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I swing the blade straight at his throat.
Adrian doesn't move. Just stands there watching me come at him with silver that should end this whole mess. The bond hums under my skin like a live wire and I ignore it because I've spent three years waiting for a name.
He gave me one. Victor Ash.
Now he can die.
The blade hits his collarbone and I feel it—sharp and cold and wrong—in my own shoulder. Not phantom pain. Real pain. Like someone just shoved a knife into the same spot on me.
I gasp and stumble back. The silver clatters to the floor.
"What the hell—"
"Blood bond," Adrian says. His voice is flat. There's a thin line of black blood seeping through his shirt where I cut him. "Every wound you give me comes back to you. That's how it works."
I press my hand to my shoulder. No cut. No blood. But the pain is there, sharp and insistent, like my body can't tell the difference.
"You're lying."
"Try again if you want." He doesn't even look angry. Just tired. "Go ahead. Drive it through my heart. See what happens to yours."
I pick up the blade. My hand is shaking and I hate that he can see it.
Three generations. My grandfather died taking out a nest in Baltimore. My dad bled out in an alley six blocks from here. I've got their weapons, their training, every scar they left behind in journal entries and voice memos. This is what I'm supposed to do.
I step forward. Adrian doesn't flinch.
"Do it," he says quietly. "If you think Victor's going to give you answers after we're both dead, go ahead."
That stops me. Not the bond. Not the pain. The fact that he's right.
Victor Ash. Blood Council elder. If Adrian dies, the only lead I've ever had dies with him.
I lower the blade. My shoulder still throbs.
"I hate you," I say.
"Noted."
He reaches up and pulls his collar aside. The bite mark on his neck is already healing, black veins fading back under pale skin. Vampires don't scar. I know that. But the bond leaves something behind—thin dark lines that branch out from the wound like tree roots.
I've got the same marks on my throat. I felt them earlier when I touched the spot. Raised and warm and wrong.
"Three exchanges," Adrian says. "Thirty days. You heard that part, right?"
"I heard it."
"Then you know what happens if we don't finish the ritual."
My heart stops. His heart stops. We both drop dead wherever we're standing. Yeah. I heard.
I sit down hard on one of the bar stools. My legs just give out.
"This is insane," I mutter. "This doesn't happen. Blood bonds are—they're old stories. My dad's notes never mentioned anything like this."
"Your dad didn't know everything."
I look up sharply. "Don't talk about him."
Adrian holds up one hand. "I'm not trying to start a fight. I'm saying the hunters your family knew about are Council-approved. Regulated. They don't teach you the old magic because they don't want you using it."
"And you do?"
"No." He pulls out one of the stools across from me and sits. The movement is too smooth, too controlled. Vampires don't slouch. Don't fidget. It's unnerving. "I don't want any of this. Blood bonds are illegal under Council law. If Victor finds out, he'll have us both executed before the thirty days are up."
"Then why did you bite me?"
"I didn't mean to activate it." His jaw tightens. "You cut me with silver. My blood hit yours. The bond recognized something."
I stare at him. "Recognized what?"
He doesn't answer right away. Just looks at me like he's trying to figure out how much to say.
"You're not just a hunter," he says finally. "Your bloodline is older than that. The bond wouldn't have taken otherwise."
My stomach drops. I think about my dad's last message. The one he left on my voicemail two hours before he died.
*Lynn. If something happens to me, don't go looking for answers. You're safer if you don't know.*
I never listened.
"What does that mean?" My voice comes out too quiet.
Adrian leans forward. His eyes are pale gray, almost silver in the dim light. "It means you've got something sealed inside you. Something old. And whoever killed your father knew about it."
The room tilts. I grip the edge of the bar to steady myself.
"You're saying my dad died because of me."
"I'm saying he died protecting something Victor wants." Adrian's voice is careful. Too careful. "And now Victor knows you exist."
I want to throw up. I want to scream. I want to drive the silver blade into Adrian's chest just to make the world make sense again.
But my shoulder still aches from the last time I tried.
"Three exchanges," I say. My throat is tight. "What does that mean? What do we have to do?"
Adrian straightens. "Voluntary blood exchange. Both sides willing. It has to happen on neutral ground. No coercion. If one of us is forced, the bond breaks and we both die anyway."
"So I just let you bite me two more times."
"And you have to take my blood."
I stand up so fast the stool scrapes loud against the floor. "No. Absolutely not."
"It's the ritual—"
"I don't care." My voice is shaking. "I'm not drinking vampire blood. That's how you turn people. That's how you make thralls."
Adrian stands too. He's taller than me by half a foot and I hate that I have to look up.
"You won't turn," he says evenly. "The bond prevents it. You'll stay human. But if you don't complete the exchange, we both die. That's not negotiable."
I back toward the door. My hand finds the silver blade on the bar and I grab it.
"Stay away from me."
"Lynn—"
"I mean it. I need to think."
He doesn't follow. Just watches me with that unreadable expression.
"You've got six days until the first check-in," he says. "Day seven, the bond pulls us to the same location. You won't be able to stay away even if you want to."
"What?"
"It's a failsafe. Every seven days we get dragged to neutral ground whether we like it or not. The bond makes sure the ritual stays on schedule."
I stare at him. "You've got to be kidding."
"I wish I was."
My hand tightens on the blade. Six days. I've got six days to figure out how to break this thing before I'm stuck in a room with him again.
I turn toward the door.
"Lynn."
I stop but don't look back.
"Victor killed your father because he was protecting you," Adrian says quietly. "If you want to know why, you're going to have to trust me long enough to stay alive."
I walk out without answering.
The alley behind the bar smells like old grease and rainwater. I make it three steps before I have to stop and lean against the brick wall. My hands are shaking. The bond hums under my skin, a constant low vibration I can't shake.
I pull out my phone. Three missed calls from Rachel. One text.
*Where are you? I'm coming back.*
I text back fast. *Don't. I'm fine. Go home.*
She won't listen. Rachel never listens when she thinks I'm in trouble.
I shove the phone in my pocket and look down at my wrist. There's a mark there I didn't notice before. Small. Black. Shaped like a crescent moon with a thin line through the center.
It wasn't there an hour ago.
I hear footsteps behind me and spin around, blade up.
Adrian is standing in the doorway. His face has gone pale.
"Where did you get that mark?" His voice is sharp.
I glance at my wrist. "I don't know. It just showed up."
He crosses the alley in two strides and grabs my arm. His grip is cold.
"This shouldn't be here," he says. He's staring at the mark like it's a bomb about to go off. "This is a binding seal. Old magic. Whoever put this on you—"
He stops. His eyes snap up to meet mine.
"Your father did this," he says. "Right before he died."
My heart is pounding. "How do you know?"
Adrian lets go of my wrist and steps back. For the first time since I met him, he looks rattled.
"Because that's a hunter's seal," he says quietly. "And it only activates when the person it's protecting comes into contact with vampire blood."
I look down at the mark. The crescent moon. The line through the center.
"What's it protecting me from?"
Adrian doesn't answer. He's staring at the seal like it just rewrote everything he thought he knew.
"I don't know," he says finally. "But if Victor finds out you're carrying that mark, he's going to come for you a lot faster than thirty days."