Adrian's POV
I stepped out of Eira's room and quietly closed the door behind me.
Mike was sitting on the couch, waiting.
He didn't look up immediately.
Then his eyes lifted to mine.
His voice was dark.
"Care to explain anything?"
I remained still.
"She's Princess Lunaria's daughter," I said calmly. "She carries Selenathyx."
Mike's expression hardened.
"And?"
"No one touches her."
A faint, humorless smirk touched his lips.
"You love her, don't you?"
I said nothing.
Mike stood.
"Oh, come on, Adrian."
He walked toward me, a strange amusement flickering in his eyes.
"I can already imagine it. A beautiful house. Her beside you. The two of you together."
His smile widened.
"What a beautiful love story."
I stared at him without expression.
"But what about the ending, Adrian?"
The amusement disappeared from his face.
"Wake up."
He stepped closer.
"You feed on human blood."
His voice lowered.
"You are exactly what she hates most."
He stopped directly in front of me.
"You are a vampire, Adrian."
Silence settled between us.
"You really think she'll ever love someone like you?"
His words hung heavily in the air.
I didn't move.
I didn't answer.
Because I already knew the truth.
I was a monster.
And she was the one person I had no right to want.
Mike watched my face, waiting for a reaction.
There was none.
He finally stepped back.
"Don't forget who you are."
His voice was quieter now.
"A vampire, Adrian."
I turned my gaze toward Eira's closed door.
My voice remained cold.
"No one touches her."
Mike frowned.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing?"
His voice sharpened.
"You think she can survive this?"
He stared at me for several seconds.
"Do you even care about anyone?"
My expression didn't change.
Mike stepped closer.
"She isn't just some human girl, Adrian. She's carrying the most dangerous source of power we've ever seen. The wolves know about her. Your clan will find out. And when they do—"
He paused.
"They'll come for her."
I met his gaze.
"Let them."
Mike's jaw tightened.
"And what happens when they come for us?"
Silence settled between us.
"She will get all of us killed."
My eyes hardened.
"No."
I took one slow step toward him.
"They'll have to get through me first."
Mike stared at me.
"You want all of us to die for her?"
I didn't answer.
His expression hardened.
"You can't feel something as human as love, Adrian."
Before I could respond, a voice came from behind us.
"The girl needs to die."
Both of us turned.
A vampire stood at the entrance.
I recognized him immediately.
He was the same vampire Mike and I had once saved.
Now he stood before us, ready to betray everything we had done for him.
His eyes were fixed on me.
"He is going to destroy everything. He is going against his own clan. Kill him—"
He never finished.
Mike moved.
In the next instant, his hand was around the vampire's throat.
A sharp crack echoed through the room.
The vampire collapsed lifelessly to the floor.
The same man we had once saved was now dead at Mike's hand.
Silence followed.
I looked at Mike.
A faint, humorless smirk touched my lips.
"If you wanted me dead, you wouldn't have come to save me."
Mike said nothing.
I stepped closer.
"Perhaps that same emotion you call love is inside you too."
His eyes narrowed.
Mike simply glared at me.
"You might be her salvation," he said at last.
He paused.
"But she is going to be your destruction."
His gaze shifted briefly toward Eira's room.
"You are darkness."
His eyes returned to mine.
"And she is light."
His voice grew quieter.
"Both can never meet, Adrian."
He turned toward the door.
"This will destroy you."
He paused.
"Only you."
Then Mike walked out.
I remained standing in the silence.
My eyes drifted toward Eira's door.
Darkness and light.
Perhaps he was right.
But there was one thing he didn't understand.
I had never feared the darkness inside me.
Not until she became the only light I wanted to protect.
Even if protecting her meant staying away from her.
Even if, one day, she was safer without me.
I would accept it.
Because I didn't need her to choose me.
I only needed to know she was safe.
Even if she was far away from me.
Eira's POV
I couldn't sleep.
I had turned from one side of the bed to the other countless times, but sleep refused to come.
Every time I closed my eyes, everything that had happened came rushing back.
Adrian was a vampire.
Jake was a werewolf.
Even thinking those words felt unreal.
Impossible.
Yet I had seen it with my own eyes.
Vampires and werewolves actually existed.
And Adrian…
Adrian was one of them.
I closed my eyes again, but instead of darkness, I saw him.
His black eyes.
Those eyes that had always seemed unreadable now looked completely different in my memory.
I remembered the moment they had changed.
The way his fangs had appeared.
The way his entire presence had shifted in an instant.
He had looked like the creature I had always been told could never exist.
A vampire.
Then I remembered the wolves.
The way they had surrounded us.
The way Adrian had moved.
So fast that my eyes could barely follow him.
There had been no hesitation.
No fear.
No mercy.
One moment, the wolves had been attacking.
The next, Adrian was tearing through them as though they were nothing.
I remembered the sounds.
The violence.
The blood.
