Page 10 of Vampire War (Vampire Bite #3)

Lucas

When we arrived, Rowena was standing in the doorway to her cottage with her arms crossed and an expressionless look on her old, worn-out face. She had been expecting us.

Of course, she had.

“I was wondering how long it would take you to come back,” she said, her tone dry but not unkind.

I exhaled sharply, rolling my shoulders. “We didn’t have a better option.”

Kael snorted. “Which means he finally admitted he was lost.”

Rowena’s gaze flicked to him, then to Annika, then back to me. She studied me the way she always did, like she was seeing something beneath the surface, something I didn’t want to acknowledge.

“We’ve known each other too long for you to waste time pretending, vampire prince,” she said simply. “Come inside.”

She turned without waiting for a response, the door creaking open as she stepped into the warm light of the cottage.

Annika touched my arm, just for a second. A silent reassurance. A reminder that I trusted Rowena… that we all did. I let out a slow breath and followed her in.

I stopped near the hearth, crossing my arms. Rowena soundlessly proceeded to unroll a brittle scroll across the wooden table. Annika was standing opposite her, with her hands pressed flat against the wood. Kael lingered in the corner, silent but observant.

Rowena traced the rune we had brought her with a gnarled finger. “Like I said, this rune is not a key, nor is it a simple binding mark. It is a tether to power, to bloodlines, to destinies that have yet to unfold.” She exhaled, rolling her shoulders as if shaking off the weight of the knowledge pressing down on her. “It came to me in my dreams last night. The rune showed me… him.”

“Aiden,” I said, feeling as if something was choking me.

Rowena nodded. “Your son isn’t just a hybrid of witch and vampire, Lucas. He is more.”

The words should have been impossible, but deep down, I felt them, even before she spoke them aloud.

“He is the bridge,” Rowena murmured. “The key that could either unite vampires and shifters… or destroy them both.”

The air around us was still. I could hear everyone’s breathing.

I stepped closer to Rowena, my body more tense than ever before. “Explain.”

Rowena met my eyes, unfazed by the edge in my voice. “Aiden is something that shouldn’t exist.” Her voice was calm, but the weight of her words landed like a death knell. “A child of two opposing forces, two bloodlines that were never meant to mix. Vampires and witches, one born of darkness, the other shaped by the elements. But somehow, he is both.”

I already knew this. We already knew this. But there was more. I could feel it, could see it in the way Rowena’s lips pressed into a thin line, in the hesitation flickering behind her sharp eyes.

Annika spoke before I could. “You’re not telling us everything.”

Rowena sighed. “Because I don’t know everything. But I do know this: Aiden’s bloodline was never meant to end with him.” She tapped the rune, the candlelight casting eerie shadows across the surface. “The shifters, and whoever is leading them… they know this too. And they are trying to claim him before he can claim his own fate.”

A muscle ticked in my jaw. “Claim him how?”

Rowena’s expression darkened. “The rune connects him to something. Someone. It is a tether, but not an unbreakable one.” She turned to Annika, her voice quieter now. “Your son’s fate is still in motion. And there are forces at work that want to decide it for him.”

Annika swallowed, but she squared her shoulders. “They can’t have him.”

The finality in her voice was a blade drawn between us and the rest of the world.

Rowena gave a slow nod. “No. But that won’t stop them from trying.”

Kael finally spoke. “So if Aiden is meant to unite vampires and shifters, then why the hell are the shifters the ones hunting him?”

Rowena turned her gaze to him, a flicker of something grim in her eyes. “Because unity isn’t what they want.” She looked back at me. “Some will always choose war over peace. Control over balance. And if they can turn Aiden into something else, something they can wield, then they will.”

“Then, all this is connected to Aurelius?” Annika asked. The name itself was a weight none of us had wanted to carry again.

Rowena sighed, rubbing her temples before nodding. “Yes,” she admitted. “It’s likely.”

Annika’s breath hitched beside me. I turned my head just enough to see her expression. Determined, but with an edge of something else. Fear.

Her voice was quieter when she spoke again. “Is my bond to him still there?”

Rowena’s hesitation was answer enough.

Annika shook her head, stepping back slightly. “No,” she whispered. “No, I severed it. I felt it break.”

Rowena exhaled. “You broke the hold he had on you,” she agreed. “But some bonds don’t shatter completely. Some linger, buried and dormant. Weak, but never gone.” She tapped the rune. “And if this is connected to Aiden, then it is also connected to him.”

I felt my breath turn sharp. No.

Annika swallowed hard, her shoulders stiffening. “If someone is trying to bring him back…” She closed her eyes for half a second before looking at Rowena again. “Do they want to use him? Or something worse?”

Rowena’s expression darkened. “It’s hard to say. But the fact that they have Aiden means they are either trying to awaken Aurelius again…” Her voice dropped lower. “Or they want to take his power for themselves.”

A cold weight settled in my gut.

Annika pressed a hand to her chest, her breathing tight. “Then we don’t just have to find Aiden. We have to stop this before they succeed.”

“Lucas…” Annika turned to me. “Do you think she is trying to awaken him?”

“She?” Rowena echoed. “Tell me.”

I exhaled slowly. “I saw something. Or someone.”

Rowena stilled, her gaze locking onto mine with sudden sharpness. “Go on.”

