Soulbound Mark

The hot summer sun’s golden rays felt pleasant on Elena’s skin as she made her way through the crowded streets of the Central Axis District. A glimmer of happiness warmed her heart, and the corners of her mouth quirked up. She had just left her home and was on the way to her flower shop, a place she cherished very much.

As a green witch, she specialized in the natural magic of herbs and flowers, and thus she felt right at home in her shop, where she kept a plethora of plants. While she was fond of her magic, Elena would much rather be a regular human. She longed for a mundane life without dangers, without knowing about the supernatural beings that roamed the earth.

Nowadays, witches and wizards are hard to find. They had been persecuted for centuries, killed mercilessly by people who had feared their powers. Not many had survived the brutal witch hunts of the Middle Ages, and those who had come out alive had fled from Europe to other continents. Sadly, no matter where they went, they always encountered new dangers. While witch hunts laid the distant past and humans had forgotten about their existence, threats to their lives had not disappeared. Now, it was vampire clans they needed to be afraid of.

Elena’s own parents had been murdered by such a vampire clan because they had refused to work for them. Her mother and father hadn’t wanted to use their magic for something bad and paid with their lives, leaving Elena behind. She had to endure their loss while fleeing from the vicious clan that had set its sights on her as well. She had only been 19 at the time, barely an adult, and she had quickly learned to maintain a low profile. Even now that she was 24 years old, her fear of being found was alive.

Elena had not forgiven the vampires for murdering her family—and she hated them with every fiber of her being. At least, that was what she liked to tell herself.

The truth was that she was terrified of these beings. They were strong, insanely fast, and could hunt people down for miles with their superior sense of smell. If a vampire chased you down, it was nearly impossible to escape. Whenever she spotted one of them wandering the streets of New York, she turned around and walked the other way, praying that her charms and protection spells would be enough to fool them. Vampires could sense the magic of witches, so she needed to use her charms at all times. She never left her home without them, and so far, they had not let her down, hiding her magic successfully.

Therefore, Elena wasn’t all too concerned when she sensed the looming presence of a vampire nearby as she navigated through the crowd of humans in Central Axis District. She simply changed directions and swerved to the left, entering a different shopping street. As she moved on, she took a glimpse at her phone, checking her most recent chat with her friend Willow, a young werewolf who had recently found her soulmate. Her endless daydreaming about him was amusing to Elena. They acted like newlyweds. The last time she had met them, they had held hands nonstop.

She envied them.

They shared a beautiful bond. Mark and Willow trusted each other blindly. Elena herself had never had a relationship like theirs. Her boyfriend, Steph, was not the sweet type of person. He hardly showed affection, and hand-holding was something he generally didn’t do. Not even when she wanted to.