Chapter Four | Echoes of the Past
1174 Words
Seraphine’s POV
The pen hit the desk with a frustrated thud.
My hand followed—loud, sharp, final. I could feel the irritation curling in my blood like smoke, thick and relentless. Rising from my seat, I spun on my heel and locked eyes with him—Vesperus.
He stood there like time hadn’t dared touch him. Eternal. Ageless. Undeniably vampire.
A smirk ghosted over his lips, tugging them into something between a dare and a secret. But it was his eyes—God, his eyes—that held me captive. Dusk caught in a bottle, that’s what they reminded me of. Just before night falls and everything is quiet and waiting.
Swirls of amethyst and cerulean danced in his gaze, silver threading through like stardust. Eyes that belonged to someone who’d watched centuries pass. Someone who'd loved and lost and bled—and never truly stopped. There was a gravity in them, a thousand unspoken truths wrapped in silk and sorrow. Stories not meant to be told, memories too ancient to hold.
I hated that I noticed.
With a sharp breath, I grabbed his hand—too warm for someone supposedly cold-blooded—and yanked him from the classroom, ignoring the curious stares. Especially Lucian’s. My ears caught every whisper, every heartbeat, guiding us to an empty room. The moment the door shut behind us, I let him go and folded my arms across my chest, my armor snapping back into place.
Vesperus pouted, clearly unbothered. “And here I was, thoroughly enjoying your touch.”
I rolled my eyes, trying—and failing—to ignore the flutter in my chest. “What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to sound annoyed, not intrigued.
He shrugged, sauntering to the teacher’s desk and settling down like he owned the damn place. “Same reason you are, I suppose.”
I scoffed. “I highly doubt that, you crazy bastard.”
The door creaked open before he could respond.
Lucian.
He stepped in silently, gaze bouncing between us, the tension in the room sharpening like a blade.
And then it happened—Vesperus and I speaking at the exact same time, our words clashing midair.
“No, he’s not my fiancé!” I snapped.
“I didn’t realize you were the alpha here,” Vesperus mused, smirk still intact.
Wait, what?
“You two know each other?” I asked, eyebrows rising. My gaze flicked between them. A vampire and a werewolf? That wasn’t just weird—it was unnatural.
Vesperus pushed off the desk slowly, every movement fluid, precise. His hands slid into the pockets of his tailored pants, and—damn him—he looked like a walking temptation. I watched, regrettably aware of how unfairly attractive he was, as he ran a hand through his deliberately messy hair.
He didn’t even glance at me as he approached Lucian. Stopping right in front of him, he stared him down.
The room practically vibrated with tension. Like the silence before lightning splits the sky.
Then he turned to me. “Yes, I know him,” he said, voice low, laced with something heavy. “Right after we broke up—or more accurately, when you decided to call off our engagement—he caught me doing something… monstrous. So he threw me into a trash can and locked it shut. Left me there. At the edge of an alpha’s territory. Forced to claw my way back out.”
He looked back at Lucian, jaw clenched. “So yes, I know him. Unfortunately.”
I glanced at Lucian.
The smug look on his face made my blood boil. One brow arched, daring Vesperus to relive it. And Vesperus, to his credit, didn’t flinch—his eyes just narrowed, defiance crackling like lightning.
“Who knows?” I said quietly, voice like glass. “Maybe you deserved it.”
I stepped between them, my hands pressing against Vesperus’s chest, pushing him back. Creating space. The heat from his skin burned against my palms before I pulled them away.
He turned those wild, haunted eyes on me, voice barely a whisper. “I was a wreck. Broken. I did those things because you left. Without a word. Without a reason.”
The weight of his pain punched through me. His words—his ache—hung in the air like fog. I could feel it pressing against my skin. Could almost taste the ghosts of stolen kisses, hear the echoes of laughter in the dark. The memory of moonlit nights and tangled limbs clawed their way back into my chest.
But the past belonged in the past. I forced myself to breathe, to steady the whirlwind inside me.
I tore my gaze away from him and, just for a heartbeat, looked at Lucian. His closeness ignited a different kind of fire—one I didn’t want to name. Did Vesperus feel it too? That scent—his blood—it was intoxicating.
But Vesperus dragged my focus back like gravity. He always did.
I swallowed hard. “Don’t you have a class to teach or some important alpha business?” I asked Lucian, though my eyes never left Vesperus’s.
Lucian didn’t answer. He just walked out, the soft click of the door locking us in silence.
Alone.
I exhaled slowly, finally letting myself breathe.
“What’s your real reason for being here, Vesperus?” I asked, voice quieter now, steadier. “Did my father send you?”
He didn’t answer.
I waved a hand in front of his face, brows drawn. “Are you even present?”
He rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath before turning and walking out like he hadn’t just unraveled me in ten different ways.
But I wasn’t ready to let him go—not yet.
I followed, catching up with him halfway down the hall. “You don’t get to just show up, stir everything up, and vanish. Not again.”
He paused, back still to me. “Then stop pretending you don’t care.”
I froze. Words clawed at my throat, but none of them escaped. Because part of me wanted to scream, and part of me… part of me wanted to believe he was right.
He turned around slowly, expression unreadable. “I came because I had to. Not because of your father. Not because of some vampire politics. I came because I couldn’t stay away any longer.”
My heart stuttered.
“You left,” I said, quieter this time. “You let me walk away.”
He stepped closer. “Because you needed to. And maybe I thought I didn’t deserve to follow.”
We stood there, an inch of air between us, a chasm of pain beneath.
But still.
I wanted to reach out.
Instead, I whispered, “Don’t come back if you’re going to leave again.”
And this time, it was me who turned and walked away.
Leaving him in the silence he once left me in.
- Writer
