Chapter 16
Sixteen
NORA
I thought by keeping my daughter away I would be able to save her from this life.
I thought distance would be enough. That oceans and borders and silence could protect her better than I ever had. I thought if Talulla was far enough, if she could breathe somewhere Emil couldn’t reach, then whatever darkness had started growing here wouldn’t touch her.
I was wrong. So so wrong.
I thought I could handle my husband.
Until my husband left.
And a monster replaced him.
There was no dramatic moment. No sudden snap. Just a slow erosion. A voice that stopped sounding like the man I married. Eyes that lingered too long on cruelty and calculation. A coldness that crept in where warmth used to live.
And now I feel like I’m already done mourning his loss.
Which is the most terrifying part.
I don’t cry anymore. I don’t plead. I don’t ask why. I’ve moved past grief and landed somewhere worse—survival. Because grief is a luxury, and survival is a necessity.
Because the reality is simple.
I just need my daughter to stay away.
He thinks he can use her to lure him in.
The him he says like a curse. Like a stain that needs scrubbing from the world.
He thinks by capturing his own blood, by dragging Talulla back into his grasp, he can finally get this absurd revenge on his own mother.
A facade of a grudge.
Because let’s face it—Flynn saved our daughter. He didn’t try to take her life. He didn’t steal her. He didn’t corrupt her.
He saved her.
He might have been present when Emil’s mother was killed, but presence is not guilt. Witness is not executioner.
And after everything…he brought my daughter back to me.
No harm done.
I wonder if Emil ever lets himself remember that part.
I wonder if Flynn already knew what he would become to her when he carried her out of that nightmare. If the pull had already started tugging at something ancient and inevitable. Or if fate, cruel and poetic, simply decided to weave them together anyway.
I wonder if it was that one specific moment that sealed it. If love—whatever form it takes between monsters and hunters—was born from blood and survival and shared breath.
“These are going to work,” Emil says now, his voice steady as he watches vials and vials of crimson being packed away.
The blood gleams under the harsh lights. Too red. Too alive.
Serj’s hands tremble as he prepares the containers for transportation. His fear leaks into the room, thick and metallic.
“Is everything okay, Serj?” I ask, forcing softness into my voice, trying to anchor him. Trying to get him to look at me.
When he does, his eyes darken.
Not with relief, but with resignation.
“Of course everything is okay, Nora,” Emil replies instead of him. His tone is clipped. Possessive. Final. “We’re finally one step ahead of them.”
Them.
Always them.
“How much blood did you take today?” I ask.
I know I shouldn’t. I know this question will irritate him. But the way he looks—so familiar and yet entirely wrong—sets something frantic loose inside me.
“The amount I need,” he snaps. “Now stop worrying.”
I reach for his hand.
I don’t even know why anymore.
Maybe muscle memory. Maybe hope is harder to kill than love. Maybe I just need to know—feel—if there’s anything left of the man I married.
His skin is cold.
Too cold.
And the moment I touch him, he flinches.
“Not now, Nora,” he says sharply. “I don’t have time for your emotions.”
Of course he doesn’t.
Because he has none left.
“I just don’t understand why you need Flynn Lancaster specifically,” I say, quieter now. Careful. Measured.
“You know very well why.”
“Talulla will never forgive you if you go ahead with this,” I whisper. “And you know it.”
“She can hate me in a vampire-free world all she wants,” he replies. “I’m doing this for the greater good. She’ll have to accept that.”
The words sound rehearsed. Empty. Like something he tells himself at night so he can sleep.
“He did nothing wrong,” I say. “He saved—”
“Stop. Talking.”
The finality in his voice makes my stomach drop.
“So this is how it’s going to be from now on?”
I know I should be careful. I know exactly how volatile he’s become. How thin the line is between irritation and violence.
But I can’t help it.
Not when a part of me is screaming that this is the last chance. That whatever I’m losing is slipping away forever.
Talulla was brought up in the worst way possible.
And I know I’m responsible.
I was raised to believe Emil and his mission were honorable. That his work was noble. That sacrifice was necessary.
And maybe once it was.
But it turns to dust when my daughter’s life is at stake. When I look back and see years of her being sharpened into a weapon instead of loved as a child.
She deserved a father.
And I let this happen.
I fell for the wrong man.
A man who never truly cared about me.
A man who only wanted me for my gift.
Gift. What a fucking word to use. It’s a curse. My curse.
Because that’s what it feels like now.
A curse on the Popescu women.
We can’t be compelled—and for that, we are destined to be used. Controlled. Feared.
No more.
Not to my Talulla.
Not when I saw her smile again. Not when I saw light return to her eyes. I might not like the idea of a vampire in her life. Every instinct in me still resists it.
But I can’t deny their connection.
I can’t deny the way he looks at her. Like she’s the reason he still exists.
Emil says vampires can’t love.
But the truth is—he can’t speak on things he doesn’t understand.
Because Emil Popescu is the one incapable of love.
And now, we’re all going to pay for my mistake.
The moment I let myself love a monster in the making.
Because what I see next isn’t just a conversation between employer and employee.
It’s a murder.
Serj barely has time to react.
One second he’s standing there—frightened, loyal, breathing—and the next he’s on the floor.
Blood spreads across the room, thick and viscous, soaking into the ground like a grotesque rug.
The sound is wet.
Final.
And I can only stare. Speechless. And frozen in place.
Because if I thought—even for a second—that Emil could be saved…
I don’t anymore.
The man I loved is gone.
And I will not let anything happen to my daughter.
No matter what happens to me.