h4Chapter 353: Party Guests/h4

strongVincent/Vaelthor ~/strong

Control. That was my mantra. The shadows bent to me because I demanded it—because I never faltered, never wavered, never surrendered to the weakness of impulse.

Until tonight.

I sat across from them in a smooth ck beast as it purred low, devouring the road with predatory grace. Winter leaned into me, her shoulder brushing mine, steady as stone. She carried silence like armor,posed, unshakable—an unmovable fortress in a world that kept shifting.

Me? I was the breach in the wall.

It was our first time in one of these surface-world contraptions. They called it a car. To me, it felt like being swallowed by steel and ss, an iron cage painted up as luxury. Every detail jarred me—the hum of the engine like a restless growl, the faint sting of gasoline mingling with the sharper bite of leather, the subtle press of the seat that tried to cradle me but only reminded me I was trapped. The windows reflected back slivers of our faces, ghost-like, and I wondered how humans endured this confinement daily without wing their way out.

The irony wasn’t lost on me: the master of shadows, unsettled by a machine. But maybe that was the problem. Shadows were alive. They breathed with me, yielded to me. This contraption did not. It obeyed no one in the car except the one behind the wheel—and I wasn’t used to surrendering control.

And then there was her.

The girl—Kat. Her scent curled through me like smoke, intoxicating, impossible to capture in words. My shadows leaned toward her on their own, bowing, bending, stretching across the leather seats as though she were their master. They whimpered for her, begged me to let them get closer.

I clenched my jaw so hard it ached. No. We weren’t here for whatever the hell this was. We were here for revenge.

But each time her gaze brushed against mine, the tether tightened. Invisible, unrelenting. I could see her fighting whatever was pushing us towards each other—the rigid set of her jaw, the restless twitch of her fingers that never quite reached toward me. She was resisting. She felt it too.

And then there was him.

Nick. The hybrid. From the second his eyes locked onto Winter, something in me had gone feral. His stare wasn’t casual curiosity. It was raw, reverent—like a starving man who’d just found the only food that could save him. My instincts screamed that he’d recognized her as his.

I nearly tore him apart right there in his own house.

Winter, though... she didn’t understand. She tilted her head, feigning calm, but confusion rippled under her surface. She thought maybe it was the aftershock of the fight, maybe some kind of vampire trick. But I’d seen that look before. I’d seen it in demons who’d stumbled across their fated ones.

This wasn’t weakness. This was recognition.

A mate-bond.

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The very thing Mom used to whisper about, the same fire that had bound her to our father. The curse my uncle Krelth carried with that vile demoness Xyra.

But this... this made no sense. Why now? Why here, when we were neck-deep in a mission that couldn’t afford distractions?

Were the godsughing at us, dangling fate in front of us just to watch us bleed?

I swallowed hard, keeping my eyes forward, when Winter’s voice brushed against my mind, soft but sharp, like snow against skin.

Winteri: "Vincent, what’s happening? Why is he staring at me like that? And why do I feel... pulled? Like my body’s moving toward him on its own, like I don’t even get a choice?"/i

Her voice was calm inside my head, but through the bond—the one we always relied on—her unease bled into me, sharp and electric.

Vincent: i"He’s not just staring. He’s recognizing. And so are you."/i

The link between us shivered. Her presence faltered, flickering like a candle in a sudden draft.

Winteri: "...Recognizing what?"/i

I drew in a slow breath, shadows curling closer, wrapping around me like armor. They muffled the truth pressing at my ribs, the truth I didn’t want spilling out too soon.

Vincent:i "You already know, Winter. You just don’t want to give it words."/i

Her silence dragged on, fragile, stretched thin. I felt the spike of her panic, raw and real.

Winter:i "No. That’s impossible. I don’t have... I can’t have—"/i

Vincent:i "A mate-bond."/i

The words hung there between us, heavy and inescapable, echoing louder than any sound in the car.

