CHAPTER THREE — THE ECHO IN THE DARK
LIORA
The night feels restless.
Even after telling my parents everything, sleep refuses to come.
I lie on my bed, staring at the ceiling as the Heartseal Talisman beats a slow rhythm against my skin.
Not cracking.
Not burning.
But trembling.
A warning.
A fear.
A truth I don't want to face.
Liam knows something.
Maybe not everything
—but enough to start pulling threads.
Enough to unravel me.
I sit up and hug my knees, breathing slowly the way my mother taught me.
But my thoughts run faster than any breathing technique can hold.
What was that creature in the woods?
Why did it follow us?
And why… why did Liam step in front of me like he wanted to protect me?
Hunters don't protect things they're trained to destroy.
My door creaks open softly.
"Liora?"
My father steps in, eyes shadowed with worry. "Are you awake?"
I nod.
He sits beside me. His hand rests gently on mine.
"You've always known this day might come," he says quietly. "But we hoped you would have more time."
A knot rises in my throat.
Time.
It feels like the one thing slipping away the fastest.
"Are you angry?" I whisper.
His brows soften. "Never. You're our daughter before anything else."
Before miracle.
Before secret.
Before forbidden.
He squeezes my hand.
"But you must stay alert. Liam's next move determines everything."
"What if he tells?" I ask, my voice cracking.
"Then we run."
The words shake me to my core.
Run.
Again.
Always running.
Always hiding.
I lie down eventually, and Father leaves quietly.
But sleep still doesn't come.
The night air feels too heavy.
The shadows behind my window feel too alive.
And somewhere in the distance…
I feel a presence watching.
Waiting.
LIAM
I can't focus on anything.
Not the training drills.
Not the hunter codes etched along the basement walls.
Not even my father's voice.
It all feels… wrong tonight.
"You hesitated," my father snaps suddenly.
My head jerks up.
He's studying me like he can read every thought stamped across my brain.
Maybe he can. He trained me, after all.
"When you sense a creature," he continues, pacing slowly, "you capture. You don't think. You don't wait. You don't question."
My throat tightens.
"But she—"
"She?" His voice sharpens. "So it is the girl."
Silence.
The kind that gets heavy enough to break bone.
"What did you discover?" he asks finally.
I swallow hard.
"Nothing confirmed."
His jaw clenches. "Then confirm it. Tomorrow. No delays."
A command.
A deadline.
A test.
I nod, but my chest burns.
Because I know what confirming means.
Isolation.
Containment.
Interrogation.
Possibly worse.
My father leaves the training room, and I sink onto the bench, gripping my hair.
What am I doing?
I'm supposed to expose her.
Not think about her laugh.
Not remember the way fear flashed in her eyes.
Not ache at the thought of hurting her.
My fingers brush the carving on my wrist — the hunter mark every trainee receives at fourteen.
A reminder of purpose.
A reminder of loyalty.
But the mark feels colder tonight.
Something is shifting inside me.
Something dangerous.
And it all began the moment she touched my hand.
LIORA
Morning comes in a blur.
The sky is still gray, the air thick with leftover fear.
Walking to school feels like stepping into a world that isn't meant for me anymore.
When I reach the gates, Liam is already there… again.
He looks different today.
Quieter.
More guarded.
When his eyes meet mine, something sharp flickers in them.
Not anger.
Not hatred.
Confusion.
Maybe regret.
"Hey," he says softly.
I nod. "Hi."
We walk without speaking. Our footsteps fall in sync, but our minds are miles apart.
When we reach an empty stretch of hallway, he suddenly stops and turns to me.
"Liora," he says, voice low, "can we talk after school? Just… talk."
My pulse jumps.
Every instinct tells me to say no.
Every rule I've ever learned screams no.
But his expression isn't threatening.
It's searching.
Almost pleading.
"I don't want to fight you," he adds, almost whispering.
My voice shakes. "Then what do you want?"
He hesitates.
"I want the truth."
My heart sinks.
Truth is the one thing that can destroy everything.
But before I can answer, a cold wave rushes through the hallway.
A ripple.
A silent vibration in the air that no normal student seems to notice.
But we both feel it.
At the same time.
We turn.
A shadow slips behind the corner.
Fast.
Silent.
Wrong.
Liam's eyes widen.
"You felt that too," he breathes.
There's no pretending now.
And the weight of that realization crushes the space between us.
We aren't simply crossing paths anymore.
We are connected
Twisted into the same danger
Bound by something neither of us understands.
The bell rings, snapping the moment apart.
