Talon turned slowly, dread pooling in his gut. What stood there was no ordinary vampire. The creature's face was a ruined map of violence—skin mottled with bruises so dark they seemed black, punctured with deep claw marks. The twisted angles of his limbs suggested bones had been broken and reset badly, perhaps by either Talon's own claws or Kyllian's during earlier struggles. Yet here it stood, swaying, its fangs bared in hunger and rage.
Talon's shoulders squared, even as his stomach clenched in cold acceptance. His goddess would greet him sooner than he had planned. His life had been a cycle of loyalty and blood, of serving his Alpha and protecting their king, and if it ended here, it would end with his head held high. In the back of his mind, a whisper—Goodbye, my Alpha.
