Chapter 6 The warning

Earlier that evening…

Aria sat at the bar, swirling a glass of wine she had no intention of drinking. The low hum of conversation and clinking glasses filled the space around her, but her mind was elsewhere.

Her phone buzzed.

Mom: Check on your brother. Now.

Aria sighed, setting the glass down. Another vision, probably. Selene's instincts were never wrong, and when she said now, she meant it.

She pulled up the tracking app on her phone Darion's location glowed on the screen like a beacon. The Celestine Hotel. Downtown.

"Of course," she muttered, grabbing her coat.

It was exhausting, constantly playing babysitter to a centuries-old vampire who should have known better. But someone had to keep him from burning their entire world down.

The hotel hallway was quiet, sterile, the kind of place where people paid for discretion. Aria walked with purpose, her heels clicking softly against the marble floor.

She stopped outside room 718.

The scent hit her immediately.

Blood.

Fresh. Still warm.

Her jaw tightened. She knocked once, hard.

"Darion, if you don't open this door right now"

The door swung open.

Darion stood there, shirt unbuttoned, hair disheveled, a smug grin on his face that died the moment he saw her expression.

Behind him, on the bed, lay a young woman pale, unconscious, her neck marked with two deep puncture wounds.

Aria's eyes flashed. "Do you always have to be so reckless?"

Darion rolled his eyes, stepping aside to let her in. "She's fine. She's breathing."

"Cops are everywhere, Darion!" Aria hissed, closing the door behind her. "Are you trying to get thrown in jail? Or worse get us discovered?"

Darion wiped the blood from his lips, his fangs retracting as his eyes shifted back to their normal ice blue. "Look, sis, you don't have to babysit me. I can handle this myself. I'm not some kid, so you can see yourself out." He gestured lazily toward the door. "You just had to interrupt my feeding and make it boring. Now the blood's gone cold."

Aria's eyes narrowed. "I don't care what you do or how you do it, Darion, but clean up your mess when you're done. We need to meet Mom at the house."

Darion groaned. "Again? Doesn't she ever take, like, a break? A vacation? It's not like we're kids that need babysitting. We're adults."

Aria crossed her arms. "Well, Darion, you're certainly not acting like an adult now."

Darion waited until Aria left before turning back to the woman on the bed. She was still breathing shallow, but steady. He'd fed just enough to satisfy the hunger, not enough to kill.

He pulled out his phone and made a call.

"Yeah, it's me," he said quietly. "I need a cleanup. Room 718, Celestine Hotel. Discreet. Make it look like she had too much to drink and passed out."

A pause.

"Yeah, I know. Just handle it."

He hung up, grabbed his coat, and took one last look at the woman before slipping out into the night.

By morning, she'd wake up with no memory of him just a headache and a vague sense of something she couldn't quite place.

It was cleaner that way.

At The Varex Estate

The grand hall was cold, lit only by the flickering glow of the chandelier overhead. Selene stood at the head of the long table, her silver-white hair cascading over her shoulders, her expression carved from stone.

Darion walked in, hands in his pockets, looking bored.

Aria followed, her arms crossed, her gaze sharp.

Selene's eyes locked onto Darion.

"Sit."

He sighed dramatically but complied, dropping into a chair and slouching like a petulant teenager.

Selene stepped closer, her voice cold and measured. "This behavior of yours I'm frankly tired of it, Darion. You are older now. You should know better." Her eyes flashed white for just a moment. "Feeding on humans? In the midst of all this chaos? You should be smarter."

She leaned in, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Don't push my hand, Darion. You know that's not going to end well. You better behave, or I will make you. If you don't want to be treated like an adult, I will treat you like a child."

Darion scoffed, leaning back in his chair. "Mom, you're overreacting. I took care of it. And I barely fed because Aria here interrupted me anyway. This is all just so fucking annoying."

Aria's eyes blazed. "Have you lost it?! Shut your mouth. Now."

Darion stood abruptly, shoving his chair back. "Whatever. I need a smoke anyway. I'm going outside."

He walked out before either of them could stop him.

Aria exhaled slowly, shaking her head. "He's going to get us all killed."

Selene said nothing, but her gaze was distant, troubled.

And then suddenly.

Her eyes went white.

Aria's breath caught. "Mom?"

Selene's body went rigid, her hands gripping the edge of the table as the vision took hold.

Blood. Fire. A battlefield. A woman screaming. A child crying. And in the center of it all a woman tied to a bleeding tree, her eyes glowing gold.

Selene gasped, stumbling back.

Aria caught her. "Mom what did you see?"

Selene's voice was barely a whisper. "Call Lucian. Now."

Lucian arrived within minutes, his coat still on, his expression tight with concern. He'd been on his way already after leaving the office early.

He stepped into the hall to find his mother seated, Aria standing beside her, and Darion leaning against the doorway, cigarette smoke curling from his lips.

"What happened?" Lucian asked quietly.

Selene looked up at him, her eyes still faintly glowing. "I had another vision."

The room fell silent.

"The doom is getting closer," she continued, her voice grave. "And the blood of someone innocent will be shed… if we are even a minute too late."

The siblings exchanged glances.

Lucian's jaw tightened. "Who?"

Selene closed her eyes. "I don't know yet. But it's connected to a woman." She paused.

"I didn't see her clearly but she's in grave danger."

Lucian's blood ran cold. "A woman?"

Selene nodded slowly. "Yes. And if we don't act soon… we may lose more than just the key."

Darion straightened, his smug expression fading. Aria's eyes darkened.

Lucian stood still, his mind racing.

War was coming.

Someone.

They had no idea who was at the centre of it.