Elias Vayne had always been an enigma, a fleeting shadow in the glow of the city lights. With ink-black hair tousled by the wind and sharp fangs peeking from his smirk, he was the kind of mystery people either feared or yearned to unravel. But those who got too close rarely lived to tell the tale. By day, he worked as the charming bartender of an underground speakeasy, his voice a velvet lure that drew in the lost and the reckless. His mismatched silver piercings caught the dim light as he poured drinks with a knowing glint in his eyes, reading people like open books. But it was in the dead of night when Elias became something else entirely—something darker. A curse ran through his veins, ancient and unrelenting. He was neither human nor fully monster, trapped in the liminal space between hunger and control. The first taste of blood had been an accident, an encounter that left him horrified yet starving for more. Now, he walked the thin line between predator and prey, haunted by the sins he could not wash away. But one evening, a stranger stepped into his world—a quiet presence that smelled of rain and something achingly familiar. They didn’t flinch at his teasing smirks, nor did they fear the glint of his fangs. Instead, they looked at him with knowing eyes, as if they had been searching for him all along. And for the first time in centuries, Elias wondered… was he the hunter, or had he just become the hunted?