The days after Kael's second bite passed in a blur of feverish dreams and unbearable need.
I barely left my bed. Sleep became battlefield visions of blood stained lips, moaning bodies, and Kael's voice whispering in my mind. My skin burned, my mouth dried with thirst I didn't understand, and beneath it all my hunger grew.
Not for food,For him, For blood.
I woke in soaked sheets, panting from dreams where I begged Kael to take me again, his mouth between my thighs, his teeth buried in my throat. Shame curled inside me, but it couldn't kill the desire. Nothing could.
I was becoming something else.
The mirror confirmed that my skin had grown paler, my eyes darker. I could hear birds outside, footsteps below, the whisper of breath behind walls. The scent of people stirred something primal in me, something hot and wicked.
I tried to go out. I made it as far as the sidewalk before I caught a whiff of a jogger's sweat and nearly followed him.
I ran back inside.
That night, Kael came again.
He didn't knock. He never did.
The door creaked open and he stood there in the shadows black coat, red eyes glowing. A beast in man's form.
I should've screamed.
I opened the door wider.
"I told you," he said, voice like smoke, "it would begin."
"I'm changing," I whispered, backing into the apartment.
His smile was sin incarnate. "Yes, little one. You are."
I didn't know whether to be afraid or aroused.
He stepped forward. You feel it, don't you? The craving.
I nodded.
His hand cupped my cheek. And you still want me."
He wasn't asking. He was stating what he already knew. I hated that he was right.
I want answers, I managed. Why me? Why this?
Kael tilted my chin, eyes burning. "Because I tasted your blood and saw the dark in you. You were born for this life, Seraphina. All I did was unlock it.
His lips brushed mine not a kiss, but a claim.
You think you're changing now, he whispered, but this is only the beginning. The bond isn't complete.
I swallowed. What happens when it is?
You'll crave what I crave. You'll need blood. Sex. Pain. And me.
My thighs clenched. Shame returned but weaker this time.
And if I don't want that?
He smirked. You do. You just haven't accepted it yet.
Kael backed me against the wall. His fingers traced the hollow of my throat, down between my breasts.
"You want control, little mortal?" he asked. Then take it.
He took my wrist and placed it on his belt buckle.
Take what you crave.
My hands trembled. But I undid the buckle.
He let me drag his coat open, unbutton his shirt, run my hands over muscle and scars. His breath hitched when I kissed the line of one jagged mark over his ribs. He wasn't invincible. He had bled before.
Show me, I said softly. Show me everything.
Something shifted in his eyes.
Kael swept me into his arms and carried me to the bedroom.
The silence after was thick, heavy with the scent of blood and sex. My throat pulsed with the ache of his bite, but I didn't care. If anything, I wanted him to do it again.
Kael lay on his side, propped on one elbow, eyes roaming my body like he was memorizing every curve, every mark he'd left behind. His fingers traced lazy circles over my hip, smearing crimson into my skin like a signature.
You taste sweeter when you're afraid," he murmured. "But you're not afraid of me anymore, are you?
No. My voice came out rough. "I'm afraid of what I'm becoming.
He leaned in, his mouth brushing my ear. Then you're ready.
Ready for what?
For your first kill.
I stiffened.
He smiled against my neck, lips curling into something cruel and seductive. The thirst won't stop, Seraphina. Not until you feed. Real blood. Not just mine. You've had the sex, the bite… now comes the final seal."
My heart thudded—fast, unsteady. Was he serious? Did he expect me to murder someone?
"I can't"
"You will." He kissed the bite mark, gently. "Or you'll wither in hunger. And I won't save you next time."
Kael rose from the bed, bare and beautiful, a predator in the soft moonlight.
You have two nights,;he said, pulling on his coat. "After that… the hunger will consume you."
And then he was gone, leaving behind only the scent of iron, sweat, and his wicked promise.
I lay there, trembling. Still aching for him.
Still hungry.
But this time, it wasn't just for him.
It was for blood.
I didn't sleep.
I sat in the dark, wrapped in Kael's scent and the drying stickiness of his blood and mine. Every heartbeat thudded like a drumbeat inside my skull. My skin buzzed. My limbs ached. My mouth watered.
Hunger clawed at my insides. Not just a craving. A need. Deep, ancient, primal.
I stumbled into the bathroom, flicked the light on. My reflection was no longer familiar. The girl staring back was pale as bone, her pupils blown wide, lips swollen and stained with red. My body was bruised, marked. I touched my neck. The twin punctures throbbed beneath my fingers.
You have two nights, he said.
I thought about what he meant. Kill. The word echoed through me, alien and thrilling all at once.
Was it murder if the thirst drove me to it?
I didn't know. I wasn't sure I cared.
I wrapped myself in a silk robe and walked barefoot to the window. The city lights shimmered below, each soul pulsing with a beat I could almost hear. People. Warm, breathing, bleeding people.
One scent reached me through the glass of a man down the block, smoking, laughing into his phone. I could smell the salt on his skin. The blood in his veins.
My gums ached.
My thighs clenched.
God, what was happening to me?
The memory of Kael's hands on me, his teeth sinking in as I climaxed, surged forward and twisted into something even darker. I imagined taking that man down the street. Pressing him to the wall. Sinking my own teeth into his throat. Would it feel like power? Would it feel like Kael?
A shudder rolled through me.
This was what he meant. This hunger would keep growing until I fed, until I crossed that last threshold.
Two nights.
I didn't know if I had that long.
A knock at the door startled me. Not Kael he never knocked. My heart stuttered.
It was my friend Ava.
Unknowing.
Warm.
Mortal.
She smiled, stepping inside.
"I was
worried about you," she said. "You've been off the radar."
I swallowed.
She smelled so fucking sweet.
And suddenly I wasn't sure who needed saving anymore.