for weeks to keep the drive in a place he was certain was safe. Eli kept his hands loose on the steering wheel, as if holding them too tight would anchor something in him that had to move. The Vault’s hiss and the memory of Leonhart’s voice — still sat in his chest. He hadn’t told Selene where he'd gone. He hadn’t told anyone.He told himself that secrecy was practical. That some truths should be handled alone at first. That he needed to think, to sort what he’d found before he allowed other people to touch it. The truth was simpler: the vault made him feel both smaller and older. It had lodged questions in him that wanted answers he didn’t know how to risk sharing.He felt a ping from his phone which sat in his pocket. He sighed, thinking the message was from Selene, instead D’onyx name flashed across his screen. Different thoughts on how she had gotten his number ran th
Chapter Sixty - three
The world had stopped moving or maybe his body had just started failing him.Eli could hear nothing but the ringing in his ears — sharp, metallic, endless. He tried to breathe, but each breath was mixed with smoke and iron, making the act extremely difficult.The ground beneath him trembled. Different sounds came to him at once. — tires bursting, glass giving way, a distant scream in the thick of the heat– It sounded like someone was going through something worse than pain. His vision stuttered in and out of focus: orange, gray, orange again. The car — what was left of it — burned a few meters away, flames clawing at the air.He tried to move. His fingers twitched first, then his arm. Pain flared sharp and blinding up his side. He bit down a groan, dragging himself forward an inch, then another.“Selene…”Her name came out more like air than sound.She had been right there — just a few seconds before everything went white. He’d turned to say something, something meaningless, maybe, an
Chapter Sixty - four
The television light flickered across the white walls. Eli had muted it an hour ago, but the footage kept looping — fire, smoke, flashing lights — all the things his mind refused to let rest. The ache behind his eyes had dulled to a steady throb, though the weight in his chest had only grown heavier with time.The door opened softly. At first, he thought it was another nurse coming to check his vitals, but the voices that followed weren’t hospital tones.“Damn,” Carlos muttered under his breath as he stepped in. “He looks like hell.”Lucia nudged him sharply. “You think that’s helpful?”Eli blinked, focusing. “Carlos?”“Yeah, man. It’s us.” Carlos’s voice was tight with something between worry and relief. He motioned to the others behind him — Lucia, Karim, and Bruno. “We heard what happened.”Bruno shut the door quietly while Karim lingered near the foot of the bed, his expression grim.“We saw the news,” Lucia said, walking closer, her dark hair tied back in its usual neat braid. “E
Chapter Sixty - five
Eli had tried watching tv when sleep refused to come, turning the TV off when the light from the screen was doing little to cure his boredom and increasing the headache behind his eyes, the faint glow from the monitors painting thin shadows across the wall. He’d stopped trying to sleep after the second hour — every time he closed his eyes, he kept having flashes of the noise. Fire. The flash. The sound of Selene’s voice breaking through static.Now it was just him, the hum of machines, and the slow tick of the clock above the door.He didn’t know if the ache in his chest was from the bandages or the weight of everything that still didn’t make sense.When the nurse came in around midnight, he pretended to be asleep, hoping she’d just leave. But she paused at his bedside, adjusted something on the monitor, and said quietly, “You should really try to rest. It’s the only thing your body needs right now.”Eli kept his eyes shut a moment longer before answering. “If I could, I would.”Her t
Chapter Sixty - six
Eli felt his hair stand on ends as soon as he opened his eyes that morning. He ran his free hand through his bed checking to see if there was anything he could use as a weapon, sighing in defeat when he saw nothing. Blinking rapidly, trying to calm his nerves, he turned slightly to face the intruder.Clara rose from where she sat, moving closer to Eli’s bed. “I see you are awake, I thought you just might never wake up.” “What do you want, what are you doing here.” Eli asked, his fingers balled into fist. “Who let you in?” “Calm down Eli, I had to make sure my business partner and Leonhart's son was doing okay, although I can't say the same for Selene.” She finished with a slight smile displayed on her lips.Eli's first thought was why they would let Clara in when he hadn't said they should, then he remembered Carlos, Lucia, Karim and Bruno had also come for a visit unexpectedly, making him realise this hospital wasn't as safe as he had thought and keeping Selene here was starting
Chapter Sixty - seven
Eli finally let his shoulders fall back against the pillow. His pulse was still uneven, his ribs aching with every breath, his might still racing with thoughts he couldn’t find answers to. The room didn’t feel like a room anymore — it felt like a box closing in on him, the air thin.Clara’s perfume lingered, making it even more difficult for him to breathe. He was going to have to do something about her unexpected visit, also make sure she couldn’t visit a second time.He shut his eyes and tried to exhale the tension out of his chest, but it stayed there, tight and coiled.It wasn’t even three minutes before the door opened again.This time, he felt more relaxed, like he could guess who had walked in.Lucia stepped in with an energy that made the room feel less heavy — hair in a messy braid, jacket thrown on without much thought, eyes scanning him instantly like she was checking for new injuries. Carlos followed right behind her, closing the door quickly and locking it, even though no
Chapter Sixty - eight
The quiet in the room didn’t feel like quiet anymore, – it felt unbearable like a cage sucking him in.He lowered himself slowly into the chair Lucia had dragged earlier, biting back a small wince as his ribs protested. He wasn’t supposed to be moving at all. He knew that. But he also knew he wasn’t staying in that hospital bed to stare at the ceiling and wait.Waiting made him feel helpless.And if there was one thing he refused to be right now, it was helpless.He leaned forward slightly, elbows on his knees, staring at the door as though Clara might choose that exact moment to reappear. He knew she wasn't though, she was going to give him time, – appear when he least expected.Still… he watched the doorway anyway.He didn’t know how many minutes had passed since Lucia and Carlos left with Selene. Five? Fifteen? Forty?Time had stopped making sense hours ago.He tried not to imagine anything going wrong.Tried to breathe evenly.Tried.His phone buzzed.Carlos: They’re prepping her
Chapter Sixty - nine
For a moment, Eli couldn’t breathe.He could tell this didn’t come from just fear or pain. – It was a mix of both, with the added uncertainty of what the message and Selene’s fate might be. He stared at the message long enough for the screen to dim, the words still burned behind his eyelids.You should be more careful with your belongings, Eli.Belongings. Selene.He didn’t remember dropping into the chair, but suddenly he was sitting again, leaning forward with one hand braced against his ribs, the other gripping the phone so hard his knuckles whitened. He forced himself to inhale slowly, let the air fill his chest even though it hurt.He couldn’t lose control. Not now. Not when Selene needed him.He re-dialed Carlos immediately.“Eli—” Carlos’s voice came through, still shaky, but clearer than before. “They’re not here. I swear she was—”“Listen.” Eli’s tone dropped low, steady, in control. – despite feeling all the control escape his hands. “Stay exactly where you are. Do not lea