*Selene*
Eros City looks very different at night.
It thrums. Vibrates. Seeps.
As though it has a life of its own.
I flow through its arteries tonight, silent and swift, weaving through alleys and neon glow like a creature with a heartbeat. The scent of blood, smoke, and decay thickens as I move closer. Descend. Down into the depths never meant to be seen by humans.
Where vampires never try to be human.
The Crimson Court.
It's not a building. It's a secret woven into the fabric of the city. A venerable club that exists in the shadowy region between fact and myth, hidden behind glamours and whispered threats. If you don't know it's there, you never will.
I find it in the ruins beneath the abandoned metro line, beneath graffiti-scrawled arches and broken signs. One moment I'm standing in a corrugated tunnel. The next moment I'm elsewhere.
Gilded chandeliers hang from broken stone ceilings. Velvet drapes cover the walls. Shadows dance, slow and sensual, gliding past each other with the kind of poise only immortals can afford.
And they all look at *me*.
Selene Marlowe. The outcast. The cursed girl who doesn't belong to any House, whose mother broke blood laws to bear something not quite vampire, not quite human.
I pass through the crowd like a blade through silk.
Until I arrive at the throne.
It isn't actually a throne, however. More like a velvet easy chair that once belonged to some deceased queen. But the occupant of the chair owns it.
Lilith.
She's ancient. Older than myself, by centuries, probably. More myth than woman. Lipstick-red mouth, black as coal eyes, and a smoke-voice that filters past an open door.
"Selene," she murmurs, her smile like something alive. "How dramatic of you to arrive unannounced."
"I didn't come for drama."
"No, you never do." Her smile is not quite in her eyes. "You came for answers. About Calder, I assume."
I nod. "He assaulted me. And he recognized me. He recognized things I've never said out loud to anyone."
She twists the stem of a wine glass—blood, not wine—and leans forward. "And you think I had something to do with that?"
"I think that somebody has a want for me to be revealed. And that doesn't happen without the awareness of the Court."
The air is thick with whispers. Vampires enjoy rumors more than blood.
Lilith's eyes pinch. "You think that we still control every renegade. Calder hasn't belonged to a House for decades."
"But he knew where I was. My partner. And he said the word *cursed* to call me."
A silence draws out. Thicker and taut.
Finally, Lilith stands. The crowd parts like water. "Follow me."
She leads me through a door I've never noticed before, into a chamber that smells of old parchment and colder truths. Shelves of scrolls and tomes line the walls. A library of sins.
She stops at a table and pulls out a thick, leather-bound book.
The seal on the front is older than the city.
"You want answers?"
she whispers. "You won't like them."
I set my teeth. "Tell me anyway."
She opens the book.
And my world is different.
"Your mother," she begins, "was no ordinary vampire. She was of the House of Morvain. Royal blood. But she was restless. Questioning. And too powerful to be good."
"I know that," I reply. "She broke the rules. Loved a human."
Lilith's eyes flash up. "She did more than that. She made a deal."
My heart stops. "What kind of deal?"
"With the Wraithborn. The ones below even us. Ancient beings. Soul-drinkers. She begged them to make you stronger. Not just a vampire—but something else. A hybrid. A weapon."
I take a step back. "That's not possible. She would never—"
"She did it to save you," Lilith says. "She knew giving birth would be illegal. She knew the Houses would hunt you down. She traded to spare your life."
"And the cost?"
Lilith closes the book. "Your soul."
Silence deafens my ears.
"That's why you radiate sunlight. Why your eyes hypnotize. Why you're colder than the rest. You are not just vampire, Selene. You are Wraith-touched."
I shake my head. "That's not— That's not who I am."
"But it is," she says. "And it's why Calder came. The Wraithborn want you back."
I feel sick. Like something ancient is crawling up my throat.
"Why now?" I whisper. "Why not years ago?"
"Because your blood is maturing," Lilith says, eyes keen. "You're waking up. And the power inside you is no longer sleeping."
My hands are trembling.
This can't be real.
Julian's face glows in my head—his kiss, his fingers, his heat.
He doesn't have any idea what I am.
What I could become.
Lilith places a cold hand on mine. "You still have a choice, Selene. You can keep it at bay. Hide yourself. But it won't last forever. Power like this… it always finds a way."
"Then show me how to resist it," I say to her. "Show me how to kill whatever is within me."
She smiles weakly. "Ah, my dear. That's the wrong question."
I meet her eyes. "Then what's the right one?"
Her voice drops to a whisper. "Ask yourself if you *want* to."
⟡
The sky is pink-edged with blood by the time I leave the Crimson Court. Dawn spreads over the city like a secret unfolding.
I don't go home.
I go to the only person who could possibly make me feel human again.
Julian.
He opens the door in sweatpants and sleep-blurred eyes. His hair's a mess, his voice rough. "Selene?"
I just stand there. Torn between needing him and needing to vanish.
He steps aside without asking. "Come in."
I do.
The moment the door closes, the tears come. Silent and relentless.
He catches me. Holds me like I'm not breaking apart. Like I'm still real.
We're on his couch. His arms around me. His heartbeat thudding slow and gentle against my ear.
"I found out what I am," I say into his chest.
He doesn't ask. He just waits.
"I am not just vampire. I am something older. Something darker. My mother… she made a deal to keep me alive. A deal that cursed me."
He's got his hand in my hair. "You're not cursed."
"Yes, I am."
"You're *you*," he says. "Selene. The girl who saves humans and punches monsters and pretends she doesn't care but cares more than anyone I've ever met."
I look up at him, my voice trembling. "I don't know how to be close to someone without destroying them."
He leans down, forehead against mine. "Then let me be the one thing that doesn't break."
I kiss him again.
It's different this time.
More than need. More than fear.
It's a promise.
And maybe a warning.
Because I have no idea how this ends.
But I do know one thing—
The war within me has begun.