"Sometimes the only way to save someone you love is to become something you hate."OPENING SCENE - ELENA'S HOUSE (Night)
10:47 PM
Elena burst through her front door like she was being chased by hell itself.
Which, technically, she was.
Her hands shook so violently that it took three tries to turn the lock. The deadbolt. The chain. Every barrier between her and whatever those things were.
Vampire.
Werewolf.
The words sound insane even in my head.
She collapsed against the door, sliding down until she hit the floor. Her jeans were torn, knees bleeding through the fabric. Her palms were scraped raw from falling in the forest. Mia's broken necklace was still clutched in her fist, the silver chain cutting into her skin.
Mia.
Oh God, Mia.
Elena's phone. She needed her phone.
She pulled it out with trembling fingers, dialing Mia's number.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
"The number you have dialed is not available—"
She tried again.
Same result.
Again.
Again.
"Pick up, pick up, PICK UP!"
Nothing.
Elena threw her phone across the room. It hit the wall, screen cracking, falling to the carpet with a dull thud.
And then—
The lights went out.
Complete darkness swallowed the house.
Elena's breath caught in her throat. She pressed herself harder against the door, heart hammering so loud she was sure the entire neighborhood could hear it.
It's just a power outage.
Just a coincidence.
Just—
"Elena."
The voice came from everywhere. From nowhere. From inside the walls themselves.
That velvet voice. That dangerous voice.
His voice.
"I know you're in there," the voice continued, conversational, almost amused. "I can hear your heartbeat. It's... fascinating. Different from others. It beats in a rhythm I've never heard before."
Elena covered her mouth with both hands, trying to muffle her breathing.
"You're scared," he said. "Good. You should be. But not of me. Never of me. I'm not here to hurt you, Elena. I'm here to protect you."
A bitter laugh escaped from somewhere outside. Different voice. Rougher. Angrier.
The golden-eyed one.
"Protect her? That's rich coming from a bloodsucker who's probably killed thousands."
"Says the dog who can't control himself during a full moon."
"At least I don't need to murder people to survive."
"No, you just do it for fun."
CRACK.
Something hit the side of the house. Hard. The walls shook.
Elena crawled away from the door, moving through the darkness toward the stairs. She needed to hide. To think. To—
The lights flickered back on.
And he was inside.
Standing in her living room like he'd always been there.
The dark-eyed boy—Damien, her mind supplied, remembering Mia's gossip from this morning that felt like a lifetime ago.
He was even more devastating up close. Tall, lean but powerful, dressed in expensive black clothes that belonged on a runway, not in her middle-class living room. His dark hair fell across his forehead in a way that should have looked messy but instead looked deliberately, achingly perfect.
But his eyes—
They weren't dark anymore.
They were red.
Deep, burning crimson. Like fresh blood. Like her nightmares.
"Hello, Elena," he said softly.
Elena scrambled backward until she hit the wall. "How—how did you get in?"
"You invited me."
"No, I didn't!"
A small smile curved his lips. Not kind. Not cruel. Something in between.
"Three weeks ago. Your mother had a church fundraiser. She invited the whole neighborhood inside for cookies and donations. I was there. You didn't see me, but I saw you." His head tilted slightly. "You wore a blue dress. You smiled exactly twice. Once at an old woman who complimented your hair. Once at a child who spilled juice on your shoes."
Elena's mind reeled. She remembered that day. Remembered the dress. Remembered feeling like someone was watching her.
"You've been stalking me for THREE WEEKS?"
"I've been protecting you for three weeks," he corrected. "There's a difference."
"Protecting me from what?"
His expression darkened. "From them. From him. From yourself."
Before Elena could respond, the front door exploded inward.
Not opened. Not kicked.
Exploded.
Wood splinters flew everywhere. Elena screamed, covering her face.
When she looked again, he was there.
The golden-eyed one. But he looked different now. Bigger somehow. His muscles strained against his shirt like his body was barely containing something much larger. His fingernails were claws. His teeth, when he snarled, were fangs.
And his eyes blazed gold like molten sun.
"Get away from her, parasite."
Damien stepped forward, positioning himself between Elena and the newcomer. "Make me, dog."
"Stop calling each other names and GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
Both of them turned to look at her.
