Chapter 3

ELENA'S POV

I ran faster than I'd ever run in my life.

My bag slammed against my side with every step. Rain poured down, soaking through my thin coat, making the streets slippery beneath my feet.

Behind me, I heard laughter. Cold, cruel laughter.

"Run, little Nightshade! Run!"

I didn't look back. I couldn't. My lungs burned, my legs screamed, but I kept running.

How did they know? How did they know what Lord Konstantin had said in that council chamber?

Unless... unless someone told them.

I turned a corner sharply, nearly slipping on the wet pavement. The streets were empty, it was past 2 AM, and even in New York, this neighborhood was deserted at this hour.

No one to help me. No one to save me.

I ducked into another alley, pressing myself against the brick wall, trying to catch my breath.

My heart hammered so hard I thought it might burst from my chest.

Silence.

Maybe I lost them. Maybe—

A hand grabbed my throat and slammed me against the wall.

I screamed, but the sound died as fingers tightened around my windpipe. One of the vampires, a woman with short red hair and blood-red eyes, held me effortlessly off the ground.

"Did you really think you could outrun us?" she hissed, her fangs gleaming in the dim light.

"Pathetic human."

The other two vampires appeared from the shadows. One was tall and thin, the other built like a tank. Both had the same hungry look in their eyes.

"Please," I choked out. "I don't... I don't have anything. Just let me go."

The female vampire laughed. "Oh, but you do have something. You have what everyone in the supernatural world is going to be hunting for." She leaned in close, inhaling deeply.

"Nightshade blood. And a hybrid baby growing inside you."

Her hand moved to my stomach, and pure terror shot through me.

"Don't touch her!" I gasped.

"Her?" The vampire smiled cruelly. "Already attached to the little parasite? How sweet." Her nails dug into my stomach through my coat.

"Our employer is very interested in this child. Interested enough to pay us a fortune to bring it to him. Unfortunately, he didn't specify whether you needed to be alive for the delivery."

No. No, no, no.

"The baby's not yours to take!" I screamed, clawing at her hand around my throat.

"Actually," the thin vampire said, stepping closer, "the baby isn't yours either. It belongs to Lucian Aion. And since he just publicly rejected you, that makes this child... unclaimed property."

"Children aren't property!" I snarled.

The female vampire's grip tightened until I saw spots. "In our world, little humans, everything is property. Including you."

She raised her other hand, her nails elongating into claws. "Now hold still. This will only hurt... Well, actually, it's going to hurt a lot."

I closed my eyes, my hand pressed protectively over my stomach.

This was it. This was how I died.

I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry.

"ENOUGH!"

The voice boomed through the alley like thunder.

The vampire holding me hissed and spun around. The other two immediately dropped into fighting stances.

A figure stood at the entrance to the alley. Tall, cloaked in black, face hidden in shadows.

"Release the girl," the figure commanded. The voice was female, strong and ancient.

"This doesn't concern you," the thin vampire snarled. "Walk away if you value your life."

"I'm going to give you one chance," the cloaked figure said calmly. "Release her and leave. Or die."

The female vampire holding me laughed.

"Three against one? I like those odds." She looked at her companions. "Kill her. I'll handle the Nightshade."

The two male vampires rushed at the cloaked figure with inhuman speed.

What happened next, I could barely follow.

The figure moved like lightning. One moment she was standing still, the next she was behind the thin vampire. There was a flash of silver, a wet sound, and his head hit the ground, separated from his body.

He didn't even have time to scream.

The larger vampire skidded to a stop, eyes wide. "What the—"

The cloaked figure threw something, a silver dagger that buried itself in his chest. He stumbled backward, clawing at the weapon, his skin burning and smoking where the silver touched him.

"S-Silver," he gasped. "You're using...

consecrated silver..."

"I am," the figure said, advancing on him. "And you know what that means."

The vampire's eyes widened in terror. "You're a... you're a..."

She pulled the dagger from his chest and drove it into his heart in one smooth motion.

He exploded into ash.

The entire fight had lasted maybe ten seconds.

The female vampire holding me was trembling now, her confidence shattered. "Who are you?"

The cloaked figure pulled back her hood.

She was beautiful in a terrifying way. Pale skin, sharp features, long silver-white hair, and eyes that glowed like molten gold, just like Lord Konstantin's. But there was something else.

Something that made even this vampire fear her.

"I am Seraphine," she said coldly. "Last of the Nightshade royal guard. And you just tried to kill my queen."

Queen?

