Chapter six
912 Words
Lucian
The night should have calmed me.
But instead, it claws.
Moonlight spills across the academy’s ancient courtyard, silver pooling like spilled blood over stone. Students scatter to their dorms, laughter echoing faint in the distance. My hands curl into fists at the sound. All of them so blissfully unbothered, so ignorant of what shadows press against these walls.
And of what I am.
I should’ve gone straight to feeding tonight. The hunger gnaws sharp in my chest, scraping bone, urging me toward the pulse of the city. But all I can taste is her. Evelyn.
That stairwell.
The way her breath hitched when I pressed too close, the way her throat fluttered beneath my fingertips, begging silently for my teeth. She doesn’t even understand how close she came. How much restraint it took not to claim her right there.
She thinks she’s strong.
She thinks she can resist me.
And maybe she can—anyone else, yes.
But not me.
Never me.
---
I stalk across the courtyard, cloak of darkness around me. My senses sharpen, tethered to her like iron chains. I can smell her—wild roses and the faintest trace of ink on her fingertips from scribbling in her notebook earlier.
But what makes my jaw grind is that I also smell him. Damon.
Damon with his careless smirks, his false charm. Damon with the same hunger as mine—but without the same restraint. He prowls too close to her flame, amused by the sparks.
I saw him at her side earlier. Too close. Leaning in, voice low, eyes lit with that intrigue he carries like a curse. Evelyn’s laugh—soft, nervous—spilled between them, and I nearly shattered the glass in my hand.
He thinks he’s playing a game.
He doesn’t understand that with me, there is no game.
Evelyn doesn’t belong to him.
She doesn’t belong to anyone.
Yet.
But she will.
---
I follow his scent through the shadowed corridors of the academy. He hasn’t gone back to his wing. Typical Damon—restless, hungry, prowling when the rest of the world sleeps.
I find him on the balcony overlooking the east garden, leaning against the stone, the moon cutting his sharp profile. He doesn’t turn when I approach, though I know he senses me.
“You’re following her.” His voice is smooth, mocking. “You’re not as subtle as you think, Lucian.”
My teeth clench. “Stay away from her.”
He chuckles, pushing off the stone with predatory ease. “Why should I? She’s… intriguing.” His eyes glint in the moonlight, too pale, too sharp. “Mortal, yes, but fiery. She doesn’t wilt under pressure. That kind is rare.”
I’m on him before he finishes the thought, my hand slamming into his chest, pinning him to the wall. The stone cracks beneath the force.
“Don’t.” My voice is low, dangerous, vibrating with the beast inside me. “Don’t speak her name. Don’t imagine her. And don’t you ever touch her.”
Damon’s lips curl into a grin, sharp and taunting. “Ah. So she’s yours, then?”
“She’s mine.” The words leave me before I can stop them. Absolute. Final. A vow written in blood.
He tilts his head, amusement flickering in his gaze. “Interesting. Because from what I saw… she doesn’t seem to know that.”
Heat lances through me—rage, jealousy, possession. He’s right, damn him. Evelyn resists, fights me, throws sparks at my dominance. She isn’t mine yet. Not fully.
But she will be.
“She’ll learn,” I snarl. My grip tightens until the stone groans.
Damon’s smirk only widens. “Careful, Lucian. If you grip too tightly, you might break her before you get to taste her.”
The beast in me surges. My vision sharpens to crimson. For a heartbeat, I see it—my teeth tearing into his throat, silencing his arrogance. My fingers twitch with the urge to snap his spine and leave his corpse rotting under the roses.
But I don’t. Not because he doesn’t deserve it.
But because killing him would frighten her.
And I won’t give her another reason to run.
---
I release him with a shove, stepping back, fists trembling at my sides. Damon straightens, brushing off his shirt with infuriating calm.
“She won’t be able to resist forever,” he says lightly, like he’s talking about a card game instead of the one person tethering me to sanity. “The question is, who will she fall to first?”
My gaze locks on him, lethal. “I don’t fall. I claim.”
His grin sharpens. “We’ll see.”
He vanishes into the night, leaving me trembling with barely leashed violence.
---
Alone, I lean against the cold stone, chest heaving. Hunger claws at me now, fiercer than ever. Damon’s words echo in my skull, mixing with Evelyn’s breathless defiance.
She resists me. She pushes back. She burns bright and hot, so unlike the others who begged for my attention, for my bite. She doesn’t understand that her resistance doesn’t drive me away.
It pulls me deeper.
The more she fights, the more I need her.
This isn’t a game. It never was.
And if Damon—or anyone else—tries to touch her flame, I’ll burn the world down before I let them.
She is mine.
Even if she doesn’t know it yet.
- Writer
