Blood and Moonlight - Saga 1:The Cursed Bond

Aria’s POV

The night felt strange from the moment I stepped out of the café.

The air was colder than usual, carrying that damp, metallic scent that always comes before a storm. The city lights bled into the fog, turning everything into shades of gold and gray. My reflection followed me in every dark window I passed, tired eyes, messy ponytail, the same worn coat I’d been meaning to replace.

It was almost one in the morning. I’d stayed late again, counting tips and wiping tables after everyone left. The streets were empty now, too quiet for a city that never really sleeps. I pulled my hood up and walked faster.

At first, I thought the sound behind me was just my imagination. The faint scrape of something hard against the pavement. I slowed. It stopped. When I turned around, nothing was there, just an alley, a flickering streetlight, and the rain dripping from the edges of a trash bin.

I let out a shaky laugh. “Get a grip, Aria,” I whispered.

But then I smelled it.

Something sharp, wet, and wrong. Like rust and fur. The kind of scent that doesn’t belong in a human world. I wrapped my coat tighter around me and quickened my pace. My pulse wouldn’t slow down. Every instinct told me to keep moving, yet every step made me feel like something was getting closer.

That’s when I heard the growl.

It came from somewhere behind me, deep and guttural, too low to be human. The sound froze the breath in my chest. I turned toward the noise, my eyes searching the dark. Something moved between the buildings. For a split second, I saw it. A shape that didn’t belong. Broad shoulders. The glint of teeth. Red eyes.

My bag slipped from my shoulder as I stumbled back. I didn’t even scream, I just ran.

The streets blurred around me, my shoes splashing through puddles. The growl followed, closer and closer. I turned into an alley, praying it would lead somewhere, anywhere. My chest burned. I could hear claws scraping on the ground.

Then a hand caught my wrist.

I gasped and spun around, ready to fight, but before I could do anything, a voice stopped me.

“Don’t move.”

The sound wasn’t loud, but it cut through me like a command. My body went completely still. The fear in my chest dulled, replaced by something else, an unfamiliar calm that scared me even more.

He stood right in front of me.

A man, tall and still as stone, dressed in black from head to boots. Rain dripped from his hair and ran down a sharp jawline. But it was his eyes that trapped me. They glowed faintly gold, not from the light, but from something alive beneath the surface.

Before I could speak, the creature burst from the darkness behind him.

It moved fast, too fast. But he was faster. I didn’t even see him move, just a blur, a sound like wind, and then a roar that shook the air. The thing hit the wall, hard enough to crack it. When I blinked, the man was already standing over it, his hand wrapped around its throat.

The creature twitched once and went still.

I pressed my back against the wall, shaking. I wanted to ask what just happened, who he was, what that thing had been, but the words refused to come. He turned toward me, his expression unreadable.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said. His voice was low and rough, like it carried weight.

My mouth felt dry. “What—what was that?”

He looked down at the body. “A rogue,” he murmured, almost to himself. “It shouldn’t have gotten this close to the city.”

When his eyes returned to me, something flickered behind them, curiosity, confusion, maybe even recognition. “Did it bite you?”

I shook my head quickly. “No. I don’t think so.”

He stepped closer. The air shifted, thickening with something I couldn’t name. My heart started to race again, not from fear this time, but from something else entirely. The scent around him was strange, woodsmoke, rain, and wild earth. It filled my lungs, made my skin feel hot.

He tilted his head slightly, studying me. “Your scent…” His voice softened, barely a whisper. “It’s impossible.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, my voice trembling.

He hesitated before answering. “Kael Draven.”

I frowned. “That’s your name?”

“Yes.”

Something in the way he said it made the air hum between us. I didn’t know him, but when his gaze locked with mine, a strange awareness rippled through me. Like I knew him from somewhere deeper than memory. My pulse drummed in my ears.

“What are you?” I whispered.

He held my gaze for a long moment. “Not your enemy,” he said finally. “But you shouldn’t have been out here tonight. The blood moon draws them out. It awakens things best left sleeping.”

I swallowed hard. “Awakens what?”

His expression changed, like he wanted to tell me but couldn’t. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

He took another step closer, and my breath caught. His eyes weren’t just gold now, they burned with light. I could see faint scars on his neck, like claw marks healed long ago. He looked both human and something far beyond it.

Then he said my name. “Go home, Aria.”

My entire body went cold. “How do you know my name?”

He didn’t answer. His eyes flared again, and for a heartbeat, I felt something brush against my mind. Warmth spread through my chest, slow and steady, until my legs felt weak. The world tilted, the rain fading into silence.

And just like that, he was gone.

The alley was empty. The body had vanished. Only the rain and the faint scent of smoke remained.

I stood there for what felt like forever, staring at the spot where he had been. Every part of me shook. My mind screamed to make sense of what just happened, but deep down, something inside me whispered that this night wasn’t a coincidence.