The vampire's grip on my throat loosened in shock. "The Nightshade guard is dead. They all died—"

"Almost all," Seraphine corrected. She moved faster than my eyes could track.

One moment she was across the alley. The next, her hand was through the vampire's chest.

The vampire's eyes went wide. She looked down at the hand protruding from her ribcage, then up at Seraphine's merciless face.

"This is for threatening the heir," Seraphine said quietly.

She pulled her hand back, and the vampire's heart came with it.

The vampire collapsed, dead before she hit the ground.

I fell too, my legs finally giving out. I hit the wet pavement hard, gasping for air, my hands shaking.

Seraphine tossed the heart aside and moved toward me. I scrambled backward, terrified.

"Stay away from me!"

She stopped, raising her hands. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to protect you."

"Protect me?" I laughed hysterically. "You just... you just ripped out her heart!"

"She was going to kill you and cut your child out of your womb," Seraphine said matter-of-factly. "I prevented that. You're welcome."

I stared at her, my mind unable to process what I'd just witnessed.

Seraphine sighed and crouched down to my level, careful to keep her distance. "I know you're scared. I know you don't understand what's happening. But we don't have time for a gentle introduction. More will come. They already know where you are."

"Who?" I whispered. "Who's coming?"

"Everyone," she said grimly. "Every vampire faction, every supernatural entity that's heard the rumors. The Nightshade heir has awakened after three hundred years. Do you have any idea what that means?"

I shook my head, tears mixing with rain on my face.

Seraphine's expression softened slightly. "It means you're the most valuable, and most hunted, person in the supernatural world right now. That baby you're carrying? It's not just Lucian Aion’'s child. It's the prophesied Blood Sovereign. The one who will either unite all supernatural beings under one rule or plunge us into an eternal war."

"I don't want that!" I sobbed. "I don't want any of this! I just want to be left alone!"

"I know," Seraphine said gently. "But fate doesn't care what we want. It only cares what we are." She stood and extended her hand.

"Come with me. I can keep you safe. I can teach you to protect yourself and your child."

I looked at her hand, then at the bodies, and ash, littering the alley.

"How do I know I can trust you?" I asked.

"You can't," she admitted. "But right now, I'm the only chance you have. Those three were just scouts. The real hunters will be here soon.

And unlike them, the next ones won't try to take you alive."

As if to punctuate her words, I heard sirens in the distance. And something else. Howling.

Seraphine's eyes narrowed. "Werewolves.

They've picked up your scent. We need to move. Now."

She grabbed my bag and slung it over her shoulder, then offered her hand again.

I thought about my baby. About the pregnancy test in my bag. About Lucian's cold rejection.

I had nothing. No home. No money. No family.

Just this stranger who claimed to be my protector.

I took her hand.

Seraphine pulled me to my feet and immediately swept me up into her arms like I weighed nothing.

"Hold on," she commanded.

Then she jumped.

I screamed as we soared up, impossibly high, landing on the roof of a nearby building. She didn't stop. She ran across the rooftops, leaping from building to building with inhuman speed and grace, while I clung to her, my heart in my throat.

Behind us, I heard howls getting closer.

"They're tracking us!" I yelled over the wind.

"I know!" Seraphine jumped again, this time landing on a fire escape. She kicked through a window, and we tumbled into an abandoned building.

She set me down and immediately started pulling off her cloak. Underneath, she wore black tactical gear and had weapons strapped everywhere, silver daggers, vials of something glowing, stakes.

"Take this," she said, handing me a small vial filled with clear liquid. "If anyone other than me comes through that window or door, throw this at them and run."

"What is it?"

"Holy water mixed with silver nitrate. It'll burn any vampire or werewolf on contact and give you about thirty seconds to escape."

I clutched the vial with shaking hands.

Seraphine moved to the window and looked out. Her body was tense, alert. "Four werewolves. Two vampires. They're coordinating." She cursed in a language I didn't recognize. "Someone's organized this. This isn't random."

"Who would—"

"Your rejected mate, perhaps?" Seraphine glanced at me. "Lucian Aion is a powerful billionaire with enemies. The moment word spread that you're carrying his child, and that you're a Nightshade, you became a target.

Either to hurt him or to claim the power you represent."

"But he rejected me," I said bitterly. "He chose Viviana. He said I meant nothing to him."

"What he said and what's true are two different things." Seraphine pulled out two daggers. "The vampire council knows what you are now.

They'll want you controlled or eliminated. And Viviana..." She smiled darkly. "Viviana Drakov is desperate. Her pregnancy is—"

Glass shattered.

