Chapter 1 First Encounter
The town whispered about her, but Selena had learned to ignore it.
She walked through the crowded marketplace, head high, pretending not to hear the murmurs that followed her like a ghost.
“That's Monica’s girl… poor thing.”
“No father, no family. Just a shadow.”
“Some say her mother was cursed. Maybe the girl is too.”
Selena clenched her fists. The words didn’t hurt anymore or at least, that’s what she told herself. The truth was, she was tired. Tired of being a mystery no one wanted to solve, a ghost no one wanted to see.
But life didn’t care what she wanted.
She had been five the first time she saw her mother cry, and the memory never faded.
That night, rain poured against their leaking roof, the sound loud and endless. Puddles gathered in the corners of their tiny shack, glimmering faintly in the candlelight. Selena huddled in a dry patch, wrapped in a threadbare blanket, listening to the world breathe around her. She should have been asleep but then she heard it.
A sound so soft, so fragile, it didn’t belong to the mother she knew.
Selena peeked through the dim light and saw Monica sitting on the floor, knees drawn to her chest, arms wrapped around herself as if she were holding something broken together. She wasn’t sobbing, not the loud kind that people noticed. No her mother cried in silence, like she had already accepted no one would listen.
“Mummy?” Selena’s small voice barely broke through the rain.
Monica flinched, as though waking from a nightmare. She wiped her face quickly and turned away. “You should be asleep, baby.”
Selena hesitated. She had never seen her mother like this.
Monica was strong the kind of woman who carried too much on her shoulders but never let it show. The kind who worked until her hands bled and still found the strength to smile when there was nothing left to smile about.
“Why are you crying?” Selena asked softly.
For a long moment, Monica didn’t answer. Then, in a whisper, she said, “Because I once thought love could save me.”
Her voice was hollow. “But love is just a beautiful lie.”
Selena didn’t understand then. But at twenty, she would.
Because everything changed the night her mother told her the truth.
The scent of damp earth filled the air. Selena was dreaming lost in the warmth of sleep, curled up on a thin mattress when a soft touch brushed her hair.
“Selena, wake up.”
She stirred, blinking groggily. The candle had burned out, but her mother’s outline was clear in the dark.
“Mummy?” she mumbled. “Why?”
“Listen to me.” Monica’s voice trembled, her grip firm. “You need to run.”
A chill slithered down Selena’s spine. Run? Not again.
“Mummy, why are we running this time?”
Monica swallowed hard. In the moonlight, Selena saw it the fear in her mother’s eyes. The kind that made her own chest tighten.
“Not we,” Monica whispered. “You.”
Selena’s pulse stopped. “What?”
“You will run, and I will always be with you.”
Monica’s fingers curled in her daughter’s hair, brushing it back. “I will always watch over you.”
Panic clawed at Selena’s throat. She sat up, shaking her head. “No,” she whispered. “I don’t want to leave you.”
Tears shimmered in Monica’s eyes, but she smiled a sad, broken smile. “I know, baby. But you must.”
A crash echoed outside. A low growl rolled through the night deep, inhuman. Monica froze.
“Mummy, what’s happening?” Selena’s voice shook. “Who’s out there?”
Her mother took a shuddering breath. Then, finally, she spoke the truth.
“Your father is coming.”
Selena stopped breathing. “What?”
Monica’s voice dropped to a whisper. “The Vampire King.”
Selena’s stomach turned cold. “He’s the ruler of his coven.”
The words made no sense. Her father? The man who had never been in her life? The one her mother never spoke of?
“I never wanted to tell you,” Monica said softly. “I thought if we stayed hidden, we would be safe. But it seems he never stopped hunting us.”
Another crash closer this time. Monica flinched and pulled two rings from her pocket. One she slipped onto a chain around her neck. The other she pressed into Selena’s trembling hands.
“This will guide you,” she whispered. “Never take it off.”
Selena stared at the tiny piece of metal. “Mummy…”
“When you run, throw it to the ground. It will take you to Earth where I come from.”
Selena’s heart pounded. “No! I won’t leave you!”
Monica cupped her face, voice fierce. “Listen to me, Selena. Earth is not like here. It is filled with humans some kind, some cruel. But you will learn. You will survive.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I only wish I had family left there to send you to.”
Another growl. Louder. The ground shook.
Monica’s eyes widened. “Go!” she shouted, pushing Selena toward the back door.
Selena hesitated for just a second and then she ran.
But before she reached the trees, a voice ripped through the night. Deep. Menacing.
“Going somewhere?”
Selena’s blood turned to ice. She whipped around, heart hammering in her throat. Her mother stood frozen.
And in front of her, a man stepped from the shadows.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Dark eyes glinting under the moonlight. His presence swallowed the air thick with dominance and power. Even without the sharp angles of his face or the wildness in his stance, Selena knew.
She didn’t need her mother to say it.
She was looking at him.
The man who had ruined their lives.
The Vampire King.
Her father.
