The rain hadn’t stopped for hours.

Thunder rolled across the sky like the growl of a waking beast, rattling the stained glass windows as lightning split the night. The storm was angry—wild—as if the sky itself had sensed what was coming.

I stood near the window, arms wrapped around myself, the wind shrieking outside like a warning I couldn’t quite hear.

Valen hadn’t returned yet.

Not from the commander. Not from whatever kept him too long this time.

And something in my chest twisted, tight and wrong.

A knock. Not soft. Not like before.

This one was brisk. Controlled.

I hesitated.

Another knock. Then a voice—too familiar.

“Lilith. It’s me. Open the door. Quickly.”

It was Lucien. White hair. Pink eyes. Always calm, always precise.

I opened the door—

And that was my mistake.

Because it wasn’t Lucien who met my gaze.

It was his face, yes—but the eyes were wrong. Cold. Empty. His hand came up too fast, a flicker of silver flashing before everything went black.

The rain soaked his coat, shadows licking at his heels as he returned through the stone corridor, boots echoing with each step.

He knew the moment something was off. The scent in the air—wrong. The guards—missing. And her presence—gone.

His chest tightened.

His voice was a whisper, but it echoed like a promise:

“Little flame.”

He didn’t find her in the room.

But he found the trace of magic. A spell meant to bind.

And the faintest smear of blood on the doorframe.

He knew the signature.

The traitor had acted.

And they had taken her

The claw in the shrine pulsed.
The mirrors shattered—one by one—as the storm outside howled louder, as if the sky itself screamed in fear.

Valen stood in the center of the room, eyes glowing red-hot, like coals beneath ice.
The scent of Lilith’s blood still lingered faintly on his fingers.

She was gone.
Taken.

And something inside him snapped.

“No more hiding,” he whispered.

The shadows bent around him, responding like hounds to a master finally off the leash. His glamour peeled away—no more polished suits, no more soft-spoken nobility. Just power. Old, terrible, and absolute.

His guards backed away as he stormed through the halls, barefoot and bleeding from his palms—fingernails replaced by claws, fangs bared.

“Find them,” he snarled to the darkness, voice inhuman. “Bring me the traitor’s name. Bring me every soul that knew.”

A vampire captain stepped forward. “Master—”

Valen grabbed him by the throat. “If she bleeds because of our failure,” he said quietly, “you all bleed.”

He threw him aside and turned, eyes fixed forward.
He knew where they’d taken her.
There were only a few who had the knowledge, the audacity, and the hatred.

And there was no more patience left in him.

Meanwhile – Lilith

I woke to the cold. Shackled in a room that smelled of mildew and old stone. Rain dripped from cracks in the ceiling.

My cheek stung. And my head ached.

But my heart… it knew.

Valen is coming.

Even now, I could feel something—someone—moving through the world like a force of nature.

Coming for me.

He arrived at the hidden keep before dawn. Alone.

The guards outside never even had time to scream.

Shadow wolves tore through flesh. Stone walls trembled.

Doors exploded from their hinges as Valen walked, his body soaked in rain and blood, his voice low and sharp as a blade:

“Where is she?”

The last of the guards whimpered an answer. A direction.

Valen didn’t thank him.

He simply vanished—into shadow—reappearing in front of a locked iron door, his claws slicing through it like paper.

The rain hadn’t stopped.

Lightning split the sky like veins across a dying world, casting brief, violent light into the ruined chamber. Wind howled through the shattered windows, and thunder shook the ground like the sky itself was mourning.

And me—
I lay in Valen’s arms, heart thundering. But it wasn’t just mine anymore.

Something inside me had shifted.

I felt too alive. My senses sharp, my skin hypersensitive, my breath echoing like a storm inside my own lungs. My wounds were gone, but the tingling under my skin—the pull toward him—was stronger than ever.

I wasn’t human anymore.

But I wasn’t like him, either.

“Valen…” My voice cracked, strange in my own ears.

He looked at me then. Not as a prince. Not as a monster. Just—him.

Drenched, his black hair plastered to his face, red eyes dimmed but still burning. His mouth parted slightly as if seeing me for the first time.

“What… did you do to me?” I whispered, fingers brushing my own chest like I could still feel the fire inside.

He flinched—not from guilt, but something deeper. Grief? Fear?

“I saved you,” he said hoarsely, “but not without a cost.”

My breath caught.

“What am I now?”
“You’re not a vampire,” he said, almost reverently. “But you’re no longer fully human. My blood awakened something. Something that chose you.”

The storm outside screamed louder. Or maybe it was the scream inside me.

I stood, weak but trembling with the new power rippling through me. I stared at him—this vampire who haunted me, protected me, hurt me, healed me. Who knew things about my mother I didn’t. Who gave me his blood, his protection, his everything.

So I asked him the question that had been building in my chest like a storm of its own.

“Who am I to you?”

Silence.

Only the rain.

Valen rose slowly, step by step, until we were chest to chest. His eyes locked on mine—not glowing now, not threatening.

Just raw. Exposed.

“Everything I was never supposed to want,” he said, voice low and ragged. “Everything I was never meant to have.”

“And now?” I whispered, tears blurring the thunder behind my eyes.

He cupped my cheek, his thumb trembling against my skin.

“Now, I’d burn the whole world to keep you.”

The massive blackstone doors creaked open, echoing through the vast, cathedral-like hall. Rows of nobles turned, whispers blooming like smoke across the polished floor.

And then silence.

Valen entered.

But not alone.

He held me in his arms—cradled against his chest like something fragile, precious… and claimed. Rain still glistened in his hair. His coat hung open, blood staining the fabric. His eyes dared anyone to speak.

Not a servant.
Not a pet.
Not a human.

Not anymore.

“She shouldn’t be here—” a high noble started, rising.

Valen didn’t even glance at him.

“Sit,” he commanded, his voice like thunder’s edge.

And the noble did.

I shifted weakly in his arms, my cheeks hot, aware of the dozens of ancient eyes now fixed on me. I didn’t recognize my reflection anymore—my heartbeat had slowed, but hadn’t vanished. My skin glowed faintly, like I’d been kissed by lightning and the darkness both.

“She’s changed,” murmured a matron with jeweled lips. “What… is she?”

“She drank your blood,” another hissed, stepping forward. “You let her. You gave it freely. Do you understand what that means?”

“I know exactly what it means,” Valen said, his arms tightening around me.

“It’s forbidden—”

“It was.”

The room went still.

Valen’s gaze swept across the court. Regal. Savage. Unapologetic.

“Mark her well,” he said coldly. “She is no longer just a guest in my house. She is under my protection. Mine to guard. Mine to answer for. And if any of you so much as breathe wrong in her direction—”

A tendril of shadow coiled from his feet like smoke from fire.

“You’ll learn what it means to face the wrath of a creature with nothing left to lose.”

The nobles stared, some wide-eyed, some calculating. None spoke.

And in that moment—amid the hush of trembling candles and ancient power—every vampire in the court understood one thing:

Lilith wasn’t a passing fancy.
She was the storm that had shaken Valen’s centuries of restraint.
She was his weakness—and his fire.