Elena was standing now, back against the wall, Mia's necklace raised like the world's most pathetic weapon.
"Where is Mia?" she demanded, looking at the golden-eyed one—Kael, something whispered in her mind, though she didn't know how she knew that name. "You said she was alive. WHERE IS SHE?"
Kael's expression softened slightly. "She's safe. Hidden. The others took her to draw you out."
"What others?"
"The rogues," Damien answered, not taking his eyes off Kael. "Vampires and wolves who've lost their humanity. They've been hunting for someone like you for decades."
"Someone like me? I'm nobody! I'm just—I'm just Elena! I work at a bookstore! I've never even gotten a speeding ticket! Why would anyone want—"
"Because you're not just Elena," Kael interrupted. His voice was gentler now, almost sad. "You're—"
Damien moved so fast Elena didn't see it. One second he was standing still. The next, his hand was around Kael's throat, slamming him into the wall hard enough to crack the plaster.
"She doesn't need to know yet," Damien hissed.
Kael grabbed Damien's wrist, twisting it with a sick cracking sound. "She has the right to know what she is!"
"What I am?" Elena's voice cracked. "WHAT AM I?"
Both of them froze.
And then Elena felt it.
Heat.
Starting in her chest, spreading through her veins like liquid fire. Her vision blurred. The room spun. And suddenly she could see things—
Damien's true face. Pale as marble, beautiful as a fallen angel, with fangs that gleamed like pearl daggers.
Kael's wolf. Just beneath his skin, massive and powerful, desperate to break free.
And something else.
Dark figures surrounding the house. Dozens of them. Red eyes and golden eyes in the darkness.
Waiting.
"They're here," she whispered.
Both men turned toward the windows.
"Shit," Kael growled.
"Indeed," Damien agreed.
For the first time since they'd appeared, they looked at each other without hatred.
With something almost like... respect?
"Temporary truce?" Kael offered.
"Until she's safe," Damien nodded.
"What's happening?" Elena demanded. "Who's out there?"
"Everyone," Damien said simply. "Every rogue in the state. Maybe the country. They've all come for you."
"But WHY?"
"Because of what you are," Kael said. "What your blood can do."
"My blood?"
"Your blood," Damien said softly, his red eyes fixed on her with an intensity that made her shiver, "can break the curse."
"What curse?"
"The one that keeps vampires and werewolves as enemies," Kael explained. "The one that's existed for a thousand years. Your blood can either unite us forever—"
"Or destroy us completely," Damien finished.
Elena stared at them.
At these two impossible beings standing in her destroyed living room, natural enemies who wanted to kill each other, both claiming to protect her.
"You're insane. Both of you. This is—this is—"
The window shattered.
A figure crashed through—wild hair, red eyes, fangs bared, reaching for Elena with claw-like hands.
Elena screamed.
Damien moved.
The rogue vampire's head separated from its body before it hit the ground.
Black blood sprayed across Elena's mother's white carpet.
Elena stopped screaming.
She couldn't breathe.
There was a head on her living room floor.
An actual severed head.
"First one," Kael muttered, his body starting to shift and change, bones cracking and reforming. "Get ready for more."
More windows shattered.
More figures poured in.
Vampires with hunger-mad eyes.
Wolves already half-transformed.
All of them focused on one thing.
Elena.
"Run," Damien commanded, his voice different now—older, more dangerous, carrying the weight of centuries. "Back door. NOW."
"But—"
"RUN!"
Elena ran.
Behind her, hell broke loose.
SCENE 2 - THE ESCAPE
Elena crashed through her back door into the yard she'd played in as a child.
The swing set her father had built still stood in the corner, rusty now, one swing broken. The garden her mother tried to maintain despite working double shifts. The fence she'd painted last summer, thinking her life was normal.
Normal is dead.
Normal never existed.
Screams and snarls erupted from inside the house. The sound of furniture breaking. Walls cracking. Death happening in the place she'd always felt safest.
Elena ran toward the fence—
A wolf landed in front of her.
Massive. Gray-black fur. Eyes like burning coals. Foam dripping from jaws that could crush her skull like an egg.
Not Kael.
This one had no humanity left.
Elena stumbled backward, fell, scrambled in the dirt.
