Thane’s Demon (Princes of Afterlife #1)

Chapter 1 Family Interruptions

FAMILY INTERRUPTIONS

THANE

Shanghai crawled with the kind of darkness that kept me breathing.

A living pulse of fear and anger, irritation, and despair.

All of it drifted through the night like invisible smoke.

My demon drank it in like air. I felt its satisfaction rumble beneath my skin as I walked, the hood of my sweater pulled low, my shoulders braced, my presence enough to make the crowd split around me like water.

‘Good.

Let them move.

Let them fear me.

Let them keep their distance.’

The demon inside me purred, pleased with the space I dominated simply by existing.

Its approval sliding through my mind like a dark caress.

It lingered there like a constant weight…

always present, always hungry, cravings curling along the edges of my thoughts.

Every year it grew stronger, more insistent, until the boundary separating us had thinned to something barely there, the creature pacing just beneath my skin, waiting for any excuse to take more.

I used to think I could control it, that with discipline or sheer stubbornness I could keep it buried, but that battle had been lost long ago.

The demon had celebrated its victory by carving its triumph into every inch of me.

Even the Vampire King couldn’t help. Not his ancient power, not his endless patience, nothing he tried had ever been enough to tame what raged inside me.

My family eventually stopped trying too, no longer able to reach the part of me that kept slipping further into the abyss.

Nothing was stronger than the thing that shared my skin.

Nothing could quiet it for long. And some nights, when the silence stretched too thin, I wondered if I had ever truly been anything more than a vessel waiting to be claimed.

‘More.

Feed.

Take the anger.

Take the pain.

Drain them.

Make them scream.’

Its voice curled through me like smoke, thick and eager, tightening around my ribs until my breath grew sharp.

I clenched my jaw and forced my hands deeper into my pockets.

Burying my fists and the itch beneath my skin that made my muscles coil as if preparing to strike.

I could not let it loose in a crowd this dense, not unless I wanted bodies.

Not unless I wanted to watch the world around me turn red, knowing that every drop of it was my fault, because the demon never hesitated.

It never second-guessed. It never feared the consequences the way I did.

And lately, it had stopped waiting for my permission.

Lately, control felt like an illusion I still pretended I had.

The fatal question was… When would I lose it completely?

Nanjing Road blazed with neon, alive with tourists who had no idea a monster like me walked among them.

That was why I chose to live here. Noise.

Chaos. Endless negativity for my demon to siphon from, so it didn’t rip me apart from the inside.

I fed off this city the same way the city fed on itself.

I reached my building, the rotted mass of concrete and broken windows looming above me. A sanctuary of filth. A place where misery lived in every room. Perfect for me. Or more like… Perfect for us.

‘Yes.

Ours.

Home of the broken.

Home of the damned.

Your kingdom of rot.’

My demon vibrated with pleasure as I climbed the stairs to my apartment. It loved this place. It loved the shadows, the stench, the violence simmering below. It felt like home to it.

But not to me.

Nothing ever felt like home to me.

I shoved my door open, slamming it closed before being ready to collapse on the bed.

Damn, I was tired, but then I always was, thanks to a demon that was barely sated enough to let me sleep.

Only it seemed sleep would have to wait as a knock echoed behind me.

Instant dread sliced through my gut. No one knocked. Not here. Not ever.

I turned, already feeling my demon rear its head, claws scraping beneath my skin as I opened the door and found him there.

Lucius Septimus.

The fucking Vampire King himself.

“What the fuck do you want, Vampire?” He barely had time to blink before I slammed him into the wall, my forearm crushing his throat. My demon snarled with delight at the contact.

‘Break him.

Spill him.

He thinks he is immortal.

Bleed him anyway.’

Then I heard a voice that should not have been anywhere near me.

“Put him down.”

My entire body went rigid, and my demon roared in fury.

Which was when I saw him.

Dominic Draven stepped into view, shadows bending around him, power humming through the air like thunder before a storm.

My father.

The King of all supernatural life on Earth. The one I blamed for everything. The one who had dragged me into existence without a choice. The sight of him twisted something violent and hollow inside my chest.

‘Of course, he is here.

Of course, he could not leave us alone.

Of course, he wants something.’

I let Lucius drop. Not because he ordered it, but because I was too busy glaring at the man who had given me life when he should have spared me and the world the sickness.

“Leave, old man, and take your bloodhound with you,” I snapped.

Pain flickered through his expression before he masked it.

Good.

Let him feel something for once.

“Can’t do that,” he said quietly. “I have a job for you.”

“Fuck you and fuck your job,” I snarled.

He inhaled, slow and controlled, the way someone does when they are trying not to show emotion in front of you. The demon inside me hissed in amusement, despite the twinge of my own emotions, like a sliver of guilt I hated to admit was there.

‘Show him.

Show him what his creation really is.

Make him fear you.’

He held my stare as he opened a metal case and revealed something that made every breath vanish from my lungs.

The Heirloom Seal of the Realm.

Most people thought the Seal was an ancient imperial treasure, a symbol of the Mandate of Heaven.

They had no idea it was far older and far darker.

It was created in the underworld by King Yanluo, the God of Death, meant to test rulers for balance and integrity.

But when a chipped corner was repaired with gold, its purpose was twisted.

It began feeding on greed, war, and bloodshed, growing stronger with every dynasty that fought to claim it.

