Chapter 100: Digging Up Graves, Unearthing Secrets

When the nearby residents had been hurriedly evacuated, they had left behind most of their belongings.

The doors of the abandoned houses still stood open. After wandering into one whose owner she would never know, Sophie borrowed a shovel that looked sturdy enough to survive hard labor. 

Hopefully it's durable enough, she thought to herself. If it breaks... Aro will probably compensate the poor farmer for the loss.

Under Caius' relentless intimidation, Sophie resigned herself to her fate. With a sharp thunk, she drove the shovel into the damp earth, where tangled roots, dead grass, insects, and scattered flower seeds had long become one with the soil. Each swing felt as though she were personally trampling over the reverence she held for the dead, dragging down every moral standard she had ever possessed as a civilized human being.

Fortunately, physical labor became much easier after the first few attempts. Her newborn vampire body was astonishingly strong, making even the grueling task of grave digging seem almost effortless.

Two hundred years had given the countless microorganisms beneath the earth ample time to consume flesh, leaving nothing but gleaming white skeletons exposed beneath the gloomy sky. The scene resembled something lifted straight from a Gothic horror film, complete with open graves and silent bones lying beneath dark, oppressive clouds.

Standing nearby with his arms folded across his chest, Caius supervised the work with his usual icy expression. Whenever Sophie unearthed another skeleton, he merely spared it a casual glance before looking away again.

Annoyed by how little effort he seemed to be contributing, Sophie finally spoke after uncovering yet another set of remains. "Do you really not see any clues at all?"

Caius let out a dismissive snort. "The one you just dug up was a man. He was simply short."

A short man could neither possess a werewolf's bloodline nor give birth to a child.

Sophie nearly choked on her own words. She forced an awkward smile to cover her embarrassment. "Your knowledge is truly impressive. My mistake. I suppose I just haven't seen enough skeletons to tell the difference."

Perhaps because the task had become unbearably tedious, Caius unexpectedly walked over instead of mocking her further. To Sophie' surprise, he patiently explained how to distinguish a skeleton's sex, age, and even whether the woman had given birth by examining the proportions of the pelvis, the spacing of the bones, and their overall structure.

"I'm only teaching this once. If you fail to learn it..." Caius' expression instantly returned to its usual vicious glare. "I'll snap your neck."

Before Sophie could even thank him, he had already reverted to his frightening self.

"I'll learn! I promise!" Sophie hurriedly assured him.

Strangely enough, ever since the day they had left Italy, her memory problems seemed to have disappeared without treatment. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the hazy, dreamlike state she had lived in only ended the moment she resolved to escape Jane's side.

Even so, Sophie remained deeply worried that one day she might fall back into that dreadful emptiness, that terrifying state where her life became nothing but a blank page.

Hopefully, when that day comes, Caius will forgive me for forgetting everything. After all... forgetting isn't the same as failing to learn.

After prying open nearly a hundred graves, Sophie finally noticed something unusual.

In truth, there was something peculiar about the entire cemetery.

Most burial grounds left unattended for two centuries gradually disappeared into nature. Either the deceased had no surviving descendants, or too many generations had passed for anyone to continue maintaining the graves, leaving them abandoned beneath weeds and moss.

Yet this insignificant little town of Dusetos had somehow preserved its two-hundred-year-old cemetery in remarkably good condition.

Of course, perhaps the locals simply placed extraordinary importance on honoring the dead.

But...

"Caius, come take a look."

Inside the grave Sophie had just opened lay two coffins.

One old.

One comparatively new.

As the old coffin was finally exposed to the open air, a familiar scent drifted from its weathered wood.

Every instinct Sophie possessed screamed at her not to touch it.

Without hesitation, she called Caius over.

"Open it."

Having personally fought werewolves before, Caius reacted far more intensely than she did.

The hatred carved into his immortal existence stemmed from a battle long ago, one in which he had nearly lost his life to a werewolf. That ancient grudge had long since become inseparable from his very nature.

The coffins themselves had clearly been crafted from higher-quality timber than the others surrounding them. Sophie wedged the shovel beneath the lid until she managed to create a narrow gap. When the shovel chipped from the strain, she simply tossed it aside and tore the coffin open with her bare hands.

A wave of putrid stench burst outward.

Sophie instinctively held her breath, yet the overwhelming odor still made her stomach lurch.

So this is what grave robbing smells like? Why do movies never mention this part?

Instead of recoiling, Caius stepped even closer.

"It's a werewolf scent."

"A werewolf is buried here?" Sophie quickly retreated until the foul air had dispersed slightly before cautiously approaching again.

The skeleton inside was far too delicate to belong to a werewolf. Judging by the condition of the bones, the deceased had been an exceptionally young woman. She had already given birth before dying, but not long afterward.

Caius corrected her.

"She gave birth to a werewolf."

Together, Caius and Sophie opened the second coffin.

Unfortunately, the newer coffin contained nothing extraordinary at all. Inside rested the skeleton of an ordinary human man. Judging by the burial dates, the two had most likely been husband and wife, with the husband dying many years after his wife.

Sophie carefully wiped the dirt from the weathered gravestone before reading aloud the dates engraved upon it.

"1807 to 1826... nineteen years old. 1804 to 1839... thirty-five years old."

After meticulously examining the woman's coffin, Caius finally reached his conclusion.

"The werewolf scent is extremely strong. She died immediately after giving birth to the pup. Whoever cleaned away the contaminated blood did a careless job. It soaked into both the coffin and the surrounding soil."

Sophie pointed toward the skeleton in the neighboring coffin.

"But you just said her husband wasn't a werewolf."

