34. 33

33

Bastian

I woke with a start, the sheets next to me cold and empty where Serina should have been.

My heart hitched, and I sat upright, scanning the dark room for her. For the gentle sound of her breath, her heartbeat, and finding nothing but shadows and silence.

“Serina?” My voice was rough with sleep and burgeoning panic, the name a plea in the stillness. She wasn't there. “Damn it,” I muttered, swinging my legs over the side of the bed, the chill of the floorboards seeping into my bones.

I reached out with my senses, extending threads of awareness through the house, seeking her warmth. Nothing.

With every breath, dread formed like a lead weight in my gut.

It wasn't like her, not without a word. Something was wrong.

“Thorne! Nox!” I called out, my voice a sharp command slicing through the quiet of the house. They emerged from the bed, hair tousled from sleep, eyes instantly alert. “She's gone.”

Their reactions were swift—a mirror of my own.

We moved through the house. Our usual bickering and teasing, the easy camaraderie that defined our brotherhood, lay forgotten in the face of Serina's absence.

“Could she have stepped out for air, maybe she had a nightmare?” Thorne asked, though his voice betrayed his skepticism.

“Without telling any of us?” Nox countered, pulling on his boots with ruthless efficiency. His dark eyes met mine, and I saw the reflection of my own fear.

Had she figured it out? Had she gone after Victor?

“Something isn’t right,” I said, grabbing my jacket and searching for my keys. With a huff, I paused. Never mind, the car would be too slow. We didn't have time to waste. “The warehouse,” I stated flatly, the word a heavy stone in my throat.

If she'd left without a trace, without a word of her intentions, it could only mean trouble. And all signs pointed to that forsaken place.

“But we were careful. We made sure she didn’t tail us,” Thorne chimed in, throwing his shirt on over his head.

“Serina is too smart for her own good. I don’t know how, but she had to have figured it out,” I gritted, doing the same and grabbing my shoes before slipping them on quickly.

“Fuck, let's go,” Thorne cursed, and we hurried as one out of the front door as we poured out into the night, the urgency propelling us forward, our bodies moving as fast as they could go.

The woods blurred around us as we shot through them, our feet barely touching the forest floor. We soon reached the warehouse with hearts pounding against our ribs, yet everything before us seemed disturbingly undisturbed.

“It’s too quiet,” I muttered under my breath, eyes darting from one dark corner to another.

Nox nodded, his gaze as sharp as knives.

Thorne surveyed the perimeter, his jaw set in a hard line.

“Look,” Nox's voice cut through the silence. He gestured toward the bushes where two guards lay lifeless, staked with brutal precision. My gut twisted at the sight; Serina was here.

“Inside. Now!” I commanded, and without hesitation, we moved toward the warehouse. I was sure our minds were entwined in shared dread.

We hadn't taken more than a few steps when the world erupted into chaos. A booming explosion thundered beneath our feet, shaking the ground and sending a searing heatwave across our faces, blasting us backwards.

Flames roared into the sky, consuming the warehouse with voracious hunger.

“Serina!” we all screamed, our voices swallowed by the inferno.

Vampires burst from the building, their figures blurred as they scattered into the safety of the woods, fleeing from the destruction.

“Damn it!” Thorne cursed, his expression twisted with fury and fear.

Nox's hand clamped down on my forearm, helping me to my feet, grounding me even as despair clawed through my veins.

“Inside,” I choked out. “We have to get inside.” The words tasted of ash. We couldn't afford to think, only to act—to find her, to save her.

We plunged into the burning maw of the warehouse, the heat oppressive, the smoke blinding. Every flame licked at my skin. Somewhere in this hell, Serina was waiting for us, and I swore by every star that shone unseen above that I would reach her.

“Serina!” Our voices melded together, three parts of a shattered whole, calling out for the missing piece that completed us.

Each step forward was a battle against the blaze, against the very real possibility that we might be too late.

I pushed onward. If she was gone, the echo of her laughter, the warmth of her touch, the ferocity of her spirit—it would be the end of all things. For Nox, for Thorne, for me.

“Keep looking!” It was Nox's command, but it was unnecessary.

We were beyond commands, driven by something primal, something that defied words and reason. The thing we never got to say.

The fire raged. The building groaned. And somewhere amidst the chaos, our hearts refused to concede to the flames that threatened to consume the very reason we lived.

Debris crunched beneath our shoes as we battled the flames, our eyes scanning desperately for any sign of her. The heat was a monster, clawing at my skin, but it was nothing compared to the cold dread that had settled in my chest.

“Over there!” Thorne’s shout pierced through the crackling chaos, and all semblance of restraint vanished.

My body moved on instinct, hurtling towards the still figure crumpled on the ground amidst scorched rubble and splintered wood.

The sight of Serina, lifeless in a darkening pool of her own blood, was a cruel strike to my fucking soul. Agony seized me, a visceral twist in my gut, as I fell to my knees beside her. My hands trembled as they hovered over her fragile body, afraid that even the slightest touch could shatter what little hope remained.

“Serina,” I choked out, my voice raw with terror and need.

Nox and Thorne were by my side in an instant, their expressions mirroring the torment that ripped through me.

She was our anchor, our light.

The thought of being too late, of losing her, was a void threatening to swallow me whole.

Her chest barely rose, each breath a whisper against the destruction that surrounded us. Were we too late?

I reached out, my fingers brushing her cheek, smearing the ash that clung to her skin. It was then that her eyelids fluttered, revealing those eyes that had captivated us since the beginning.

