chapter 9
1041 Words
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Jessica curled in on herself, clutching the silk sheet like a lifeline. Every breath she took felt alien, amplified—as though the air itself had changed. She could hear the faint rustle of curtains, the low thud of a heartbeat—not hers, but his—calm, unhurried, inhuman. Her own heart pounded like a trapped animal, chaotic and unsure of its rhythm. She pressed her palm to her chest, half-expecting it to have stopped again.
He hadn't moved since her outburst, but she could feel him—his presence was like gravity, pulling at her even without touch. His emotions were there too, beneath the surface, like waves crashing against a dam. Sadness. Guilt. Longing.
“Jessica,” he murmured, voice velvet-smooth. “You are not lost. You are becoming.”
“Becoming what?” she spat. “A creature that drinks blood and lives in the shadows? That’s not me.”
Silence stretched between them. The kind of silence that begged to be broken.
“You stood under the tree,” he said softly, a hint of something ancient in his tone. “You accepted the bond, even if you didn’t know it.”
Jessica’s fingers dug into the sheets. “I didn’t choose this.”
“No,” he admitted. “But something in you responded. You heard me when others would have died in silence.”
Jessica shook her head, tears burning behind her closed eyes. “That doesn’t mean I wanted any of this.”
There was a long pause, and then his voice came again, quieter. “Neither did I.”
Those words caught her off guard. She hadn’t expected vulnerability from him—not from the same mouth that whispered her name in her dying moment like it was a prayer. Not from the one who had pierced her throat and changed her forever.
She swallowed hard. Her tongue felt strange in her mouth—too sensitive, too aware. Her skin prickled with sensations she couldn’t name. Her senses were all wrong: colors behind her lids, smells with memories attached, sounds tangled with emotion. The world wasn’t broken. She was simply no longer human.
“What now?” she asked, the question barely a breath.
“Now,” he said, “you awaken to your truth. And I guide you… if you’ll let me.”
Jessica didn’t answer. She didn’t trust him. Not yet.
But the scariest part?
She didn’t trust herself either.
Something deep inside her had changed.
Something was… hungry.
She could feel it pulsing through her veins—a strange new awareness. Not just of her surroundings, but of the man beside her. She could hear the rhythm of his blood, slow and calm like a lullaby. She could smell the faint trace of something sweet on his skin—roses, maybe. Or blood.
Her stomach tightened at the thought.
“Oh God…” she whispered, curling her fingers into trembling fists.
“You need blood,” he said gently, as if speaking to a frightened child. “Not much yet. But the hunger will grow.”
Jessica choked on a sob. “I’m not a monster.”
He moved then, slowly, deliberately, as though afraid to frighten her further. He reached for her hand but stopped just short of touching it.
“You are not a monster,” he said firmly. “You are mine.”
Jessica recoiled. “I don’t belong to anyone!”
He didn’t flinch at her anger. “It is not about ownership. It is about bond. You are tied to me now. I feel you the way you feel me. The bond was sealed the moment you drank.”
“I didn’t drink anything!”
“You did,” he said. “My blood saved you. That is the first step.”
The taste in her mouth made sense now. Metallic and hot. Not just blood—his blood.
She felt sick.
“I should have let myself die,” she whispered.
“No,” he said, inching closer. “Don’t say that. You have no idea what you are, what you can become. This world—your old life—was a shadow compared to the power that now lives inside you.”
Jessica turned her face away. “I didn’t ask for power. I wanted a normal life. A job. A future. Maybe a family someday. I didn’t want... this.”
“I was like you once,” he murmured, a note of sorrow in his voice. “Before everything changed.”
She looked at him then, for the first time really looked, even through the darkness that blinded her. She could feel the truth in his words. There was centuries of pain behind his calm exterior, hidden beneath the layers of charm and cold beauty. But there was something else too.
Loneliness.
“Why me?” she asked quietly. “Out of everyone you could have chosen… why me?”
He hesitated. “Because you heard me. When I called for you in the dark, you answered.”
Jessica’s breath hitched. She remembered that moment—a voice in the shadows, a plea, a presence pulling her from the edge of death.
“I don’t know how,” she whispered. “But I knew your voice.”
“I’ve waited so long,” he said, barely above a whisper. “Centuries. I thought I’d lost you forever.”
Jessica blinked, stunned. “What are you talking about?”
“In another life,” he said, reaching to gently brush a strand of hair from her face. “You were mine. Before fate tore us apart. I swore I would find you again.”
Jessica’s heart thudded against her ribs. “You’re insane.”
“Am I?” he asked. “Then how do you explain the pull between us? The way your soul responded to mine?”
She didn’t have an answer. She didn’t want to have one.
“I don’t believe in past lives,” she said.
“You will,” he murmured. “Soon enough.”
Jessica turned her face away again, breath shallow and quick. She didn’t know what to believe anymore. Not about him. Not about
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