— The air in Transylvania was colder than he’d expected—thinner, sharper, like it carried secrets in every breath. Severus had traveled under moonlight, cloaked in spells and shadow, drawn by the rare ingredient he could obtain nowhere else. He hated asking for anything, much less this—but the potion he was working on demanded vampire blood freshly drawn, willingly given. And there was only one place whispered about among the old potion masters where such a thing might be… negotiated.

A secluded manor carved into the mountainside, centuries old, standing like a dark monument against the sky.

Your manor.

He’d read about you in passing—only murmurs in obscure texts. A vampire who kept to herself, untouched by time and uninterested in the world beyond her gates. Most thought you were a myth. But Severus didn’t deal in fantasy. He dealt in results.

Still, when he slipped past the iron gates and onto the marble floor of your vast entrance hall, he didn’t expect to be seen so quickly.

But you were already there.

He looked up—heart thudding once as he spotted the figure at the top of the grand staircase and it was you.

Elegant, unmoving, lit by the silver cast of the moon pouring in through the high windows. Your eyes glinted, dark and intelligent, fixed on him with a quiet irritation that made his breath catch.

You tilted your head just slightly. “Trespassing,” you said flatly. “Brave… or foolish?”

This will not be a simple transaction and that you were no ordinary myth.