đ Chapter 1 â Birth in Blood
The night was silent.
Too silent for a clan of exorcists.
In the Zayn clan's stone chamber, a woman gasped for breath, her back pressed against the cold floor. Her kimono was soaked with blood. Each breath burned her chest.
She knew she had no chance.
Outside, footsteps echoed.
Slow. Calm. Deliberate.
Felix Zayn was approaching.
"He's coming..." she whispered, her hand trembling on her stomach.
The child moved.
A wave of calm, deep occult energy spread through the roomâdifferent from the clan's. Silent. Like a shadow watching.
The door opened.
Felix entered, immense, his body sculpted like a weapon. His aura filled the air. Behind him, Mark, 20, stood straight, his gaze empty, already marked by too many deaths.
The woman looked up.
"Don't do this to himâŠ"
"Not like you did to Mark."
FĂ©lix didn't answer.
He knelt slowly before her, placed a hand on her stomach.
"You tried to run away." His voice was neither angry nor cruel.
It was final.
"I just wanted him to liveâŠ"
"To go to school⊠to chooseâŠ" A spasm.
A stifled cry.
The child was born in blood.
A boy.
His eyes opened immediately.
Calm. Deep.
He wasn't crying.
At the very moment of his birth, a pulse of occult energy coursed through the room. Not violent. Not explosive.
Observant.
Felix took the child.
Then, without hesitation, he placed his hand on the mother's chest.
A Black Ray erupted.
The ground cracked.
Silence fell once more.
Mark looked away slightly.
Felix gazed at the child in his arms.
"Your name will be Gray."
The child stared at him.
No fear.
No tears.
Just⊠a quiet shadow.
Felix straightened.
"He will live."
"But he will not escape the clan."
He handed Gray to Mark.
The older brother took him awkwardly.
The baby placed a small hand against his chest.
For the first time in years,
Mark's heart trembled.
In his mother's blood,
in the law of the clan,
Gray Zayn had just been born.