[Viewer Discretion Is Advised.]
Much more louder than Glenn, Rome exclaimed, "Saul Mercer! How did Darlene's brother end up here?"
Rome's mouth gaped as he, too, was baffled by it. The last he recalled was that Kai had hidden Saul's detained body somewhere deep beneath a river that used to stream through the Middle East. However, it had long since dried up. Not to mention, Saul's body shouldn't have been accessible within Egypt's reach to discover him.
"His body must've been carried further downstream during that flood years ago," Glenn speculated, recalling the unrecorded event that occurred seven years after Kai's disappearance.
"I remembered that," Rome recalled. "It was a crazy once-in-a-lifetime event."
"Are you serious!" Kai threw his head back with a sudden throaty chuckle after he read the information posted outside the glass case. "Those foolish humans think he could be a lost pharaoh!"
"Well, he is royalty, so they're not entirely off the mark. It's just a theory," Rome pointed out, defending mankind's accomplishments.
Over time, he enjoyed watching how humans thrived over the millenniums.
"Hmph!" Kai hissed dismissively. "They're brainless beings."
"Remember, our mates are human," Glenn interjected, reminding Kai of their connection to humanity.
"Not for long," Kai grumbled. "The granted humans and the destined mates are the exception."
Already aware of Kai's deep hatred for humans, Glenn sighed. "That's a start," he mumbled more to himself.
Immediately, the corner of Kai's eyes crossed his way from catching some sarcasm in his tone. However, he let it bypass and decided to change the subject.
"Now that we know Saul is here, let's continue searching for my grandparents and their clan," Kai declared, somewhat satisfied that he wouldn't have to figure out where he had hidden Saul's detained body.
Once again, they spread out in search of Vlad or his clan. As Kai examined various mummies that crossed his path, a small, square glass display case snatched his eyes. Curious, he went to the glass display and peered at the ancient papyrus inside.
Written in the vampiric language that only their Kind and destined mates can read, Kai gazed at the very first note he had written for Victoria that specified the clues to find his resting place.
Without Victoria being aware of it yet, he remembered that she had helped him write it during one of her visits to him within her time gap. From what he knew, this event in time hadn't occurred just yet for Victoria, or if it had, then she never mentioned it, but he very much doubted that theory to be the case.
"Place the papyrus inside that amphora and leave it right where it is on the brim of the bath," he recalled her telling him these instructions as these memories flooded back to him.
With some doubt, he questioned her at the time, "Are you sure you'll find it here?"
"I'm certain, Kai," her soothing voice had reassured him.
Coming out of these memories, Kai remained zoned out on the papyrus, but now he roiled in deep anger. "How dare these filthy humans take what belongs to my mate!" he gritted his teeth in intense rage that seethed beneath his gut.
He wasn't sure how the papyrus had ended up here, but he wasn't about to leave it behind. With a resounding crash of shattering glass, he had pushed the glass case off its display stand. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small, eye-dropper bottle. Inside the finger-size bottle concealed a preservative solution that preserved old scripts and books from decaying.
Stupidly, he had forgotten to add the drops after he wrote it. Then again, he only followed Victoria's specific instructions she gave him at the time.
After he added two drops from the eye-dropper, he waited for the papyrus to absorb the solution before rolling it up and tucking it into his suit pocket.
Curious about why Kai caused such a loud disruption, Rome suddenly dashed over to him and asked in a hushed tone. "What happened to being quiet?"
"I'm taking back what rightfully belongs to my mate!" Kai growled, and officially, his temper had flared.
Before Rome had a chance to calm Kai, a commotion interrupted them. Footsteps stomped towards them at a brisk pace as the flickering glow of the flashlights swept through the gallery.
"Who's in here?" barked a security guard as the beam from his flashlight flickered over the ancient relics.
"Hide," Glenn warningly whispered after darting over to them.
Rome and Glenn camouflaged themselves into the shadows, but Kai stayed rooted where he stood. As the light of the flashlight reached Kai, his final straw of patience had already withered.
Behind Kai's legs, the guards spotted the shattered glass all over the floor and the papyrus missing from the stand, and they immediately beamed their flashlights on Kai's face.
"Thief! Stay right where we can see you!" one of the guards shouted, brandishing a handgun at him.
As the other guard cautiously approached Kai to arrest him with the handcuffs, a sudden glossiness crystallized over their eyes. Within that precise second, the flashlights, the cuffs, and the handgun all crashed onto the floor with a loud, ear-piercing clash as Kai took control of their minds with his mind-control gift. Neither guard blinked nor moved one foot out of place.
With the use of his mind-control gift, Kai assertively manipulated both men with an evil smirk, curling his lips, "Go jump off the guardrail."
Fully possessed under Kai's control, their backs straightened, and their shoulders squared firmly. Without halting, they moved like obedient soldiers, marching towards the guardrail. Once their midsections hit the railing, they lunged forward and flipped over the guardrail as their bodies hurled downward in a chilling silence. Echoes of a sickening thud resounded through the gallery as their bodies collided against the floor below.
In regret, Glenn peered over the railing and saw an unseeable view that disturbed him. Blood sprayed and spattered with entrails across the floor, and the bodies were mangled and nearly flat. Bone fragments burst through their skin and uniforms, creating a ghastly tableau of horror.
"Was that necessary?" Glenn questioned, facing Kai from behind him as his calm demeanor belied his heartache caused by Kai's grisly action.
"You should know me by now!" Kai retorted, narrowing his eyes at Glenn with a menacing look.
Due to his respect and the fact that Kai was his Alpha, Glenn submitted his head. "Not all humans are bad," he claimed in a mere mumble.
Although, he comprehended the real reasons why Kai disdained the human race so much.
Darkly shooting another vicious glare at Glenn, Kai refuted, "Seeing how they've been so destructive over time, I don't see where they changed even today."
Humans who discovered vampires always detained their offspring and even killed their human-destined mates and granted humans. Yet their attempts to vanquish all vampires had failed miserably. Therefore, vampires, enemies, and allies alike all decreed that any ungranted humans were to be killed on the spot if they knew about their existence.
As Rome's mouth moved to speak, Kai's rough tone brooked no room for an argument as he asserted, "We need to keep searching!"