After the false hope, something fundamental broke in Kieran.
He stopped searching. Stopped hoping. Stopped pretending that Adrian's soul would ever return.
Nine hundred years had passed since Adrian's death. Almost a millennium of waiting, grieving, existing in a state of living death. And Kieran was done.
Not done enough to end his existence—he still couldn't take that final step. But done enough to surrender to the darkness completely.
He withdrew from everything. Let his business empire crumble. Stopped interacting with the supernatural community. Cut ties with Marcus, unable to forgive him for the false hope.
He found a cave system deep in the Carpathian Mountains and sealed himself inside. Let the darkness and silence envelop him. Stopped feeding except when absolutely necessary. Entered a state of vampire hibernation—not true sleep, but a kind of metabolic suspension where years could pass in what felt like days.
If Adrian's soul returned, Kieran would never know. Would never find him.
And part of Kieran—the broken, exhausted part—thought maybe that was for the best.
Because the creature he'd become wasn't worthy of Adrian's love. Wasn't capable of being the partner Adrian deserved. All he had to offer was darkness, grief, and nine hundred years of accumulated trauma.
Maybe Adrian's soul was meant to find someone else this lifetime. Someone whole. Someone who could actually make him happy instead of dragging him into endless cycles of supernatural danger and loss.
Maybe the kindest thing Kieran could do was remove himself from the equation entirely.
So he surrendered. Not to death, but to darkness. Let himself become what he'd been fighting against for nine hundred years: a true monster, alone in the dark, waiting for nothing.
The pain in his chest—the curse that had plagued him for over a thousand years—continued. But now, instead of driving him to search for Adrian, it was just... pain. Meaningless, endless, eternal pain.
He'd existed for over sixteen hundred years.
He would exist for sixteen hundred more.
Alone. In darkness. Waiting for an ending that would never come.
This was his eternity now.
And he'd finally accepted it.