Selene’s scream cut through the gunfire, through the thunder of boots and the rain hammering against the warehouse roof. She threw herself toward him, blood already pooling beneath his body, hot and spreading.The man behind him, masked, faceless in the haze, wrenched the knife free. Adrian gasped, a guttural, ragged sound, and blood sprayed across the concrete.Selene seized the pistol she had dropped, her trembling hands finding sudden strength. She fired. Once. Twice. The masked figure staggered, the impact spinning him sideways, but instead of falling, he bolted into the smoke, vanishing like a ghost.Selene’s heart hammered as she crawled to Adrian, flipping him onto his back. His lips were pale, his breaths shallow, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth.“No, no, no, stay with me!” Her hands pressed desperately to the wound, the warmth flooding between her fingers, impossible to stop. “You can’t leave me. Not like this!”His eyes fluttered open, cloudy with pain but fixed on

Marcus laughed, the sound sharp enough to split steel. “It never is with him, Selene. He wraps himself in lies, paints himself as your savior, when in truth, he’s nothing but a weapon Damon forged and broke.”The warehouse erupted again. Damon’s soldiers closed in, but neither Marcus nor Adrian looked away from the other. The tension between them was its own battlefield.Adrian stepped forward, every line of his body coiled with fury. “You betrayed us long before I ever pulled a trigger. You chose Damon. You let him twist you into something you’re not.”Marcus’s smile widened, cruel and wild. “And you didn’t? Look at yourself.” His eyes flicked over the glowing veins, the inhuman blaze in Adrian’s gaze. “Do you even know what you are anymore?”Selene’s breath hitched. Her heart screamed to reach for Marcus, to believe her brother wasn’t lost. But her soul twisted, remembering Adrian’s hand pressed against her wounds, his broken voice begging her to live.Her world split in half.Adria

Adrian’s head whipped toward Marcus. “Don’t you dare”“I mean it,” Marcus cut in, his voice shaking but steady. “You love him. You always have. And I’ve taken enough from both of you. If this ends tonight, let it end with me.”Selene’s chest cracked wide open. Her finger twitched on the trigger.“No!” Adrian roared, golden light bursting from his wounds, flaring so bright the room seemed to shudder. “Marcus, you don’t get to decide this! Not for her, not for me!”“And you do?” Marcus snarled, turning on him, blood dripping from his jaw. “You’ve lied, Adrian! You’ve hidden everything, about Damon, about me, about the past. You’ve treated her as if she couldn’t handle the truth. You’ve caged her in your silence and called it love.”Adrian flinched, as if struck. His glow dimmed, his breath faltered. Selene saw it, saw the wound Marcus’s words cut deeper than any blade.Damon chuckled low, delighted. “Ah… yes. The brothers strip themselves bare. Keep going. Let her see how unworthy you b

“I loved you before you were a general,” she whispered. “I loved you when no one else would. And I will not let her take you from me.”She closed the file with a snap.“This city will bury Selene Carter alive before I allow it.”The night stretched on, heavy with storm. By dawn, the Hale estate was a hive of activity. Armored vehicles rolled through the gates, soldiers saluted the banners, and Vivienne descended the staircase like a queen stepping into coronation.Her father, Malcolm Hale, waited in the hall, his cane tapping the marble, his eyes sharp as razors despite his frailty.“You’ve stirred a hornet’s nest,” he rasped, voice like gravel. “The Council will not forgive if this fails.”Vivienne’s heels clicked as she approached, her chin high, her smile unshaken. “Then it won’t fail.”Malcolm studied her, then chuckled darkly. “Ah, my little flame. You are your mother’s daughter.”Vivienne stiffened. For the briefest moment, the name cut deep, her mother, lost to the same power g