The wolf stalked forward, head low, muscles coiled to spring.
This is how I die.
Eaten by a werewolf in my backyard.
Mom's going to be so confused when she finds the pieces.
The wolf lunged.
Elena threw her hands up—a useless gesture, she knew, but instinct demanded it.
Heat exploded from her palms.
Fire.
Actual fire.
White-hot, tinged with gold, erupting from her hands like she was some kind of—
The wolf screamed—an almost human sound—as the flames hit it. It crashed to the ground, rolling, trying to extinguish the supernatural fire that clung to its fur.
Elena stared at her hands.
They were glowing.
Literally glowing.
"What the hell—"
"ELENA!"
She looked up.
Mia.
MIA!
Running toward her from the street, still in her school clothes, mascara streaked down her face, but ALIVE.
"MIA!" Elena ran toward her best friend, relief flooding through her like—
Mia's expression changed.
Her eyes went wide.
"ELENA, BEHIND YOU!"
Elena started to turn—
Pain exploded through her shoulder.
She looked down to see claws—vampire claws—piercing through her body from behind, protruding from just below her collarbone.
Blood—her blood—sprayed across the grass.
The world tilted.
She heard Mia screaming.
Heard Damien roar her name with a rage that shook the earth.
Heard Kael howl with such anguish it broke her heart.
But all Elena could focus on was the blood.
Her blood.
Hitting the ground like rain.
And where each drop landed—
Flowers bloomed.
Blood-red roses, growing instantly, impossibly, from soil soaked with her pain.
"Extraordinary," whispered the vampire behind her, his breath cold against her ear. "The legends were true. You really are the Blood Rose. The bridge between worlds. The key to everything."
He twisted his claws.
Elena screamed.
"Let's see what else your blood can do."
He pulled his claws out—
—and Damien's hand went through his chest.
The vampire looked down at the pale fist protruding from his ribcage, holding his still-beating heart.
"That's mine," Damien said, his voice so cold it could freeze hell itself.
He crushed the heart.
The vampire crumbled to ash.
Elena fell.
But before she hit the ground, arms caught her.
Two sets of arms.
Damien on one side, Kael on the other.
Enemies holding her together.
"Don't you dare die," Damien commanded, pressing his hand to her wound. His skin was cold as ice, but somehow comforting. "I forbid it."
"Stay with us," Kael added, his hand burning hot against her other side, werewolf healing energy pulsing into her. "Please. I just found you. You can't leave yet."
Elena looked up at them.
These two beautiful, impossible, dangerous boys.
Both looking at her like she was everything.
Both covered in blood from fighting for her.
Both willing to die for her.
"Mia," she whispered.
"I'm here!" Mia appeared above her, tears streaming. "I'm here, babe. You're going to be okay. You have to be okay. You promised we'd go to college together. You promised we'd be each other's bridesmaids. You promised—"
"Mia." Elena's voice was fading. "Run."
"What?"
"More... coming..."
She was right.
They emerged from the shadows like a nightmare army.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Vampires and werewolves, all rogue, all insane, all focused on the bleeding girl who grew roses from blood.
"We're surrounded," Kael growled.
"Completely," Damien agreed.
"So what do we do?" Mia asked, surprising everyone by not running, instead kneeling beside her best friend protectively.
Damien and Kael looked at each other.
A moment of understanding passed between them.
"We fight," they said in unison.
"Together?" Kael asked.
"For her? Always," Damien answered.
They stood, positioning themselves on either side of Elena and Mia.
The vampire prince and the wolf alpha.
Eternal enemies.
United by the dying girl between them.
"Whatever happens," Damien said, not looking at Kael but speaking to him, "she lives."
"Agreed," Kael nodded. "Even if we don't."
"Especially if we don't."
Elena wanted to protest. To tell them not to die for her. That she wasn't worth it.
But darkness was creeping in from the edges of her vision.
The last thing she saw before unconsciousness claimed her was impossible:
Damien and Kael, fighting side by side, vampire and werewolf working in perfect synchronization, destroying anyone who tried to get close to her.
The last thing she heard was Mia's voice:
"Elena, your wound—it's... it's healing itself. And your eyes... they're glowing. Silver and gold and red all at once. What ARE you?"
