Chapter 1 - Superhuman agility

~ RAVEN’S POV ~

Five hundred years had passed, but I could still feel the touch of her skin. I still remembered her face as if she had stood before me only yesterday.

I remembered the way she smiled at me on our wedding night. I still remembered the sound of her voice and the warmth of her hand in mine.

And I remembered the night I lost her.

I had lived for five centuries since then, but the memories of her were still stuck inside my brain like a tattoo that couldn’t be erased.

Her graveyard was quiet, just as it had been on every other day I came to visit her.

I stood before her old grave, staring at the name carved into stone.

Isabella Duskbane.

My wife’s name. The woman I loved beyond measure, and whom I would love forever.

I had watched the centuries bleed away. I had watched empires rise from the dust, crumble, and rebuild. Humans had forged machines capable of soaring across the sky and carrying them across the globe in mere hours.

Yet, despite all their progress, nothing had ever filled the hollow cavern in my chest. Nothing had ever changed the one thing that truly mattered to me.

Her.

I still missed her.

Every day, I came back to this place, even though nothing had changed.

She was still gone.

And I was still here… trapped in an ageless body, frozen in the exact same grief I felt five hundred years ago.

My phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out, and I sighed when I saw it was Jasper.

Jasper was a helpless three-year-old child I had pulled from a wreck twenty years ago. He was twenty-three now, a young man who could easily pass as my older brother to any unsuspecting bystander.

“Where are you?! The game is almost starting!” His loud voice blasted into my ear the second I answered.

“Did I ever promise you I would attend?” I asked.

“Come on, Raven! You have to!” he whined. “This game is so important to me. It’s my chance to show you everything I’ve learned from you.”

“I already know how good you are on the ice. I taught you,” I reminded him, staring down at the stone. “I don’t need to be there. There will be too many humans.”

“You’ve lived for five hundred years, Raven. You’re a vampire, and you still have a problem sitting among humans?”

“I never said I was,” I cautioned him.

“Then please, just come over to my college and watch my game,” he pleaded softly.

“I can’t, Jasper. I’m busy. Don’t disturb me.”

“For once in your life, please… just act like my father!” he snapped.

“Do I look like your father?” I snapped back.

“You could father me a thousand times over. You’re basically my ancestor! Don’t forget that just because your face doesn’t age!”

“Did I make a mistake saving you twenty years ago?”

“I know you didn’t,” he answered instantly, his tone softening with a fond certainty. “Because you love me, even if you try so hard to pretend you don’t.”

I smiled a little because he was right. I loved him. I raised him and he was the only human who knew my real identity.

I tend to distance myself from humans because associating with humans was the fastest way to expose my identity.

“I know you went to visit Isabella’s grave,” Jasper continued softly, his voice full of an empathetic understanding that caught me off guard. “But can you please be here for me, too? Just for today? This game really means everything to me.”

I closed my eyes, letting out a heavy breath. “Fine. I’ll be there. But this is the absolute first and last time you manipulate me into this.”

“Thanks, Raven!” he squealed, his mood instantly soaring. “I promise this is the last time. I’ll be waiting for you.” He hung up before I could even open my mouth to reprimand him.

Sighing, I slipped the phone back into my pocket and stared down at Isabella’s grave one last time.

“I’ll be back tomorrow, my love,” I muttered.

I turned away, walked to my car, and drove straight to Horizon University, where Jasper studied and played hockey.

Over five centuries, I had watched countless sports spring into human culture, but hockey was the only one that ever caught my interest. Since I couldn’t play without exposing my superhuman agility, I had poured all my knowledge, precision, and strategy into teaching Jasper everything I knew.

My car slowed to a halt outside the university’s massive athletic complex. Even from inside my car, my sensitive ears picked up the thunderous roar of the crowd, accompanied by the chaotic, rhythmic beating of thousands of human hearts.

Before getting out of my car, I pulled out a nose mask and put it on. I wouldn’t want anyone seeing my face or being photographed.

I waded through the sensory overload, tracking the swell of noise straight into the hockey complex.

Inside, the ice rink was blindingly bright, surrounded by bleachers crammed to capacity with cheering students.

Despite the wall-to-wall crowd, Jasper’s sharp eyes somehow locked into me immediately. His face lit up, and he waved frantically from near the ice.

I gave him a subtle nod, letting my smile hide beneath my mask.

Minutes later, the whistle blew and the game erupted into action. My eyes remained glued to Jasper, watching with a sense of pride as he effortlessly glided across the ice. But in the middle of his play, a single voice pierced through the deafening roar of the arena.

“Excuse me… make way,” she said.

The voice was familiar.

It sounded just like Isabella’s.

I quickly turned around to find where the voice was coming from until my gaze landed on a girl pushing her way toward the front row, holding a banner high above her head.

“Isabella…?”

The name slipped out of my tongue as I stared at her.

She looked exactly like Isabella. From the wave of her hair down to the subtle curve of her shoulders, she was a living, breathing mirror image of my dead wife.

With trembling fingers, I tore off my mask, desperate to clear my vision, praying I wasn’t falling prey to a cruel, grief-fueled hallucination.

And truly, I wasn’t.

It was her.

My Isabella.

My bride.

I stood completely frozen, watching as she raised the banner higher, her face lighting up with a radiant, breathless smile—that exact same smile that had captivated me five hundred years ago.

“Go, Bryan! I love you!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, her eyes shining with adoration.

I love you?

The words exploded through my mind, echoing a thousand times over, shattering the air around me.

My gaze whipped down to the ice rink, following her joyful eyes. A young male player looked up at her, throwing her a triumphant, dazzling grin.

She grinned back, blowing him a passionate kiss.

My whole world turned upside down.

She… She has a boyfriend in her new life?