I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to say it. “In the cellar of an old fortress. I was trapped. And then she appeared, just like that, out of nowhere. A whirl of dust that took shape. A woman.”

Rowena’s expression didn’t change, but something flickered in her eyes. “Describe her.”

I did, keeping my voice even, detached. She was beautiful, yes, but there was something wrong about her. Like she was too perfect, too carefully made. Like she wasn’t real.

“She had long black hair, and she was very pale, almost as if she were made of moonlight. She claimed she was my true mate,” I finished, my voice tight. “She said she could save my son. My town. But—” My hands curled into fists. “That something had to be exchanged.”

Annika stiffened beside me. I didn’t look at her.

Rowena didn’t speak right away. She just studied me, her fingers lightly tapping against the table’s worn surface. Then, finally, she asked, “And how did she make you feel?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Like I wanted to rip her apart.”

Kael let out a quiet breath, shifting his weight.

Rowena nodded slightly, as if that told her something. “She wasn’t real,” I said before she could. “Or at least, not there in the way we are.”

“No,” Rowena agreed. “Not in the way we are.”

A chill ran down my spine.

I knew Rowena well enough to recognize when she was holding something back.

“What was she?” I demanded.

Rowena met my gaze, her voice calm but unshakable. “Something very, very old.”

“Something old?” I repeated in frustration. “You’ll have to be more specific than that.”

She exhaled, leaning back in her chair, fingers drumming lightly on the wooden table. “There are things older than vampires, Lucas. Older than the kind of magic I practice. You know this.”

I clenched my jaw. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

Rowena gave me a measured look, then turned to the fire. The kettle had started to steam, but she didn’t move to take it off the heat.

“She claimed to be your mate,” she murmured. “And she knew things—about your son, your town. That means she’s been watching you. Possibly for a long time.”

Annika inhaled sharply. I felt her gaze on me, but I still didn’t turn to meet it.

“She wasn’t real,” I said again, forcing the words out. “She was just… smoke. A trick.”

“A trick that knew your deepest fears,” Rowena said. “A trick that offered you exactly what you wanted.”

My fingers twitched. She wasn’t wrong.

Rowena finally stood, moving toward a shelf filled with books. They were old, frayed things that smelled of dust and time. She ran her fingers along their spines, muttering to herself. Then she pulled one free, flipping through pages with careful precision.

When she found what she was looking for, she set the book on the table and turned it toward me. I stepped closer.

The page was covered in inked symbols, old script, a language I barely recognized. But beneath them, there was an illustration, faded but still clear. A woman, her form shifting, half-smoke, half-solid. Eyes like black pits.

My stomach turned.

Rowena tapped the page with one finger. “If I had to guess,” she said quietly, “I’d say you encountered something from before our time. A thing half-forgotten, lurking at the edges of history.”

I stared down at the image.

“And it knows your name.”

Annika shifted beside me, her voice barely above a whisper. “What is it?”

Rowena exhaled. “A Shadow Bride.”

The words slithered through the air, heavy and cold. Kael cursed under his breath. Annika stiffened. I didn’t move, didn’t blink.

I had heard it before. Not from books. Not in whispered warnings from elders. But in the dark corners of childhood, when firelight flickered low and voices dropped to hushed tones.

The Shadow Bride.

I could almost hear my mother’s voice, low and full of mock menace, telling the story to frighten unruly children into obedience. Go to bed, or the Shadow Bride will come for you. Mind your manners, or she’ll whisper your name in the dark.

I had laughed then, too young to be afraid of something that wasn’t real.

But now…

Now, I wasn’t laughing.

I ran a hand down my face, forcing myself to remember. To really remember.

“She was a woman once,” I started the story exactly how my mother had told it to me all those years ago. “A mortal, long ago. A bride promised to a man who never loved her.” The words came slowly at first, then faster as the story pieced itself together in my mind. “Some say he betrayed her, left her at the altar. Others say he locked her away, let her wither to nothing while he took another.”

Rowena nodded slightly but didn’t interrupt.

I exhaled. “Either way, she died with her heart shattered. And when she rose again, she wasn’t human anymore.”

Annika shifted beside me, listening closely, her breath soft and steady.

I kept going. “She became something else. A spirit, a shadow. Some say she bargained for power. Others say she was the bargain, that her soul was so twisted by grief that there was nothing left but hunger.”

Kael muttered a curse. “And what does she want?”

I let out a hollow breath. “Love.”

Annika stiffened.

Rowena’s expression didn’t change. “Not just any love.”

“No,” I agreed, jaw tightening. “She offers you what your heart wants most. The thing you’d kill for. Die for.” I met Rowena’s gaze. “And in return, you love her.”

“Or at least,” Rowena said, voice even, “you try.”

I felt anger stir deep inside of me. Because that was the part no one ever told in the children’s stories, the part they left out. No one who accepted the Shadow Bride’s bargain ever truly loved her. And so, she always took something in return.

I thought of my son. My town.

“She came to me,” I said, voice sharp as a blade. “She chose me.”

Rowena studied me carefully. “Then you must ask yourself why.”

The answer was already sinking into my gut like poison. Because she knew what I wanted. She knew what I feared losing. And she had already decided what the price would be.