And she smiled. She fucking smiled. Her teeth stained pink with her own blood.

That small, pained curve of her lips was a balm to the searing wound in my heart. Her resilience, even now, was the fiercest thing I'd ever known.

“Am I still alive, or is this some fucked-up version of heaven?” she wheezed, the metallic tang of blood on her breath.

“Serina, listen to me,” I urged, pressing my hand against hers, trying to will some of my strength into her. “You're going to be fine. This is real, we’re here, and you're going to be okay.”

My voice broke on the last word, the lie bitter on my tongue.

Nox and Thorne didn't utter a word, but their eyes met mine, heavy with the weight of an unspoken truth. If we lost Serina, it would rip us apart. Without her, there'd be nothing left but shadows where our hearts used to be.

I cradled her in my arms, her body far too light, as though her soul was already starting to slip away.

“We need to move. Now,” I ordered, rising with her against my chest.

“Sam,” she coughed, concern for her cousin overpowering her own pain.

“Shit,” Nox hissed, and Thorne was already moving, sweeping her unconscious body into his arms with ease.

We bolted then, the fire's heat on our backs nothing compared to the fear in our veins.

The cool breeze outside hit us like a grim splash of reality. We were out, but not safe. Not yet. The woods embraced us, the edge of the trees standing and watching with foreboding as the warehouse continued to burn into ash.

I laid Serina down gently. Her life was ebbing away right in front of us, slipping through our fingers like grains of sand in a too-fast hourglass.

“Stay with us, love ,” I whispered, pressing my forehead against hers, inhaling the scent of her hair, committing every moment to memory. Because if these were our last moments, I'd chain them to my soul forever.

I tore through the fabric of my shirt before pressing it against Serina's wound with hands that trembled despite their immortal strength. Thorne was on her other side, having left Sam lying next to us. His own makeshift bandage was clutched in desperate fingers against her wound, while Nox hovered over us both. He held her hand, his eyes wide with a fear we hadn't known before now.

“Stop,” Serina breathed, her voice a ghost of its usual fire. “Stop, it's okay.”

“Like hell it is,” I growled, but she caught my hand, her grip weak but insistent. Only serving to break me further.

“Listen to me,” she said, and I couldn't help but obey.

Those eyes, shining with unshed tears, held me captive, and I could feel Thorne and Nox leaning in, the world narrowing down to this one point, this single moment.

“I know about Victor,” she confessed, and the words hit like a punch to the gut. “I know what he did, the power he held over you. What he made you do.” A tear escaped, tracing a path down her cheek. “And I don't blame you for what happened.”

“Serina—” Nox started, his eyes glossy with unshed tears, but she cut him off.

“Despite everything,” she continued, her smile a shard of glass in my heart. “I don’t regret anything. I love you… all of you… I love you,” she repeated. Her lip trembled, and it severed any strength I had left. “And I’m sorry… I fought my demons too long and now… I think they won…”

Those words, so light and broken off her lips yet as heavy as the world, hung between us. A sob wrenched itself from Thorne's chest, and Nox's face crumpled with the weight of emotions he usually kept tucked away.

As for me, I was shattering silently, piece by piece, my smooth demeanor succumbing to the relentless sea.

“I love you too, baby, just hold on a little longer. The ambulance will be here soon, just hold on,” Nox pleaded, his voice shaking with fear.

He ran a hand over her damp forehead and hair while Thorne continued to try to stop her bleeding to no avail.

The sirens weren’t far now. Her eyes began fluttering.

“Serina, baby.” Thorne raised his voice, trying to keep her awake—alive and here with us. “Remember all those dreams we talked about. Next year, we’re going to open a restaurant. We’re all going to find a nice place to settle down and live out the rest of our lives.

“We’ll get a dog, and have a fenced-in yard, I’ll make you breakfast, and you can work on cars with Nox, and we can annoy Bas together.” I chuckled over a sob at that, and a whisper of a smile curved her lips. “We have so much left to do, baby. You just have to stay awake, stay with us,” Thorne pleaded, his voice desperate, but then her chest fell and didn’t rise again.

“Please,” I choked out, my voice a plea, a prayer, anything that might undo this cruel fate. “Don't go.”

But there was no stopping the inevitable. Her breath hitched, and then there was nothing but silence, a void where her vibrant spirit had been. Her eyes, those beautiful icy depths fell dark, and I screamed. Roared louder than the fire behind me.

No. No. No. This couldn't be how it ended—not when we'd only just begun.

“No,” I snarled, cradling her head in my arms. I bit into her neck, using my venom for changing her as a last-ditch effort to keep her with us.

When I pulled back, laying her gently on the cold, dew-kissed grass, my brothers joined me without hesitation. We had never asked her if she would want this, and it was a selfish decision to make for her, but I would do it.

Serina Velika was mine—ours, and I refused to live without her.

Nox and Thorne joined me and sank their fangs into her wrists, her thighs, her soft flesh, every drop of venom a silent scream against her death. We were monsters, condemned and feared.

But in that moment, we were simply men refusing to let go of the woman who'd become our heart, our soul, our very fucking reason for being .

I started chest compressions, willing the venom to move through her body faster. “Come back to us, love.” I leaned down and whispered against her skin, my own tears mingling with the blood, “Please. I love you too.”

We waited, hearts caught in a limbo between hope and despair, the fire behind us a mockery of the one that raged within.

The night held its breath, and so did we.

I never stopped pumping her heart.