Chapter 7 Cassian Confronts Her

• The rain had started without warning.
• Mira stood beneath the crumbling arch of a closed bookstore, arms wrapped tightly around herself, clothes damp and clinging to her skin. She didn’t bother trying to shield herself from the storm. Something inside her felt colder than the rain.
• Cassian’s words still echoed in her head:
• “You carry part of me now. A scent and thread of connection.”
• It wasn’t just a metaphor, something had changed inside her. The vampire at the bar, his knowing stare, the way he had sniffed the air around her like she was prey, it confirmed it. She was becoming something else something not quite human. But she didn’t understand it, couldn’t control it and Cassian... he appeared only in shadows and riddles, then vanished before she could get answers. A bolt of lightning cracked across the sky, Mira jumped. The storm deepened and then footsteps. She turned, expecting a late-night walker or perhaps another predator in the dark. But the figure standing across the street, emerging beneath the amber flicker of a broken streetlight, was all shadows and sharpness, there stood Cassian. He wore black again, as if it were sewn from the night itself. His coat flared with the wind, his silver gaze glowing under the storm. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “You said I wasn’t safe anymore,” she said across the rain. “What did you mean?”
• Cassian didn’t answer right away. He stepped closer, silent but sure, and his eyes never left hers. When he reached her, he placed one hand above her on the brick wall, caging her gently without touching.
• “I should’ve told you sooner,” he said, voice low and smooth. “But I didn’t think they’d sense you this fast.”
• “Who?” she breathed.
• “The Bloodborn.”
• Mira stared, “What are those?”
• “Old vampires, purebloods. The first line. Most of them don’t care about the world of mortals. But they do care when one of their kind marks a human.”
• Her heart pounded. “Because of you?”
• He nodded slowly, “You’re not just any vampire, are you?”
• Cassian’s expression didn’t change, but the tension in his body tightened like a pulled string.
• “I’m not,” he said. “I was born before blood was a gift. Before it became currency, l am one of the last Lords, Mira. I sit on the High Council’s edge, neither trusted nor forgotten.” She shivered, not from the cold, but from the weight of those words. “Why me?”
• He lowered his head until their faces were just inches apart. The sound of the rain was all around them, but the only thing she could hear was the space between their breaths.
• “I don’t know why the bond chose you,” he whispered. “Only that it did and it’s growing stronger.” Mira tried to look away, but his nearness, his voice, the heat in his gaze it all held her frozen. “You saved me,” she whispered, “but you also ruined my life.”
• “I did,” he admitted. “And I’d do it again.”
• She opened her mouth to argue, but the flash of vulnerability in his expression stopped her.
• “You don’t understand,” he continued. “When a vampire recognizes their mate, it’s not a gentle thing it is violent and consuming. It tears centuries of control into pieces.”
• “But I did not ask for this,” she said, eyes burning. “I did not ask to be anyone’s mate.”
• “I know,” he said softly.
• “But now I’m changing, they can smell me. That man at the bar, he wanted to hurt me.”
• Cassian’s jaw clenched, “His name is Malrec, and he was not going to hurt you, but he was going to claim you.”
• Her stomach twisted.
• “He’s one of the oldest of the court,” Cassian continued. “And he’s never forgiven me for refusing to join the Blood Pact.”
• “The what?”
• “It’s a binding between vampires. Power, blood, submission. It’s how they maintain order. And I walked away from it long ago. They hate me for it.”
• “So… you saved me, marked me, and now they want me too?”
• “Not want,” Cassian corrected, voice darkening. “They want to control you. Or destroy you before you awaken fully.”
• The word “awaken” made her shiver.
• “What happens if I do?”
• His gaze flicked over her face. “Then you’ll no longer be fully human and they won’t be able to touch you without consequence.”
• She leaned back against the wall. “I can’t live like this. Always looking over my shoulder, always hunted.”
• Cassian leaned in, barely an inch from her lips. “Then let me protect you.”
• Her heart thundered, you already said that but you later left. “I had to, If I had stayed, the bond would have forced itself to complete and you weren’t ready.”
• “I’m still not.”
• “You will be.”
• He raised a hand slowly, letting his fingers trail down her damp hair, over her cheek. It was the gentlest touch she’d ever known. Reverent like she was a relic, and he was afraid to break her.
• “But they’ll keep coming,” he said and next time, I might not reach you in time.
• “I don’t know if I want to be one of you,” she admitted.
• “You already are,” he said.
• Mira closed her eyes her body trembled from the cold, but also from something else something that flared each time he touched her, each time he looked at her like she was the only star left in his sky.
• Cassian lowered his head, his lips brushing her temple.
• “I’m not asking you to become anything yet,” he murmured. “But you need to leave the city tonight and come with me.”
• “I can’t just disappear.”
• “You can,” he said and you must.
• She hesitated, he waited.
• In the silence, she heard something, a whisper like wind, like breath but it wasn’t his, she then turned sharply. Something moved across the rooftops, a figure, fast and pale. Cassian reacted instantly with inhuman speed. He stepped in front of her, arm outstretched, gaze narrowing on the dark.
• “Another,” he growled.
• Mira backed away as a woman dropped down from the shadows above tall, cruelly beautiful, and wearing a smirk.
• “Cassian,” the woman purred. “How far you’ve fallen.” “Selene,” he said coldly not now. Mira recognized the name she had heard it once, whispered by the other vampire women. Selene once Cassian’s consort still obsessed.
• Her eyes flicked to Mira.
• “So this is her?” Selene sneered. “The human who smells like your sin.”
• Cassian’s body tensed. “She reeks of you,” Selene hissed. “You think the Council won’t notice? That the bond can be hidden?”
• “I said, leave.”
• Selene smiled, fangs bared. Do not worry, I will not touch her yet. Then she was gone vanishing into mist. Mira stumbled backward, breath caught in her throat.
• “They’re watching me now?” she gasped.
• “Yes,” Cassian said grimly. “You don’t have time anymore.”
• He turned to her, voice gentler. “Come with me and I will keep you safe, I swear it.”
• “And if I say no?” she whispered.
• “I’ll follow you anyway.”
• His eyes burned—cold and fire, pain and desire.
• “I’m yours, Mira,” he said whether you claim me or not. The storm had stopped but the silence still felt heavy with everything unspoken.
• And at that moment between fear and longing Mira nodded and said then take me with you. Cassian didn’t smile, he simply stepped forward, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her into him like he’d been waiting a lifetime.
• As the city faded behind them, Mira held on tight, not knowing what came next only that she was no longer safe, no longer normal, and no longer alone.