Felix's midnight class smelled like singed herbs and bad decisions.
Someone's cauldron hissed blue smoke. A charm fizzled and popped. The faint hum of untamed magic vibrated through the air — the usual chaos for his Intro to Protective Spells night course.
Felix snapped his fingers, and every candle in the room flared a little higher.
"Alright, children of chaos," he said, pacing between desks. "What did we learn about sigil containment?"
A timid voice answered, "Not to draw them upside down?"
"Exactly!" Felix clapped his hands. "Because when you draw them upside down, you accidentally summon your ex, and nobody wants that."
Laughter rippled through the room — until the temperature suddenly dropped.
Candles flickered. A chill swept through the air, the kind that made wards shudder in instinctive fear.
The door opened.
William stood there — tall, immaculate, ancient calm wrapped in a black coat. His presence alone silenced the room. Every witch lowered their eyes, magic instinctively retreating.
Felix blinked once. "...Okay. That's not the janitor."
William stepped inside, the sound of his boots measured and final.
"Felix Runghiran," he said, voice low and deliberate. "Witch of the Solstice Circle."
"Oh gods," Felix muttered, brushing invisible lint off his shirt. "He knows my government name. This can't be good."
"You're to come with me," William continued.
Felix straightened, narrowing his eyes. "And why would I do that?"
"The Supreme requests your presence."
Silence. Even the magic in the air went still.
Felix froze, the color draining from his face. His voice dropped.
"...Sky."
William didn't answer, but the faint flicker in his eyes said everything.
Felix's pulse spiked. "Is he alive?"
"He is."
"Is he hurt?"
William paused — just long enough to make Felix's stomach twist. "Yes."
Felix threw up his hands. "Of course he's hurt! He promised me one normal week! One! And now the Supreme wants to see me?!"
William watched, expression unbothered.
Felix glared up at him. "You—you could've just texted! Or sent a bat! Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to see a centuries-old vampire in your classroom?!"
The students were frozen, wide-eyed.
Felix turned to them with a quick wave. "Okay, emergency dismissal! Everyone go home before I'm turned into a cautionary tale!"
They scattered. One girl lingered at the door. "Professor, are you coming back?"
Felix exhaled sharply. "If I'm not, burn my grimoires and feed my plants."
He grabbed his satchel, muttering, "Supreme calls, witch panics — classic cosmic bullying."
William turned toward the hall. "The car is waiting."
Felix blinked. "Oh. So we're driving? Thank the stars. For a second I thought you were gonna do the shadow-teleport thing."
William gave him a flat look. "Only the Supreme does that."
Felix tilted his head. "Oh right, forgot. You're the normal terrifying vampire."
William ignored the jab. "Move."
Felix sighed, dragging his feet as he followed. "If he's dead, I swear I'm haunting you first."
---
The penthouse was quiet — the kind of quiet that came before a storm.
Only the faint hum of the city below and the rhythmic ticking of the antique clock filled the air.
Sky lay on the silk-draped bed, skin pale as moonlight, breath sharp and uneven. Sweat slicked his hair against his forehead, every muscle pulled tight as his wolf fought to stay alive.
Nani stood beside him, his expression carved in cold restraint — but his hands… his hands betrayed him. They trembled once before he forced them still.
A low growl tore from Sky's throat — raw, animal. His body arched, veins glowing faint silver under his skin. The mark near his heart — the ancient sigil of the Moonlight Guardian — flared to life, pulsing in sync with his ragged heartbeat.
The light spilled across his chest like molten starlight.
Then came the scent — burnt silver and blood — sharp, divine, unbearable.
Nani's breath caught. For a moment, centuries of silence cracked.
This scent. This energy. Him.
He stepped closer, his shadow merging with the dim light from the chandelier. The energy around Sky felt volatile, raw magic laced with pain. The venom — from the creature — was eating through him, laced with corruption that defied both vampire and wolf healing.
Sky thrashed again, snarling, his fangs flashing. His eyes flickered between gold and storm gray.
"—don't… touch me—" he rasped, voice breaking, half snarl, half plea.
Nani ignored the words. He pressed a hand over the mark glowing near Sky's heart.
The contact seared him — ancient blood meeting ancient curse. The air hissed between them as light cracked through the dark like a heartbeat of the moon itself.
Pain surged — but not Sky's alone.
Nani felt it. Every burn. Every venomous thread. It sank into him, crawled up his veins like liquid fire. His breath hitched, his control slipping for the first time in centuries.
The mark on his own shoulder — the sigil of the Blood Heir — ignited. Crimson lines spread across his skin, crawling up his neck like veins of flame.
A sharp gasp escaped him. His eyes, once gold, deepened to a molten red — a color he hadn't worn in an age.
Sky's breathing slowed, the violent tremors easing as the venom's fury dimmed. But the connection between them — it didn't fade. It burned.
Nani didn't move his hand. Couldn't. His voice was low, fractured.
"Why do you burn like this?" he whispered. "Why do you feel… familiar?"
Sky's lashes fluttered. His voice was a faint growl through exhaustion.
"Get… away… vampire."
Nani's lips curved — not in amusement, but something far more dangerous.
"Even dying, you still dare bare your teeth at me."
He leaned closer, breath ghosting against Sky's ear.
"Careful, little wolf. You're trespassing in the heart of the Blood Clan."
