Eternal shadow: The vampire who chose her

DRAVEN’S POV Immortality is a punishment disguised as a gift. Humans don’t understand that. They imagine eternity as power, glory, seduction. They fantasize about living forever until they realize forever means outliving everyone and everything you ever dared to care for. I stopped caring centuries ago. Or so I convinced myself. The night was cold, thin, and unwelcoming as I stood atop the ancient cathedral overlooking Valemont City. The moon hung low, a dying pearl in a black ocean. The world below pulsed with life, short, fleeting, fragile. I inhaled deeply and caught the familiar scents of oil, rain-dampened stone, and human innocence. Useless things. Meaningless things. Things I had grown tired of tasting. A thousand years. Two thousand. Three. I stopped counting long ago. Yet tonight, an unease prowled beneath my skin that strange, instinctive whisper I hadn’t felt in decades. Something shifting. Something inevitable. Valois sensed it too. “My lord,” he murmured behind me, bowing low. His voice carried the polite urgency of a man who knew better than to disturb me without reason. “Your presence is required. There has been movement.” “Movement,” I echoed. “From who?” “Your enemies,” he replied carefully. “Those who believe you’ve grown… soft with age.” Soft. I almost laughed at the irony. “If they wish to test me,” I said, “I will remind them exactly why they learned fear.” Valois hesitated. “It may be wise to stay hidden. You have lived long enough to” “to grow tired of battles I no longer choose?” I finished. “Yes. But survival doesn’t ask what we choose.” His silence told me he understood. The wind shifted. That was when I smelled it. Warm. Human. Sweet, but not in the way blood typically was. Her scent carried something else was something clean, crisp, reminiscent of lavender soap and textbooks and something almost painfully… alive. The scent didn’t belong to the city. It belonged to one girl. Her heartbeat thrummed faintly at the edge of my hearing, steady, determined, slightly anxious. A student walking late at night. Alone. But there was something unusual about it. Not the rhythm. The purity? The brightness? The honesty? Humans didn’t walk with hearts that unguarded anymore. “What is it?” Valois asked, noticing the shift in my stance. “I smell someone.” His brow rose. “An enemy?” “No.” I turned slightly, eyes narrowing as I tracked the heartbeat moving two streets down. “A human.” He frowned. “You smell humans every night.” “Not like her.” Valois stiffened in concern. “My lord… do be careful.” Careful. That word again. I was growing tired of hearing it. Yet even I knew this was different. Her heartbeat quickening, now drew me toward the university. Toward the medical building. Toward her. A force I couldn’t name tugged at me, ancient and instinctive. I descended the cathedral in one silent leap, landing in the alley below without so much as stirring dust. My senses sharpened as I walked, eyes tracking her heartbeat, her scent, her movement. She stopped. Then I heard another heartbeat… too close to hers. A man. Walking behind her. His breath hitched in anticipation. His steps softened. A predator. How… inconvenient. I moved faster. As I turned the corner, I saw her. Mary-Ann. I didn’t know her name then, but I knew her face before she even turned fully into the streetlight. Soft features. Dark curls escaping her bun. Eyes sharp with exhaustion but glowing with a quiet fire. A backpack slung over one shoulder, white coat peeking out, tired medical student, lost in her thoughts. And absolutely unaware of the danger closing in behind her. Humans are blind to shadows that want them. The man trailing her reached into his pocket. Not for a phone. For a knife. I appeared between them before either could blink. The attacker froze, stumbling back as if he had hit an invisible wall. Mary-Ann gasped, startled by my sudden presence. “I…I didn’t see you,” she stammered, wide-eyed. The man behind her tried to lunge. I caught his wrist effortlessly. Bones cracked. He screamed. Mary-Ann jumped, hands flying to her mouth. “Oh my God” I leaned in, voice cold as winter. “Leave.” He ran. Limping. Shaking. Leaving the knife behind in his panic. Mary-Ann stared at me, eyes wide and trembling, trying to piece together what she’d seen. “You… you saved me.” Yes. And I hated that it mattered. I should have disappeared. I should have let the shadows