The location was buried deep beneath an abandoned hospital outside Ashridge—its iron gates swallowed by ivy and rot. The building had long since been condemned after a supernatural plague left it soaked in death.
But the scent of blood was fresh.
Too fresh.
Damien's boots crunched over broken glass as he led Ariana through the front doors. She kept close, her fingers gripping the back of his coat. Every step inside felt wrong. The air was too still, like the building was holding its breath.
The deeper they went, the more Ariana's mark ached.
"He's here," she whispered.
"No," Damien said, eyes scanning. "He was."
They found the stairwell sealed behind a rusted iron door. Damien shattered it with a single kick, and the hallway beyond was lit with flickering red lights.
At the far end, a room pulsed with magic.
"Stay behind me," Damien ordered.
But it was too late.
As soon as Ariana stepped over the threshold—
The room swallowed her.
---
She blinked.
And she was no longer beside Damien.
She was home.
Boston. Her old apartment. The exact moment before her life shattered.
Clara was in the kitchen. Laughing.
Ariana took one step forward—
And the air turned cold.
Clara looked up.
But her eyes were black.
"You left me," she whispered.
Ariana staggered back. "No. No, this isn't real—"
"You let him take you. Let him break you." Clara's voice twisted, deepened. "Do you even remember who you were?"
Then Clara stepped aside—revealing Damien.
But not her Damien.
This one was pale, feral. His mouth was smeared with blood. His eyes gold and cruel.
He licked his lips.
"Come here, little mate."
Ariana backed away, heart hammering.
Voices surrounded her now—Xander's laughter, Clara's screams, the echo of her own moans twisted into cries of pain.
She covered her ears.
"None of it was real."
"He marked you to own you."
"You were just a game—his toy—"
"STOP!"
She screamed, and the illusion cracked like glass.
---
Meanwhile...
Damien was tearing through the warded hallway.
The moment Ariana vanished, he went feral.
His fists bled from breaking through the spell-wall, but he didn't stop. The smell of her panic—her fear—was a trail he'd follow through hell.
But then his test began.
A mirror flashed in the dark.
He saw himself.
A throne behind him.
Ariana in chains at his feet.
Xander's voice echoed in his head.
> "You think you're different than me. But you enjoyed taking her. You still do."
The rage hit him hard, primal and unfiltered.
And for the first time in centuries, Damien doubted himself.
But then—he felt her.
Not her pain.
Her defiance.
Her voice sliced through the illusion:
> "I chose him. And I'll choose him again. Even if it kills me."
That snapped him out of it.
Damien roared and shattered the mirror with a burst of vampiric energy, storming forward—
And burst into the heart of the lab.
---
Ariana was on her knees in the center, trembling—but alive.
Damien dropped to her side, pulling her into his arms.
"I'm here. You're safe now."
She shook her head. "He's inside me. Not Damien. Xander. He's using my memories. He knows everything."
Damien's grip tightened.
"Then I'll rip him out piece by piece."
---
As they made their way out, flames began to lick the walls.
Damien had rigged the lab with vampire fire on the way in—just in case.
"Let him know what we saw," Damien said darkly. "And let him know we're coming."
Ariana looked back only once.
The shadows twisted inside the fire.
And in the center, she saw Xander's silhouette—arms open, like a mockery of a savior.
> "Come find me, little queen."