Nocturne Novels & Stories

Iris woke to the sound of flowers singing. The melody drifted through the French doors on the pre-dawn breeze, not quite music but something more profound voices layered like petals, harmonizing in keys that human ears weren't meant to comprehend. She lay perfectly still in Eleanor's four-poster bed, wrapped in quilts that smelled of lavender and secrets, listening to her inheritance reveal itself note by impossible note.

I grabbed the nearest notebook frantically. The patterns weren’t astronomical. They were harmonic. A coded resonance structure. Music. Seraphine looked upward with tears already filling her eyes. “Oh.” Void turned toward her immediately. “You recognize this.” She nodded shakily. “It was his favorite song.” The melody flooding the city deepened. Warm. Steady. Carrying impossible tenderness through the night air. People across the rooftops fell silent listening. Children stopped running. Lantern flowers leaned toward the sky like living things hearing home.

DANTE Last night, as the moon hung high in the star-studded sky, I found myself unable to surrender to the soothing embrace of sleep. Instead, I remained wide awake, vigilant and alert, my eyes refusing to succumb even for the briefest of moments. In my hand, I cradled Orlando's exquisite scotch, which I had discovered at the deserted bar earlier. Its amber glow danced in the dim light, offering me solace and temporary respite from the anticipation that gripped me.

“I had to do something unexpected this morning so I have dropped behind my schedule. Are you available this evening?” Leo considered it. It was half price admission at his favorite nightclub tonight, but that happened once every week. He didn’t know when he would see his boyfriend again. That was more important. He nodded. “Excellent,” Nocturne said and kissed his cheek. “I will come back to you later on.” *** Nocturne had experienced a unique morning in the human world with Celeste. She had wasted time transforming into a human several times with different outfits and then once she was satisfied with her outfit, she had dragged

​"Leo..." ​The surrounding noise of the night seemed to fade into absolute silence. The muffled, heavy thud of the club music behind the metal doors, the groans of the four men bleeding out on the wet pavement, the quiet drip of rain falling off the brick walls—it all died away. The entire world shrank down to just the two of them standing under the flickering yellow streetlight. ​They simply stared at each other for a full, agonizing minute. Neither of them moved. Neither of them dared to breathe.

With a sense of gratitude and a touch of vulnerability, I allow the maid to lead me back to my room, my body craving the rest it so desperately needs. I drift off into a deep sleep, succumbing to the weariness that envelopes me. Hours pass by swiftly, and I awaken to the soft melodies of a piano playing from the upper floor. The familiar sound resonates through the house, and I can’t help but be drawn to its ethereal beauty. It’s unmistakably Lucien’s playing, his skilled fingers effortlessly coaxing enchanting notes from the keys.

He had even had non-slip carpets laid over every step in the house. "If you keep buying things, we'll run out of space," I teased him yesterday. That morning, the butler informed me that the estate next door now bore the Calavaro crest. Apparently, Angelo had bought the whole place overnight. "Ms. Costa, your wedding gown," the designer announced softly as he wheeled in a rack. The gown glittered so brightly under the lights that it hurt to look at it. Intricate patterns were embroidered across layers of sheer tulle.

I spread my arms wide and began to do a little dance. “What’s more, he could play the Nocturne of Death. Do you know what that is? It’s a legend, a real legend. A marvelous melody, both dreadful and beautiful. A mesmerizing melody. At its sound, souls begin coming to life and dancing, obeying the mage’s will. The melody is said to be terribly beautiful. It’s a pity that the Nocturne’s notes have been lost. I’d love to listen to the melody able to make dead souls dance!” I stopped dancing, breathing hard.

“Broken night?” Janice questioned. She had been led in as usual, and sat, still cuffed, across the table from Byron. “Hmm?” Byron looked at her, appearing confused. “That's what my mom used to call it when nightmares or something kept waking you up— a broken night.” “Oh,” now he began to understand. “Yeah, it looks like you had one.” “You could say that for sure.” “That's okay, I did too. I was dreaming about Lacey all night, Lacey and that damn snake.”

It was a beautiful sight to behold, one I couldn't help but grin at. "This is beautiful," I admitted softly, looking around at all the numerous tiny flowers glowing all around us. "It is," came Alpha Evan's even softer reply and I looked at him, only to find him already looking at me. I felt my cheeks heat up, squirming a little under his intense gaze. "What are all these flowers? I've never seen flowers that could glow like that." "They're called nocte caeruleo. Literally translating to blue night. These are a special type of flowers that glow bright blue when they bloom at the stroke of midnight every fourteen years before they go back to sleeping," Alpha Evan explained, finally looking at