Vivienne moved with blinding speed, but somehow my body reacted faster than my mind. I dodged her attack, rolling across the floor and coming up in a defensive stance I definitely hadn't learned in this lifetime.

"Stand down, Vivienne!" Elias's voice cracked like thunder, freezing her mid-lunge.


"He smells of hunter blood!" she snarled, her eyes never leaving me.

"And vampire blood," Elias countered. "He is both, and he is under my protection."

I raised an eyebrow. "I can protect myself, thanks."


Vivienne laughed coldly. "So arrogant. Just like before."

"Before?" I glanced between them. "You knew me too?"


"I knew what you were to him," she spat, straightening her posture but keeping her fangs extended. "His precious pet. His weakness."

Elias moved between us, his back to me. "Leave us, Vivienne. This is a direct order."

The tension in the room was suffocating. Finally, she stepped back with a mocking bow.

"As you wish, my lord." Her eyes found mine over his shoulder. "But remember, history has a way of repeating its tragedies."

After she left, I released a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Charming friend you've got there."

"She's my second-in-command," Elias said, turning to face me. "And she's not wrong to be cautious."

"About what? Me being some kind of threat?" I scoffed. "I just found out vampires actually exist three months ago."

"And yet you found your way here, to me." His eyes searched mine. "How?"

I hesitated. The dreams seemed too intimate to share, but I needed answers more than privacy.

"Dreams," I admitted. "Every night since the accident. I see this place, I see you. Sometimes we're fighting together, sometimes you're teaching me things. Sometimes..." I trailed off, remembering dreams too intense to voice.

Something shifted in his expression. "What else do you remember?"

"Fragments. Feelings. Nothing concrete." I ran a hand through my hair. "Look, this is insane. Reincarnation? Past lives? I was raised Catholic, for God's sake."

"And yet here you stand, half vampire, in my study." He gestured around us. "Some truths transcend belief."

My head was spinning. I walked to the window, needing space to think. The estate grounds stretched into darkness, hauntingly beautiful and somehow familiar.

"There was a garden," I said suddenly. "With night-blooming flowers. I used to walk there when I couldn't sleep."

Elias went very still. "The garden was destroyed fifty years ago."

Our eyes met, and something electric passed between us. He stepped closer, close enough that I could see flecks of silver in his blue irises.

"Your blood remembers, even if your mind doesn't." His voice was softer now. "There's a way to recover more memories, if you're willing."

"What way?"

"Blood sharing." He held my gaze steadily. "My blood contains memories of your past life. If you drink directly from me, it could trigger more recollections."

My heart raced at the suggestion. "That sounds... intimate."

"It is." No denial, no sugar-coating. "But it's the fastest way to answers."

I should have been repulsed. Should have run screaming from this mansion and never looked back. Instead, I found myself nodding.

"Okay. Let's do it."

Elias's composure slipped for just a moment, revealing something raw and vulnerable beneath. He rolled up his sleeve, exposing his pale wrist.

"This will be... intense," he warned. "Are you certain?"

I swallowed hard. "I didn't come this far to chicken out now."

As his wrist approached my lips, a commotion erupted from somewhere in the mansion—shouting, the sound of breaking glass, and then alarm systems blaring.

The alarm's wail pierced the moment, but Elias didn't move his wrist away. Instead, his eyes darkened, a silent question hanging between us.

"We should probably check that," I whispered, but made no move to stand.

"They can handle it," he murmured, his voice dropping to a hypnotic cadence. "This is more important. For both of us."

My gaze fixed on the blue veins visible beneath his pale skin. The mansion's chaos seemed to fade into background noise, growing distant as if someone was gradually turning down the volume.

"How do I...?" I trailed off, embarrassed by my inexperience.

A ghost of a smile touched his lips. "Just follow your instinct. Your body remembers even if your mind doesn't."

He guided his wrist closer, and I felt my breathing quicken. The scent of him—something like cedar and night air—enveloped me. My lips parted involuntarily, and when they touched his skin, a jolt of electricity shot through me.

"Don't hesitate," he whispered, his free hand moving to cradle the back of my head. "Commit to it."

I closed my eyes and bit down.

The first taste was copper and salt—ordinary blood—but then something changed. Warmth flooded my mouth, sweeter than wine, more intoxicating than any liquor I'd ever tasted. My hands flew up to grip his arm, holding it firmly against my lips.

Elias inhaled sharply, his fingers tightening in my hair. "That's it," he encouraged, his voice strained. "Take what you need."

Images began flashing behind my closed eyelids—fragments of memories not my own. No, not not my own—mine from before. A ballroom lit with hundreds of candles. The rustle of silk against my skin. Elias, dressed in formal attire from another century, extending his hand to me across a crowded room.

I drank deeper, hungry now for more than just blood. Hungry for answers, for connection, for the past that had been stolen from me.

His other arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer until I was nearly in his lap. The intimacy of the position should have alarmed me, but instead it felt familiar, like returning to a place I'd been a thousand times before.

"Enough," he finally gasped, gently but firmly pulling his wrist away.

I opened my eyes, dazed and disoriented. My lips felt swollen, stained crimson. A thin trail of blood ran down my chin, and without thinking, I caught it with my finger and brought it back to my mouth.

Elias watched the gesture with an intensity that made heat rise to my cheeks. His pupils had dilated until only a thin ring of color remained around the edges.

"You remember something," he stated rather than asked, his breathing uneven.

I nodded, still trying to process the flood of images. "We knew each other. Before."

"Yes." His thumb brushed across my bottom lip, wiping away a drop of blood I'd missed. The casual intimacy of the gesture made my stomach flutter.

"Were we...?" I couldn't finish the question.

His eyes held mine, something ancient and patient in their depths. "We were many things to each other over the centuries."

The alarms were still blaring, but they seemed irrelevant now. Something fundamental had shifted between us—a boundary crossed that could never be reestablished.

Elias cursed in what sounded like ancient Latin. "We're under attack."

"Let me guess," I said dryly, "hunters?"

His eyes met mine, deadly serious. "Yes. And they've come for you."