đ The Billionaire's Dark Secret
Chapter Seven â Blood and Betrayal
The crash reverberated through the mansion, rattling the chandeliers. Zoey's heart leapt into her throat. Shouts rose in a language she couldn't placeâguttural, harsh, inhuman.
Damian was already striding toward the door, shoulders tense, every movement sharp with lethal intent.
"Damian, waitâ" Zoey's voice cracked. She took a step after him, but he turned, pinning her with a glare that burned hotter than fire.
"I told you to stay." His voice was low, vibrating with something she had never heard in him beforeâfear.
But Zoey couldn't. Her legs moved of their own accord, carrying her down the hall after him. Whatever storm had broken into this house, it had come for himâand she couldn't bear the thought of being left in the dark again.
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The double doors to the grand foyer were cracked open, wind howling through as if the night itself had clawed its way in. Zoey pressed against the shadows, hiding behind one of the towering marble pillars.
What she saw turned her blood to ice.
Three figures stood in the entrywayâmen, but not men. Their skin seemed stretched too tight, their eyes black pools that gleamed unnaturally. Each carried blades curved like talons, dripping with some dark substance that hissed when it hit the marble floor.
"Wraiths," Damian spat, stepping into the light. His voice was a whip-crack of authority. "You dare enter my house?"
The tallest of the intruders grinned, teeth jagged as shards of glass. "You cannot hide forever, brother. The council demands your blood."
Zoey's gasp slipped from her lips before she could stop it. The creature's head snapped toward her hiding place, nostrils flaring. "Ah⊠you've been keeping company. How⊠mortal of you."
Before she could blink, Damian was in motion.
He moved faster than sightâone moment across the room, the next colliding with the Wraiths in an explosion of force. Zoey stumbled back, her eyes wide with terror and awe as the billionaire she thought she knew became something else entirely.
His hands glowed with molten light, striking with unnatural strength. Every blow cracked the air like thunder. He fought like a man who had been battling shadows for centuries.
And yet, even as Damian cut one Wraith down, the others pressed harder. One slashed his shoulder, black smoke hissing from the wound instead of blood. Damian snarled, eyes blazing gold, and drove the creature into the floor.
"ZoeyâRUN!" His voice tore through the chaos, raw and furious.
But Zoey couldn't. Her body was frozen, her mind warring between terror and the magnetic pull of him. The reality of what he wasâimmortal, cursed, dangerousâclashed with the undeniable truth pounding in her chest.
She didn't want to run. She wanted to fight beside him.
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The last Wraith slipped past Damian's strike and lunged for her. Zoey's scream split the airâtoo late for her to dodge. But in an instant, Damian was there, shielding her with his body. The blade meant for her sank into his side.
Damian's breath hitched. His golden eyes dimmed for a fraction of a second as he staggered, the black blade buried deep.
"No!" Zoey's hands flew to him instinctively, desperation clawing at her throat. "Damian!"
He caught her gaze, his voice a strained whisper. "This is why⊠I can't have you near me."
Then his fury exploded. Power ripped through the room, light flooding from his chest in a violent wave. The Wraiths disintegrated into ash, their screams echoing into silence.
Zoey trembled as the last of them fell. She clutched Damian, her hands slick with the strange smoke that poured from his wound. "You're hurtâlet me help youâ"
His hand cupped her face, tender even as his body weakened. "You don't understand, Zoey. Being near me doesn't just put you in danger." His eyes locked onto hers, burning with a pain deeper than centuries.
"It marks you as mine."
Her breath caught, heart slamming against her ribs. And before she could ask what he meant, Damian collapsed in her arms.
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