Students flood the hallway.
But all I can think is:
Something is coming.
Something worse than hunters.
Worse than secrets.
And it has already found us.
CHAPTER THREE — HUNGER UNLEASHED
LIORA
Night hates me.
I can feel it pressing against my window, calling to the part of me I spend every day trying to bury.
The vampire half.
The half that doesn't care about rules or warnings or hunters.
The half that wants one thing.
Food.
The hunger starts as a whisper… then a pulse… then a burn spreading through my throat.
"No. Not tonight," I breathe, gripping the Heartseal Talisman.
It glows faintly, trying to hold me together, but the hunger is too strong.
Too sharp.
Too wild.
If I stay here, I might lose control.
I slip out my window into the cold air.
Bare feet.
Silent steps.
The alpha part of me blends with the night like it belongs there.
I promised myself I'd never feed on a human.
But promises mean nothing when your body stops listening.
By the time I reach the edge of town, my senses sharpen so fast the world tilts.
Every heartbeat in the streets.
Every warm scent drifting from sleeping houses.
Every pulse calling my name.
Focus, Liora.
One quick feed.
No harm.
No witnesses.
A man steps out of a bar, alone, tired, unaware.
I move toward him—
Silent.
Fast.
Deadly.
But before I reach him, something slices through the air.
A whistle.
A signal.
A hunter's call.
My entire body freezes.
Someone's here.
Someone trained.
Someone hunting.
I leap into the shadows, climbing the rooftops in seconds, hiding my face, my scent, my identity.
And then I see him.
Liam.
Dressed in hunter black.
Moving with precision.
Tracking me.
He doesn't know it's me — he only sees a supernatural creature on the hunt.
He raises a silver-tipped bolt.
No.
No.
NO.
The hunger inside me snarls, but the alpha part forces my bones to shift.
My eyes darken.
My senses ignite.
My stride turns predatory.
I'm in my alpha form now — faster, stronger, impossible to recognize.
Liam scans the street.
"I know you're here," he calls out.
My heart stops.
He's hunting me.
The girl he walked home yesterday.
The girl he smiled at this morning.
I force myself to stay silent, crouched low on the rooftop as he follows my trail.
But my hunger breaks again, harder this time, and I lose control for half a second—
A loose tile slips under my foot.
It hits the ground.
Liam whirls toward the sound, crossbow raised.
"Got you," he whispers.
LIAM
It moved like lightning.
Not a wolf.
Not a vampire.
Something between.
Whatever it is, it's dangerous.
I step closer, following the faint tremor of footsteps above me.
A rooftop creature.
Smart.
Fast.
But I'm faster tonight.
I fire a warning bolt — not to kill, just to flush it out.
The figure leaps across the roof, landing with unnatural grace.
It's tall… sleek… glowing faintly at the eyes.
A hybrid?
Impossible.
I sprint after it, my boots pounding the pavement.
"Stop running!" I shout.
The creature pauses for a single second — and I swear those glowing eyes look familiar.
Like I've seen them at school.
In class.
In sunlight.
No.
That's impossible.
It jumps again, disappearing into the darkness of the trees.
I chase it without hesitation.
This might be the one.
The one father warned me about.
The hybrid.
The forbidden creature.
LIORA
He's too close.
I can feel his breath behind me.
His aim.
His focus.
His training.
I leap from the rooftop and land hard in the forest dirt, knees bending, claws digging into the soil.
The hunger claws at me from inside, pushing me to attack, to grab the nearest human—
But the human is Liam.
I can't.
I won't.
I sprint deeper into the woods, using every ounce of my alpha strength to outrun him.
But Liam is relentless.
He fires another bolt.
It hits the tree beside me with a sharp metallic thud.
I growl under my breath—the first sound I've let slip all night.
He hears it.
He follows.
My body feels split in half — the vampire wanting blood, the wolf wanting escape, the human wanting to cry.
I skid to a stop at the riverbank.
Cornered.
Nowhere left to hide.
Liam steps into the moonlight, weapon raised, breathing hard.
"Show yourself," he says.
His voice is steady.
Mine isn't.
Because for the first time in my life… I'm staring at someone who might kill me.
Someone I… almost liked.
I step backward into the shadows, letting the darkness hide my face.
I can't let him know.
I can't let him see Liora in this monster form.
He takes another step.
"Who are you?" he demands.
My heartbeat shakes my chest.
My hunger shakes my veins.
I open my mouth to answer—
But the talisman around my neck flares.
Pain hits me.
And the world goes black.