Caius gave her a strange look.

"Does a child necessarily have to be conceived with the husband?"

Sophie found herself completely speechless.

"Werewolves are savage creatures. Violent, brutal, consumed by their instincts." Caius stood beside her, both of them silently facing the gravestone. "Anything they desired, treasure, women, it was all seized and dragged back to their territory. They imprisoned whoever they captured. They never cared whether those women already had husbands. Once taken, they belonged to the pack."

Sophie slowly accepted that the customs of supernatural races two centuries ago were far removed from modern sensibilities.

"That's... incredibly barbaric. So she eventually found an opportunity to escape?"

"Exactly."

Caius opened his hand.

Resting in his palm was a pair of gold earrings still coated in damp soil.

Sophie leaned in for a closer look. Their craftsmanship was crude, but the metal itself was unmistakably genuine.

"Pure gold." Caius weighed the earrings thoughtfully. "They were buried with her. When she escaped, she must have taken quite a bit of treasure from the werewolves' den as compensation for herself... and for her family."

"Wow..." Sophie couldn't help admiring her. "She was incredibly brave and resourceful."

Unfortunately, that courageous young woman had died from childbirth complications at only nineteen years of age.

Caius, on the other hand, clenched his teeth in fury.

"That wretched woman! She left us with one survivor!"

That lone survivor had apparently inherited not only its mother's courage but also her cunning, ambushing vampire society two centuries later without warning.

Judging from the murderous expression on Caius' face, he seemed more than ready to reduce the werewolf's remains to dust if given the chance.

"Wait!" Sophie quickly interrupted before his anger spiraled further. "What if she escaped together with someone else? We should hurry and open the remaining graves."

Caius arched an eyebrow.

"That sounds exactly like something Aro would say. Suspicious. Cautious. Always expecting hidden possibilities. The two of you really do think alike." He gave a short nod before continuing. "Very well. Aro specifically instructed me to be thorough. If we're going to prevent another survivor from slipping through our fingers, stop standing around and pry open the rest of those graves."

"Yes, Master Caius."

Accepting her miserable fate once more, Sophie retrieved her damaged shovel and returned to digging.

Meanwhile, Caius remained behind to carefully mark the grave and its occupant.

Later, other Volturi guards would work alongside human authorities to investigate the woman's identity.

Especially her descendants.

Once his initial rage subsided, Caius regained his composure. This woman's remains represented the first genuine lead they had uncovered, making them far too valuable to destroy in a fit of anger.

Sophie diligently continued excavating the remaining graves.

Regrettably, no further traces of werewolves were found.

The young woman who had died in 1826 remained their only clue.

Dust clung to Sophie' face and stained the edges of her cloak as she stared across the countless open pits surrounding them.

"So..." she asked while brushing dirt from her sleeves. "Should we bury everything again?"

"No."

With several swift movements, Caius had already crossed beyond the cemetery.

"Aro can deal with the cleanup afterward. Hurry up. We're leaving for the next location."

Beginning with Dusetos, Caius led Sophie westward, retracing the exact route he had taken during his werewolf extermination campaign two centuries earlier.

As one of Earth's most fearsome predators, the lingering scent left behind by werewolf dens still instinctively repelled ordinary wildlife. Thanks to that, the abandoned ruins had remained remarkably well preserved.

Because of this, Caius succeeded in uncovering several genuinely valuable clues.

The journey allowed for almost no rest. By the time they departed France and headed toward their final destination, Caius remained as composed as ever despite the exhausting pace. Sophie, however, was beginning to suffer severe bloodlust.

If she failed to feed soon, she could lose control at any moment, escape Caius' supervision, and throw herself into the nearest crowd of humans.

The necklace hanging against her chest constantly reminded her to preserve the last fragments of her self-control.

Their final destination was England.

Although it was technically possible to force their way through the Channel Tunnel beneath the English Channel, Aro's meticulous planning once again proved invaluable.

Knowing they would be exhausted after days of nonstop travel, he had already prepared a private yacht to ferry them across the sea.

Inside the spacious, luxurious cabin, an ample supply of preserved blood waited inside refrigerated storage.

"Who's steering the boat?"

Still covered in dirt and too thirsty to even remove her cloak, Sophie rushed straight toward the blood bags.

She drained nearly two-thirds of the yacht's entire supply before finally satisfying her thirst. Fortunately, Aro had prepared far more than necessary, leaving the remaining third more than enough for Caius.

Only after the hunger subsided did Sophie notice the scenery drifting past outside the cabin window.

The yacht was already moving.

Which meant someone was piloting it.

After confirming she couldn't detect the scent of any humans aboard, Sophie concluded that the captain could only be another vampire.

Caius had known someone would be waiting for them all along.

"It's Heidi," he answered casually. "Her public identity is that of a tour guide, but she's proficient with every form of human transportation. Next time you decide to wander off on your own, remember to ask Heidi for directions."

The remark was an unmistakable reference to the time Sophie had secretly slipped out of her room, gotten hopelessly lost, and been caught by Caius.

Now that both of them had finally relaxed, they became painfully aware of another problem.

Caius wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"You stink. Right now you smell just like those filthy nomadic vampires outside Volturi territory. Go find somewhere to wash yourself."

Sophie drooped her shoulders.

She had realized long ago how awful she smelled. The odor from days of digging through graves had stubbornly clung to her clothes and skin.

Meanwhile, the man who had assigned her every dirty task remained impeccably clean, looking as elegant and composed as ever.

"Yes, Master Caius."

The moment she turned her back, Sophie rolled her eyes so dramatically it was a miracle they didn't fall out.