The last thing she felt was a pull in three directions:
Toward the cold comfort of Damien's darkness.
Toward the warm strength of Kael's light.
And toward something else.
Something deeper.
Something that had been sleeping inside her for eighteen years.
Something that was finally waking up.
SCENE 3 - THE AFTERMATH
Location: Unknown
Time: Unknown
Elena woke to the sound of arguing.
"—reckless and stupid! You could have killed her!"
"I saved her! If I hadn't gotten there when I did—"
"If you hadn't been stalking her, none of this would have happened!"
"Oh, that's rich coming from the wolf who's been following her scent for weeks!"
"That's different! She's my—"
"Don't. Don't you dare say it."
"Why? Because it's true? Because it kills you that she's my fated—"
"She's NOTHING to you! You don't even know her!"
"And you do?"
"Better than you ever will, dog."
Elena groaned. "Can you both please shut up? My head is killing me."
Instant silence.
Then both voices at once:
"ELENA!"
She opened her eyes slowly.
She was in a bedroom she didn't recognize. Expensive looking, with floor-to-ceiling windows showing a view of the forest. Silk sheets. Dark furniture. It smelled like sandalwood and something else—something inherently masculine and dangerous.
Damien was on her right, sitting in a chair he'd pulled close to the bed. His clothes were different—clean, no blood—but his expression was the same. Intense. Worried. Possessive.
Kael was on her left, also in a chair, also changed and clean. His golden eyes were soft with relief.
Between them, at the foot of the bed, was Mia.
"MIA!"
Elena tried to sit up. Pain shot through her shoulder.
"Easy," Damien said, gently pushing her back down. "You lost a lot of blood."
"A LOT a lot," Mia added. "Like, horror movie amounts. But then you started healing yourself which was super cool but also terrifying and I maybe threw up twice but we don't need to talk about that."
Elena looked at her best friend. Really looked at her.
"You're okay? You're not hurt?"
"I'm fine. Thanks to tall, dark, and broody here." Mia gestured at Damien. "He had some of his non-crazy vampire friends protecting me. Apparently, he knew the rogues would use me as bait."
Elena looked at Damien. "You protected my best friend?"
He shrugged, but she caught the hint of satisfaction in his eyes. "You care about her. That makes her important."
"Don't let him fool you," Kael interrupted. "My pack helped too. We've been working to keep all your friends safe."
"All my—" Elena's eyes widened. "My mom. Where's my mom?"
"Safe," both men said simultaneously, then glared at each other.
"She's at the hospital," Mia explained. "They called her in for an emergency shift. She doesn't know about... any of this."
"My house—"
"Being fixed," Damien said. "My people are handling it. By tomorrow, it'll look like nothing happened."
"Your people?"
"The vampire council. My father leads it." He paused. "I'm what you might call... vampire royalty."
Kael snorted. "Royalty. Right. You're a prince of parasites."
"Better than being the alpha of mutts."
"I'll show you mutt when I—"
"STOP!" Elena shouted, then winced as pain shot through her shoulder again.
Both men immediately focused on her, concern replacing anger.
"Fighting," she said more quietly. "Stop fighting. Please. I can't... I can't handle it right now."
They fell silent.
Elena took a shaky breath. "Where are we?"
"My family's estate," Damien answered. "About an hour from town. It's warded. Protected. No one can enter without permission."
"Why didn't we go to pack lands?" Kael demanded. "It would have been safer—"
"Safer? Your 'pack lands' are in the middle of the forest. That's rogue territory—"
"The forest is our domain! We know every tree, every—"
"Enough," Elena whispered.
They stopped.
She looked at them. These two impossible boys who'd saved her life. Who'd fought together despite hating each other. Who were now sitting on either side of her bed like guardian angels.
Guardian monsters, she corrected.
"I need to know," she said. "Everything. What I am. Why this is happening. All of it."
Damien and Kael exchanged a look.
"It's a long story," Damien said.
"We have time," Elena replied. Then, softer, "Don't we?"
"Yes," Kael said firmly. "We have all the time you need."
Damien leaned back in his chair. "Very well. But first, you should know... once you hear this, there's no going back. Your old life—your human life—it's over."
