A Blood Vow

Blair's consciousness drifted in a sea of darkness, the edges of her awareness blurring, the pain from her wound a distant echo. She felt cold, a bone-deep chill that spread through her limbs, a numbness that threatened to consume her. A voice, low and urgent, pulsed through the darkness, a rhythmic cadence that was both a prayer and a plea. It was Victor's voice, but it sounded different, distorted, laced with a desperate urgency she'd never heard before.

She tried to open her eyes, to fight against the pull of oblivion, but her eyelids felt heavy, weighted down by an exhaustion that went beyond mere physical fatigue. Her body felt like lead, her limbs unresponsive. Her life force, a fragile flame, flickered, threatening to be extinguished by the encroaching darkness.