The truck struck Keth at midnight.
One moment, they were crossing the street, the glow of their phone screen reflecting in their tired eyes. The next—impact. A scream of metal, the shatter of glass, and then the eerie silence of their own body hitting pavement.
Keth didn't see their life flash before their eyes. There was only the scent of gasoline, the distant wail of sirens, and a single, stupid thought: *I never finished that text.*
Then, darkness.
---
**Death was supposed to be cold.**
So why did Keth wake up burning?
Their lungs seized as they gasped awake, fingers clawing at their chest where fire licked beneath their skin. The ground beneath them wasn't asphalt but polished black marble, veined with streaks of crimson. The air smelled of iron and something older—like a cathedral drowned in blood.
A shadow loomed over them.
"Pathetic," a voice murmured.
Keth's vision cleared just enough to see the man standing above them. Tall, pale, dressed in a coat that seemed woven from night itself. His eyes were the color of tarnished silver, his lips parted just enough to reveal the sharp points of fangs.
A vampire.
Keth's body moved before their mind could catch up. They lunged sideways, rolling to their feet—or trying to. Their legs gave out, sending them crashing back to their knees.
The vampire sighed. "You reek of the Otherworld. Who sent you?"
Keth spat blood onto the marble. "Go to hell."
The vampire's smile was a blade. "We are already here."
He moved faster than Keth could track. One moment he was across the room; the next, his hand was wrapped around Keth's throat, lifting them off the ground. Keth choked, kicking out, but the vampire didn't so much as flinch.
Then—pain.
Not from the grip on their throat, but from their *chest*. A searing, splitting agony, as though something inside them was tearing free. The vampire's eyes widened. He dropped Keth like they'd burned him.
Keth hit the ground hard, gasping. Their vision blurred, but not enough to miss the way the vampire stared at their chest—no, at the *mark* now glowing there. A sigil, twisted and pulsing like a living thing, etched into their skin in lines of fire.
The vampire took a step back. "Impossible."
Keth didn't care what was impossible. They saw the dagger at the vampire's hip and moved.
The blade was in their hand before the vampire could react. Keth drove it upward, aiming for his heart—
The vampire caught their wrist an inch from his ribs.
For a heartbeat, they were frozen, Keth's ragged breaths the only sound. Then the vampire's grip tightened, forcing the dagger's tip to hover between them.
"You," he said softly, "are going to be *very* interesting."
The mark on Keth's chest burned hotter.
And then the world exploded in crimson.