"It was over the moment I saw you in that hallway," Elena said, meeting his dark gaze steadily.
Something flickered in his eyes. "You felt it too."
It wasn't a question.
"The pull," she admitted. "Like... like I knew you."
"Because you do," Kael interrupted, his voice tight. "Just like you know me. Your soul recognizes us, even if your mind doesn't understand yet."
"What does that mean?"
Mia, who'd been uncharacteristically quiet, spoke up: "It means you're connected to them. Both of them. Which should be impossible, but apparently you're all about doing impossible things now. Like bleeding roses and setting werewolves on fire with your hands."
"I did that?"
"You did," Kael confirmed. "It was... remarkable."
"And terrifying," Damien added. "Power like that—untrained, uncontrolled—it could destroy you."
"Or," Kael said, shooting him a look, "it could save everyone."
"The prophecy," Elena said, remembering their words from earlier. "You mentioned a prophecy."
Both men tensed.
"That's... complicated," Damien said.
"Everything about this is complicated," Elena replied. "Start talking."
And so they did.
They told her about the ancient war between vampires and werewolves.
About the curse that kept them enemies.
About the prophecy that spoke of a child born of three bloodlines—human, vampire, and wolf—who would either unite the species or destroy them all.
About how that child was supposed to be impossible.
About how that child... was her.
"But I'm not—" Elena protested. "My parents were human. Normal, boring humans."
"Your adopted parents were human," Damien corrected gently.
The world tilted.
"What?"
"The people who raised you," Kael said, his voice soft, "they're not your biological parents. Your real parents... they were something else."
"What were they?"
Damien and Kael looked at each other.
"We don't know," Damien admitted. "Records were destroyed. Memories were erased. Someone went to great lengths to hide your origins."
"But we know you're the one from the prophecy," Kael added. "Your blood proves it. The way you affect us proves it."
"Affect you?"
Both men looked uncomfortable.
"Vampires," Damien said slowly, "we don't feel... much. Emotions fade over centuries. But you—when I saw you, it was like waking up for the first time in three hundred years."
"And werewolves," Kael added, his golden eyes intense, "we have fated mates. One person we're destined for. I've been searching for mine since I turned eighteen. The moment I smelled your scent..." He trailed off.
"I'm your mate?" Elena whispered.
"You're my everything," Kael said simply.
Damien's hands clenched into fists, but he said nothing.
Elena looked between them. "So what happens now?"
"Now," Damien said, "we keep you alive. The rogues won't stop. Neither will others who want to use you."
"We train you," Kael added. "Help you control your powers."
"And we find out the truth," Damien continued. "About your parents. About why someone hid you. About what you're truly capable of."
"Together?" Elena asked, looking between them.
They looked at each other. Oil and water. Fire and ice. Natural enemies forced into an alliance.
"Together," they agreed reluctantly.
"Good," Mia said, clapping her hands. "Because this love triangle tension was getting exhausting, and we've only been here for like three hours."
"It's been two days," Damien corrected.
"WHAT?" Elena and Mia shouted together.
"You've been unconscious for two days," Kael explained. "Your body was healing itself, but it took time."
"Two days..." Elena touched her shoulder. The wound was gone. Not even a scar. "My mom must be freaking out."
"Damien handled it," Kael said, though he looked annoyed about admitting it. "She thinks you and Mia are on a last-minute college visit."
"You compelled my mother?"
Damien shrugged. "It was necessary."
Elena wanted to be angry. She should be angry. But exhaustion was pulling at her again.
"I need to sleep," she said.
"Rest," Damien said, standing. "We'll be right outside."
"Both of you?"
"We're not leaving you unprotected," Kael said firmly. "Ever again."
They headed for the door.
"Wait," Elena called.
They turned.
"Thank you. Both of you. For saving my life. For protecting Mia. For... everything."
Damien's expression softened almost imperceptibly. "You don't need to thank us."
"You're ours to protect," Kael added.
"I'm not anyone's," Elena said firmly.
Both men smiled slightly.
"We'll see," they said in unison, then glared at each other for agreeing.
They left.
Mia immediately bounced onto the bed.
"Okay, so we need to talk about how you have the two hottest guys I've ever seen literally fighting over you. Like, this is some epic romance novel stuff and I'm living for it."
