HUNGER DEEPER THAN BLOOD

The air in the manor had changed.

It wasn’t just colder—it felt like something old and dangerous had stirred from its slumber.

Evelyn sat at the edge of the grand bed, her fingertips still tingling from where Lucien had touched her wrist hours ago. The mark burned faintly beneath her skin, hidden by the linen bandage, but its heat pulsed with a rhythm that wasn’t hers. It felt like a second heartbeat… one that didn’t belong to her.

She hadn't seen him since the night before. Not even a whisper of his presence. No creak of the old staircases. No fleeting shadow. Just silence.

Too much silence.

When she finally wandered out of the room, drawn by curiosity—or perhaps a need to reassure herself that she hadn’t imagined it all—she found the manor bathed in a strange, dim glow. Candles lined the hallway, flickering faintly. Everything about this place felt abandoned and yet… watched.

She stepped into a room she hadn’t dared to open before.

It was a library. Floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books that smelled like ancient secrets and dust. Her fingers grazed a spine marked in gold.

“History of the Noctem Lineage.”

Noctem.

The name echoed in her mind.

Virel.

Lucien Virel.

She hadn’t allowed herself to think too much about what he was. But now, in this quiet room surrounded by forgotten truths, she couldn’t keep pretending.

The dreams were becoming real. And so were the warnings in them.

She pulled the book from the shelf and opened it carefully. The pages were delicate, handwritten in thick, swirling script.

> “The Noctem line was cursed by the Ancients for defying the pact of blood. Their heir will either destroy them or save the last of their kind. But only if the bond is complete.”

Bond.

That word again.

She didn’t know what it meant—but somehow, it was tied to her. She could feel it in her skin, in her thoughts, in the way her pulse reacted whenever she thought of Lucien.

A gust of wind swept through the room, extinguishing the candles.

She froze.

Behind her… movement.

She turned—

Lucien stood in the doorway, his silhouette framed by shadows.

“Reading our tragic legacy?” he asked softly, stepping inside.

“You said nothing about a bond,” she whispered.

“I didn’t think you were ready to know.”

“Try me.”

His eyes searched hers. For once, he looked less like a monster and more like a man... a man torn apart by something far older than himself.

“I was cursed before I was born. Bound to a prophecy I never asked for. And now… bound to you.”

Evelyn’s breath caught in her throat.

“This mark,” she said, raising her wrist, “it ties us together.”

Lucien nodded. “In more ways than you realize.”

Her voice trembled. “Then what does that make me?”

He stepped closer, and the air around them thickened with tension.

“Mine,” he said.

The word was more instinct than declaration. And it unsettled her more than it thrilled her.

“I don’t belong to anyone.”

“You do now.”

Evelyn’s back hit the bookshelf behind her, but Lucien didn’t touch her. He hovered close—so close she could feel the power radiating from him, the restraint it took not to give in.

“I won’t hurt you,” he said, his voice low.

“But you want to.”

His jaw tightened. “Yes.”

That truth made her shiver. He was honest in the way only a predator could be—honest because it didn’t matter whether she feared him or not. He was the danger.

But still… he didn’t move.

She tilted her head up. “Why haven’t you?”

He closed his eyes briefly. “Because the moment I taste you… the bond completes. And once it’s complete, there’s no going back.”

Her heartbeat thudded.

“No going back to what?”

“To being able to let you go.”

For a moment, the room spun. Her lungs forgot how to breathe. Her thoughts scrambled.

He was a monster… but also a man.

And maybe the real danger wasn’t what he could do to her.

Maybe it was what she was beginning to feel.

Lucien stepped back before she could answer the thoughts she wasn’t ready to admit. His eyes glowed faintly in the candlelight.

“Stay out of that book,” he warned, nodding to the one still clutched in her hands. “It holds truths even I don’t want to face.”

And then, he was gone.

Leaving behind silence.

And a girl with a cursed bond.

And a hunger growing stronger than fear.