Alec's sharp intake of breath was a soft hiss in the tense silence. He watched his sister, a statue of perfect vampiric grace now trembling with an emotion he had never seen in her centuries of existence. He followed her crimson gaze back to the human woman, who stood frozen, her expression a mixture of fear and profound, inexplicable curiosity.
He understood immediately. The stories, the whispers among the oldest of their kind… of a bond that transcended the hunter-and-prey dynamic of their world. A connection so rare and it had found his sister. A slow, genuine smile, a rarity for Alec, touched his lips.
"Jane," he said, his voice low and surprisingly gentle, a tone he reserved only for her. He placed a carefully measured hand on her rigid shoulder, feeling the tension coiled there like a spring. "This is a gift. One few of us are ever granted." He leaned closer, his words for her alone. "Do not let fear of the unknown make you ignore it. I will give you your privacy."
With a final, appraising glance at the bewildered human—Reina, Alec gave a slight, almost imperceptible bow of his head. He melted back into the shadowed archway from which they had emerged, becoming one with the deepening twilight, granting his sister the space for a miracle.
Jane barely registered his departure. Her entire world had shrunk to the space between her and the woman in the piazza. The frantic, rhythmic drum of Reina's heart was a siren's call, each beat a tug on a string connected directly to her own still core. She had commanded kings and caused warriors to crumble with a thought, yet now she felt utterly paralyzed by a pair of confused green eyes.
Reina watched the pale, stunningly beautiful woman approach her. The man, Alec, was gone, vanishing so completely it was as if he'd never been there. The woman moved with an unnatural, fluid grace, each step silent and deliberate. Fear prickled at the edges of Reina's mind, a primal warning, but it was drowned out by a stronger, deeper pull. An ache of recognition that made no sense.
"You are lost," Jane stated. Her voice was different now. The earlier ragged whisper was gone, replaced by a melodic, controlled tone, though it held a new, unfamiliar softness.
Reina could only nod, her voice trapped in her throat. Up close, the woman was… breathtaking. Her skin was like polished marble, flawless and smooth, and her eyes glowed with an unearthly crimson light that should have been terrifying but was instead mesmerizing.
"I… I don't know where I am. Or how I got here," Reina confessed, the words tumbling out. "I don't remember anything. Just my name... Reina"
A blank slate, Jane thought, her ancient mind reeling. Her mate, her destined one, had been delivered to her devoid of history, of baggage, of everything but her essential self. It was terrifying and intoxicating. She could sense the emptiness inside the human, a void that mirrored her own eternal longing in a way she had never dared to acknowledge.
"You are in Volterra," Jane said, taking another step closer. The scent of her—warm blood, yes, but underneath it, something uniquely Reina, a fragrance of rain on dry earth and something sweetly floral—was intoxicating. "You are safe here."
The promise felt foreign on her tongue. Safety was not something she was in the habit of providing.
Reina hugged herself, a gesture of vulnerability that sent a strange, protective surge through Jane. "Who are you?" Reina asked, her green eyes searching Jane's face.
"My name is Jane." She hesitated, then added, "The man was my brother, Alec." She found herself wanting to offer more, to bridge the gap between them with something real. "You feel… a connection. Do you not?"
The question hung in the air between them. Reina's breath hitched. She wanted to deny it, to chalk it up to disorientation and fear. But she couldn't. The feeling was too strong, too innate. It was a thread pulling taut, drawing her toward this enigmatic woman.
"Yes," she admitted softly, the word barely a whisper. "I don't understand it. But yes."
A wave of something fierce and possessive washed over Jane, so powerful it made her head spin. Her mate felt it too. The bond was not one-sided. It was real. Her usual methods of interaction—intimidation, compulsion, pain—were useless here. More than useless; they would be a desecration.
She reached out, her movement slow, giving Reina every opportunity to pull away. Her pale, cool fingers barely brushed against Reina's wrist, where a pulse beat a wild, frantic rhythm against delicate skin.
The contact was electric.
For Jane, it was a jolt of lightning—the warmth of Reina's life, the softness of her skin, the sheer vitality of her was a sensation more vivid than any torture she had ever inflicted. It was a drug, and she craved more.
For Reina, the cool touch was a shock, but not an unpleasant one. It was a balm on her feverish confusion, a point of startling clarity in the void of her mind. A shiver raced up her arm, not of cold, but of… anticipation. Her breathing shallowed.
Jane's crimson eyes darkened, the predator in her riveted by the visible reaction. She could see the rapid flutter of Reina's pulse in her throat, could hear the blood racing beneath the surface. But the hunger it sparked was unlike any she had ever known. It was not a hunger for consumption, but for connection. For possession of a different kind.
Her thumb stroked a slow, gentle path across Reina's inner wrist, feeling the delicate tracery of veins. Mine, the ancient, primal part of her mind whispered. This warmth is mine to protect. This heart is mine to cherish.
"Your heart is calling to mine," Jane repeated her own earlier words, her voice now a low, hypnotic murmur. She leaned in closer, her lips nearly brushing Reina's ear. Reina could feel the cool aura of her skin, could smell a faint, dark scent of incense and night-blooming flowers. "And mine… is answering."
Reina's eyes fluttered closed. The world—the piazza, Italy, her missing past—all of it fell away. There was only this moment. Only this terrifying, exhilarating pull. Only Jane.
She felt Jane's free hand come up to cradle her jaw, the coolness of her touch a startling contrast to the heat flooding Reina's own face. Jane tilted Reina's head up ever so slightly. Her breath ghosted across Reina's lips.
"May I?" Jane whispered, the question itself a seismic shift in her nature. She was asking. Not taking. Not commanding. The two of them hovered in the charged space, a breath apart, the unspoken promise of a first kiss hanging between them.