She turned her face toward the window, shutting the world out. I could feel her fighting it, her denial sharp, frantic. But the bond was a merciless thing. Once it wound itself around you, there was no unknowing. A least that’s what mother used to say.

And me? I wanted to curse all the gods. Because if this was fate’s idea of a joke, it was the cruelest one yet.

The car rolled to a smooth halt before what Nick so casually called an estate. Estate was too small a word. The ce wasn’t a house—it was a monument. Its towers rose against the night like polished obsidian spears, each window gleaming with an almost predatory shine. Nick had mentioned it belonged to a friend of his father’s, but from the look of it, friend felt like the wrong word. This was power carved into stone.

From within, music spilled into the night, a pulsing heartbeat of strings and drums that shimmered like velvet and silk. Even from outside, it carried the scent of indulgence, whispering promises of decadence... and the kind of danger that smiled at you before it bared its teeth.

Nick turned in his seat, the dim glow of the dashboard catching on the sharp lines of his face. He didn’t raise his voice—he didn’t need to. That same quiet authority, the kind only vampires seemed born knowing how to wield, rolled off him in waves.

"Stay close. Follow our lead. No stunts. No attention."

I let a grin slip, sharp and deliberate. "Come on, Nick. Attention’s where I live."

Kat giggled then tried to smother her reaction, but the twitch of her lips betrayed her. That spark between us—unwanted, undeniable—ignited again, and damn it if it didn’t feel like a win. A quiet victory I hadn’t asked for, but couldn’t help savoring.

Winter nudged me gently, a silent reminder to behave. I exhaled, shadows curling back into my skin.

We stepped inside together.

The air hit me first—perfumed and heavy, carrying notes of bloodwine, roses, and something darker that curled at the edges of my senses like smoke. The ballroom itself was a cathedral of decadence. Crystals hung like frozen waterfalls, scattering shards of light across velvet-draped walls. Marble floors gleamed so brightly they threw back the dancers’ reflections, a ghostly second world rippling beneath our feet.

The vampires owned the room, every movement smooth, predatory, and unnervingly elegant. They drifted like shadows in silk,ughter edged with something sharp, fangs glinting when they smiled too wide. Even the few werewolves scattered among them—broader shoulders, rougher edges—held themselves like guests who’d been tolerated rather than weed. They lingered at the edges, careful, avoiding unnecessary attention.

And then there was Nick.

The moment he stepped forward, the atmosphere shifted. Vampires who moments ago had looked ready to dismiss us faltered, their eyes lowering, their bodies angling slightly in acknowledgment. Respect, or maybe wariness—it was hard to tell, but either way, the room responded to him. He didn’t bow or break stride; he simply existed as though the hall belonged to him, and somehow, everyone else agreed.

Kat drew just as many eyes if not more, though the attention she got was different. The vampires’ gazes lingered on her too long, a flicker of curiosity beneath the masks. The werewolves stiffened as if they knew something I didn’t, and even the vampires tilted their heads in subtle recognition. She wasn’t simply a wolf among predators—she carried herself like she belonged here, like the velvet and the crystal and the marble had been waiting for her.

And that was what made my stomach knot. Wolves didn’tmand this kind of reverence in a vampire hall. ording to what we were taught back home in the demon realm, wolves bowed to vampires, or they bled. Yet here she was, moving through the crowd as if she had every right to their stares, their silence, their quiet deference.

Who were they, really—these two who carried the weight of titles without speaking them aloud?

My suspicion sharpened, slicing through the haze of candlelight and music. Kat wasn’t just some wolf girl who had identally tangled herself into my story. No, she was something far more dangerous, far more luminous. And if I was going to im her—if fate truly meant her for me—I needed to know exactly what kind of fire I was inviting to burn me alive.

But the shadows inside me whispered another truth, dark and insistent.

iShe feels like light in a world that should already be mine tomand. And no matter what secrets she hides, no matter what power makes them lower their eyes in her presence, I will not let her go./i

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