And those black eyes watching everything with terrifying calm.
He hadn't looked like someone fighting to survive.
He had looked like a predator.
A monster.
My stomach twisted.
I pulled the blanket closer around myself.
My thoughts shifted to Jake.
Jake.
The person who had once made me laugh without even trying.
The person I had trusted.
The person I had believed I knew.
Had every smile, every conversation, every moment between us been a lie?
But the Jake I had seen today…
He was different.
No.
He was someone I didn't recognize at all.
There had been something cruel in his eyes.
Something dark.
Something frightening.
I turned onto my back and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Then there was Selenathyx.
What exactly was it?
How could I possibly be connected to something I had never even heard of until now?
Everyone wanted it.
The vampires.
The werewolves.
Even Jake.
But why?
What made it so powerful?
And why had something I knew nothing about suddenly become the center of everything?
I finally pushed myself out of bed.
My feet carried me toward the terrace almost instinctively.
I opened the door and stepped outside.
The cool night air brushed against my skin, soothing some of the restlessness inside me.
I lifted my eyes toward the moon.
The question left my lips in barely more than a whisper.
"What is Selenathyx?"
My throat tightened.
Then another question escaped before I could stop it.
"Adrian…"
I lowered my gaze.
"Who are you?"
Silence answered me.
I swallowed.
"Why do you always save me?"
For a moment, I simply stood there, almost expecting an answer.
As if somehow, somewhere, he could hear me.
Of course, he couldn't.
Or at least, I thought he couldn't.
"You ask a lot of questions."
My entire body went still.
My breath caught.
For one suspended second, I couldn't move.
The voice had come from behind me.
Slowly, I turned.
A figure stood in the terrace doorway.
My pulse quickened.
It took me a moment to recognize him.
Drek.
He stood there casually, leaning against the doorway, his gaze fixed on me with an unmistakable hint of amusement.
"When did you get here?" I asked, my voice quieter than before.
He glanced at me.
"Long enough to hear you interrogating the moon."
I frowned.
"I wasn't interrogating it."
"Right."
A faint smirk tugged at his lips.
"You were having a very serious conversation with it."
"I was thinking."
"Out loud."
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
Drek looked back at the moon.
"For what it's worth, I don't think it's going to answer."
Despite everything swirling inside my mind, a small smile almost escaped me.
He pushed himself away from the doorway and took a few steps closer.
"I'm Drek," he said, as though we hadn't already known each other for quite some time.
I gave him a confused look.
"I know."
"Good. Saves me an introduction."
I couldn't help but shake my head.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
The silence returned, but this time, it didn't feel as heavy.
I looked at him.
"What are you doing here?"
Drek's expression softened slightly.
"I was taking care of Adrian."
My eyes widened.
"Adrian?"
"The silver chains hurt him badly," he explained. "Tonight was a little painful for him. He endured so many silver chains and still managed to stand."
He gave me a faint, almost amused smile.
"He's very strong. But more than that… he really does care about you."
My chest tightened.
"Is he okay?"
Drek gave me a reassuring look.
"He'll be fine. Don't worry."
I nodded slowly, though the worry in my chest didn't completely disappear.
Drek looked at me.
"You're not going to sleep, are you?"
I lowered my eyes.
"No."
"Too many questions?"
I nodded.
He studied me for a moment.
"I figured."
There were so many things I wanted to ask that I didn't know which one mattered most.
But one question had been haunting me ever since I learned the truth.
"What is Selenathyx?"
Drek's expression changed.
The amusement disappeared from his face.
"And why does everyone want it?"
He remained silent.
I took a small breath.
"And why am I connected to it?"
Drek turned his gaze toward the moon again.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then his voice became quieter.
"Because there is an old legend."
I waited.
"For centuries, we believed it was nothing more than a story."
He paused.
"Until we discovered that it wasn't."
I frowned.
"What legend?"
Drek looked at me.
"The story of Lunaria."
My heart tightened at the name.
"Many years ago, there was a werewolf princess named Lunaria. She was different from the others. Kind. Compassionate. She never believed vampires and werewolves were destined to hate each other."
"She once saved a vampire from being killed."
His eyes returned to the moon.
"And somehow…"
A faint smile touched his lips.
"She fell in love with him."
Something about those words made my chest tighten.
"But Lunaria was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"Death."
His voice softened.
"She feared that one day she would die and lose the man she loved forever."
"So she prayed to the Moon Goddess."
"The Moon Goddess answered."
Drek's expression grew serious.
"She blessed Lunaria with Selenathyx."
My breath caught.
"And then Lunaria discovered she was carrying a child."
"She believed she had been given everything she had ever wanted—the man she loved, a child, and immortality."
His expression darkened.
"But her happiness didn't last."
"The vampire she loved betrayed her. His clan feared that an immortal werewolf would become powerful enough to destroy them, and he agreed to kill her."
Drek's voice became colder.
