Chapter 1:
The Night I Should Have Run
Rain poured like the sky was trying to wash the city clean.
Aria Collins hated nights like this. The streets were almost empty, shadows stretching too long under flickering streetlights. She tightened her coat around herself and walked faster.
She shouldn't have stayed late at work.
She shouldn't have taken the shortcut.
And she definitely shouldn't have heard that scream.
It was sharp. Brief. Then silence.
Her heart pounded. Every instinct told her to turn back. To walk away. To pretend she heard nothing.
But she didn't.
She turned into the narrow alley.
That was her first mistake.
The world inside that alley was different—darker, heavier. The air smelled like metal and rain.
And then she saw him.
A man stood beneath a broken streetlight, rain sliding down his black suit like liquid shadow. At his feet, another man knelt, bleeding, trembling.
Aria froze.
The man in the suit slowly lifted his head.
Their eyes met.
Time stopped.
His gaze wasn't just cold—it was calculating. Sharp. Dangerous.
Like a predator who had just discovered something interesting.
"Who are you?" his voice was low, controlled… deadly calm.
Aria couldn't speak.
She should have run.
Instead, she stood there, trapped by the intensity of his stare.
One of the men beside him stepped forward. "Boss, she saw everything."
Boss?
Her stomach dropped.
This wasn't a random fight.
This was something much worse.
The man under the light took a step toward her. Then another.
Her pulse roared in her ears.
"I asked you a question," he said softly.
"I—I didn't see anything," she whispered.
A faint smile touched his lips.
A terrifying smile.
"Lie to me again," he murmured, "and I won't be so patient."
Aria's breath hitched.
The rain fell harder. Thunder cracked across the sky.
He stopped inches away from her. Close enough that she could see the faint scar near his eyebrow. Close enough to feel the power radiating from him.
"Let her go, boss?" one of the men asked.
Silence.
The man's eyes never left hers.
"No," he said.
One word.
Final.
Her blood ran cold.
"Take her."
Before she could scream, strong hands grabbed her arms.
"This is a misunderstanding!" she cried.
But the man—her nightmare—tilted his head slightly.
"Everything in this city belongs to me," he said quietly. "Including accidents."
She was pushed toward a black car waiting at the end of the alley.
Fear wrapped around her like chains.
As the car door slammed shut, she looked up at him one last time.
"Please…" she whispered.
He stepped closer, rain dripping from his dark hair, eyes burning with something unreadable.
"You shouldn't have looked at me like that," he said.
"Like what?"
"Like I was human."
The door closed.
The car drove off.
And Aria realized—
She hadn't just witnessed something dangerous.
She had become part of it.
And somewhere deep inside the darkness, Adrian Knight had just found his newest obsession.