It had been 372 days since Adrian Vane vanished.
Anna counted every one.
Promoted to Interim Director, she wore the power suit and wielded authority with poise, but inside, she was hollow. Corporate emails felt colder. The boardroom echoing. Her once vivid dreams had turned to silent night terrors, always ending with red eyes in the dark… then nothing.
Until last night.
She didn't know what was worse—losing Adrian or knowing he'd been watching her all this time. His return lit a fuse in her. She hadn't decided if it was rage, love, or lust that was going to burn her first.
Now, he stood in her apartment. Same tailored black, same unreadable stare. The vampire who once ruled the 50th floor with calculated grace was now silent in her doorway, dripping rainwater onto her carpet.
"You didn't invite me in," he said softly.
She crossed her arms. "You already broke my heart. What's a threshold?"
A tense beat. Then she sighed and stepped aside. "Come in."
He obeyed like a shadow, silent and smooth, as if the space belonged to him.
They sat in her kitchen. No wine. No dinner. Just tension, and her barely-there breath.
"I came back because you're in danger," he finally said.
She laughed. "You are the danger, Adrian."
"Not anymore. There's a new player. Council-backed. A vampire named Lucien. He doesn't want you dead. He wants you turned."
Her fingers curled on the counter. "Why me?"
"Because I love you," he said. "And because you made me weak."
Anna blinked. "That's the worst confession I've ever heard."
He was beside her in a second, hand on hers. "You deserve the truth."
She didn't pull away. She wanted to. She didn't.
"Then start with this," she whispered. "Did you plan to turn me?"
"No," he said. "But I won't lie—I wanted to. I still do."
She looked up into his eyes. They weren't glowing now. They were… human. Haunted.
She could hear her own heartbeat. And she knew he could, too.
"Adrian," she said carefully, "what happens if Lucien gets to me first?"
"Then you won't be you," he said. "He'll claim you. And I'll have to kill him."
Her breath caught.
"And if I let you do it?" she asked. "Turn me?"
"I won't do it unless you beg me."
Silence.
"I might," she said, lips trembling. "But not yet."
Adrian stepped back, tension coiled in his jaw.
"I'll stay in the shadows," he said. "But when the choice comes, Anna... it will change everything."
And then he was gone. Vanished. Again.
This time, she didn't cry.
Instead, she walked to the mirror, pulled her hair aside, and stared at the smooth curve of her neck.
Waiting.