Asher's Point of View
The pain hit me like a lightning bolt straight to the heart.
I dropped to my knees on the cold stone floor, gasping for air that wouldn't come. It felt like someone was ripping my chest open with hot knives. But this wasn't physical pain—this was something much worse.
Someone was in danger. Someone important.
"No, no, no," I whispered, holding my chest. The pain was getting stronger, and with it came something I hadn't felt in a hundred years.
The need to protect.
My shadows started pouring out of me like black smoke, moving around the room in a panic. They could feel it too—the pull, the hurry, the desperate need to go somewhere and save someone.
But I couldn't leave. I was too dangerous. I'd proven that already.
The pain got worse, and suddenly I could see things. Not with my eyes, but in my mind. A young woman with kind eyes, surrounded by talking books. Ancient magic rising. And something else—something dark and hungry moving through the storm toward her.
"She's in trouble," I said to the empty room, but my voice came out as a growl.
My shadows were going crazy now, pulling at me from all directions. They wanted to go to her, to protect her, to wrap around her like a shield. For the first time in a century, my skills weren't trying to destroy something. They were trying to save something.
Someone.
I tried to fight it, tried to stay in my safe, lonely castle where I couldn't hurt anyone. But the pull was too strong. It was like someone had tied a rope around my heart and was yanking on it.
"I can't," I said, but I was already standing up. "I can't leave. What if I hurt her like I hurt everyone else?"
The pain in my chest got so bad I couldn't breathe. Images flashed through my mind—the kind woman in danger, something evil getting closer to her, her needing help that only I could give.
My feet started moving toward the door.
"This is insane," I muttered, but I couldn't stop walking. The pull was stronger than my fear, stronger than my guilt, stronger than everything that had kept me trapped for a hundred years.
I reached for the door handle and stopped. My hand was shaking. When was the last time I'd been outside? When was the last time I'd talked to another person?
The village. The fire. The screaming.
"I'll kill her," I whispered. "Just like I killed them."
But the pain in my chest was getting worse, and now I could feel something else. Fear. Not my fear—her fear. The kind woman was scared, and somehow I could feel her feelings like they were my own.
That's when I knew I didn't have a choice.
I opened the door and stepped outside for the first time in twenty years.
The storm hit me like a wall of ice water. Rain soaked through my clothes in seconds, and the wind tried to knock me over. But I barely noticed. All I could think about was the woman who needed help.
My shadows spread out behind me like wings, and I started running down the mountain. Not walking—running. My feet barely hit the ground as I flew through the forest, following the pull that was dragging me toward town.
Trees whipped past me in a blur. Lightning flashed overhead, but I wasn't scared of the storm. I was scared of what I might find when I got to where I was going.
The pull was getting stronger with every step, and so was the pain in my chest. Whatever was happening to the kind woman, it was getting worse.
I ran faster.
Branches grabbed at my clothes and rain blocked my eyes, but I didn't slow down. I couldn't slow down. Every second I wasted was a second she was in more danger.
That's when I smelled it. Something that made my blood turn to ice.
Vampire.
"No," I breathed, but my feet were already moving me faster toward town. "Not her. Please not her."
Seraphina Dark. The vampire queen who'd been hunting me for decades. She was here, and she'd found the woman who'd awakened my powers.
The pull in my chest wasn't just about protecting someone anymore. It was about saving someone from the monster who'd been after me for so long.
I burst out of the bush and saw the town spread out below me. The lights looked different now—some were warm and safe, but others were cold and dangerous. And right in the center of town, I could see the library.
The library where the kind woman was stuck.
My shadows went crazy, stretching out toward the building like they were trying to reach her. I could feel her fear so clearly now it was like she was standing right next to me.
"Hold on," I whispered, even though I knew she couldn't hear me. "I'm coming."
I ran through the empty streets, my feet splashing through puddles and my shadows flowing behind me like a cape. The closer I got to the library, the more I could feel what was happening inside.
The woman had found something. Something powerful and ancient and tied to me. That's why I could feel her feelings, why my shadows were so desperate to protect her.
She'd found the Awakening Book.
The one book in the world that could link a person to a supernatural creature. The book I'd been looking for since the day I'd become a monster, thinking it might help me find a way to be human again.
But if she had the book, that meant she was in more danger than I'd thought. The Awakening Book didn't just connect people—it made them targets. Every bad creature in the world would want to get their hands on that kind of power.
Including Seraphina.
I was almost at the library when I felt it. The vampire queen's presence, cold and hungry and right outside the building. She was trying to get in, trying to get to the woman who'd awakened something she didn't understand.
My shadows turned from protective to dangerous in an instant. For the first time in a hundred years, I wanted to hurt someone. I wanted to rip Seraphina apart for threatening the one person who might be able to help me.
But as I got closer to the library, I noticed something that made my heart stop.
I could feel the woman's thoughts now, not just her feelings. And what I felt there wasn't just fear.
It was trust.
She was thinking about me. About the sad, scary man she'd met in the basement. And even though she was frightened and confused and in more danger than she could imagine, she was thinking about helping me.
She wanted to save me.
When was the last time someone had wanted to save me instead of run away from me?
Never.
I reached the library just as Seraphina broke through the front door. The vampire queen stood in the doorway, her eyes glowing red in the darkness. She was beautiful and terrible and absolutely dangerous.
"Where is she?" Seraphina called into the building. "Where is the little human who found my prize?"
My shadows exploded around me like a tornado. This vampire had spent decades trying to capture me, trying to use my skills for evil. She'd hurt innocent people looking for me. She'd turned my life into a nightmare.
And now she was after the one person who might be able to help me remember what it felt like to be human.
"Get away from her," I growled, stepping out of the darkness.
Seraphina turned and smiled, showing her fangs. "Asher. My dear, sweet shadow devil. You're just in time to watch me claim my new pet."
"She's not your pet," I said, and my voice was deadly quiet. "She's under my protection."
"Protection?" Seraphina laughed. "You? The monster who ruins everything he touches? You're going to protect a fragile little human?"
My shadows started moving toward her, and for the first time in a century, I wasn't afraid of what they might do.
"Try me," I said.
But as we faced each other in the storm, I noticed something that made my blood run cold.
I could feel the woman's fear rising. Not because of Seraphina.
Because of me.
She was more scared of the monster who'd come to save her than she was of the vampire who'd come to hurt her.
And I couldn't blame her for that.