Her voice was rough when it came out.
"I don't. I don't even know you." Lucian froze.
He studied her face, the wide, terrified eyes, the tremor in her throat, the way her hands still shook but hadn't tried to strike him again.
For a second, he almost didn't see a summoner at all.
Just a girl too fragile for the world he came from.
The fire behind his eyes dimmed. His fingers uncurled, leaving the faint outline of bruises on her neck.
He stepped back once, enough for her to breathe. Aeris slid down the wall, coughing, clutching the pendant.
The edge bit her palm, slicing a small line across her skin. A drop of blood hit the floor. Lucian stiffened.
The scent hit him first, His pupils contracted He suddenly found his body moving in a flash to her Aeris tried to crawl backward, but his hand caught her wrist before she could. He pulled it up, almost gently this time.
The cut gleamed red in the half light. He lowered his head.
Aeris jerked her hand back too fast and her teeth caught her lower lip.
The taste of her own blood spread warm and metallic in her mouth. Lucian inhaled. It was enough.
He groaned and leaned closer. The air between them thickened, his breath brushing her face.
His fangs grazed the air near her skin but didn't touch. Aeris' heartbeat stumbled. She turned her face away, trembling. Then he stopped. Completely.
Confusion slid over his features, replacing hunger.
He drew another breath slower this time. He looked at her again, really looked, as if trying to solve her. That didn't happen. Not to him.
Her blood is so addictive and calming to him Lucian's hand fell away. He stepped back like he'd touched something sacred.
"What are you?" he whispered, more to himself than her.
Aeris shook her head, terrified and clueless.
Lucian looked at her not mad at her answer but pondering that for the first time in centuries, something he didn't know and still confused him.
Before Aeris could even breathe, the world around her vanished into a violent blur.
She opened her eyes to find herself in a place that felt older than time, dark stones soaked in shadows, whispers crawling through the cracks.
Chains rattled somewhere deep and faint endless screams drifted from below. This wasn't a castle.
It was a graveyard more than a dungeon. Lucian stood before her, But in the silence, one truth burned in his mind, Her blood wasn't ordinary.
It stirred something he'd buried centuries ago. And that alone was dangerous and without a word he vanished.
They called him a Trybid. Half Lycan, half Vampire and half demon A creature that should never have existed, yet here he was, a nightmare. No one knew how the demon blood came to him.
Some said it was a curse from the underworld. Others whispered that he was the curse.
And now, she a fragile human girl in the middle of what she doesn't know, in his realm.
In the lower dungeons, guards whispered with their heads bowed low, terrified the walls might betray them.
No one spoke his name above a breath. No one asked why he had brought her. Because here, even curiosity could cost a soul.