CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
DAMIEN POV
The summons does not arrive gently.
Nothing ever does with her.
The air tears. That's the only way to describe it. One moment I am standing in the shadowed edge of the warehouse district, watching the door where Emma vanished swallow another body, feeling the distortion ripple outward like a sickness in the city's pulse—and the next, the night folds inward like a wounded animal.
Sound dies first. Then light. Then gravity.
I don't resist. You don't resist her summons.
The world snaps.
Cold stone slams beneath my boots. The impact reverberates through bone and memory alike. The smell hits immediately, iron, old incense, ash that never finished burning.
Torches line the circular chamber, flames unnaturally still, frozen in defiance of air and draft. Their light casts shadows that refuse to behave, stretching and shrinking as if aware they are being watched.
The Initiation Room.
I haven't stood here in centuries.
The sigil carved into the floor pulses faintly, a vast circle etched with layered runes older than language, older than fear.
Light moves beneath the stone like blood beneath skin, slow and deliberate.
Chains hang from the ceiling—not for restraint, never for restraint—but for remembrance.
Each link hums with oath, betrayal, devotion or failure.
And she stands where she always stands.
At the far end of the chamber.
At the center of authority.
Lilith.
Her gown drinks the torchlight instead of reflecting it, black fabric swallowing flame as though light itself knows better than to linger.
A veil obscures her face, dark enough to appear solid, like night condensed into form. The power radiating from her is not aggressive. It doesn't need to be.
It is absolute.
"You are late," she says.
Her voice doesn't echo. The room bends to it instead.
"I was occupied," I replied trying to sound casual. The sigils brighten.
"Do not insult me with half-truths," Lilith says calmly. "You know I feel disruption before you do."
My jaw tightens.
"The city is unstable," I admit. "An aftereffect." I shifted my weight from the left leg to the right slightly.
"An error," she corrects. not moving a muscle as she speaks.
The torches flicker once. The chains hum louder.
"You fed improperly," Lilith continues. "And then you panicked." she turned her back to me.
I step forward into the circle. The light climbs my boots like a warning.
"I chose not to kill." I said in my defence but I kwen my defense was very weak.
"That is not mercy," she says. "That is fear."
The word lands heavier than any blade.
I couldn't deny it.
"The human should have been drained clean," Lilith says. "Instead, you fractured the flow and returned essence that did not belong. You violated a rule older than your name."
She pivoted and looked directly at me. I felt like melting under her scrutiny eyes,bbut braced myself against cowing to her.
Her veil tilts slightly.
"And now the city echoes."
Images bloom in the air between us without invitation. Humans reaching, straining, never arriving. Desire cycling endlessly without release. Bodies colliding, breaking, repeating.
The distortion Emma carries spreads like a low-frequency scream.
"You have created contamination," Lilith says. "A resonance."
"She wasn't meant to survive the feed," I say quietly. unable to move or say more.
"No," Lilith agrees. "She was not."
Silence stretches.
Then, softly, she said
"And yet you could not finish it."
My hands curl slowly at my sides.
"I will fix it," I say and Lilith laughs.
Not loud. Not cruel.
Amused.
"You already made it worse trying to do that," she says. "This is no longer yours to correct."
The circle flares.
"You will step back," Lilith commands. "You will avoid the light-bearer."
My head snaps up.
"Ashley is not involved—" I said quickly all vein in my blood plumbing faster
"She is," Lilith interrupts. "Not by choice. Not yet. But your hunger has begun to lean toward her."
The air thickens.
"I have it under control," I say quickly, too quickly exposing the intention I am trying to hide.
Lilith steps forward.
The chamber tightens.
"You do not," she replies. "And until you do, you will not approach her."
The words are not a suggestion.
I grind my teeth but nod.
"What of the human," I ask.
"Emma." Lilith lifts one hand.
The Six materialize from shadow as if they had always been there.
Eric.
Mason.
Jordan.
Rudan
And the other twon whose names humans never learn.
"Erase her," Lilith says. "And every human she has touched deeply enough to leave residue."
The Six bow.
No hesitation. No questions.
At times like this I am made aware that Lilith indulge me. because I could slightly question her decision and beg for pardon where other can't speak a word of defense.
"You will find nothing sacred protecting her," Lilith adds.
Her gaze settles back on me.
"You will remain away from the field," she says. "If you interfere again, Damien, I will correct you." I wanted to say a word in my defence but remain mute even against my will because the word correct hums with meaning.
The summons ends the way it began.
Violently.
The Initiation Room collapses inward, torches snuffing out as the world folds again.
The stone vanishes. Gravity snaps back.
I am standing alone in the night.
The city breathes around me.
And somewhere, Emma is still moving.
ASHLEY POV
I stood up from the novel I was reading, I had dosed off countless times and read same lines several times, so I decided to call it a night.
I walked into my bathroom, undressed slowly then stepped into my bath top and took my bath slowly.
I'm halfway through brushing my teeth when the air in my bathroom goes wrong. Not cold. Not hot. Just… thinner. Like the space itself is stepping back to make room.
The mirror ripples.
I freeze.
My reflection doesn't move when I do.
The hum arrives next. Low. Familiar in a way I don't have words for.
"Ashley," something says—not aloud, not inside my head.
In between.
The floor is gone before I can react.
I am not falling.
I am being received.
Light surrounds me—not blinding, not soft. Dense. Structured. Ancient. I land barefoot on smooth stone that gleams faintly from within, etched with symbols I don't recognize but somehow understand.
The Holy Grail chamber does not announce itself. It doesn't need to.
There is a vast circular space bathed in layered radiance, like dawn stacked upon dawn. At the center, a basin carved from something that is not metal and not stone rests on a pedestal. It hums with restrained power.
I know what this is. not because anyone tells me. but because my bones do.
"You are early," a voice says gently, and
I turneds.
Figures stand around the perimeter. Not angels. Not humans. Something older. Quieter. Watchful.
"And she is late," the voice adds.
The air stirs.
Another presence arrives.
Emma collapses to her knees beside me, gasping like she's just surfaced from deep water.
Her eyes are wild.
Empty.
And wrong.
She looks at me and starts to cry.
"I can't feel," she says. "I can't finish anything. I'm broken."
I drop to my knees in front of her without thinking.
"You're not broken," I say, hands cupping her face. "You're hurt."
The Grail hums louder.
"This is a restoration," the voice says. "Not a punishment."
I don't ask for permission.
I place my hands over Emma's chest.
The light responds immediately.
It flows through me—not as power, but as alignment. Something inside me clicks into place. The heat I felt around Damien, the resistance, the steadiness—it all sharpens.
I am not stronger than him.
I am opposite.
"Remember Friday evening," the voice says.
The light surges.
Emma screams once.
Then goes still.
When she opens her eyes again, they are clear.
"What… why am I here," she asks weakly.
I smile through tears.
"You're safe," I say. "And you're going home." I help her to her feet and pat her shoulders slowly
The Grail dims.
The chamber begins to dissolve.
DAMIEN POV
The call comes an hour later.
Eric.
"She's gone," he says.
My heart sinks.
"No body," Mason adds. "No residue. The humans are… intact."
Jordan exhales sharply. "We found nothing."
Silence eats the line.
"What did you mean by you found nothing " I asked immediately straighting up, lining away from my car.
I have been standing here by my car, monitoring closly all evening,
I will be justified bass on this, she is stilll there in this abandoned wearhouse turned night club because there was no trace of her leaving.
I stare up at the sky.
For the first time in centuries, the darkness doesn't answer me the way it used to.
And that terrifies me more than any punishment ever could.