Chapter 1: What She Was Then

**WARNING: This chapter that you're about to read mentions/reference suicide. If this triggers you, please read with care. **

Jenny Duff was her name, and six months back, her parents and her twin brother, Jacob, checked out of life in the most unglamorous way possible. They were hauling Jacob home from some party when their car took a nosedive off Black Hollow Bridge.

Straight into the inky water below.

No survivors, just a soggy mess.

She was sprawled out in her room when Aunt Silva and Uncle Benjie barged in, sometime past midnight. Aunt Silva’s face was a waterfall, sobbing through the details—car, bridge, everyone gone.

“You’re on your own now, kid,” she choked out.

Uncle Benjie just stood there, nodding like a bobblehead, as if that made it official.

Jenny blinked at them, brain refusing to process it.

Alone? That couldn’t be right. She’d shared a womb with Jacob—alone wasn’t even in her vocabulary. She cried until her eyes felt like sandpaper, then kept crying anyway.

Why me? she’d thought, over and over. Why am I the one still breathing when Jacob—half of me—and Mom and Dad aren’t? No answer came, just the dull ache of a universe that didn’t care.

A month after they shoveled dirt over the caskets, Jenny decided she’d rather join them than keep stumbling through the leftovers of her life.She wasn’t sold on the afterlife but after losing them, she wanted it to be real so bad she could taste it.

By the time she hit sixteen, something snapped. Call it courage, call it desperation—she didn’t care.

One night, while Aunt Silva and Uncle Benjie were busy wearing out their mattress with an hour of loud, clumsy action, Jenny slipped out. They were too wiped to notice her grabbing the keys and peeling off toward Black Hollow Bridge.

The storm hit as she pulled up. Rain slammed down like it had a personal grudge, soaking her to the bone the second she stepped out. She trudged to the railing, swiping at her face—tears or rain, who could tell? Didn’t matter; she was a drowned rat either way.

Lightning cracked the sky open, thunder rattling her ribs, and her heart kicked like it was trying to escape. She was scared shitless, sure—but not half as scared as she was of waking up tomorrow without them. Mom’s dumb jokes, Dad’s burnt pancakes, Jacob’s infuriating smirk—that was her world. And it was gone.

Then she jumped.

The water hit her like a slap, cold and greedy, clawing its way into her lungs. It hurt—oh, it hurt—and her body thrashed against the flood, screaming for air it wasn’t going to get.

For a split second, she thought, “This is it. Peace at last.” But, turns out, drowning wasn’t the cozy end she’d imagined—it was just the opening act.

Her heart was still jack-hammering as she let go, ready to sink into whatever came next. The blackness swallowed her whole, and then—everything flipped into a dream. The first of many, she’d later realize, starring the family she’d lost.

The darkness curled around her like smoke, and suddenly she wasn’t drowning anymore. She was standing somewhere new, somewhere she’d never been.

A fat crescent moon hung low, glowing soft and smug, nestled in a pile of fluffy clouds that looked like cotton candy gone goth. Wispy, creepy clouds floated by, and a lone star dangled just out of reach, mocking her.

Everything felt hazy, like squinting through a fogged-up window. The darkness throbbed, a steady pulse that made her dizzy, and then she hit the ground—hard.

Cold dirt pressed against her palms as she twisted around, trying to get her bearings. Her chest heaved, gasping like she’d forgotten how to breathe. She let out a yell, half frustration, half panic, and the world froze.

Blinking, she took stock: she was sprawled in front of some ancient, hulking mansion. The kind of place that screams “haunted” and probably smells like mothballs and regret.

“Am I dead? Is this it?” she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut. When she opened them, her legs were already moving, sprinting full-tilt. Hot tears streaked down her face, blurring everything into a smeary mess.

What the hell is happening? She risked a glance back—big mistake. A pair of sharp amber eyes glinted from the shadows, locked on her. She whipped around and pushed her legs harder, swallowing a whimper as she scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand.

Someone was chasing her. A guy, maybe her age, maybe older—she couldn’t tell. He had that annoying kind of good looks girls probably tripped over themselves for: dark hair, sharp jaw, the whole “dangerously hot” vibe. Except right now, that vibe was less “dreamy bad boy” and more “I’m going to die.”

The harder she ran, the more he seemed to get a kick out of it, like this was some twisted game. His grin was all charm and menace, and it scared the absolute crap out of her.

How could anyone that gorgeous be this creepy? Jenny’s wild red hair whipped around like it was trying to escape her head as she bolted through the wind, chest tight, legs screaming for a break.

She threw herself at a door, slamming it shut behind her and collapsing against it. Her breaths came out in ragged, shaky gulps, mixed with sobs she couldn’t hold back. She was a mess—exhausted, freaked out, and very much done with running.

Then, out of nowhere, a room blinked into existence right in front of her. She swiped at her tears with her sleeve, fumbling for the doorknob and twisting it open. Stepping inside, the silence hit her like a brick—cold and heavy, sending a shiver racing up her spine. She hesitated, half expecting something nasty to lunge from the shadows, but shook it off. No time for ghost stories.

