David's lungs burned with every ragged breath.
Ashroot loomed ahead of him like a wall of black teeth. The ancient forest spread across the hills in a tangled mass of roots, thorns, and mist so dense it swallowed light. Wind sighed through skeletal branches, whispering in a language older than any living thing.
He stopped at the treeline, clutching his side where the ribs were cracked. Every inhale was a stab of molten glass. Blood caked his shirt, sticky and dark.
He didn't have time to think about the pain.
Priya was in there.
Dragged by that thing.
He wiped sweat and blood from his eyes with the back of his hand and took a single, shuddering breath.
Then he stepped into the Ashroot.
The forest swallowed him instantly.
Sound changed. The wind outside cut off as if he'd slammed a door on it.
Inside, it was cold and damp and quiet in a way that made his ears ring. Every breath steamed in the gloom. Old trees twisted above him, their trunks swollen with galls and boils, bark peeling back like scabbed flesh.
He picked his way forward, fighting dizziness.
Don't think about the pain.
Don't think about the blood.
Think about her.
Priya's face floated in his mind.
Her laughter the first time they'd met—bitter, defiant.
Her tears when she realized they were both doomed.
The warmth of her hand on his cheek, even after she'd seen what he was capable of.
He clenched his fists until his nails bit the skin.
I'm coming.
An hour passed. Or maybe a minute. Or a year.
Time didn't work in Ashroot.
Shadows crawled the wrong way. Trees rearranged themselves when he blinked. Roots writhed underfoot. Once, he stumbled over what he thought was a fallen branch—only to realize it was a spine, bleached and cracked, vertebrae picked clean.
He kept going.
A voice called out from behind him.
"David?"
He turned too fast. Pain flared in his side.
Priya stood there, her dress torn, hair in her face.
She was crying.
"David," she sobbed. "Please. Help me. I'm so scared."
His heart lurched.
He took a step toward her.
Then he saw her smile.
Too wide. Too many teeth.
"Thank you for bringing more blood."
He roared in fury and swung his knife.
The illusion shattered.
Branches exploded away, shrieking in inhuman voices. He stumbled back, panting, sweat soaking his shirt despite the cold.
The forest laughed at him.
He forced himself forward, breath ragged.
He had to stop three times to throw up bile. Once, he collapsed to his knees, pressing his forehead into the damp moss.
He wanted to cry.
To just stay there.
But he pictured Priya's face.
Terrified.
Dragged away into this nightmare.
He stood.
Deeper in, the trees changed.
They grew massive and gnarled, roots arching overhead like ribcages. Sickly green fungus glowed faintly on the bark, casting the world in corpse-light.
Whispers flitted between the trunks.
You can't save her.
She's ours.
You did this.
David ignored them.
He found blood on a tree trunk. Fresh. Black.
Priya's? No—it stank of rotted meat. One of the abominations, wounded.
A small, grim smile split his face.
Good.
They could be hurt.
He pressed on, following the smear of blood deeper into the Ashroot.
Meanwhile.
Priya hung limply from a nest of twisted roots.
They had bound her like rope, writhing every time she moved. Bark split to reveal eyes that watched her. Her wrists bled where she struggled.
The creature that had taken her—the one they'd released—stood in front of her.
It wasn't even pretending to look human now.
Skin like tar. Dozens of mouths gasping wetly across its torso. Fingers elongated into claws. Eyes blinking in patterns no living thing should have.
It leaned close, one mouth stretching wider than her head.
"You taste of old magic."
Priya tried to look away. The roots twisted her head back.
She sobbed once, biting her lip until blood ran.
"David will kill you," she spat.
The creature laughed in a dozen stolen voices—some male, some female, some inhuman.
"David is dead. Or he will be. And then I'll wear his face for you."
Priya's stomach twisted.
The thing leaned closer.
"I want you to watch."
David broke into a clearing.
A circle of ancient stones loomed, each taller than a man. Symbols crawled across them like fireflies.
Inside, the ground was scorched black. Bones littered the ring, gnawed clean.
He stopped, breathing hard.
Priya was nowhere in sight.
But something else was.
A man stood in the center.
Or… no. Not a man.
Pale, ageless face. Hair silver as moonlight.
Lucien.
Vampire Lord.
His red eyes burned with rage when they locked onto David.
"You."
David barely had time to react before Lucien blurred forward.
He slammed David against a stone so hard he felt something crack.
"You worthless mortal," Lucien hissed, fangs bared inches from his throat. "Do you have any idea what you've unleashed?"
David tried to answer, but blood filled his mouth.
Lucien snarled. "My clan is dead. Dead! My bloodline wiped out in one night because you opened that Vault!"
David managed a choked laugh. "Your… clan was already monsters…"
Lucien slammed him again.
David saw stars.
"You don't understand," Lucien growled. "That thing you freed? It's not just a killer. It breeds. It makes more."
David's heart went cold.
He remembered the bodies in the woods. The changing faces. The laughter.
"How do I stop it?" David rasped.
Lucien's lips curled. "Why would I tell you?"
David's vision blurred.
"Because it took Priya," he gasped.
Lucien froze.
Something shifted behind his eyes.
"Priya?"
David realized, suddenly, that Lucien knew her.
"Knew she was special, didn't you?" David spat blood. "Why do you care? She's human. Just cattle to you."
Lucien's grip tightened. His voice dropped to a whisper.
"She has blood magic. Old blood. Blood that binds and seals. She's the only thing that can lock them away again."
David's stomach twisted.
"That's why it took her," Lucien said softly. "It's going to use her to breed more."
David let out a strangled roar.
He tried to lunge forward, but Lucien held him like a child.
"Let me go!"
Lucien's face twisted. "If you want her back, you'll help me kill it."
David's breath shuddered.
Lucien's eyes glowed. "We have a common enemy now. Mortal. Monster. Doesn't matter. We stop that thing, or there's nothing left to rule."
David trembled.
He nodded once.
Lucien dropped him.
David hit the ground hard, coughing blood.
He wiped his mouth and glared up.
"How?"
Lucien turned to the stones, tracing a claw along the symbols.
"Old wards here. Older than vampires. Older than werewolves. They speak of a prison. A binding."
David struggled to his feet. "Can it work?"
Lucien's smile was cruel.
"It can. But it needs blood magic. Her blood."
David felt his heart seize.
"So we get her."
Lucien's red eyes glittered.
"We hunt."
They left the stone circle together, neither trusting the other, but bound by shared necessity.
David limped but forced himself to keep pace. Lucien moved like a shadow, silent, regal, terrifying.
As they entered the thickest part of Ashroot, the forest closed around them, branches knitting overhead.
David tried not to think about Priya's face.
Her tears.
Her screams.
He would get her back.
He had to.
Meanwhile.
Priya hung in her living prison.
The abomination circled her, claws idly scraping her cheek, drawing thin lines of blood.
It inhaled deeply, shuddering in ecstasy.
"So much potential," it whispered in a voice that was part David's, part Lucien's, part something older.
"You'll make such strong children."
Priya sobbed once, then stopped.
Her eyes hardened.
"No," she whispered.
It tilted its head, mockingly curious.
"No?"
She bared her teeth.
"I'll burn this whole forest down before I let you touch me."
It smiled with a hundred mouths.
"I'm counting on it."
Back in the forest, David staggered, breath ragged.
Lucien paused. "Keep up."
David's voice cracked.
"She's all I have left."
Lucien didn't look at him. But for a moment, the vampire's eyes weren't cruel.
Just… tired.
"Then don't fail her," Lucien said.
They pressed on, the fog closing in like a coffin.
Ahead of them, faint laughter echoed.
And Priya screamed.