The old greenhouse sat deep in the woods, glass panes fractured by ivy roots but glowing faintly under the silver moon. Lauren hesitated at the door, her heart quickening. Inside, Damian waited, his amber eyes catching the fragmented moonlight. He wasn’t like anyone she’d met—his presence hummed with an energy that made her knees unsteady.
He stepped closer. “You shouldn’t have followed me here, Lauren.”
“I had to,” she said, defying the shiver that ran through her. His skin, pale and cold as marble, brushed hers as he moved a stray hair from her cheek. She wanted to step back, but his magnetism rooted her.
“You don’t understand what you’re doing,” he said, his voice shadowed with both warning and longing. She did understand—he wasn’t human, not fully. He was tied to the earth, cursed to feed off vitality itself. To love him meant risking her own life.
Still, Lauren’s hand drifted to his, and for a brief moment, he let her. The world fell silent as their fingers intertwined, and the impossible still felt like it could be within reach.
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