Nocturne

by Karina Halle

Her voice is like aged bourbon—smooth, rich, with a burning finish that lingers long after the note ends. She doesn’t perform so much as confess, each lyric delivered like a secret shared only with you, despite the room full of listeners.

“This city eats dreams for breakfast. Elizabeth wouldn’t be the first girl who got devoured.”

I’ve known this woman for a week, yet I can’t remember the last time I wanted someone with such intensity. The kind that blinds and binds you, that leaves a mark. This could be my downfall.

“It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just demand me.” “I’m not demanding,” he growls. “I’m taking.”

“Is he bigger than this?” Goodness. Callahan is enormous.

“I’m going to fuck him out of you, dollface,” he rasps, and as I stare up at his eyes, I swear his pupils flash red for a moment, a solar flare against piercing blue. “You’ll never be the same again.”

“You look like heaven when you come,” he says into my ear, breath hot. “I want you to see it.”

“I’m going to ruin you,” he says through gritted teeth. “Ruin you for anyone else.”

“You’re mine, you know that,” he rasps. “Mine, not his.”

“What are you, an animal?” He meets my eyes and yet doesn’t smile. “Yeah. I think I might be.”

I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want him—with a famine that matches his own, a recognition that goes soul-deep.

“Only me. It will only ever be me.”

I am not the man I thought I was. The world is not what I believed it to be. I am a predator walking among prey, a creature of night and blood and hunger. A vampire.

And when she stepped into my life with her secrets and wanton smile, it’s as if finally belonged somewhere. With her.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be whole again. But, somehow, you fill the gaps inside me, Lena. You put me back together. This—you—it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“How can you still look at me like that? After what I just told you? After what I just did to you?” “Because I know the man beneath the monster,” I say simply. “And that man is worth fighting for.”