"Mia—"
"The vampire is all dark and mysterious and looks at you like he wants to eat you, but in a sexy way not a murder way. And the werewolf is all protective and intense and looks at you like you hung the moon."
"Mia—"
"You're going to have to choose eventually, you know."
Elena sighed, sinking back into the pillows. "I know."
"So? Team Vampire or Team Werewolf?"
Elena closed her eyes.
She thought about Damien's dark eyes, the way he'd said she was his, the cold comfort of his touch.
She thought about Kael's golden gaze, the way he'd called her his everything, the warm strength of his presence.
She thought about how they'd fought together to save her.
How they'd held her as she bled.
How they both looked at her like she was their whole world.
"I don't know," she whispered.
And that was the truth.
Because how do you choose between darkness and light when you're made of both?
How do you choose between ice and fire when you need both to survive?
How do you choose between two hearts when yours beats for both?
SCENE 4 - LATE NIGHT VISITOR
3:00 AM
Elena couldn't sleep.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw blood. Fangs. Claws. Her mother's living room destroyed. Roses growing from her spilled blood.
She stood at the window, looking out at the forest. The moon was still tinged red, though fading now. In two nights, it would be full.
She wondered what that meant for Kael.
She wondered what darkness meant for Damien.
She wondered what any of this meant for her.
A soft knock at the door made her turn.
"Come in."
She expected Mia. Or maybe both guardians checking on her.
She didn't expect him.
Damien entered silently, closing the door behind him. He'd changed into simple black sleep pants and a t-shirt, looking more human than she'd ever seen him.
But his eyes gave him away.
They glowed softly in the darkness, fixed on her with that intensity that made her shiver.
"Can't sleep?" he asked.
"Too much to process."
He moved closer, stopping a respectful distance away. "I remember my first night. After I was turned. The world was different. Louder. Brighter. More dangerous."
"When were you turned?"
"1698. I was twenty-two."
Elena's breath caught. "You're over three hundred years old?"
"Three hundred and twenty-six, to be precise."
"That's... that's..."
"Ancient? Monstrous? Unnatural?"
"Lonely," she said softly.
He looked at her sharply. "What?"
"Three hundred years is a long time to be alone."
Something shifted in his expression. "I haven't been alone. I've had... companions."
Elena ignored the stab of jealousy that caused. "That's not the same as not being lonely."
He was quiet for a long moment.
"No," he finally agreed. "It's not."
They stood in comfortable silence, looking out at the forest.
"Why me?" Elena asked. "I know about the prophecy, but... why do you care? Why risk everything for someone you just met?"
Damien moved closer, close enough that she could feel the cool radiating from his skin.
"I didn't just meet you," he said quietly. "I've been dreaming of you for decades."
Elena turned to face him. "What?"
"Vampires don't dream. We don't sleep, not really. But sometimes... sometimes I would see things. A girl with dark hair and silver eyes. A girl who smelled like moonlight and roses. A girl who would either save me or destroy me." He reached out, not quite touching her face. "I thought it was madness. A side effect of living too long. But then I saw you in that hallway, and I knew."
"Knew what?"
"That I'd been waiting for you. My whole endless existence, I'd been waiting for you."
Elena's heart raced. "Damien—"
"You don't have to choose now," he said, stepping back. "I know the wolf has a claim too. I hate it, but I acknowledge it. But Elena..." His eyes burned into hers. "I've waited three centuries. I can wait longer. However long it takes for you to see that you and I... we're inevitable."
Before she could respond, he was gone.
Vampire speed.
Elena touched her face where he'd almost touched her.
Her skin tingled.
Another knock.
This time, she wasn't surprised when Kael entered.
He looked irritated. "I smelled him in here."
"He just wanted to talk."
"Right." Kael moved to where Damien had stood, as if claiming the territory. "And what did the bloodsucker want to talk about?"
"Don't call him that."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "Defending him now?"
"You fought together. You saved me together. The least you can do is use actual names."
He sighed, running a hand through his golden hair. "You're right. I'm sorry. It's just... difficult. My whole life, I've been taught that vampires are evil. That they're our natural enemies. And now..."
"Now?"
"Now I have to share you with one."
