HUNTED

Damon continued to use the torch as a means to move the cobwebs out of the way. Aila stood behind him, watching in anticipation; she felt like Indiana Jones on a quest for treasure or artefacts, whatever it was that kinky professor with a whip did. Aila shifted her weight from each foot, deciding if Damon looked good with a hat on or not.

"Damon with a hat and whip.. Hmm, quite the hench Indiana Jones there.." Malia snickered.

"I know who I\'d pick. Damon is definitely hotter.." Aila murmured as her eyes were locked on the door that had a silver padlock on. 

Damon finished removing the cobwebs and the spiders that fled to the ceiling. She shuddered again and then reached forwards to touch the padlock; she hissed in pain and retracted her hand.

"What did you do that for?!" Damon growled and grabbed her hand, turning it over to see the burnt skin slowly healing.

"I wanted to check if it was pure silver.." Aila grimaced and pouted, looking down at her fingers.

Damon looked at her flabbergasted, "I am quite certain it was silver.. I wouldn\'t have even tried to check!"

Aila looked back up at his robust features, "But why is there silver in a house full of werewolves?" What was her family hiding?

Damon looked back at the door with narrowed eyes, "I guess we will find out. Hold on." He jogged down the hallway grumbling about how Aila was troublesome and went out of her way to hurt herself. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, waiting patiently with her foot tapping by the disappearance of her mate.

He arrived back with a shotgun in his hand. Aila did a double-take, "I\'m sorry.. what do you expect to do with that?"

"Shoot the lock off…" Damon looked in the barrel before cocking the gun and aiming at the padlock. 

Aila backed away and covered her ears, "Are you sure that works? I feel like movies fake this sort of-" 

BANG!

She jumped on the spot from how loud the gunshot was. It elicited the memory of gunshots from the night of the hunter\'s attack on the mansion and the night when she escaped them a month ago. The padlock opened and dropped to the floor; other parts of the door had bullet holes scattered across it, also from the shotgun. 

Damon kept the gun raised as he tentatively walked towards the door; with one swift kick, the door swung open. Tension filled the air from the ominous presence in the darkened room. They held their breaths, waiting for something to jump out at them. When nothing did jump out at them, Aila strolled forwards against Damon\'s grunted wishes and walked through the doorframe. 

The moment her foot passed the entryway, the torches set alight on the walls along with the wooden chandelier filled with candles. Cobwebs were woven across parts of the torches and chandelier, making Aila glance at the high ceilings in case a spider decided to land on her. She stopped and looked around the chamber made from stone; the room had a chill to it, causing a shiver to run down her spine. The arched ceilings were held up with pillars, and the sound of the wavering flames and the dripping of water was all that could be heard in an otherwise silent room. 

Damon was close behind her now, his hands still on the shotgun, but pointed down by his side. Aila stepped forwards; her eyes were now locked on a stone coffin raised above the ground at the far end of the room. Her brows drew together as she approached it, her hand reached out towards it, but Damon smacked it away. She looked at him, confused.

"Don\'t touch anything, Aila. Have you never watched any adventure films?" Damon chastised. Aila bit her lip, holding back a chuckle. This was the first time she had seen Damon seeming normal, like your everyday hunky man that liked to watch movies without the weight of a pack or two on their shoulders.

She raised her hands in surrender, "Okay, okay. I just want to see who\'s in there. And why the hell was this place locked up?"

Aila continued to walk forwards and looked down at the stony coffin:

Herein lies Amelia Cross, mother, wife, and Queen.

That was it; there was no other writing on the tomb. Across from Amelia\'s grave was Mathias\'s with the exact engraving: 

Herein lies Mathias Cross, father, husband, King.

The tension left Aila\'s shoulders, and she sighed, "Well, that was disappointing. What\'s through there?"

Aila pointed her chin at another door adjoining the room. This was also covered in cobwebs and a silver padlock. Damon removed the cobwebs with the shotgun before blasting another set of bullets into the lock. He kicked the door open and marched straight through this time. Aila followed behind and peered around his broad back, another tomb was in the middle, but the top seemed to be broken. 

Rubble was scattered on the ground. Aila crept forwards by Damon\'s side as she glanced around the chamber before her eyes landed on the skeleton lying inside the tomb. Aila rolled her eyes as if she would find anything else in a grave. But her eyes narrowed when she saw a bloodied handprint on the side of it. 

Damon inspected the walls, where some shelves seemed to be attached to the wall along with some dusty books. While Aila went closer to the tomb, she removed her eyes from the handprint and glanced at the rubble on the ground. Unlike her ancestor\'s tombs in the other room, this one still had some writing engraved into the stone though it was in pieces. Though bits were missing, it only appeared to be part of a name: Cass

Her brows knitted together, Cass? What could that be short for? Who was this? Why were they locked up even more than Amelia and Mathias? There were rusted chains on the ground as well, looking as though the tomb wasn\'t enough to keep a dead person in. 

"Unless they weren\'t dead? Maybe they were buried alive?" Malia suggested. Aila\'s brows raised as she blinked slowly, contemplating what could have possibly happened in the past.

"But if they were sealed in a tomb made out of stone.. something they couldn\'t lift.. Unless, of course, they were a werewolf.." Aila trailed off as she approached the tomb again, inspecting the inside of it and finding even more chains at the bottom, where the skeleton\'s feet lay. 

She sighed and muttered aloud, "These chains must have been wrapped around this person.. There\'s no way they could have got out of it.."