Something inside me had woken up.

And whatever it was, it was calling his name.

~~~~~~

By the time I made it home, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

I locked the door, slid down against it, and tried to breathe. The room was silent except for the ticking clock and the rain tapping against the window. It should have been comforting, but the silence only made everything louder inside my head. The memory of what I’d seen, the creature, the man, the way his eyes glowed, kept looping in my mind like a nightmare that refused to fade.

I pressed my palms to my face.

“What the hell was that?” I whispered into the quiet.

I tried to reason with myself. Maybe I’d been tired, hallucinating after a long shift. Maybe it had been a wild animal and some stranger who happened to show up at the right time. But that didn’t explain the voice that froze me in place or the way he knew my name. And it definitely didn’t explain how one second there was a body in the alley, and the next there wasn’t.

I got up and walked to the sink, turning on the tap just to hear something normal. The cold water ran over my trembling fingers. My reflection stared back at me from the kitchen window, pale, wide-eyed, and uncertain. I didn’t look like someone who’d just been attacked by a monster. I looked like someone waking up from a dream she couldn’t escape.

My heart still hadn’t settled. It beat fast and heavy, like it was trying to keep up with something that wasn’t there. Every few minutes, a rush of heat spread across my chest, then faded, leaving me dizzy. I pressed a hand to my collarbone. My skin felt warm beneath my touch, almost feverish.

Something wasn’t right.

I went to the bathroom mirror and lifted the edge of my collar. A faint mark, almost invisible, curved just below my neck. I hadn’t noticed it before. It wasn’t a bruise exactly, more like a shimmer beneath the skin, a trace of gold that vanished when I blinked. My stomach twisted.

“What’s happening to me?” I whispered.

I backed away from the mirror, shaking my head. This wasn’t real. None of it made sense. Maybe I’d fallen and hit my head. Maybe the mark had always been there, and I was just too paranoid to remember. But the moment I said that, something deep inside me stirred, a pulse, like the echo of a heartbeat that wasn’t my own.

Then I heard it.

A voice, soft and distant, curling through the quiet of my apartment.

“Sleep.”

It wasn’t spoken aloud. It was inside my mind, familiar and low. Kael’s voice.

I froze, my breath catching in my throat.

“No,” I whispered. “I’m imagining this. I have to be.”

But the warmth spread again, slower this time, wrapping around me like a tide. My knees went weak. I stumbled toward the couch and sank down, pulling my blanket over me. The world tilted in gentle waves. The hum of the city outside faded. I fought to keep my eyes open, but the moment I did, I saw his face again, the stranger with golden eyes standing in the rain.

The darkness took me before I could resist it.

When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t in my apartment anymore.

I stood in the middle of a forest, the air thick with fog. The trees stretched high above me, their leaves whispering secrets to the wind. Silver light spilled across the ground. The moon hung low and red, bathing everything in the color of blood.

My bare feet sank into the soil. The earth was warm. Alive. The sound of distant howls echoed through the woods, a haunting chorus that made my chest tighten.

“Where am I?” I whispered.

And then I saw him.

Kael.

He stood a few feet away, half in shadow, his eyes glowing faintly gold just like before. The sight of him made something deep inside me tighten, a strange ache I didn’t understand. He looked less human here, too still, too powerful.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said again, his voice softer this time, but it carried through the air as if the forest itself listened to him.

I wanted to speak, to ask what this place was, but my throat closed. I couldn’t find words.

He stepped closer, slow and deliberate, his gaze never leaving mine. “You felt it, didn’t you?”

“Felt what?” I managed to whisper.

“The bond.”

The word struck something in me. The heat beneath my skin flared, and I took a step back. “What bond? I don’t know you.”

He stopped in front of me, close enough that I could see the faint lines around his eyes, the glint of moonlight against his jaw. His presence filled the air, warm and heavy, almost magnetic.

“You may not know me,” he said quietly, “but your blood does.”

Before I could respond, the wind picked up, carrying a strange sound, like whispers weaving through the trees. Kael’s head turned sharply toward the dark. His entire body tensed.

“They’ve found you,” he said under his breath. “You need to wake up.”

“What—”

The ground split beneath my feet. The forest blurred, spinning into a haze of color and light. I tried to reach for him, but he was already fading. The last thing I saw was the golden glow of his eyes and the faint trace of worry in them.

Then I was back in my apartment, gasping for air. My blanket was tangled around me, my skin damp with sweat. The city outside was still dark, but a pale strip of dawn touched the edge of the sky.

I sat there for a long time, staring at nothing, my hands trembling in my lap. The mark on my neck burned softly beneath my skin.

None of this was normal. None of this was human.

Somewhere out there, Kael Draven was real. And whatever had awakened inside me tonight, it was tied to him.