By the time it reached Li Congke, the last emperor of the Later Tang, the Seal was already soaked in corruption.

He died clutching it, and it was buried with the remains of those who burned with him.

Ever since, the demon god, Chiyou, had hunted it, knowing its power could shift the balance of realms. And the worst part was… He wasn’t wrong.

I had learned of these lessons during my time with Lucius, who I had once believed to be my mentor.

He had told me there was only one kind of being who could safely contain the Seal’s power.

Not an angel. Not a vampire king. Not even the Ten Judges of Diyu, which was a realm of the dead.

Only something born entirely of darkness, something already tainted beyond saving, something with no balance left to lose.

Something like me.

Which was why Lucius and my father had brought it here, why they stood so still now, waiting for my reaction.

Why my demon recognized the jade the instant it touched the air, as if the artifact itself were a heartbeat echoing the pulse buried deep inside my bones.

My demon lunged so fast I staggered, my vision warping with hunger.

‘Take it.

Consume it.

It is for us.

It is ours.

Take it now.

TAKE IT.’

I dug my nails into my palms hard enough to draw blood, hoping the pain would ground me for long enough to hold myself together, and feeling each sting as it broke the skin.

It did nothing. The roar in my head only grew louder, rising like a storm crashing against bone, the demon pressing forward as if it wanted to split me open just to escape.

“Where did you find that?” I demanded, my voice was rough and dragged across my teeth.

“I hear your employer has been looking for it,” my father said, his tone far too calm for the weapon he had just unveiled.

I bared my teeth, my reaction more primal than not.

“Keeping tabs on me again, I see.”

“But of course, you are after all my…”

“Do not fucking say it,” I growled viciously. The demon surged so violently it nearly stole the strength from my knees, its voice ripping through me with claws, hot and vicious.

‘Say it so we can tear him.

Say it so he bleeds.

Say it so he learns… What we are.’

His jaw tightened. He dropped his gaze for the briefest second, and the sight of it… of him faltering, even that minor, well, it hit me like a blow. A crack in his armor, as well as my own… small but undeniable. Something I had never seen before.

‘Good.

Let him feel the damage he caused.

Let him choke on it.’

I could feel my control slipping, the demon pressing harder, forcing itself against the inside of my ribs as if the walls of my body had grown too thin to contain it.

It begged me to feed off the building below, begged me to let the screams start again, begged to be set free.

The hunger rose like a tide, relentless, inevitable.

“What will it cost me?” I asked through clenched teeth, forcing the words out before the demon could answer for me.

“Your loyalty,” he said before adding, “To us, not to your employer.”

I laughed, a harsh, broken sound that scraped the inside of my throat raw.

It wasn’t humor, it wasn’t disbelief, but it was the brittle edge of something that might have once been hope.

One long dead now. Spreading my arms, I gestured to my broken, filthy apartment, the cracked walls and peeling paint, and the cold that crept into my bones no matter how many times I tried to pretend it didn’t matter.

“And what do I get out of it? As you can see, I live in luxury.”

His eyes softened.

It hurt.

It fucking hurt to see that look on his face, the one that suggested he still cared, the one that reminded me of everything I had lost, everything I could never reclaim because of him. Because of what I was. Because of what he didn’t save me from.

“How about peace?” he said, “… for your demon.”

Everything inside me went silent. Even the demon froze, as if suspended in ice.

‘Liar.

No.

We tried.

We suffered.

They left us.

They lied.

He cannot help us.’

“That isn’t possible,” I whispered, my voice a ghost before I gritted out… “I have tried. You know I have.”

Dominic stepped forward, slow and careful, as though approaching something dangerous and wounded.

Something that might lash out simply because it had never known anything else.

I was all of those things. He made me like this.

He left me to rot among the worst of the world because he didn’t know what else to do with the monster he’d sired.

“I know,” he said softly. “And now I have found a way.”

Lucius stood behind him, silent, composed, watching me with a kind of pity I despised. Pity burned hotter than anger. Pity meant they saw the cracks, the weakness, the breaking points I tried so damn hard to bury. I hated that. I hated him for looking at me like that.

I hated all of it.

Dominic took another step. I felt the weight of his emotions pushing against mine, the conflict he tried to hide, the centuries of guilt he carried like a second spine. It bled through him, through the air between us, and for a moment, I hated that I could feel it at all.

“Are you willing to set your hatred aside and let me help you?” he asked.

I trembled, a slight, involuntary movement that felt like betrayal.

My demon raged, hurling itself against the inside of my chest until I could barely breathe.

My heart twisted in a way I did not understand, caught between the instinct to destroy and the impossible ache for something I had long ago decided I would never have.

‘Trust him.

Kill him.

Let him save us.

Rip out his throat.

Choose.

CHOOSE.’

“What do I have to do?” I asked at last, the words tasting bitter in my throat.

My father, the man I referred to more by his name, stepped closer until I could see the parts of him that I inherited.

The jawline, the raven black hair, the strength that had become my prison, the curse that lived in my blood.

I hated it. I hated the mirror he put in front of me, reminding me with every breath that I was not made, my soul was engineered by fate and lineage and darkness.

“It’s easy,” he said gently. “You just have to let me help you.” Then he spoke the words that burned through my ribs like acid, words sharper than any blade the mob had ever put in my hand. “You just have to trust me, my son.”

My demon howled.

My chest cracked.

Every part of me screamed at the word son…

But I could not look away.