Six months earlier.
Natalie woke with a scream trapped in her throat, her body drenched in cold sweat.
The room was silent, but inside her head, the howl of the wind through the mountain mansion still echoed. She sat up abruptly, hands shaking uncontrollably as she struggled to breathe. The nightmare was always the same: white snow smeared with red, the crushing weight of a body pinning her down, and those glacial blue eyes splitting open into crimson slits.
She kicked the sheets aside and walked out onto the narrow balcony of her small apartment. The night was thick and heavy, yet she felt frozen to the bone. With trembling fingers, she lit a cigarette — a new, ugly habit picked up during the sleepless weeks after the incident.
Gray smoke curled into the night sky. Natalie took a deep drag, letting the nicotine steady her nerves.
She looked out over the sleeping city below. Apartment lights, distant traffic, the illusion of normalcy stretched thin across concrete and glass.
But she knew better.
"How many of you are out there?" she whispered into the dark.
Rose's image wouldn't leave her mind. It wasn't just the fear of dying — it was the memory of that voice, low and urgent, whispering run.
It was the terrible beauty of that monster.
Natalie hated being afraid — but she hated even more the part of herself that, deep inside the nightmare, hadn't wanted to be saved.
She crushed the cigarette against the railing, the ember dying like her last shred of innocence. The world was full of monsters, and she was just a girl smoking on a balcony, waiting for the inevitable.
PRESENT DAY.
The bass pounding through the Vampire Club hit Natalie square in the chest, yanking her back to reality.
Rose had seen her.
The eye contact lasted only a second — but it was enough to make Natalie's blood freeze and burn all at once.
Her survival instinct screamed. Natalie spun on her heel, breaking the connection, and plunged into the crowd, shoving past bodies, trying to put as much flesh and movement between herself and the vampire as possible.
She found a darker corner near a concrete pillar and leaned against it, forcing herself to breathe.
"Stupid… so stupid…" she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut.
But peace didn't come.
Even with her eyes closed, she could feel it —the air buzzing with predatory electricity.
When she opened them, she realized it wasn't just Rose.
Several patrons — human and vampire alike— were watching her.
A pale man licked his lips as he passed. A woman in a velvet dress smiled, flashing teeth that were just a little too sharp. Natalie hugged herself.
She wasn't a guest here.
She was the main course.
"I need to get out," she decided.
Pushing off the pillar, she forced her way toward the exit, panic crawling up her throat. She just needed the iron door. Just needed cold air and distance.
She turned into the narrow corridor leading out and collided with something solid.
Someone.
Natalie staggered back, dizzy.
Standing there, blocking her path with infuriating calm, was Rose.
It didn't look like she'd rushed to get there. It felt like she'd always been there — waiting —as if time and space bent to her will.
"Leaving already?" Rose's voice was velvet wrapped around blades. "The night's just getting started."
Natalie took a step back, her heart pounding painfully in her chest. Rose looked different than she had in the mansion. Under the red lights, she was chaos incarnate, a dark goddess. Her scent, night-blooming jasmine, ice, and something metallic, flooded Natalie's senses, dragging terror and fascination back to the surface.
"I… I'm in the wrong place," Natalie said, trying to sound steady, failing anyway. "Excuse me."
She tried to slip past, but Rose moved, barely. It was enough.
The escape was gone.
Rose closed in, invading her space, pinning Natalie against the wall.
"You're not in the wrong place, Natalie," Rose murmured, tilting her head. Her blue eyes gleamed with hunger and amusement. "I heard your heart racing from upstairs. You came looking for something. Or someone."
The closeness was suffocating. Natalie could see the flawless texture of Rose's skin, feel the cold radiating from her.
"I came looking for an exit," Natalie shot back, sarcasm her last shield. "Looks like management blocked it with someone's inflated ego."
Rose laughed softly, low and rough. She placed a hand against the wall beside Natalie's head, caging her in.
"Sharp tongue. I like that. Most people shake and stutter."
I'm shaking on the inside, you psychopath, Natalie thought — but she lifted her chin.
"Move, Rose."
"And if I don't?" Rose leaned closer. Her lips hovered inches away. "You gonna scream? No one would hear you over the music. Fight me? We both know how that ends."
Natalie's legs nearly gave out.
It wasn't just fear — it was a sexual tension so thick it stole the air from her lungs. Rose was toying with her, but her gaze dropped to Natalie's mouth, then to her neck, where her pulse throbbed wildly.
"You're insane," Natalie whispered.
"And you," Rose murmured, brushing her nose along Natalie's cheek, inhaling deeply, "are fascinating. You smell like fear and want. A lethal mix."
Natalie was on the verge of shoving her, or passing out — when a third voice shattered the spell.
"Oh, knock it off, Rose. You're gonna give the girl a heart attack before she even buys a drink."
Rose stepped back slowly, frustration flashing across her face.
Ruby stood there, arms crossed, a crooked grin on her lips.
She moved closer and casually positioned herself between them, glancing at Natalie with something almost like kindness.
"Don't mind her, sweetheart. Rose has this terrible habit of treating everyone like a toy. I'm Ruby, by the way. And yeah — you smell great, but I promise I won't bite."
Natalie finally exhaled, resting her head against the wall.
"Thanks… I think."
"I wasn't scaring anyone," Rose muttered, regaining her composure, smoothing her hair. "Just welcoming our guest."
Natalie looked between them — a dangerous predator and a sarcastic redhead. The fear eased, replaced by disbelief.
"This place…" Natalie gestured toward the club. "What is it? A self-serve buffet?"
"Pretty much," Rose said, smiling again, polite now, but still lethal. "A meeting point. Vampires come to unwind. Humans come… to feel."
"Feel what?" Natalie asked. "Death?"
"Surrender," Rose corrected. "They know what they're signing up for. Many pay to be here. It's almost a fetish. And we make sure they don't remember the pain. Only the ecstasy."
Ruby chuckled.
"It's basically vampire Tinder. Less small talk. More anemia."
Natalie blinked, trying to process it all.
"And they don't remember?"
"We hypnotize them," Rose said, eyes locked on Natalie. "They wake up thinking they had the best night of their lives. No details. Just sensations."
Silence fell.
The explanation was horrifying.
And seductive.
Rose saw it — the hesitation, the curiosity overtaking judgment.
The music shifted, slower now, heavier, dripping with sensual tension.
Rose extended her hand, pale palm open.
"You didn't come here to run, Natalie. You came to see if the dark still calls to you."
Natalie stared at the hand.
She remembered that hand pressing her into the snow.
But now, it offered a doorway. A world where pain could be forgotten.
"Dance with me," Rose said.
From the shadows, Ruby watched with an unreadable smile, ready to step in, but eager to see what would happen.
Natalie hesitated.
Her mind screamed no.
Her body betrayed her.
She stepped forward, placed her trembling hand in Rose's. The contact was cold and electric.
"Just one dance," Natalie said quietly. "And if you try to bite me, I'll scream so loud I'll rupture everyone's eardrums."
Rose smiled and this time, it reached her eyes.
"Deal."
She pulled Natalie onto the dance floor, into the heart of the flashing lights — where predator and prey blurred together, moving to the pulse of the night.