5: A Secret Hidden in Blood

Isabella’s POV

I don’t know how long I lay there, caught in the space between exhaustion and something deeper, something darker. My body burned with an unnatural heat, my limbs too heavy to move, my skin prickling with a sensation I couldn’t quite name. It wasn’t just fatigue or the lingering effects of Luca’s bite—it was something more, something crawling beneath my skin, twisting itself into my very bones.

His bite had done something to me.

I could feel it winding through my veins like smoke, curling around my insides and settling there, a slow and simmering hunger I couldn’t understand. The fire in my body should have been a warning, an alarm blaring through my senses that I was in danger, that I needed to run. But where? There was no escape from this.

I told myself it was just the fever, just my body reacting to his poison, his claim on me.

But I knew better.

I wasn’t alone.

The air around me had thickened, charged with something unseen, something unnatural. It clung to my skin like a whisper, a breath of something not entirely of this world. The sensation was slow and invasive, like cold fingers trailing along my spine, an invisible presence pressing down on me with silent intent.

A sharp shudder raked through my body. My breath caught in my throat.

I forced my eyes open.

And froze.

------------------------

The Shadow in the Room

A figure stood in the corner, motionless, shrouded in darkness.

It didn’t move. It didn’t speak.

But it was watching me.

A suffocating weight pressed against my chest, making it impossible to draw in a full breath. My heart pounded against my ribs like a trapped animal, my pulse wild and erratic.

I had spent the last few days in a den of monsters, surrounded by men with fangs and silver eyes who ruled this city’s underworld with blood and brutality.

But this?

This was something else entirely.

Luca’s presence was suffocating in its own way—commanding, inescapable, a slow burn that wrapped around me like smoke.

But this?

This was cold.

his was empty.

This was wrong.

I swallowed, my throat dry and aching. My voice came out barely above a whisper.

“Who—”

The word cracked before I could finish it, my tongue heavy in my mouth, my body frozen in place.

A nightmare.

A hallucination.

It had to be.

But deep down, I knew better. The weight of its presence was real.

The shadow shifted, but it didn’t step forward, nor did it retreat. It simply remained, watching, waiting.

Its silhouette was tall, broad-shouldered, its head tilted slightly as if it found amusement in my fear.

And then, finally, it spoke.

A voice—smooth, dark, unfamiliar, yet chillingly intimate—cut through the silence like a blade pressed against my throat.

"Has he told you what you really are?"

The words slithered over my skin like a living thing, curling around me, tightening, pressing into my mind like an invisible noose.

A whimper escaped my lips before I could stop it, a sound so small, so pathetic, it scraped against my pride.

I wanted to move, to scream, to fight—anything to break the hold this thing had on me. But my limbs wouldn’t respond.

Something inside me burned hotter, a sharp sting racing through my veins, igniting beneath my skin.

Luca’s bite.

The memory of his fangs sinking into my throat resurfaced in a rush, the phantom sensation of it sending another tremor through my body.

But this was different.

This wasn’t just an echo of pain or pleasure.

This felt like something inside me was stirring, unraveling. Awakening.

"What you really are."

The words echoed in my mind, heavy, inescapable.

What the hell does that mean?

I forced myself to take slow, shallow breaths, but my heart continued to hammer, the pressure in my chest growing unbearable.

Then—

I blinked.

And the shadow was gone.

The air in the room lightened as if a weight had been lifted, the heavy, suffocating presence vanishing in an instant.

But the feeling lingered.

And the words…

They wouldn’t leave me.

"Has he told you what you really are?"

I barely had time to process them before the bedroom door swung open with force.

--------------------------

Luca’s Return – The Shift in Power

Luca entered, rolling his shoulders as if shaking off the remnants of violence, his presence filling the room with something equally dark but entirely different from what had been there before.

His silver eyes locked onto mine the second he stepped inside.

And he knew.

He knew something had happened.

I must have looked like a wreck—flushed, trembling, my breath still uneven, my pulse thrumming beneath my skin.

The smirk that so often played at his lips was nowhere to be found.

“What happened?” His voice was sharp, devoid of its usual teasing arrogance.

I bolted upright, my fists clenched at my sides, my body still shaking from whatever had just invaded this room.

“There was someone in here,” I said, my voice hoarse, barely holding back the edge of panic creeping into my tone.

Luca’s expression darkened, his posture shifting subtly, the air around him turning lethal.

“What did you just say?”

I swallowed hard. My throat was tight, aching, as if I had been screaming in my sleep.

“A man,” I said. “A voice. I— I saw him.”

Luca’s jaw tightened, his movements precise, controlled.

But when he reached me, his fingers wrapped around my wrist with terrifying ease.

He yanked me closer in one smooth motion, his breath warm against my face, his grip unrelenting.

“What did he say to you?”

My pulse thundered against my ribs.

He wasn’t questioning if it happened.

He was questioning what was said.

Because he already knew.

He wasn’t surprised.

I stared up at him, my breath coming in sharp, shallow bursts.

I didn’t want to tell him.

I couldn’t.

Something deep in my gut screamed not to trust him.

But my silence only made him angrier.

Luca’s fingers tightened around my wrist, his voice dipping into something that reeked of possession and warning.

“What. Did. He. Say?”

His body was warm, solid, inescapable.

Too close.

Too consuming.

My skin burned where he held me. My thighs pressed together involuntarily, my body betraying me in ways I hated—and Luca noticed.

His lips curled into a slow, knowing smirk.

Even now, even as I stood there shaking from fear, lost in confusion, he still had this power over me.

And he knew it, but so did I.

I forced my voice to steady, tilting my chin up, letting the defiance seep into my words.

“You tell me, Luca.”

My gaze locked onto his, demanding, unyielding.

“What the hell am I?”