The night curled around us like black velvet thick, warm, and dangerous. Moonlight spilled in through the open windows, highlighting the shadows on Kael's bare skin. His body beside mine was a quiet storm, every line of him tense, coiled. I could feel his thoughts dark and loud even in the silence.
He wasn't asleep.
He was watching me again. He always did that, like he was afraid I would disappear if he stopped looking.
"You're quiet," I said softly.
His fingertips skimmed the edge of the sheet twisted around my thigh. "Because I can't decide if this is real or a cruel illusion."
I turned to face him. It's real.
For now. His crimson eyes shimmered.
But something's coming, Seraphina. Something that wants to tear this apart. And it always gets what it wants.
"Lilith," I whispered.
He nodded once, jaw tightening. "And worse."
I reached out, touching his chest where his heart should beat. "Then fight it with me."
Kael leaned in, his lips brushing mine, his voice low and aching. "The night I first saw you I knew you would destroy me. You were standing alone outside the cathedral, that storm soaking your hair, and you looked so out of place. Like a dream trapped in the wrong century."
I swallowed. "You never told me that."
"I wasn't supposed to be there. I was sent to deliver a message to an elder. But then I saw you. Your scent, your blood, it pulled me. Like gravity."
He kissed me harder, deeper, until the breath left my lungs. I clung to him, needing more, needing all of him, because whatever haunted Kael it had sharp teeth and a name written in old blood.
His lips moved to my neck, fangs grazing the skin that still wore the faint scars of his bite. "You taste like madness," he murmured. Like something meant to ruin me.
And you already have, I breathed, pulling him closer.
His fangs pierced gently just enough for pleasure and heat to bloom through my body. Kael drank like he worshipped me, like my blood was the only thing keeping his soul intact. When he pulled back, his mouth was red.
"You don't even know what you are," he whispered. "But I do. And when you find out everything will burn."
I stared at him, stunned. Then tell me.
Kael rose from the bed, his naked form pacing like a caged predator. The moonlight hit the scars on his back, the ones I hadn't dared ask about. He spoke with his back to me.
"There's something in your bloodline, something forbidden. You're not fully human seraphina not anymore
I sat up slowly, the sheet falling from my shoulders. "What are you talking about?"
Kael didn't look at me. "When I first tasted your blood it wasn't just sweet. It was ancient. Wild. Like drinking fire that remembers every hand it burned."
Kael
"You're descended from them," he said. "From her bloodline."
My throat tightened. From who?
"Lilith," he whispered.
Silence strangled the room.
I laughed, bitter and breathless. "That's impossible."
He turned, eyes blazing. "Is it? Have you never wondered why she wants you alive? Why she never kill you, just play with you, stalk you?"
I couldn't answer. My mind was spiraling.
"She sees herself in you," Kael continued. "She believes your blood is her legacy, one she didn't consent to. You're the child she could never bear, the power she lost long ago. And now you've become a threat."
My stomach turned. The shadows around us felt suddenly alive whispering, listening.
"So what does that make me?" I asked.
Kael crossed the room and dropped to his knees before me. "It makes you mine."
His hands gripped my hips, firm and possessive. "You don't belong to her. Or to the past. You belong to me now, Seraphina. And I will destroy anyone who tries to take you."
His kiss was molten, no longer soft, but possessive. Our mouths clashed with the kind of hunger that bordered on pain. I arched beneath him, aching for the fire only he could ignite.
He lifted me effortlessly, pinning me beneath him on the bed. His hands explored every inch of my skin, memorizing, worshipping. The desperation between us was more than lust; it was a need to forget, to claim, to burn brighter than fate.
"Say it," he growled against my throat.
"I'm yours," I gasped. "Only yours."
Kael kissed down my body, lips brushing across my breasts, stomach, thighs until I was trembling and moaning his name. His mouth found my heat, tongue stroking slow and deep until my hips rose to meet him. His fangs grazed so close to the edge of pleasure it nearly broke me.
Please," I begged.
He slid inside me with a groan, the connection so raw, so deep it blurred the lines between love and violence. Our bodies moved like a ritual, a spell to keep the world away. Each thrust felt like a promise carved into bone.
He didn't hold back.
Not this time.
He fucked me like I was the last taste of sanity he had left his grip tight, his rhythm punishing, his lips at my ear whispering things I couldn't understand but would remember forever.
When we came, it was with a shattering cry that felt more like surrender than release. I collapsed against him, gasping, spent. He held me like I might break apart in his arms.
For a long moment, neither of us spoke.
Then Kael said, voice raw, They'll come for you, Seraphina. All of them. Vampires, demons, even angels. They'll smell your power and want it. Want you."
"I'm not afraid," I whispered, touching his face.
"You should be," he said. "Because I'll burn the world before I lose you."
I curled into him, heart pounding. His words weren't a promise, they were a prophecy. And somewhere deep inside, I knew they would come true.
But I didn't care.
Not tonight.
Tonight, I belonged to Kael. And the war could wait.
Kael's breathing hadn't returned to normal, and neither had mine. The sheets were tangled around our legs, soaked in heat and desperation. His arms were still wrapped around me, his thumb brushing lazy circles along the inside of my thigh. It was the quiet after the storm but the air still crackled like lightning hadn't finished striking.
I couldn't stop thinking about what he'd said.
Lilith's bloodline. My blood.
"What does that make me?" I asked again, softer this time. "Am I part vampire? Demon? Something else?"
Kael didn't answer immediately. His hand moved to my lower back, pressing gently, like grounding me before the truth unraveled everything.
"I don't know," he admitted. "You're not like any creature I've ever known. You feel human, but your blood says otherwise. There's something sleeping inside you… and when it wakes up, Seraphina, it won't be gentle."
I swallowed the fear rising in my chest. "Are you afraid of me?"
Kael gave a bitter smile. "No. I'm afraid for you. The moment they realize what you carry inside, they'll want to use you. Or kill you."
"Then I'll kill them first."
His eyes met mine bloody fire in a sea of black. "You say that like it's easy."
You made me stronger," I whispered. You made me dangerous. And I'll never go back to who I was before you.
His mouth brushed my forehead, reverent. "You were always dangerous. You just didn't know it yet."
I curled closer to him, trying to memorize his warmth. "Why didn't you tell me all this sooner?"
"Because loving you was selfish. I thought if I kept it quiet, I could protect you and keep you. But I can't lie to you anymore. You deserve to know what you are and what's coming."
I closed my eyes, the weight of it all pressing down.
Lilith.
My bloodline.
Whatever I was becoming.
I felt it now, deep in my bones. A whisper. A hum. A presence inside me that wasn't there before or maybe had always been sleeping. Something old. Something hungry.
Kael's hand slid over my stomach, fingers resting gently.
"Your blood is changing," he murmured. "I could feel it tonight. Like it's awakening."
I shivered. "What happens when it does?"
Kael pulled me on top of him, his hands on my hips, possessive. "Then we fight. Together. Until the last breath."
A shadow passed across the moon outside the window, and a cold wind blew in.
A warning.
The night was shifting.
And so was I.