"You don't have to share me. I'm not a possession."
"That's not—" He growled in frustration. "That's not what I meant. Elena, you have to understand. For werewolves, finding your mate is everything. It's like... like finding the other half of your soul. The person you're meant to protect, to love, to build a life with. And you're mine. Every instinct I have screams it."
"But I'm also connected to him."
Kael's jaw clenched. "Yes."
"How is that possible?"
"I don't know. It shouldn't be. But then, you shouldn't exist at all, according to everything we know." He moved closer, his warmth a stark contrast to Damien's cold. "But you do exist. You're here. You're real. And you're the most beautiful impossible thing I've ever seen."
Elena's breath caught.
Kael reached out, slowly, giving her time to pull away.
She didn't.
His hand cupped her cheek, thumb brushing over her cheekbone. His skin was almost fever-hot, but it felt good. Safe.
"I won't pressure you," he said softly. "I know this is all too much, too fast. But I need you to know... whatever you decide, whoever you choose... I'll still protect you. Always. That's what mates do. Even if..." His voice cracked slightly. "Even if you choose him."
"Kael—"
He leaned down, pressing his forehead to hers. "Just... give me a chance. Please. Let me show you what we could be."
Elena closed her eyes, overwhelmed by his proximity, his scent, the feeling of rightness that came with his touch.
"Okay," she whispered.
She felt him smile.
"Okay?"
"A chance. You both get a chance. But I need time. And I need both of you to try to get along. No more fighting. No more name-calling. If we're going to figure this out, we need to work together."
"Together," he agreed, though the word seemed to pain him.
He pulled back, his hand lingering on her cheek for a moment before dropping.
"You should rest. Tomorrow we start training."
"Training?"
"You need to learn to control your powers. And..." He grinned, and for a moment looked boyish despite his size. "You need to learn to fight. Can't have my—our—the prophesied one getting killed because she doesn't know how to throw a punch."
Elena smiled despite everything. "I'll have you know I took three years of kickboxing."
"Human kickboxing doesn't work on vampires and werewolves."
"Then I guess you'll have to teach me."
"It would be my honor."
He headed for the door, then paused.
"Elena?"
"Yeah?"
"That thing Damien said. About waiting. About inevitability." He turned to look at her, golden eyes glowing. "He's wrong. Nothing is inevitable. We all have choices. And I'm going to make sure you have every opportunity to choose freely. No compulsion. No mate bond pressure. Just... you and me, figuring it out."
"Thank you," Elena said, meaning it.
He nodded and left.
Elena returned to the window, touching her cheek where both of them had almost or actually touched her.
Fire and ice.
Light and dark.
Both pulling at different parts of her soul.
How am I supposed to choose?
How am I supposed to break one heart to save the other?
And why do I feel like, no matter what I choose, we're all going to end up broken?
EPILOGUE OF CHAPTER 2
Meanwhile, in the forest...
A figure watched the estate from the shadows.
Ancient. Powerful. Patient.
It had waited a thousand years.
It could wait a few more days.
The girl was finally revealed. The Blood Rose had bloomed.
Soon, very soon, old debts would be paid.
Old vengeances satisfied.
And the world would burn in the fires of the war that should have ended centuries ago.
The figure smiled, fangs glinting in the moonlight.
But these weren't vampire fangs.
Or werewolf fangs.
These were something else entirely.
Something that shouldn't exist.
Something that had been hunting the Blood Rose since before she was born.
"Found you, little flower," it whispered to the wind. "And when the time is right... when you trust them completely... when you think you're safe..."
It laughed, the sound like breaking glass.
"That's when I'll destroy everything you love. Just like your parents destroyed everything I loved."
"The sins of the father—and mother—always fall to the child."
"And you, Elena Blackwood, have so very many sins to pay for."
END OF CHAPTER 2Next Chapter Preview:
"Choose your weapon," Damien said, gesturing to the wall of deadly implements.
"Why can't I just use my fire hands?" Elena asked.
"Because," Kael answered, entering the training room shirtless and sweaty from his morning run, "your fire hands won't always work. And when you're facing a thousand-year-old hybrid who wants you dead..."
He and Damien exchanged a look.
"You'll need every advantage you can get."