"But there was another betrayal."
"Her father wanted Selenathyx too."
"For its power."
"For immortality."
My fingers slowly curled at my sides.
"So the two people she trusted most…"
Drek's eyes darkened.
"…wanted the same thing."
"The power she carried."
"Lunaria disappeared. No one knows where she went. Vampires and werewolves searched for her for years, but they never found her."
He fell silent.
"Until a few days ago."
I looked at him.
"We followed Jake. Through one of Lunaria's old servants, we finally learned the truth."
"The legend was real."
My heartbeat quickened.
"Lunaria was killed by a vampire."
I stared at him.
"But before she died…"
"She had a daughter."
"And the Stone…"
Drek's eyes met mine.
"Is inside her."
The world seemed to stop.
For several seconds, I could do nothing but stare at him.
Then, somehow, I found my voice.
"So…"
My voice trembled.
"You believe it's inside me?"
Drek didn't answer immediately.
"How do you know?"
His expression softened.
"Because you are the one, Eira."
I shook my head slowly.
"I…"
The words refused to make sense.
"I don't understand."
"I know."
He took a slow breath.
"But you are the one."
He studied my face carefully.
"Do you remember the Halloween party?"
I nodded.
"The pain you felt that night…"
He paused.
"That was Selenathyx awakening beneath the Red Moon."
My mind immediately returned to that night.
The forest.
The unbearable pain.
The burning sensation inside my chest.
The strange power I couldn't understand.
The Red Moon above me.
And Adrian.
"Adrian…"
The name left my lips before I realized I had spoken it.
I swallowed.
"He was protecting me."
Then I remembered it.
The light.
The strange glow that had emerged from my chest.
The impossible power I had felt inside me.
I looked down at my chest.
That glow…
It had been real.
Everything had been real.
The pain.
The Stone.
The legend.
And me.
"I am her daughter."
The words sounded foreign coming from my own lips.
"Lunaria's daughter."
Drek nodded.
I stared into the distance.
Suddenly, everything I had ever believed about myself felt fragile.
My family.
My childhood.
My past.
Everything I thought I knew about where I came from.
"My parents…"
I looked at Drek.
"They're not my parents."
Drek immediately shook his head.
"Eira, parents aren't always connected by blood."
His voice was gentle.
"Sometimes, they're connected by something far more important."
He looked at me.
"Love."
I remained silent.
"If they raised you, cared for you, protected you, and loved you…"
He paused.
"Then they are your parents."
His voice softened further.
"I don't know how you came to them. I don't know what happened before you entered their lives."
He held my gaze.
"But if they loved you, Eira…"
A faint smile touched his lips.
"They are your family."
I couldn't answer.
Because somewhere inside me, I knew he was right.
Blood had given me a past I didn't know.
But love had given me a life I did know.
I stood there silently, trying to absorb everything he had just told me.
After a long silence, I finally asked,
"Don't you want to destroy Selenathyx?"
Drek stared at me for a moment.
Then he laughed softly.
"No one can touch you while your bodyguard is here."
I frowned.
"Bodyguard?"
His smile widened.
"Adrian."
He said the name almost dramatically, as though announcing some legendary hero.
"'No one touches her.'"
I stared at him.
Drek chuckled.
"Did Adrian really say that?"
I looked at him.
"Yes."
He paused.
"And Eira…"
His expression became serious again.
"It's true."
"Adrian is a vampire."
I remained silent.
"A creature meant to be feared."
He paused.
"Someone you're supposed to stay away from."
I looked down.
"But just like humans, vampires can be good or bad."
His voice became more serious.
"He might seem ruthless. Cold. Arrogant. Even heartless at times."
Drek glanced at me.
"But that's the wall he built around himself."
I looked at him.
"A wall he's spent centuries making stronger."
He paused.
"And somehow…"
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"You broke through it."
My heart skipped.
"You're the one who made him lose control."
Drek held my gaze.
"The one who made him show emotions he had buried so deeply that even he had forgotten how to express them."
I lowered my eyes.
I didn't know how to respond.
I didn't even know what I was supposed to feel.
Drek smiled faintly.
"I think that's enough answers for one night."
He stretched his arms.
"I'm tired. I'm going for a hunt. I need blo—"
He stopped himself.
"Sorry."
He gave me an innocent smile.
"I mean food."
I stared at him.
He added,
"Eating food in a civilized way."
Despite everything I had just learned, a small smile tugged at the corner of my lips.
Drek turned toward the door.
But just before he walked inside, he stopped.
He glanced back at me.
"Sometimes, Eira…"
His voice was quieter now.
"The ones we call monsters are not always the ones who want to hurt us."
I held his gaze.
"Sometimes, the monster is the one standing between us and the darkness."
A faint smile touched his lips.
"And sometimes…"
He paused.
"The monster is the one who would rather be hated by you than let anything in this world hurt you."
Then he walked away.