The city blurred around me.
Neon lights became streaks of red and gold as I tore across rooftops, eyes glowing, heart pounding with one singular need: find her.
Every step was a scream in my bones.
Every second she was carved deeper into the part of me I rarely let surface, the part of me forged in blood, death, and centuries of war.
I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe. My shadows rippled like serpents around my body, slipping into cracks, reaching, sensing. Searching.
Then I felt it.
Faint but there.
A thread of her energy, fragile and flickering.
My shadows dove underground, dragging me toward it. A hidden crypt beneath the abandoned cathedral on the east edge of the city shielded by old magic and blood wards. Clever. But not clever enough.
I landed on the ground with a roar, shadows bursting outward in a spiral of obsidian wind. The ancient sigils guarding the door hissed and cracked under the weight of my fury.
"You chose the wrong soul to steal," I growled, stepping through the shattered entrance.
Inside, the air was thick with magic. I followed the echo of her heartbeat, weak but still steady. Alive.
And then I saw him.
The one person I hate most in my life.
Tall Pale Dressed in black velvet and smug arrogance. His crimson iris colored eyes gleamed as he stood before the altar where Seraphina lay chained, pale and barely conscious.
Look who we got here. He said, lips curling in a mockery of a smile. " Keal You're early."
I'm always early when someone touches what's mine.
He chuckled. Still possessive. Still predictable.
I didn't answer. Words were useless now.
I let the shadows rise, let my hunger unfurl.
Let the monster I had caged for so long step into the light.
He moved first a blur of black but I was faster. My claws slashed across his chest, sending him crashing into the wall. Stone shattered. Dust rose.
You were supposed to be dead, I snarled.
He stood, blood trickling from his lip.
Death is a luxury I can't afford. Not until I ruin you first.
Seraphina stirred behind him, her voice a whisper: Kael
That sound shattered me.
I surged forward with a snarl, ready to rip him apart.
But then
He vanished.
Gone in smoke.
And so was Seraphina.
"No you son of a bitch I roared, slamming my fist into the altar. The entire room shook.
I swear if I find you Azreal, you are not going to live even in another life.
I said as my blood boiled with rage.
He had taken her again.
But now I had a scent. A trail. A target.
And nothing I mean nothing would stop me.
Seraphina's POV
The chains were cold. Magic-slick. Ancient.
I stirred, my wrists aching, skin raw where the manacles bit into flesh. My mouth tasted of blood and salt. I blinked into the darkness.
Stone walls. Candlelight. Shadows that moved even when nothing stirred.
A whisper curled around me, soft and amused:
Awake, little flame?
I knew that voice.
It slid down my spine like ice water.
He stepped into the light. Tall. Beautiful in a cruel, ageless way. His hair was silver-white, eyes like rubies drowning in ink.
"You don't remember me," he said, tilting his head. "But I remember you."
I stared at him. What do you want?
He smirked. Everything Kael tried to protect you from danger. Everything he fears.
He circled me slowly, his fingers brushing my cheek until I bared my fangs.
"You're not scared of me," he whispered.
"No. But you should be scared of him."
He laughed then a cold, wicked sound.
"Oh, I am. But that's the fun part."
Then the candles flared, and I saw the symbols etched into the stone floor around me. Binding runes. Blood-seals. This wasn't just a kidnapping, it was a ritual.
He wasn't here to kill me.
He was trying to awaken something inside me.
Something Kael had kept buried.
And worse I could feel it rising. A pulse deep inside me. Power. Hunger. Fire.
Was I just Kael's love?
Or something else entirely?
Kael's POV
The scent of her blood was faint but enough.
I crouched on the edge of the club's rooftop, eyes locked on the alley below where she had vanished. The world narrowed to a heartbeat in the absence of hers. That void thundered in my skull like war drums.
"Seraphina," I whispered, her name tearing out of me.
I leapt down, ignoring the shouts from below, every nerve screaming toward one singular purpose find her
Azrael.
The name tasted like ash. A ghost from a war I'd buried centuries ago. I watched him burn and made sure he burned. But the magic I'd sensed in the alley wasn't just vampire. It was ancient, corrupted, and layered in blood rites. Azrael's kind of magic.
I stormed through the backstreets, following the last trace of her energy. My rage clawed at the edges of my control, but I couldn't afford to slip. Not yet. I needed to think. He wouldn't kill her. No, this was personal.
And he wasn't working alone.
Lilith.
Only she could mask her presence from me for this long. She knew exactly where to strike when my guard was down, when Seraphina was vulnerable.
A shadow shifted to my left. A watcher.
I moved fast, grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall. "Where did they take her?
He gurgled, fangs bared. You're too late, Kael. You always were.
I didn't ask again. His memories told me everything.
Another abandoned cathedral, buried beneath the city shielded by wards only Lilith could conjure.
I let him fall, already moving.
Seraphina's voice echoed in my head her laughter, her soft moans in the dark, her fire. She'd fought so hard to reclaim her life. To choose me.
And now they were trying to take her from me.
I wouldn't let that happen.
I would bring hell with me if I had to.
Seraphina's POV
The air was thick with incense and something smelt like burnt roses and rot.
I stirred on the stone floor, wrists bound by velvet chains that sizzled against my skin like acid. Vampire-proof. Magic-laced.
My heart thudded in my chest, sluggish, confused. I remembered the club, the music, the strange man's eyes then blackness.
Now, shadows moved beyond the candlelight. One stepped forward.
Tall. Unholy. Beautiful.
"Welcome back, little flame," he said, voice smooth and poisonous.
Bitch, mother fucker. I remember the damn face who still holds me captive but something primal inside me recoiled. Yes his handsome,He was like Kael but colder Unforgiving
Where's Kael?
And what do you want from us? I rasped.
He smirked. You think he'll save you? He killed my family. Burned my home. You lie beside the devil, sweet girl.
My blood ran cold.
Kael? No. He would never
Would he?
I didn't have time to unravel the doubts. The second shadow moved, slower. Feminine. Curves draped in crimson silk.
Lilith.
She stroked my cheek, nails cold and deadly. "You don't know what you are yet, do you? You're the key, Seraphina. The final piece."
I twisted, pulling at the bonds. "Let me go."
Lilith laughed. "Oh no, darling. You were always meant to belong to someone greater."