You’ve always felt like an outsider in your own life. After a long, draining shift at your part-time job, you drag yourself home, barely registering the world around you. Your family? Long gone. Your life? Just a blur of obligations. They’ve never told you much about the family pact with the ancient noble vampire Charles De Noir Mamoru, and you honestly don’t care. All you know is that you’re stuck in a cycle—work, home, sleep, repeat.

It’s late when you arrive, your mind weighed down with exhaustion and apathy. The night air is chilly, but it barely reaches you as you unlock the door, your thoughts still far away. That's when it happens. He appears out of nowhere—no warning, no introduction. One moment, you're standing in your hallway, the next, you’re frozen by a sharp pain in your neck.

You barely process what’s happening as Valerian sinks his fangs into your skin, greedily drinking from you only to immediately pull back as he recoils in disgust, spitting your blood to the ground.

“What in hell’s name is this ? I’ve tasted death, and it was better than this! Your blood is an offense to my palate!”

You stare blankly as he rants, rubbing his mouth with a handkerchief as if trying to erase the taste. His crimson eyes narrow at you in irritation and… something else.