Kai hadn't slept not truly since the night the grave was found empty.
He lay curled in Adrian's hoodie, the scent faded but still enough to choke him with memory. The baby kicked gently beneath his hand, a soft thrum that reminded him he wasn't alone. Not entirely. But gods, it felt that way.
The cemetery had been silent when he returned that morning. No disturbed earth. No footprints. No messages carved into stone or scrawled in blood. Adrian was simply... gone. Again. But this time, without death to justify the disappearance.
"Where are you?" Kai whispered, fingers tightening in the hoodie.
The whisper of footsteps outside startled him. He reached for the dagger under his pillow a habit Adrian had scolded him for a dozen times. But now, with Adrian not here to protect him, Kai had become his own soldier.
He opened the door to find a letter pinned to the threshold with a black rose.
"He's not dead.
Not yet. But he will be.
Unless you come."
No signature. Just the crimson wax seal of the old vampire court Adrian's enemies. The ones who had wanted Kai for his blood and now wanted Adrian for something far darker.
The rage that flared in Kai's chest surprised him. He should have crumbled. Instead, he stood straighter.
"They should've made sure I was broken," he muttered, eyes flickering silver. "But they didn't."
He packed a bag quickly clothes, blades, wards, and a photo of Adrian holding his swollen belly with that stupidly soft smile on his face.
Kai would find him. Or burn the world trying.
The baby cooed from the blanket nest beside the fireplace. Kai bent low, kissed the tiny brow, and whispered, "I'll come back for you. I swear it."
He left the child with a trusted witch a friend of Adrian's from the old world, hidden deep in the woods, shielded by spells that even vampire lords dared not cross. The moment Kai walked away, his heart cracked.
But it didn't break.
Because somewhere deep in the night, beneath the echo of blood and memory… Adrian stirred.
Chained. Bleeding. Alive.
And whispering one name.
"Kai."