swallow me. But something in her gaze, her fear, her gratitude, her stubborn bravery anchored me to the Earth in a way I had not felt in centuries. “It was nothing,” I murmured. Her breath shivered. “Nothing? He could’ve” She swallowed. “Why were you even there?” Good question. One I couldn’t answer. “I was passing by,” I lied smoothly. But she didn’t take her eyes off me. “Who are you?” A name would be dangerous. But I found myself giving it anyway. “Draven,” I said slowly. “Count Draven Valmot.” Her lips parted, like she recognized the antiquated nature of the name but couldn’t quite place it. “Well… thank you, Draven.” Her voice wrapped around me softly. Sincere. Alive. Warm in a way immortality had forgotten. Something ancient in me stirred. Dangerously. I stepped back, forcing distance. “Go home, Mary-Ann.” She froze. “H-how did you?” I melted into the darkness before she could finish. And for the first time in centuries… I didn’t want to be alone anymore. MARY-ANN’ POV My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. It wasn’t from the cold. Or the near-mugging. Or even the adrenaline still rushing through my veins. It was because of him. That man Draven. He appeared out of nowhere. No footsteps, no sound. One second I was alone, the next… he was just there, like the shadows had shaped themselves into a person. A very tall, very strange, very unsettling person. His eyes… God, his eyes were silver. Not grey but silver. Metallic. Reflective. Inhumanly beautiful. And when he looked at me, I felt No. That’s ridiculous. I shook my head hard as I reached my apartment. I pushed through the door, tossed my bag down, and touched my chest over my racing heart. “What… the hell was that?” A mugging. A stranger. A scary coincidence. That’s all. “Mary-Ann?” my little brother Stephen called from the couch, video game controller in his hand. “You look pale.” “I’m fine,” I lied automatically. “Just tired.” He paused his game. “You sure?” “Yes.” No. I went straight to the kitchen and poured myself water, but my hands trembled so badly the glass tilted. I tried to breathe. I tried to calm down. But his voice kept echoing in my mind. “Go home, Mary-Ann.” How did he know my name? I pressed a palm to my forehead. “Okay. Okay. It’s nothing. People know me on campus. Maybe he overheard someone.” Except… Draven didn’t look like a student. Or a professor. Or even someone from this century. He looked like a myth the universe accidentally kept alive. Gracie called just then, her voice exploding through my speaker as soon as I picked up. “MARY! Are you home? Did you get the pictures I sent you? Wait why do you sound weird?” “I I just……something happened,” I whispered. “What do you mean something?” “I was almost mugged.” Silence. Then “Where are you right now? I’m coming over right now” “No! I’m fine, Gracie. Someone stopped it.” “Who?” I hesitated. “A guy.” “Do you know him?” “No.” “Did he touch you?” “No.” “Is he still around?” “No.” “Mary-Ann, you’re being weird.” I sank into a chair. “I don’t know how to explain him. He’s just… odd.” “Define odd.” “His eyes… they weren’t natural.” She hummed. “Contacts?” “Maybe.” “Describe him.” I swallowed. “Tall… pale… dressed like” “Like what?” “A Victorian ghost?” She burst out laughing. “What does that even mean?” “It means I don’t know!” I groaned. “He saved me, broke some guy’s wrist like it was a toothpick, said my name even though I’ve never seen him before, then disappeared into thin air!” Silence. “…Mary, are you sure he wasn’t a hallucination?” I threw a pillow at the couch in frustration. “I’m serious!” Stephen peeked from the living room. “Mom said not to yell.” “Then stop eavesdropping.” I heard Gracie shifting. “Okay. Send me a picture if you ever see this guy again. I’ll tell you if he’s a psycho or just hot.” “He’s not hot.” Pause. “Mary. Is he hot?” My silence answered for me. “Oh my GOD, he’s hot.” I facepalmed. Hard. “Forget it. I’m going to bed.” “Fine. But be careful! And text me in the morning!” I hung up and sank into my bed, pulling the covers up. Sleep found me in uncomfortable waves. But in the middle of the night… I woke up. To a sound no one else would’ve heard. My window. Sliding open. Slowly. Silently. I froze. My heartbeat thundering in my ears. My breath stopping. Then a voice whispered from the darkness of my room A familiar, silver-edged voice that curled into my spine. “Mary-Ann.” My scream never got the chance to escape.