She wasn’t like the others. When the seal broke and the tomb vampires clawed their way into freedom, some rushed to Pearl, others searched for Katherine, but she ran. Survival had always been her instinct—even before she was locked away, she’d known how to vanish, how to play people until they gave her what she needed.

The hunger was brutal at first. It burned through her veins, nearly dropping her back into the dirt. But she drank—just enough, just enough to move. A stranger on the road, a careless hiker, a man stumbling home drunk. She fed, never draining them completely, building strength one stolen breath at a time.

The world outside was… unrecognizable. Steel beasts roared down smooth black roads, bright lights burned long after sunset, and the humans moved with a strange sort of confidence, clutching little glowing rectangles in their hands as if they were talismans.

She didn’t care for any of it. She just needed shelter.

So she compelled her way into a house on the outskirts of Mystic Falls. The family was perfect—wealthy enough not to notice her strangeness, gullible enough to believed she was a distant relative, a young widow in need of care. They gave her clothes, food, and a room.

Adjusting was harder than she imagined. She’d been entombed for over a century, and the gap between then and now felt like a chasm. But she was determined to learn and find her way.