Night fell early over the city, bringing with it a damp wind that promised a storm. Kara and Alice left the Arts building hand in hand, but Kara's steps were slow — heavy.
"You don't want to go home, do you?" Alice asked, sensing the hesitation in the tight grip of her girlfriend's hand.
Kara sighed, glancing toward the dormitories.
"I can't stop thinking about Natalie. That scarf around her neck, the dark circles under her eyes… and the way she ran from me. I feel guilty, Alice. I spent the last year so focused on us — on building our life together — that I think I left her alone for too long. And now that she needs me, she's shut me out."
Alice brushed Kara's cheek with her cold thumb.
"You're not responsible for her choices, Kara. But I understand."
"I need to go there," Kara decided. "I won't be able to sleep if I don't check on her. Do you mind waiting for me at home?"
"Go," Alice said gently. "I'll see you later."
Kara gave her a quick kiss and ran toward the dorms.
When she reached Natalie's floor, the hallway was silent. Kara knocked on the door.
No answer.
She knocked again, harder.
"Nat? It's me. Open up."
The silence on the other side was absolute. Kara tried the doorknob. Locked.
A cold anxiety crawled up her throat. She pulled out her phone and called. She heard the muffled ringing of Natalie's phone coming from inside the room — but no one answered.
Kara rested her forehead against the wooden door, frustrated and afraid.
"Where did you go, Nat?"
The next morning, the sky was lead-gray. Kara found Natalie in the central courtyard, smoking a cigarette with nervous urgency. Natalie looked even paler in the daylight, her posture defensive, shoulders hunched as if guarding a secret.
"We need to talk. Now," Kara said, stopping in front of her.
Natalie exhaled smoke to the side without looking at her.
"Good morning to you too, Kara."
"I went to your room last night. You weren't there. And you didn't answer your phone," Kara crossed her arms. "Where were you, Natalie? And don't give me that insomnia or college party excuse. I know you."
Natalie took one last drag and crushed the cigarette under her foot. When she looked up, there was a hardness in her eyes Kara had never seen before.
"You're not my mother, Kara. I don't owe you explanations about where I sleep or don't sleep."
"I'm your best friend!" Kara raised her voice, drawing a few glances. "I'm worried about you! You're disappearing. You're acting strange. You're… different."
"Different?" Natalie let out a dry, bitter laugh. "Maybe I grew up. Maybe I got tired of being the supporting character in your perfect little life."
Kara took a step back, wounded.
"What are you talking about?"
Natalie stepped forward, invading Kara's space. The smell on her was cloying — strong perfume trying to mask the scent of iron and death.
"I'm talking about you and Alice. You live in this bubble of 'eternal love,' playing house, pretending the world is safe and beautiful. It's pathetic."
"Nat… Alice saved our lives."
"Alice hid the truth from us!" Natalie snapped, her eyes shining with a strange fever. "She keeps you wrapped in safe ignorance. But Rose — Rose doesn't. She showed me the real world. She showed me what it means to feel, Kara. To really feel."
Kara felt her blood run cold.
"So it is Rose. She's back. And she's messing with your head. Can't you see that?"
"No one is messing with my head!" Natalie shouted. "For the first time, I'm choosing what I want. You're playing at teenage romance. Me and Rose… we're living real life. Eternal life."
"Natalie, she's dangerous! She tried to kill you!"
"I know — at first I hated her too, but… she woke me up!" Natalie shoved Kara lightly, just enough to create distance. "Leave me alone, Kara. Stay with your nice little vampire and let me live."
Natalie turned and marched away, leaving Kara standing in the middle of the courtyard, heartbroken and certain that something terrible had already happened.
That night, in the apartment, Kara told Alice everything. She cried as she spoke, the pain of Natalie's cruel words still burning.
"She said we're playing house… that Rose showed her real life," Kara said, staring out the window. "Alice, I think she's using something. Or Rose is hypnotizing her again."
Alice stood by the window, looking out over the city. Her expression was dark.
"I suspected it. Her scent has changed over the last few days. But I needed to be sure before frightening you."
Alice turned and took Kara's hands.
"Stay here. Lock the door.
I'm going to find out what's going on."
"You're going after her?"
"I am. And if Rose is hurting her… I'll end it."
Alice didn't need much effort to track Natalie. She waited in the shadows near the dorms. Just before midnight, Natalie came out. She didn't look like the girl who had argued with Kara that morning — she was dressed to kill, makeup flawless, restless with anticipation.
A black car with tinted windows stopped at the corner. Natalie got in.
Alice followed.
She ran across rooftops, a swift shadow against the night sky, keeping pace with the car until it reached the industrial district, where heavy music made the ground tremble.
The car stopped in front of Club Eclipse.
Alice landed on a nearby building and watched.
The passenger door opened and Natalie stepped out. But she wasn't alone.
From the driver's seat emerged Rose.
The blonde vampire was dazzling and lethal. She walked to Natalie and wrapped an arm around her waist with a possessiveness that made Alice's stomach churn.
Before going inside, Rose stopped.
She slowly lifted her face, looking directly at the rooftop where Alice was hidden. Her senses had warned her.
Rose smiled — a victorious, cruel, defiant smile. She whispered something into Natalie's ear. Natalie laughed. Then the two of them entered the club, disappearing into the red light.
Alice didn't hesitate. She leapt down and walked to the entrance. The bouncer tried to stop her, but one look into her red eyes made him recoil, trembling, stepping aside.
Inside, Alice was assaulted by noise and scent. The place reeked of spilled blood, lust, and addiction. Everything she despised. Everything she had tried to avoid.
She pushed through the crowd, ignoring leering looks and silent invitations. She needed to find Natalie.
But someone blocked her path.
"Alice?"
Alice stopped.
Standing before her, drink in hand and genuine shock on her face, was Ruby.
Her red hair was shorter now, her style more modern — but her eyes were the same. The girl Alice had turned in 1982. The lover she had left behind so she wouldn't condemn her to the same solitude.
"Ruby…" Alice whispered, caught off guard.
"I don't believe it…" Ruby stepped closer, touching Alice's arm as if to confirm she was real. "You — here? In a place like this? I thought you hated this kind of 'party.'"
"I didn't come for the party," Alice said coldly, though her dead heart had skipped a beat at the sight of her. "I came for my sister. And for the human she's feeding on."
Ruby sighed, her smile fading.
"Ah. Natalie."
"You knew?" Alice stared at her. "You knew Rose was doing this and didn't tell me?"
"Alice, I'm not Rose's babysitter. And the girl… she seems to enjoy it. That's why she comes here so often," Ruby tried to deflect — but stopped when she saw the fury in her creator's eyes.
Before Alice could respond or demand to see Rose, she felt something.
It wasn't Rose's scent.
Nor Natalie's.
Nor Ruby's.
It was a presence — cold. Ancient. Bureaucratic.
A sensation she hadn't felt in decades, not since she left Europe.
Alice turned, ignoring Ruby, and looked toward the back of the club — toward the darkest areas where the light didn't reach.
Someone was there. Someone who didn't belong in that modern chaos. Someone watching in silence.
The hairs on the back of Alice's neck stood on end.
The Council was in New York.
To be continued…