LOGINThey watched as the phone rang again.And again.The sound cut through the room like something violent, too ordinary for what it interrupted.Dahlia froze against the mattress, breath still caught somewhere between her throat and Aidan’s mouth. The heat between them didn’t disappear immediately, it lingered in the air like a mistake that hadn’t decided what it wanted to become yet.Aidan didn’t move at first.His forehead rested against hers, eyes still half-lidded, like he was refusing the world on principle.Then the phone rang again.Longer this time.Persistent.Dahlia swallowed, her fingers still tangled loosely in his shirt as if she had forgotten how to let go.“Aidan,” she whispered.He exhaled through his nose, slow and irritated, and shifted slightly off her but not away from her. His hand stayed on her waist like an anchor, like if he let go she might vanish into whatever was calling them back.He reached for her phone without looking at the screen.Then stopped.His expres
The dock was already behind him by the time the sound of water stopped feeling like water.It had turned into something else.Something persistent.Something inside his bones.Sylas walked without direction at first, letting the yacht take care of distance while his body did the more difficult work of pretending it wasn’t unraveling. The air on deck was sharp, salted, clean in a way that should have grounded him.It didn’t.If anything, it made things worse.Because clean air left no place to hide what was happening.His jaw tightened as he leaned briefly against the railing, fingers curling around the metal until it bit into his skin. He should have been past this stage. He should have been stable enough by now to ignore it, to compartmentalize it, to turn it into something else the way he always did.But his body didn’t care what he should have been.It only cared about what it wanted.And what it wanted had a name now.That was the problem.He exhaled slowly through his nose, as if
Sylas found the captain near the ropes, crouched low as he checked the knots twice over.“We leave now,” Sylas said.The captain straightened immediately. One look at Sylas’s face and he nodded without question.“Yes, sir.”He moved past him and toward the steering deck.Only when the man was gone did Sylas turn.Lorelei stood a few feet behind him, hands clasped in front of her white dress like she had all the patience in the world. He didn't like anything about her, and he was not ready to speak to her. Moonlight silvered her honey hair.Her eyes were warm.Too warm.“What do you want?” Sylas asked.She smiled softly.“Straight to hostility. Interesting.”“I prefer efficiency.”She cleared her throat and for some reason, took a step towards him. He wanted distance between them, he didn't really like other people that much… HeHe didn't like them at all. “I’ve been studying vampires for a very long time,” she said, stepping even closer. “I was wondering if you could give me insight
The moment they stepped onto the dock, Aidan tore his hand from Dahlia’s grip.Wood groaned beneath his pacing. The water around the island slapped restlessly against the pillars below, dark and endless beneath the moonlight.“Aidan?”“No.” He turned so sharply the word sliced between them. “No, you don’t get to start with my name like that.”Dahlia froze.Sylas remained farther back near the path, hands in his pockets, gaze unreadable. Smart enough not to interrupt. For once.Aidan laughed once, but there was nothing amused in it.“I knew it.”“You knew what?”“That something was wrong.” He pointed toward the mansion behind them. “I knew he was always around for a reason. I knew every time you defended him, every time you ran to him, every time you looked at him like he was harmless… ”“I never looked at him like that.”“You did.”His voice cracked on the last word.It hurt more than if he had shouted.Dahlia stepped closer carefully, like approaching an injured animal.“Aidan, liste
Grathen stood at the center of the hall with both hands clasped behind his back.The firelight caught in the silver strands of his hair and made him look carved from something older than stone.His gaze rested on Aidan for a long quiet moment.Then he spoke.“You are welcome here.”Aidan’s shoulders went rigid.“I don’t need your welcome.”The words cracked through the room like a whip.Dahlia turned to him so fast her neck hurt.Aidan’s jaw flexed. Anger moved through him in visible waves, old and bitter and bruised.For one dangerous second, she thought he would say more.“Aidan.” Dahlia muttered Then he inhaled deeply through his nose, eyes shutting for the briefest moment.When he opened them again, some of the fire had dimmed.“...Thank you,” he muttered.Lorelei nearly smiled.Sylas, who stood beside the window with his hands in his pockets, looked deeply entertained.Before anyone could change their mind, Dahlia stepped forward.“We need help.”Grathen’s attention shifted to h
Sylas sat on a fallen log in the middle of the clearing as if the night belonged to him.His ghouls had returned a while ago, dragging two deers by their horns. She'd watched them tear both deers to pieces while they struggled to escape. It felt strange, knowing that she could have been the one behind their teeth and claws. Esmeralda watched him through swollen eyes, wrists bound behind the chair, thighs slick with drying blood. The two ghouls remained chained to the trees on either side of her, silent as carved idols, their pale heads angled toward the scent of pain.He had moved on from questioning.That somehow terrified her more.An old leather phone book rested open across his knee, yellowed pages fluttering whenever the wind passed through the trees. He turned each page with unhurried precision, scanning names, addresses, old numbers no one sane still used.“What are you doing?” she croaked.He did not look up.“Research.”“That’s not an answer.”“It’s the only one you’re getti
“Ready for the big game?” Esmeralda asks as she pours coffee beans into the grinder.“I don’t think I’m going,”“You’re not going?” Luke asks, as he grabs the box and places it in his courier bag.“No, I don’t…” My phone vibrates on the counter. I grab it and stare at the screen.“Wait, I just got
The moment I see the tall building, I stop. I’m both scared and excited. But the fear is beginning to take over.I think of turning back but the chance of seeing Aidan is tempting. So I take a deep breath and walk faster in case I change my mind, it would be too late to turn around.There’s a few p
“What's your middle name?” Aidan asked as he lowered me onto his jutting cock. I felt the thick head pressing against my entrance and I shifted, angling my body to the left to let him slip inside me. Suddenly, I felt my tongue watering. I felt him everywhere all at once, the fullness of him was
“Are you sure you don’t want to see Lisa?”“Why would I want to see her?” Aidan asked, leaning against the mirror wall of the elevator.“To talk her out of telling our parents?”The elevator doors opened and I stepped out. “I’ll call her dad.” Aidan said reluctantly Would that be enough?A bitter







