CHAPTER 5: The House Below the City
1100 Words
The photograph smelled faintly of ash and blood.
Aria sat cross-legged on the penthouse floor, the room dim but for the glow of her screenband as it scanned the red ink across the image. She already knew it wasn’t ink. She’d known the moment her fingers came away tacky.
Blood.
Not human.
Not recent.
She leaned in, eyes narrowing as she magnified the jagged scrawl across her brother’s frozen scream: “He screamed last.”
Whoever sent it wasn’t just taunting her—they were sending a signature.
The screenband buzzed.
> SUBSTANCE MATCH: 87% – WOLF-BLOOD, ELDER STRAIN
METADATA DETECTED
SOURCE FILE EMBED: VX-NODE-13.01 / STATUS: DECOMMISSIONED
LAST PING: 5 YEARS AGO / LOCATION: COORDINATES MATCH — WRAITH OPERA HOUSE
Her blood went cold.
The Wraith.
A burned-out opera hall beneath Old City. Condemned. Cursed. And once—long ago—used by House Vex as a secure off-site vault. Aria hadn’t been there since she was thirteen. It wasn’t just forgotten.
It was sealed.
Until now.
---
She wore black.
Not satin or sequins. Not Nova Quinn.
This was Aria Vex—hooded, leather-sleeved, boots tight against her calves. No perfume. No gloss. Just a tracker under her skin and a blade in her boot.
She didn’t tell Dominic where she was going.
She told Kellen.
The city stank of rain and rot when she stepped out of the cab four blocks from the ruins. Kellen waited in the shadows, barely recognizable in a hooded cloak and cracked boots. He didn’t smile. Just nodded once and vanished into a side alley.
She followed.
Through two gates. Down rusted steel stairs. Across a collapsed corridor that stank of mold and time.
And then they stopped at a trapdoor etched in silver glyphs.
Wolf-script.
Her family’s crest.
Kellen placed his palm to the center. “You have to finish it.”
She pressed her hand beside his. Her blood warmed as the lock responded.
It opened.
Below, the Ghost Network waited.
---
The vault still breathed.
Pale lights flickered across old server columns, half-dead but dreaming. Screens glitched faintly. Machines hummed like a heart trying to remember how to beat.
And in the center of it all—a black console pulsed.
Aria crossed to it.
The console scanned her before she could touch it.
> SIGNATURE MATCHED: VEX_ARIA
AUTHORIZATION: LEGACY LOCK ENGAGED
MESSAGE WAITING: 1 UNREAD
She froze.
The timestamp: One hour before the m******e.
The sender: MAERA VEX.
Her aunt.
Dead. Gone. Betrayer.
Or not.
She tapped the console.
The room dimmed. A hologram flared to life above the console.
Maera’s face appeared—hollow-eyed, regal as ever, her silver hair coiled like a crown.
“If you’re seeing this,” she said softly, “then you survived. Or something that was once you did.”
Aria stood rigid.
“I told them it had to burn,” Maera continued. “I told them the Vex name would never change while the old blood still ruled it. We needed evolution. Not extinction. They didn’t listen. So I made deals. With devils.”
Her eyes shifted—just slightly. “But even devils lie. Alric Damaris was never loyal. He wanted you. Your code. Your mind. Your soul.”
A flicker in the image. Distortion.
“You were never meant to die, Aria. You were meant to ascend.”
The feed ended.
Aria stared at the empty space where her aunt’s face had been.
Ascend.
Or be taken.
She barely had time to process the words before the lights in the vault flickered—once. Then again. A whine of static shrieked in the far corner.
Kellen’s voice was a snarl.
“They found us.”
---
The first blow came fast.
A blur of movement—too quick to be a man. A thing burst from the dark, humanoid but not human. Its limbs elongated, eyes black, fangs glittering beneath a broken jaw.
The hybrid landed like a beast born of metal and blood.
It slammed into Kellen, dragging him across the floor. Aria shouted, ran, ducked as claws slashed toward her throat. She rolled under the console table, sprang to her feet, drew the knife from her boot.
It turned to her.
Elongated limbs. Pale skin. Eyes black with tech. Fangs glinting beneath cracked lips. A splice of wolf and vampire. A weapon.
It lunged.
She sidestepped, slashing up. Her blade scraped ribs. Too shallow.
It backhanded her. She flew.
Cracked against the wall. Pain burst in her shoulder. But she didn’t drop the blade.
The hybrid pounced.
She twisted, caught its arm, used its own momentum to flip it into a column. Sparks rained. She dove for the severed steel pipe.
It recovered fast.
Too fast.
She faked right, then swung the pipe with both arms, ramming it into its gut. It shrieked. Not dead.
She drove the blade into its throat.
It spasmed. Twitching. Choking on its own blood.
She shoved harder.
Finally, it collapsed.
Dead.
Smoke curled from its mouth.
Aria stood over the body, breathing hard. Her arms trembled. No claws. No super strength. Just her. Human.
And still alive.
Kellen limped to her side, bloodied but breathing.
"You're not supposed to win," he muttered.
"You know, I never cared for rules," she replied.
---
Dominic arrived in under ten minutes.
He didn’t come alone. His guards secured the perimeter while he stepped into the vault—stopping when he saw the hybrid corpse.
His gaze shifted to her.
Blood streaked her cheek. Her lip was cut. Her body shook beneath her hoodie. She looked like a ghost pulled from a battlefield.
He stepped toward her.
“This is what you didn’t tell me?” he asked quietly.
She didn’t answer.
He looked at the screens. At the message logs. At the Vex crest still glowing faintly.
And then he did something she didn’t expect.
He knelt.
Not to worship.
To vow.
“I told you once,” he said, “you could join me. Fight with me. Burn the world if you had to.”
He looked up.
“But now I see it. You don’t need to be invited. You are the fire.”
She stared down at him.
His voice dropped. “Let me be your shield.”
He didn’t reach for her.
Didn’t touch.
But he knelt with every ounce of his power. As Alpha. As man.
And offered it to her.
Not for command.
For trust.
Aria stood in silence.
Heart wild.
Blood cooling.
And for the first time since her family burned…
She didn’t feel alone.
---
- Writer
