Jude’s POVI woke to the quiet pulse of my encrypted phone buzzing on the nightstand.The sky outside was still painted in bruised blue, morning barely rising. I blinked the sleep from my eyes, mind slow to realign. My body ached—the aftershock of feeding too late, too fast. My fangs throbbed. My throat was dry.But the notification was insistent.I turned to the screen.[1 Secure Message: Xalor]I sat up instantly.My fingers danced across the lock rune. The phone opened.Three image attachments. No text. Just GPS data embedded deep in the encrypted code.I frowned.Three estates. All high-end. Each one hidden, rural, far off the map. Each one protected by spell-veiled sigils and private roads. I recognized at least one of them as an old outpost from the Northern Dominion—long abandoned.The second one… It looked new. Built in human style, but the architecture whisper
Raymond’s POVI waited until Jude fell asleep.It wasn’t easy. He never slept like a human. He rested, sure, but only in that strange, half-alive trance vampires do. Eyes closed. Muscles loose. But even in sleep, he could hear a shadow move three rooms away.But tonight? He was exhausted. From the fighting. From me.So I waited.When I was sure he wouldn't notice, I slipped on my jacket, pulled the manor door shut behind me, and stepped into the night.I didn’t have a plan. Not really. Just a need.A need to feel like myself again. A need to breathe. To move. To stop feeling like a caged secret wrapped in someone else’s war.I walked until the lights dimmed and the buildings faded into steel skeletons and rusted fences. Until the city turned into the edge of nowhere.The train yard.It was an old one. Abandoned. Cracked rails stretched out under moonlight, warped from years of
Raymond’s POVIt’s really been a long time,” the old woman said, her voice soft, brittle like autumn leaves. Her wrinkled hand reached out to touch my arm as I passed, and I froze mid-step.I turned slowly.She was sitting on her usual wooden stool outside her tiny shop, just beside the narrow bend of the main road in our countryside town. The sun had started to dip low, spilling gold across the cracked pavement and the rusted sign that said: “Ora’s Corner: Fruits & Stuff.”I blinked.“Ora?”She smiled, and the years melted away in her eyes.“Well, if it ain’t my favorite runaway boy,” she said with a slow chuckle. “You still look too skinny, Raymond. What’re they feeding you in the city, air sandwiches?”My lips parted, but for a second, I couldn’t speak. I hadn’t heard anyone say my name with that much affection i
Jude’s POVI watched Selene disappear through the double doors of the gallery like smoke in moonlight. Her heels clicked once on the marble, then silence. The night swallowed her whole. I didn’t move for a few seconds. Didn’t blink. Just watched the door long after it had closed, eyes narrowed, jaw tight.I needed answers.I turned from the gallery’s shadow-stained lobby and walked into the night, my boots meeting wet pavement with purpose. The city had grown colder since sunset. My coat caught the wind, black fabric trailing behind me like a second shadow.My Bugatti sat at the far end of the block, parked where streetlamps barely touched it. Custom matte black finish. Reinforced windows. Magic-proof. Runed tires.I slid into the driver’s seat and closed the door with a dull, satisfying thunk.Silence.Just me and the hum of something shifting in the dark.I leaned back, exhaled, and
Jude’s POVSelene took a step back from the painting, her eyes still fixed on the blood-red canvas like it whispered only to her. Her hands folded behind her back, fingers twitching beneath her velvet sleeves.“This gallery is quaint,” she said after a long silence. “Very human. Smells like varnish and regret.”I didn’t answer. I was too busy reading her.She was calm. Too calm.That was never a good sign.Selene didn’t just wander. She moved like a queen in a game no one else could see. Every step was strategy. Every word a seed.So I waited.And finally, she gave it to me.“I want to see your world, Jude.”I narrowed my eyes. “You're already in it.”“Not the gallery,” she said, turning to face me. “Not the coffee-stained sidewalks and crumbling alleys. I want to see what you’ve built.”&ldq
Raymond’s POVI needed air.Not the kind that tasted like blood and smoke. Not the kind soaked in magic and war.Just... air.So I left the manor. Left Raymond pacing upstairs, lost in his own fear. Left the tension behind me like a second skin I couldn’t wait to shed.The city was thick with twilight by the time I walked the streets alone. No guards. No shadows clinging to my coat. Just me. Disguised. Low profile.I wore black from neck to heel, a wool trench over my frame, hood pulled halfway down. No one looked twice. They never did. Not unless I wanted them to.I wandered until my steps led me to a narrow building tucked between a flower shop and an abandoned hotel. Tall, whitewashed walls. A single brass sign hung crooked above the door: Gallery Nocturne.I remembered it. From years ago. A place where forgotten artists hung haunted portraits and sculpted things that only made sense after dark.