My eyes snapped open to the dim light of a familiar room, the pain replaced by a hunger that crawled beneath my skin like spiders.
I was thrown into a world where everything was magnified—the soft rustle of fabric, the muted echo of footsteps in the room, the faintest whisper of wind against the windows. And there it was, the rhythmic drumming that seemed louder than thunder, my cousin’s heartbeat.
I knew it was her, for I could smell her scent.
It was disorienting, this newfound strength that coiled within me, waiting to be unleashed.
But more consuming than any power was the hunger gnawing at my core, a primal urge for blood that surged with each beat of her heart.
I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms.
Fighting the desire to lunge at her, to sate the monstrous craving.
“Serina?”
Their voices were a lifeline, pulling me back from the brink. Bastian, Nox, and Thorne surrounded me, their faces etched with emotions I couldn't quite decipher.
Was it fear? Sorrow? Guilt? All of the above?
It was overwhelming, the flood of feelings that coursed between us—a current charged by the gravity of what they had done. I couldfeelthem in a way.
I could always read them well, but this seemed deeper. Before, it was nothing but my instincts, but this seemed almost tangible.
They had changed me. Turned me into the very thing I had always hunted and killed.
I had never wanted to be a vampire, at least I had never thought about it untilthem. Bastian, Nox and Thorne were different. They weren’t monsters—not to me.
“I… I can feel you somehow. All of you,” I murmured, gazing between them.
“It’s a sire bond. It makes everything between us feel more…connected,” Nox explained.
Acting on impulse, I reached out with trembling arms and pulled them close, enveloping them in an embrace that felt like a lifeline amidst a stormy sea. My vision blurred with tears that I hadn’t known had formed in my eyes.
“Thank you,” I whispered, my voice a broken hush. “For saving me.”
The hug was frantic and almost savage in its intensity, as if I could merge our souls into one being and forget the word. I clung to them, tears leaking from me with reckless abandon.
Bastian's voice cracked the stillness, his words heavy with an apology that clung to the air like a thick fog.
“Serina, I'm so sorry, I—we—couldn't live without you. We thought we lost you… we did lose you…” His eyes were a storm of sorrow and relief, mirroring the turmoil that unraveled within me.
I reached up, my movements unfamiliar in their newfound grace, and placed my fingers against his lips, finding them warm and inviting.
“I'm okay now… I'm not mad. I love you,” I murmured, silencing the guilt that threatened to consume him, consume all of them. I was changed but still here, still theirs. And although I had never thought this would be the path I’d end up on in my life, I wasn’t mad about it because I loved them.
With a tenderness that surprised even myself, I pressed a soft kiss to Bastian's lips. He kissed me back, cupping my face in his calloused hands, holding me as if he thought I might disappear. I had to pull back before I lost myself in him.
I turned to Nox, whose blue eyes held mine with fevered intensity. My lips grazed his jaw, then his lips, an acknowledgment of the strength he'd always given me, the one that told me to face my demons.
And Thorne, ever the kind protector, smiled as I pulled him into a kiss, too.
They chuckled, a sound that felt like sunlight piercing through the dense darkness, a sound that I didn’t know I would hear again.
And then I caught sight of Sam.
She was a portrait of heartache, her eyes red-rimmed pools reflecting emotions too deep for words.
Her hair, usually so meticulous, formed a chaotic crown on her head, and the redness of her cheeks and puffiness around her eyes told me she had been crying.