Sky's pulse spiked beneath his palm, the mark responding again, glowing bright enough to paint Nani's face in silver light. He should have pulled away. He didn't.
He stayed — caught between rage and fascination.
Then — a faint chime. The elevator.
Nani finally lifted his hand, and the room plunged back into shadow. His veins still glowed faint red beneath his skin, the echo of the shared pain lingering like a forbidden touch.
He looked down at Sky — the wolf who shouldn't exist — and for the first time, the Supreme Vampire felt something dangerously close to fear.
---
The elevator doors opened with a soft chime.
Felix stepped out first — in his teacher's cardigan, hair slightly wild from the night wind, clutching his satchel like a talisman. William followed, expression unreadable, hands clasped neatly behind his back.
Felix blinked once at the penthouse interior — black marble, low amber lighting, the faint metallic tang of blood still hanging in the air.
"Wow," he muttered, "very vampire Vogue in here. Where's the coffin section?"
William's gaze flicked sideways, unimpressed. "Contain yourself, witch. He's inside."
Felix's humor faltered when his eyes fell on the room ahead — the sight of Sky on the bed, pale and motionless, his chest still faintly glowing through bandages.
His face drained of color.
"...You killed him."
Nani, standing near the bed, looked up slowly. "If I killed him," he said, voice calm, "he wouldn't still be breathing."
Felix froze, then whispered, "Oh. Right. He's still breathing. Okay. That's... great. My heart attack is free of charge."
He turned to William and hissed under his breath, "You could've led with that, you know—'Felix, don't worry, your friend's not dead,' would've been nice!"
William arched a brow. "You were talking too much to hear it."
Felix threw him a glare, then hurried to Sky's side, pulling out a small pouch and scattering herbs and vials across the nightstand. His fingers moved quickly, muttering incantations under his breath. A faint blue mist coiled from the mixture, dancing over Sky's chest, cooling the glowing mark until it dimmed to a steady pulse.
Nani watched in silence, arms folded behind his back. His gaze was detached on the surface — but his eyes never once left Sky.
Felix sniffed the air, his expression tightening. "This venom… it's not natural. Feels like it's eating both magic and flesh. Like something spliced it."
He uncorked a small vial, collecting a silvery drop from Sky's wound. "I'll make a counter-agent, but this—this is new. It's bad news."
William took the vial from him with careful hands. "We'll send it to the specialists. The Supreme wants an answer, fast."
Felix nodded, rubbing his temple. "Yeah, tell your spooky science team to hurry. If that thing spreads, it could turn anything with blood into dust."
Nani turned slightly toward William. "Make sure the source is found. The creature was created, not born."
William bowed his head, then quietly left.
---
Felix wiped the back of his hand across his forehead, the faint blue glow of the healing sigil fading from his fingers. Sky's breathing had steadied, his color returning little by little.
He looked up at Nani, who stood a few paces away — unreadable, but watchful. The Supreme Vampire didn't speak, didn't even move, and yet the air around him still thrummed with power.
Felix cleared his throat. "He needs rest. A lot of it. I'll brew something stronger for the venom trace."
Nani gave a faint nod — a gesture that somehow felt like a command.
Felix took it as permission to leave the room before the air crushed him.
He stepped out quietly, closing the heavy door behind him.
The shift was immediate — the hum of magic gone, replaced by the muted elegance of the penthouse's living space.
Felix exhaled, letting his shoulders drop for the first time.
"Ancient vampire overlord," he muttered under his breath, pacing toward the sleek black sofa. "Looks like a model, talks like a mafia godfather, but probably has opinions on curtain colors."
A voice from the corner replied, lazy and amused,
"Oh, he definitely does. You should've seen him argue with William about shade."
Felix startled, turning to see Est lounging across a velvet armchair, a mug of coffee in one hand and a phone in the other. His legs were crossed, expression perfectly unbothered.
"...Who are you?" Felix asked, still catching his breath.
Est smiled like a cat that already knew the answer. "Est. Resident human. Occasionally regretting life choices."
Felix blinked, then pointed at him. "Wait—you're human? You live here?!"
"Technically," Est said, sipping his coffee. "You?"
"Witch. Full-time panic. Freelance disaster."
Est laughed — bright and effortless. "Ah. That explains the smell of sage and sarcasm."
Felix dropped onto the sofa beside him, finally smiling despite himself. "You're weirdly calm about living with vampires."
"They saved my life," Est said simply. "And they make good coffee. You learn to adapt."
Felix snorted softly. "Yeah, well, my friend almost got eaten by some shadow creature, so I'm not adapting. I'm just… not dying of panic yet."
They both laughed — not loudly, but with the kind of relief only people used to chaos could share.
Through the closed door behind them came the faint sound of steady breathing — Sky's — and the whisper of something ancient shifting in the air.
Felix glanced toward it, his humor softening into worry.
Est followed his gaze, voice gentle. "He'll be fine. My boss doesn't let things he wants slip away easily."
Felix frowned at that, unsure if it was comfort or warning.
But for now, he stayed — two unlikely souls sharing coffee in a house ruled by immortals, pretending, for a brief moment, that everything was normal.
The camera of the world panned back — the quiet murmur of two unlikely friends outside, and behind the door, Nani standing watch over Sky once more.
The moonlight filtered through the window, painting them both in silver and crimson — two bloodlines bound by a curse neither yet understood.
And somewhere deep inside, the mark on Sky's chest pulsed again… answering to the one on Nani's.