CHAPTER TWO
The first touch was electric.
Not flesh against flesh, not yet, but a brushing of presence, as if their very souls collided in the space between their breaths. Seraphina had known lust. She had mastered desire. But what crawled under her skin now was older, darker, something primal. It was not attraction.
It was recognition.
Xavier stood still, every inch of him coiled in restraint, but Seraphina could feel the storm thrashing beneath the surface. She had felt that once in herself centuries ago, before the curse sank its fangs into her destiny.
He was dangerous. Not because he carried silver weapons beneath his coat or knew the secrets of her kind, but because he saw her. And in that gaze, she remembered the girl she once was. The woman who had once believed in love before it turned to blood and ash.
"I didn't come to play," Xavier said quietly.
"Then why did you come?" she asked, stepping closer, her voice velvet over razors.
"To end this," he replied.
The air between them snapped.
Seraphina blinked once, slowly. "You think you can end me?"
"No," he said, silver eyes gleaming. "But I can end us before whatever this becomes."
Us. That word tasted foreign on her tongue.
"Are you afraid?" she asked.
"I'm prepared," he countered. "There's a difference."
His control was maddening. Most men, most hunters, came with blades and fire in their eyes. They wanted glory, revenge, or the thrill of the hunt. Xavier came with silence. With purpose. With something even she couldn't read.
"You know what I am," she said, circling him like the predator she was. "But do you know what you are?"
He raised a brow, unmoved. "What do you mean?"
"You carry something old in your blood," she whispered. "It calls to me. You think you came here for me. But I think… you were made for me."
A flicker passed through his eyes. Not fear, something else. Memory. Pain.
"You think this is fate?" he asked, voice tight.
"No," Seraphina said, stepping closer until their chests almost touched. "I think this is a curse."
Xavier didn't move. Didn't breathe.
Seraphina reached out, gently touching his jaw. The contact sent a jolt through both of them. His heart skipped. Hers thundered.
For a moment, the club disappeared again. The music faded, and the blood in the walls went quiet.
She saw fire again. A burning field. Screams. A child. A promise made under a blood moon.
Then it was gone.
Xavier stepped back, breath sharp. "What the hell was that?"
Seraphina's voice was barely a whisper. "A memory. Maybe yours. Maybe mine."
Their fates were tangled in a web neither of them fully understood. A prophecy long buried. A bloodline lost in myth. And now… a choice neither wanted to make.
She could feel her hunger twisting, not just for his blood, but for the truth he carried inside him. He didn't come here by accident. The universe didn't work that way. Not for monsters like her.
Not for the ones who were damned together.
"You should leave," she said, voice cold now. "Before I forget who I am."
"I think," Xavier said, watching her closely, "you're just starting to remember."
Seraphina wanted to argue. To bite. To kiss. Instead, she turned away.
"Come back tomorrow," she said over her shoulder. "You want answers. I need… time."
He hesitated. "You'll be here?"
She gave him a half-smile. "I always am."
Without another word, Xavier vanished into the shadows, the door closing behind him with a whisper of finality.
But Seraphina knew… this was only the beginning.
And fate had teeth.