Chapter 1
The night was quiet, broken only by the distant howling of wolves and the whisper of wind through the bare trees. Josh stood still on the edge of the old cathedral ruins, his black coat fluttering gently against the wind. Six centuries of silence had taught him patience—but never peace.
He had once been a man, warm-blooded and foolish, filled with hope. That was 600 years ago. Now, he was a vampire, cursed with immortality and bound by laws older than stone. He could not remember what bread tasted like or what sunlight felt like on skin. All he knew was the ache—the endless ache that lived inside him, feeding on loneliness like he once fed on blood.
He hadn't loved in centuries. He didn't believe he could. Not after the first hundred years passed. Not after he stopped counting.
But lately, something inside him stirred again a hunger that wasn't for blood, but for something deeper. Something lost.
In dreams, he saw a face one he didn't recognize. A girl. A human. Her eyes held fire, her smile was sunlight. And when he woke, it hurt.
He told himself it was nothing. Just a trick of his starving heart. But even a creature as old as him couldn't ignore fate when it started to whisper.
Josh stepped down from the ruin, blending into the shadows of the town below. Something was waiting for him in that town. Or maybe someone.
And against everything he had known for 600 years, he would follow that feeling.even if it destroyed him