"When blood remembers... nothing can chain it again."—Ancient Nevri saying.
Axis of the Blue-Eyed Nevri — "Heirs are also seeds."
The refuge was a forgotten crypt, hidden beneath a fallen temple of the lunar cult.No one entered. For no one who did ever remembered leaving.
The Nevri opened the doors with a whisper of blood, not of voice.
"Here," he told Arisha, "the voices cannot lie to you."
Arisha could barely stand. Her chest burned like caged fire.Her mind screamed names she didn't know.Baco.Kiran.Aisha.
The hunter steadied her without touch.
"If you fight what you are," he murmured, "you will only awaken what you shouldn't."
She raised her eyes, trembling.
"What am I?"
For a moment, the hunter's gaze gleamed—as if seeing far beyond her.
"The bridge. Between the wound… and the cure.You must reveal your true nature—far from this golden cage.My name is Kiran."
Arisha rose to her feet. Her dress was in tatters, her feet bare, her hair wild.Without hesitation, she took his hand.
"Let's go."
Before they could cross the corridor, an elite vampire patrol blocked their path.Dark armor. Fangs bared.
Kiran smiled coldly.
"They are not my problem."
He leapt, swift as a shadow. In his hand appeared Velkaran—the blade that cuts the cycle: a curved sword like a fragment of a wounded moon.
"With Velkaran, nothing is impossible."
In four lethal steps, he tore through the vampires' defenses.The blade shimmered with a deep blue glow.Each strike left behind a whisper of ancient voices.
"Arisha. Do you see it?"
He gave her a light smile—almost innocent.As if, for an instant, he was enjoying the moment.
Axis of Mikhael — "If I cannot have her… then I will let history devour her."
Far away, Mikhael opened his eyes amid shattered glass.His body regenerated, his fury unleashed.
"Damn hunter."
With an unnatural leap, he rushed through the dark corridors.In his mind, only one image burned: Arisha's gaze as she fled with Kiran.
"She is mine. My wife. Mine."
Hours later, cloaked in shadows within his chamber, he raised the black goblet.
"Release them."
The first-generation vampires, sealed beneath the black market, were unleashed.Not as an army. As a plague.
"Let them find her. Let them teach her what happens when one dares to break the cycle."
A broken laugh echoed through the room.
Moments later, a group of human slaves was dragged in, electric collars fastened to their throats.They knelt before Mikhael's throne.
"These are the finest hounds of House Klaus Mintra Mornia," whispered the attendant.
Elizabeth entered, lowering her fan, her crimson eyes gleaming.
"With one condition… The boy with red eyes, descendant of the first vampire in our line—and the title of Empress."
Mikhael couldn't hold back a laugh.
"You, and how many more, seek my head for something so insignificant?Arisha is my only Empress of blood."
Elizabeth's fan flew from her hand like a blade, embedding itself in the throne.
"Have it your way…"
Mikhael descended the steps, gripping Klaus's arm slowly.
"Klaus, I'll tear you apart for this nonsense."
Klaus grinned, revealing his true form.
"You noticed me—and not even Elizabeth's beauty could sway you, your former lover. You're a bastard."
Before Mikhael could reply, Elly's voice cut through the tension.
"Lord Mikhael. Arisha… has escaped."
Axis of Baco —
"When blood calls, chains tremble."
In a hidden chamber, Baco's eyes snapped open.His body was still bound, his mind still veiled.
But the voice in his blood no longer obeyed the flesh.One word burned in every fiber:
Arisha.
With a dry growl, the marks on his skin ignited.
The guards barely reacted before the chains began to snap.
Beside him, Kai watched—half wolf, half man.
"I told you I'd show you our kind," he murmured. "Get used to it. Here, we are safe."
But in Baco's gaze, there was no calm.Only urgency.
"No… not anymore."
To be continued...
Arisha flees with the mysterious Nevri hunter, Kiran, into the heart of an ancient crypt.But the blood in her veins begins to awaken truths her mind cannot contain.Far away, Baco breaks his chains.Mikhael unleashes the first-generation vampires.And as the voices of the past rise once more, one thing becomes clear: the hunt has begun—and not everyone will survive it.