Pain woke him.
Not sharp.
Not sudden.
Endless.
Adrian dragged in a shaky breath and instantly regretted it as fire spread through his ribs. His entire body felt like it had been shattered and stitched back together wrong.
Cold iron pressed against his cheek.
Stone beneath him.
Chains around his wrists.
A cage.
He forced his eyes open.
Dim torchlight flickered across damp stone walls. Shadows stretched long and crooked across the cellar floor. Above him, behind thick iron bars, two vampires leaned lazily against a wooden railing.
Watching.
Waiting.
"…He doesn't look like much."
"I told you. Lukas exaggerated. This thing didn't kill Marcus and Elena."
Adrian coughed.
Blood splattered the stone beneath him.
Both vampires went silent.
Their eyes darkened instantly.
Hunger.
Raw and violent.
One of them stepped closer to the bars before stopping abruptly.
A presence above them.
The ancient one stood at the top of the stairs, silent and unmoving.
Age meant power.
And power meant control.
The guards stepped back immediately.
Adrian lay still, staring at the ceiling.
How did I end up here…
The last time his body had rejected the power, it had been different. A dull ache. A warning. Something temporary.
This?
This felt like punishment.
Every breath hurt. Every movement burned. His chest tightened again and another cough forced its way out, red staining his lips.
The vampires above inhaled deeply.
Their restraint thinned.
Footsteps echoed down the stairs.
Slow. Calm. Unhurried.
A man appeared at the edge of the torchlight.
Not ancient.
Not nervous.
Confident.
He gestured casually to the guards.
"Leave us."
They hesitated.
He smiled.
They left.
Silence filled the cellar as the man approached the cage and crouched in front of Adrian.
"I watched your fight."
Adrian forced his head up slightly, vision swimming.
"What… you were watching?"
His voice rasped.
"Then why didn't you help your bloodsucking friends?"
The man smirked.
He leaned closer and whispered something into Adrian's ear.
Adrian blinked.
Then laughed weakly.
A broken, breathless sound.
"Wow… this place really is messed up."
The man stood.
"You should stop pretending to be weak," he said calmly.
"And accept what you are."
He turned and walked up the stairs without another word.
"Good evening," he called to the vampires above as he left the castle.
Adrian stared after him.
Confusion churned in his chest.
The power wasn't rejecting him.
It never was.
He was rejecting it.
The screams.
The terror.
The way the vampires had begged.
He had felt all of it.
Taken all of it.
And some part of him had recoiled.
Above the cellar, laughter and music resumed.
The feast continued.
Unaware.
Outside the castle walls, hidden in the forest shadows…
Someone else was already moving.
And the vampires had no idea what was coming.