It started with silence.

The kind that filled your ears, not with peace, but with pressure. Like the moment before a storm breaks. Like the breath held in before the scream.

For days after the Gathering, that silence followed me. Into the hallway. Into the shower. Into sleep.

I’d felt eyes before—but this was different.

It wasn’t just that I was being watched.

It was that I was being hunted.

Alexander noticed the shift too. He stopped pretending things were fine. We saw each other daily now—mostly in my apartment, or walking the alley behind it where no one could overhear.

“They’re coming closer,” he told me one evening, eyes flicking to the rooftops.

“Who?”

“Others. Rogues. Unaligned.”

“Like vampires?”

“They were like us. Once.”

“And now?”

He hesitated. “Now they want your blood, Jess.”

My stomach twisted. “Why?”

“Because you woke something up. In them. In us. We don’t know what it means. But to them, you’re not a person anymore. You’re a prophecy.”

I started carrying pepper spray.

It didn’t help.

A week after the Gathering, I woke up with blood on my pillow. My nose hadn’t bled. I hadn’t cut myself. It wasn’t mine.

On the mirror, written in what looked like the same blood:

CHOOSE.

I screamed. Aiden burst into the room. I shoved him back out, making up some excuse, locking the door. My hands were shaking so hard I couldn’t even text Alexander. I called.

He answered before the first ring finished.

“Don’t leave your apartment,” he said.

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“I’m coming now.”

He was there in minutes. Veronica came with him, and for the first time, I saw her afraid.

“It’s happening faster than we thought,” she said.

“What is?” I asked.

“The awakening.”

That night, I couldn’t sleep. My skin felt wrong. Tight. Like something was growing underneath.

I scratched until I bled.

And then I dreamed.

Only this time, I knew it wasn’t a dream.

I was in the church again. But it was burning.

The stained glass shattered, raining down like teeth. Shadows moved between the pews. I walked forward. My feet didn’t touch the ground.

In front of me stood Caelum. And behind him—Seth, Veronica, Alexander.

“You have to choose,” Caelum said. “You can’t stay on the edge forever.”

“What if I don’t want this?” I asked.

He looked over my shoulder.

“Then he will take it.”

I turned.

A figure stood in the fire. Not quite a man. Not quite a beast. His face was wrong. Like it had been human once, and someone had peeled it back to reveal too much.

His mouth opened. Rows of teeth.

And then I felt it.

Pain.

Real. Burning. Searing through my shoulder.

I woke up screaming.

My hoodie was torn. Blood soaked the sleeve. There were marks.

Teeth marks.

Alexander paced while Veronica cleaned the wound.

“It shouldn’t be possible,” she muttered. “Not like this. Not through a dream.”

“It wasn’t a dream,” I said. My voice didn’t sound like mine.

“It was a bridge,” Alexander said. “And he crossed it.”

“Who is he?”

They didn’t answer.

I looked at them. “Tell me.”

Alexander met my gaze. “His name is Lucien. He was once like us. Until he decided we were weak.”

Veronica added, “He thinks feeding should be public. Loud. Sacred. He believes in domination. That humans should serve us. And he believes you are the vessel to bring that vision to life.”

“Why me?” I asked.

“You’re the last of a bloodline,” Alexander said. “You carry something ancient. Something neither side fully understands.”

I stood. “Then take it out. Bleed it out. I don’t want it.”

“You can’t,” Veronica said. “It’s who you are.”

“I didn’t choose this.”

“No,” Alexander said. “But you can choose what you become.”

The next night, we went back to the church. It was empty. Still scarred from the dream.

“I need to finish it,” I said.

“Finish what?”

“The bite.”

Alexander flinched. “Jess—no.”

“You said I was in-between. I’m tired of being nothing. If I’m going to be hunted, I want teeth.”

Veronica stepped back. “It has to be willing.”

“I am.”

Alexander’s hands trembled. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“I do.”

He looked into my eyes. I saw pain there. And fear. And something else.

He stepped forward.

“Then close your eyes.”

I did.

His breath was cold against my neck.

Then—

Pain.

Sharp. Deep. Fire through my veins.

Then—

Light.

When I opened my eyes, the world had changed.

Every color too bright. Every sound a symphony. Every heartbeat—near and far—thudding like music.

I gasped.

Veronica caught me before I collapsed.

“It’s done,” she said. “You’re not human anymore.”

“I never was,” I whispered.

Outside, something howled.

And inside, something else… woke.