A massive werewolf crashed through the window, its fur black as midnight, its eyes glowing yellow.

Seraphine was on it instantly, her daggers flashing. But two more came through the door, vampires with red eyes and extended fangs.

"Run!" Seraphine shouted at me.

I ran.

I burst through a door and into a dark hallway, my footsteps echoing. Behind me, I heard snarling, fighting, Seraphine's battle cries.

I turned a corner and nearly collided with another vampire.

He smiled at me, fangs gleaming.

"Hello, little Nightshade."

I threw the vial.

It shattered against his face, and he screamed, his skin smoking and burning. He fell to his knees, clawing at his face.

I ran past him, down a stairwell, my lungs burning, my legs barely holding me up.

I burst out into another alley, different from before but just as dark and empty.

Which way? Where could I go?

A hand grabbed my shoulder, and I spun around, ready to fight.

It was Seraphine, covered in blood,none of it hers, her gold eyes fierce.

"Good instincts," she said approvingly. "Now come on. I have a safe house three blocks from here."

She grabbed my hand, and we ran together through the rain-soaked streets of New York.

We finally reached an old brownstone.

Seraphine pulled out a key, unlocked the door, and shoved me inside.

She locked multiple deadbolts behind us and activated what looked like some kind of magical barrier, symbols glowed briefly on the doorframe before fading.

"We're safe," she said. "For now."

I collapsed against the wall, sliding down to the floor. My whole body was shaking. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to process everything that had just happened.

"They tried to kill me," I whispered. "They tried to take my baby."

Seraphine knelt in front of me. "And they failed.

Because you're stronger than you think. That vampire you threw the holy water at? He was a third-tier vampire, over two hundred years old.

A normal human would have frozen in fear. But you fought. You survived."

"I'm not strong," I said, tears streaming down my face. "I'm just a blood servant. I'm nobody."

"You're wrong." Seraphine placed her hand over mine, over my stomach. "You're a Nightshade. The last of a royal bloodline that once ruled the entire supernatural world. And this child you're carrying? This child will be more powerful than any vampire, werewolf, or witch in existence."

I looked up at her. "How do you know all this?"

"Because," she said quietly, "I served your family for five hundred years. I was there when the Nightshades were betrayed and slaughtered. I was there when your ancestor, your great-great-great-grandmother, escaped with her infant daughter and went into hiding among humans. And I've been searching for her descendants ever since."

"Three hundred years?" I whispered.

"Three hundred years," she confirmed. "And finally, finally, the bloodline has awakened. In you."

"But I don't feel powerful," I said. "I don't feel like royalty. I feel weak and scared and—"

"Pregnant," Seraphine finished. "The pregnancy is accelerating your transformation.

In a few days, maybe a week, your Nightshade abilities will fully manifest. And when they do, no one, not Lucian Aion, not Viviana Drakov, not even the vampire council, will be able to control you."

She stood and offered her hand again.

"The question is: what will you do with that power when it comes?"

I stared at her hand.

What would I do?

Lucian had thrown me away. Called me nothing. He chose another woman over me while I carried his child.

The vampire council wanted me controlled or dead.

Viviana wanted me eliminated. She almost ripped me apart back there in the chamber.

And now hunters were coming from every direction.

I thought about my baby. About the life growing inside me.

A life that didn't ask to be the center of a prophecy. A life that deserved protection. Love. Safety.

I took Seraphine's hand and let her pull me up.

"I'll do whatever it takes," I said, my voice stronger than before, "to protect my child. And I'll make everyone who tried to hurt us pay."

Seraphine smiled, a fierce, proud smile.

"Good. Then your training starts tomorrow. But tonight, you rest. You're going to need your strength."

She led me upstairs to a small but clean bedroom. As I lay down on a real bed for the first time in years, exhaustion crashed over me.

But just before I fell asleep, my phone, the cheap prepaid one I'd hidden from Lucian, buzzed.

A text from an unknown number:

"I know what you are. I know what you're carrying. Lucian made a mistake rejecting you.

But I won't. Meet me tomorrow at midnight.

Central Park, Bethesda Fountain. Come alone, or your secret dies with you.”

Viviana.

My hand tightened around the phone.

What did she want? Was this a trap?

I looked down at my stomach, my other hand resting protectively over it.

Tomorrow at midnight.

I would go.

Because if Viviana knew something, anything, that could help me protect my baby, I needed to know it.

Even if it killed me.