Her fingers found a stiff light switch and flicked it on. The bulb overhead sputtered for a second before flooding the room with harsh, bright light. She sucked in a deep breath, swallowing the lump in her throat.

The quiet was brutal—almost painful—broken only by the thudding of her own heart, loud as a drumline in her ears.

Then came the laugh. That smug, chilling sound.

She darted to a set of shelves, ducking low to hide, heart pounding so hard she thought it might bust out. But when she peeked up, her whole world froze. Her parents, Jacob—they slipped right out of her head, like someone hit the delete key.

Tears stung her eyes, spilling over before she could stop them.

“Hello there,” he said, voice smooth as silk and twice as dangerous.

A raven-haired boy strolled toward her, all slow and deliberate, like he had all the time in the world. His amber eyes flickered, shifting into glowing red orbs that bored straight into her.

Beautiful. Terrifying.

He kept coming, and Jenny’s throat bobbed as she gulped down her nerves, stepping back for every step he took forward.

“Who are you?” she managed to croak out, voice shaky. Her back hit the wall with a thud—nowhere left to go.

She barely had time to blink before he was right there, towering over her, hands planted on either side of her head. She gave his chest a weak shove, but it was about as effective as swatting a brick wall.

The raven-haired boy smirked, his lips curling with a cold edge that made her stomach flip. Before she could stammer out a plea, he yanked her close, brushing soft, creepy little kisses along her throat.

“I’m sure you won’t mind if I sample what’s mine,” he murmured, all smug and casual.

“A taste? What do you—” Her words cut off with a gasp as his fangs sank into the spot just above her collarbone. Her eyes flew wide, then everything went fuzzy, the room dissolving into a black haze.

Next thing she knew, Jenny was back in her own bleak, soul-crushing reality, barely sucking in air. The rain was hammering down in sheets, wind screaming through the night like it was pissed at her personally.

The cold was brutal, the kind that’d turn your blood to ice—if you had any left. But the guy cradling her? He wasn’t shivering. He radiated heat, like a walking furnace. Definitely not human.

She was out cold for a few seconds, frozen stiff, until distant shouts yanked her back. Someone in the crowd hollered over the wind about her fingers looking like blue popsicles and her toes being so rigid they might as well be carved from wood. Her head flopped side to side, heavy and useless.

Jenny wasn’t sure if she was still alive or just dying slowly—she was leaning toward the latter.

“We’re taking her home to get her cleaned up,” a voice cut through the chaos, firm and no-nonsense. Probably the warm guy.

Jenny wanted to yell at them—scream at whoever these jokers were to back off and let her rot in peace. But with her body feeling like a soggy, broken rag doll, all she could muster was a pathetic groan. Real impressive.

“What’d you drag in this time, Randall?” a woman’s voice cut through the haze. Suddenly, the biting wind dulled to a murmur, and a cozy warmth wrapped around her.

“Oh, sweet moon goddess! A human girl? And she’s a mess—where’d you even find her?”

“Hunters fished her out of Hollows River,” said the guy—Randall, probably the one hauling her around. Water started running somewhere nearby, and then she was eased onto something soft, maybe a couch.

A truck engine growled to life outside.

“What was she doing out there, middle of the night, in this mess of a storm?” the woman asked, sounding more curious than concerned.

“Beats me,” Randall said. “How fast can Dr. Ryan get here? She’s pale as a sheet—bleeding bad, too. Lost a lot of blood, I’d guess.”

“An hour, maybe,” the woman replied, skeptical. “With this weather? I’d bet he won’t even bother for a human.”

“If that jerk doesn’t show, the Alpha’s gonna hear about it,” Randall growled.

“Randall, are you nuts?” the woman shot back. “The Alpha won’t give a damn. She’s human.”

“Alpha Callum’s a decent leader of the pack, Celeste,” Randall countered, calm but firm. “Reasonable, too. Tub’s almost full—can you shut off the water and let it cool? I’m gonna raid Selene’s closet, see if there’s anything this kid can wear.”

“What’s your game plan here?” Celeste asked, her tone dripping with doubt. “You keeping her? We don’t do human pets, you know that.”

Celeste had a point. Keeping humans as pets had been off the table for ages, ever since the first big shots—vampires, shifters, and humans—signed that peace treaty.

Jenny felt a tiny flicker of relief at that. Being some creature’s lapdog sounded way worse than just kicking the bucket.

“This girl’s damn lucky our hunters nabbed her before those stinking rotters got their claws in,” Randall said, his voice gruff. “You hear anything about a missing girl lately?”

“Nope. No missing human girl on the radar,” Celeste replied, sounding unbothered.

Jenny’s lips twitched, aching to spit out the truth. She hadn’t vanished—she’d ranaway. Ditched Aunt Silva and Uncle Benjie, hoping they’d never track her down. After tonight, there was no going back. It was die or disappear, plain and simple. Her old life had too many ghosts, too much hurt—like lugging around a suitcase full of bricks.

She forced her heavy eyelids up, fighting to keep them open for just a few seconds. That’s when she spotted him—tall and smug, lurking in the corner. The raven-haired boy. Those eyes of his drilled into her, sharp and unblinking.

Everything went black again. Then, nothing. Just a silence so loud it swallowed her whole.