CHAPTER 4 : Bound in Gold

Ella's POV 

“Keep moving ,” Adrian pants, dragging me through a rusted side gate and into a crumbling old Catholic church that smells like dust and candle wax .

I stumble after him , claws still out, dripping someone else’s blood . “You said somewhere safe!”

“This is safe,” he snaps, shoving the heavy doors shut behind us, sliding three iron bars across. “For now.”

Moonlight pours through broken stained-glass windows , painting the floor red and blue . I collapse onto a pew, shaking so hard my teeth chatter .

Adrian leans against the altar , bleeding from a dozen places , silver eyes locked on me like I’m a bomb .

“Start talking,” he says, voice raw, pulling a stake from his belt and a gun from his waistband. “Or start screaming.”

I laugh, cracked and ugly. “You gonna kill me now, hero?”

“Answer the question, Ella.”

“What question? What am I? How the hell should I know!”

He steps closer, gun raised. “Claws. Golden eyes. Sparks when I touch you. Pick one.”

“I didn’t ask for any of this !”

“Neither did I!” he shouts, voice breaking . “But here we are!”

I stand up, claws flexing. “Then shoot me! Everyone else wants to!”

He lowers the gun a fraction. “I’m trying not to.”

“Why?” I scream, stepping into his space. “You saw what I did back there!”

“I saw you defend yourself!”

“I slashed a guy’s face off!”

“He was going to rip your throat out!”

“Stop pretending you’re on my side !”

“I am on your side!” he roars , so close I feel it in my chest .

We’re both breathing like we just ran a marathon . The air between us crackles .

“Then why the gun?” I whisper.

“Because I don’t know what you are ,” he says, voice cracking for the first time . “And I’m terrified it’s going to kill you .”

I slap the gun out of his hand . It clatters across the stone floor .

He grabs my wrists to stop me , and golden lightning explodes again , brighter, hotter, searing .

We both cry out.

The pain drops us to our knees , foreheads pressed together, gasping .

“What is this ?” I sob.

“I don’t know,” he groans. “But it’s burning.”

“Look,” I breathe.

Golden lines crawl up both our left wrists, twisting, glowing, forming perfect matching cuffs that sink into our skin like brands.

I try to pull away. Can’t. The marks pulse like heartbeats.

“It hurts,” I whimper.

“I know ,” he whispers , thumbs brushing the glowing lines. “I’m sorry .”

“Don’t be sorry, make it stop !”

“I can’t.”

The doors rattle. Something massive slams against them.

Adrian yanks me behind the altar. “Stay down.”

“Like hell!”

“Ella.....”

“No!” I shove him. “We do this together or not at all!”

He stares at me, silver eyes wrecked. “You don’t even know me.”

“You keep saving me ,” I say. “That’s enough for tonight .”

The stained-glass windows explode inward .

Omaras (face shredded from my claws, still bleeding) and Sorrel drop through, followed by twenty elite vampires in black armor.

“Found you,” Omaras growls, touching his ruined cheek. “This face is permanent, hybrid. I’m going to wear yours next.”

Adrian steps in front of me, blade out . “Over my dead body .”

“Working on it,” Sorrel purrs , licking blood off her fingers .

Adrian charges.

The fight is chaos.

Adrian fights like a storm , blade singing, bodies dropping, but there are too many .

I grab a broken candelabra , swing it like a bat, crack skulls , golden sparks flying everywhere .

Omaras grabs me by the throat , lifts me off the ground . “Time to go home, princess .”

I slash his arm open . He laughs, squeezes harder .

Adrian roars, tackles him off me, gets a sword through the shoulder for it.

Blood pours.

“Adrian!” I scream.

He doesn’t even flinch, keeps fighting, blade buried in another vampire’s chest.

Sorrel grabs my hair. “The king wants you alive. Doesn’t mean unbroken.”

I head-butt her. She staggers.

Adrian’s losing blood fast, movements slowing.

A shadow detaches from the wall.

A man in a hooded cloak steps out, voice like smoke. “Enough.”

Every vampire freezes.

The hooded man (Rhaziel) raises one hand. Shadows explode from the floor, wrap around the elite like chains, crush them to dust.

Omaras roars, breaks free, charges.

Rhaziel flicks a finger. Omaras flies through a stained-glass window, screaming.

Sorrel tries to run. Shadows swallow her whole.

Silence.

Rhaziel turns to us.

Adrian sways, bleeding out, still trying to stay between me and the new guy.

“Easy, hunter,” Rhaziel says. “I’m the one who sent you to that alley tonight.”

“What?” Adrian rasps.

“I needed you to find her before they did,” Rhaziel says, pulling his hood back. Ancient eyes, kind and tired. “You just sealed both your fates.”

He points at our glowing wrists.

“The second those marks locked in, Valerius felt it in his bones. He knows exactly where you are now.”

I clutch Adrian as he staggers. “Who are you?”

“Someone who’s been waiting nineteen years for you to wake up,” Rhaziel says. “The prophecy is real. The hybrid queen and the shadowed king will either destroy the world together… or save it.”

Adrian laughs, weak and bitter. “I’m no king.”

“You are to her,” Rhaziel says simply.

The church doors explode off their hinges.

More vampires pour in.

Rhaziel swears. “No time.”

He grabs both of us.

Shadows swallow everything.

We fall through darkness, choking, spinning.

We land hard on pine needles and dirt.

I cough, roll over. Adrian collapses beside me, blood pooling under him.

“Adrian!” I scream, cradling his head.

His eyes flutter. “If you’re going to kill me… do it fast .”

Tears fall on his face . “I’m not the monster here,” I sob. “You are. And I’m not letting you die tonight.”

Golden marks pulse between our joined hands, light flaring so bright it lights up the forest.

Growls surround us.

Dozens of eyes glow in the dark .

Wolves.

Real wolves.

And men and women with claws and fangs of their own step out, weapons raised.

One massive guy with a scar across his eye snarls, “Hybrid trespasser. Kill on sight.”

ADRIAN’S POV

Everything’s going black.

Ella’s crying over me, golden light pouring from her hands into my chest, burning warm.

I hear the wolves.

I hear the guns cock.

I try to move , to protect her one more time, but my body won’t listen .

Last thing I see : Ella standing over me, claws out, eyes blazing gold and crimson , ready to fight the entire pack for me .

Last thing I think before darkness takes me:

Worth it.