Alessia stood in her bedroom, fastening the cuff of her dark coat with deliberate care, clinging to the ritual as if it could quiet the restlessness thrumming inside her.
The silence weighed more than the weather.
Outside, a fine rain worried the city; inside, something else began to move—formless, nameless—tightening in her chest in a way that felt dangerously new.
As she laced her boots, a pull seized her from within, and at that same instant a gust slammed the window with a dry crack. The lights flickered as if the current had stuttered. Somewhere far off, a dog howled. Alessia froze, still crouched, and time stalled.
Everything in the room announced a breaking point—something invisible, yet as real as the air she suddenly struggled to breathe.
The pain was dull, but true as an invisible blade. She pressed a hand to her breast, startled.
It wasn't physical—not in any human sense.
It was older. Deeper.
Her vision blurred. Her breath went ragged. A premonition settled into her like an inescapable omen, live-wired and relentless.
"Liam…" she whispered, his name burning her throat like plea and warning at once.
She let the coat fall, snatched her phone with trembling fingers, and dialed.
She didn't know what was happening. She only knew something was wrong.
He was in danger. There was no logic—only certainty. A visceral certainty, an ancient echo crying from her soul.
Across the city, Liam Thomas slapped his palm against his boss's desk.
Rage scorched under his skin like contained fire; his chest heaved; his eyes sparked like a storm about to break.
"This is a joke," he bit out through his teeth.
His boss—a tidy suit and an ironic smile—leaned back, unruffled, twirling a pen as if nothing could touch him.
"I'm sorry, Liam, but management made the call. Laura has… other qualities we value here."
"You mean she's pretty? Because experience she hasn't got," Liam shot back.
"Don't put words in my mouth. If you don't like it, there's the door."
Blood throbbed in Liam's temples. Years. Weekends. Everything I gave—and they can't even look me in the eye to say I'm not worth it.
It wasn't just professional. It was his dignity—ground under a smirk and a stranger's name.
He pivoted and left without another word. His footsteps drummed down the long hallway like a metronome of fury.
Through reception, past the curious glances, into the garage. He yanked out his keys—just as his phone buzzed in his pocket.
"Alessia?" he answered, breath still sharp.
"Liam," her voice was soft but stretched thin—like a string one breath from snapping. "Are you okay?"
"I argued with my boss. They handed my role to the new girl. I'm heading out—guess it's not my day."
"Liam, please—stay there. Don't get in the car. Not yet."
"What's going on with you?" he asked, confused, halted beside the driver's door, the keys shaking slightly in his hand.
"Don't ask why… just promise me you'll wait. A few minutes. It matters."
Her tone wasn't one he could take lightly. There was urgency. There was fear. And beneath both, there was love—spilling through every syllable.
He swallowed.
"Okay," he said at last, gentler than he expected. "I promise."
Alessia dropped the phone on the bed and dressed at speed.
As she layered clothing, a prickle seared up her arms. She knew what stepping outside meant—the sun was still somewhere behind that rain-washed afternoon, muffled by clouds yet vicious all the same.
Even the weakest ray stung like embers scattered over her skin. The burn began before she opened the door—and still she went. The bond pulsed louder than pain, deeper than blood.
Despite the light, she had to go. She wrapped herself in a heavy coat, added a scarf, dark glasses, a wide hood to hide every trace of who she was.
Her skin already smarted as she crossed the threshold. She didn't care.
The tether was stronger than the hurt. Liam mattered more than any weakness.
The walk felt punishing.
Every step an effort, every corner a test.
Every thin shaft of light found her like a needle. Still she moved—not out of duty, but out of love; a purpose beating in the oldest part of her immortal soul and, strangely, the most human.
Minutes later, Liam still waited by his car, uneasy, checking his watch and the sky.
Then he saw her round the corner—bundled head to toe, moving as if the ground itself pained her. Alarm jolted him; he ran to her.
"Alessia, what is it? You're scaring me."
She didn't answer.
She folded him into her arms, pressed her face to his chest, as if holding him could freeze the world.
Everything else fell away.
Like lightning splitting a midnight field, the vision struck.
The urgency of the embrace—the love barely contained—threw a switch inside her; a spark detonated into a symphony of images she could not contain.
Her chest expanded around a foreign heartbeat; her pupils flared; the physical world peeled back.
Liam driving.
The wheel shuddering—then a vicious swerve, the screech of metal tearing.
The car rolling on rain-slick asphalt—sparks, flames, a spiderweb windshield, smoke, the cabin warping in heat.
He was trapped, mouth open in a soundless call for her.
Death. Darkness. Silence.
She tore her eyes open, a soundless sob breaking from her lips.
Liam gripped her shoulders.
"What is it?"
She stared at the ground.
"Just… a bad omen," she whispered, drained.
Then she took his hands with sudden, iron steadiness.
"Please check your car. Now. Please, Liam."
He didn't understand—but the plea in her voice moved him.
He circled the vehicle: hood, tires—nothing obvious.
He crouched, more out of humoring her than hope—and saw it: a small, oily bloom spreading beneath the chassis. He leaned closer. Viscous fluid.
He popped the hood again. The brake reservoir was nearly dry.
"This could've killed me," he said, voice low, looking at her as if, finally, he grasped there was more—something he didn't know, but had begun to sense.
She met his gaze, eyes glittering with tears she never shed.
"I didn't know," she murmured. "I… felt it."
This only happens when the bond is real… when the soul reaches past the blood. She knew it then with terrifying clarity: I'm in love. And that love just saved his life.
Liam, unaware of her thought, turned and gave her a faint, instinctive smile—so tender it grazed her very core.
And for the first time in centuries, she did not fear the gift that had awakened.
She feared what she could never stop if, one day, that love went dark.
Because to love like this—with the soul ablaze—was also to sign a pact with fate.