Chapter 68

The chilling crack of gunfire had bypassed Vlad’s conscious thought entirely, awakening instincts older and more primal than reason. Desperation had overtaken him, so overwhelming that he had allowed a form—one he had denied and suppressed his entire life—to erupt through his skin. Had he been a moment too late, everything would have become meaningless: his life, his land, his purpose.

“You are unharmed, and that’s the only thing that matters,” he whispered, almost to himself. His cursed bloodline, for all its horrors, had granted him the power to protect her. That alone would have to suffice.