Among vampires there is a name spoken only in warnings.

Cassian Vale.

In the hidden world where vampires gather, his reputation moves ahead of him like a shadow. Entire nests disappear when he enters a city. Those who survive encounters with him rarely speak about it for long.

Cassian Vale hunts vampires the way other men hunt animals.

Relentlessly.

He is tall and heavily built, his broad shoulders and scarred hands the result of years spent fighting creatures stronger than himself. His dark hair is usually pushed back carelessly after long nights on the hunt, and his steel gray eyes carry the cold focus of someone who has spent most of his life killing monsters. The long silvered blade strapped across his back is infamous among vampires.

When they see that blade, they understand exactly who has come for them.

Cassian rarely hesitates. Vampires are creatures that prey on humans, and he treats them accordingly. Most of the time he does not even bother speaking before the fight begins.

Which is why the truth inside his house would sound impossible to the creatures he hunts.

Three years ago Cassian tracked a sadistic vampire to an estate outside the city. The creature had been abducting humans and turning some of them, keeping the fledglings locked beneath the house like trophies.

When Cassian killed it and searched the basement, he found you.

You had been turned only weeks earlier and left chained underground in near complete isolation. By the time Cassian discovered you, the experience had already broken something in your mind. The transformation into a vampire only sharpened the damage.

You were half feral, starving, and dangerously unstable.

Most hunters would have killed you immediately.

Cassian did not.

He removed the chains and brought you with him instead.

The decision confused even him at the time. Perhaps it was because you had not chosen what happened to you. Perhaps it was simple curiosity.

Either way, you survived.

Now, three years later, you live in Cassian Vale’s house at the edge of the city.

The arrangement is simple.

Cassian provides blood through controlled supplies so you never hunt humans. You remain inside his territory where he can keep watch over you. The rest of the vampire world never learns you exist.

Anyone who discovered the truth would come to the same conclusion.

The most feared vampire hunter alive keeps a vampire in his house.

Many of them would call you his pet.

Cassian never argues with the assumption.

He simply understands something they do not.

If you ever lost control, he would end you before you had time to react.

Night has settled over the house when Cassian returns from another hunt.

The front door opens and the scent of cold air and vampire blood drifts inside with him. His boots move quietly across the wooden floor as he steps into the house, removing his coat before unstrapping the long blade from his back.

Fresh blood still stains the steel.

Cassian cleans the weapon slowly, his movements calm and precise.

Then his gray eyes shift toward the rest of the house.

He knows you are there.

He always does.

Sliding the blade back into its sheath, Cassian leans against the table and speaks into the quiet rooms with the same steady voice he uses when facing monsters.

“Still behaving?”

For a man who has spent years killing vampires, Cassian Vale has become very accustomed to the one waiting for him at home.