Chapter 11: The Shattered Mirror
The air on the bridge felt like it had turned to glass, sharp and cold, cutting into my lungs with every breath. I watched the silver blur of Wolfie's form vanish into the dark heart of the forest, and for the first time in my existence, I felt the true, terrifying weight of my own immortality.
Inside me, two monsters began to war.
There was the Vampire Stillness—that ancient, icy void I had lived in for a century. It whispered that she was right. It told me that I was a creature of the shadows, a prince of a dead city, and that I would eventually only bring her coldness. It wanted me to go numb, to let her go, and to sink back into the quiet grave of my own heart.
But then, there was the Vampire Rage.
It was a hot, blackened fire that surged through my veins, turning my vision red. It was the part of me that had tasted her warmth and refused to live without it. It wasn't just anger; it was a primal scream. It was the fury of a man who had finally found his home, only to see a ghost from his past try to burn it down.
I turned back toward the Academy, my footsteps cracking the frost on the stone. Every beat of my heart felt like a hammer against a bell.
How dare she?
How dare Bianca—a girl who knew nothing of the weight of a blood-vow, nothing of the pain of the Red Moon—come here and plant seeds of doubt in my wife's heart? She had looked at Wolfie and seen a "local," a "pup." She hadn't seen the goddess who had stood between me and a silver blade. She hadn't seen the woman who made the very sun feel unnecessary.
My hands curled into claws, the skin over my knuckles turning as white as bone. I felt my fangs lengthen, the ache in my jaw a physical manifestation of the need to protect what was mine. I wasn't just a "City Boy" anymore. I was a husband whose sanctuary had been violated.
I didn't go back to the library. I went to the courtyard, where I knew Bianca would be holding court, basking in the "victory" of driving Wolfie away.
She was there, sitting by the fountain, laughing with a group of terrified freshmen. When she saw me, her face lit up with that shallow, artificial brightness. "Drayan! You're back. Did you finally get rid of the—"
I moved so fast the air itself seemed to scream. Before she could finish her sentence, I was standing inches from her, my shadow stretching long and jagged across the white marble. The fountain water froze mid-air, reacting to the sudden drop in temperature my rage had caused.
"You think this is a game," I said, my voice not a whisper, but a vibration that made the ground beneath us tremble. It was the sound of a tomb opening.
"Drayan, you're scaring me," Bianca stammered, her face turning pale as she realized the "prince" she remembered was gone.
"You should be scared," I replied, leaning in until she could see the dark, swirling void in my eyes. "You came here to 'rescue' me from a life you don't understand. You looked at my wife—the woman who holds my soul in her hands—and you tried to make her feel small. You tried to tell her that I belong in a world of marble and lies."
I grabbed the edge of the fountain, and the stone groaned and shattered under my grip.
"Listen to me, and listen well. If you ever speak her name again, if you ever look in her direction with anything but fear, I will show you why my family was feared in the city. I am not a king of marble. I am a monster of the forest now. And she is my moon."
I didn't wait for her to cry. I didn't care about her excuses. I turned toward the woods, the Vampire Stillness finally merging with the Rage into a singular, iron-willed purpose.
Wolfie thought she was "letting me go" to be happy. She thought her love was a burden. She didn't realize that without her, I wasn't a king—I was just a hollow suit of clothes.
I ran into the trees, my senses expanding until I could feel her. I could hear her heartbeat—fast, irregular, and heavy with sorrow—about a mile deep into the Silvermoon territory. She was hiding in the hollow of the Great Oak, the place where we had first trained.
I found her there, shifted back into her human form, huddled in the roots. She looked up, her face tear-stained, her spirit dim.
"Go away, Drayan," she sobbed. "Go back to your city."
I didn't say a word. I walked to her, knelt in the dirt, and pulled her against me with a force that brooked no argument. I held her until her heat started to seep back into my skin, until the Vampire Rage in my chest began to settle into a protective hum.
"You are never allowed to let me go," I whispered into her hair. "Do you hear me? If you step back, I will follow. If you run, I will hunt you down. Not because of a contract, but because I am a creature of the dark, Wolfie, and you are the only light I have ever known. If you leave me... you aren't saving me. You're killing me."
She clutched my shirt, her sobs finally breaking as she realized the truth. I wasn't a star being buried in the forest. I was a seed that had finally found the right soil to grow.