Chapter 164 CHAPTER 164
Anna did not slow down until the large house on the hill came fully into view.
Her lungs burned from the run, her chest rising and falling too fast, but she forced herself forward. The image would not leave her mind - the pale stream of light, the guard lying motionless, Sarah’s mouth stretched wide in a way that did not belong to any human face. Every time she blinked, she saw it again.
She reached the side of the house and bent forward slightly, pressing her hands to her knees as she fought to steady her breathing. She could not knock at the front door. She could not explain this calmly to Lydia in the sitting room. And she certainly could not walk back home and pretend she had seen nothing.
Sebastian needed to see it.
He was the only one who would understand. Or at least, he was the only one who deserved to know.
Upstairs, in his bedroom, Sebastian lay flat on his back staring at the ceiling. The room was dim except for the faint moonlight filtering through the curtains. His cheek still stung faintly from the slap his father had given him earlier. The argument replayed in his head in fragments - his father’s anger, his mother’s silence, the accusations about Sarah.
They didn’t understand.
None of them did.
Sarah was the one who stood by him. Sarah was the one who saw him. Lisa, on the other hand, had done nothing but complicate his life. Even now, he could not shake the feeling that she had somehow weakened him, that her presence had unsettled something inside him that used to be strong.
He missed Kael.
If his wolf had still been clear and strong beside him, he would know what to do. Kyle would have told him whether he was right. Kyle would have steadied him.
Instead, everything felt distant and blurred.
“It’s just like her,” Sebastian muttered to himself, staring at the ceiling. “Of course she would make sure I’m cut off from my wolf. Of course she would weaken me.”
The thought comforted him in a strange way. It gave him someone to blame.
A small tapping sound interrupted his thoughts.
He frowned.
Another tap followed, sharper this time. Something struck his window.
Sebastian turned his head slowly toward the sound. Pebbles.
He sat up.
A slow smile spread across his face.
Sarah.
Of course it was Sarah.
After everything that had happened earlier, after he had stood up to his father for her, after he had refused to give in at her guardians’ house and left her feeling starved, she must have come to him. To finish what they had started earlier.
A sly smile formed on his mouth as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood, adjusting his shirt as he walked toward the window. A part of him felt almost triumphant. After getting slapped for her sake, the least she could do was make him feel better.
He pulled the curtain aside.
His smile vanished.
Anna stood below his window, looking up at him with wide eyes.
“What are you doing throwing pebbles at my window?” Sebastian hissed, irritated. “Don’t you know how to knock?”
Anna immediately raised a finger to her lips, signaling for him to lower his voice.
“Don’t shush me,” he snapped, louder than before. “What are you trying to do? I’m not interested in you, okay? You’re too young for me. Go do this to someone your own age.”
He began to pull the curtain back into place.
“You’ll want to hear what I have to say,” Anna whispered urgently from below. “And then you’ll understand why I can’t come through the front door.”
Sebastian paused.
“And get your mind out of the gutter,” she added, her voice shaking but firm. “I’m not interested in you like that. You already have enough going on with the princess you rejected and… and her.”
She didn’t finish Sarah’s name.
Something in her tone made him hesitate.
He studied her face more carefully. She didn’t look mischievous. She didn’t look flirtatious. She looked pale. Frightened.
After a moment, he climbed onto the window ledge and lowered himself down carefully. He landed on the ground with a dull thud.
“Who’s there?” Lydia’s voice called faintly from inside the house after hearing the noise.
Sebastian ignored it.
He grabbed Anna’s wrist and pulled her toward the darker side of the yard, away from the front windows where they might be seen.
“What is it?” he demanded quietly once they were hidden in the shadows. “What’s so important that you’re throwing stones at my window in the middle of the night?”
Anna swallowed.
“It’s not something I can explain,” she said, her voice unsteady. “It’s more of a… a show.”
“A show?” Sebastian frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s about your girlfriend.”
His expression hardened immediately. “What about her?”
Anna did not answer. Instead, she pulled her phone from her pocket. Her hands were trembling as she unlocked it.
“Just watch,” she said.
She pressed play and handed the phone to him.
Sebastian took it with impatience at first, already preparing himself for something petty. Maybe a rumor. Maybe a lie. Maybe footage meant to provoke jealousy.
The screen glowed in the darkness.
At first, he saw shapes in the forest. Trees. Shadows. Then the image steadied.
Sarah.
Crouched over someone.
Sebastian’s jaw tightened. His first thought was simple and sharp.
She’s cheating.
He leaned closer to the screen, anger rising quickly in his chest.
The boy beneath her was half-naked. One of the Silverpine guards. Sebastian recognized him instantly. His grip on the phone tightened.
“What is this?” he muttered under his breath.
But then the image shifted.
The light appeared.
A faint stream of pale glow flowed from the guard’s mouth into Sarah’s.
Sebastian’s anger faltered.
He blinked, thinking it was some trick of the camera. Some distortion.
The guard’s body lay limp.
Sarah’s mouth was open in a way that made his stomach twist.
The video ended abruptly.
Sebastian lowered the phone slowly.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
“I don’t understand,” he said finally, his voice no longer angry but confused. “What is this supposed to be?”
Anna stared at him, equally shaken. “You tell me.”
He looked back at the screen as if it might offer an explanation on its own.
“It looks like…” He stopped. The words would not form.
“It looks like she was feeding on him,” Anna said quietly. “He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t responding.”
Sebastian shook his head almost instinctively. “No. That’s not - You probably misunderstood. Maybe it’s some kind of trick. Some kind of illusion.”
Anna let out a shaky breath. “I thought I caught her cheating at first. I thought I was going to blackmail her with it. But that’s not what I saw.”
Sebastian’s throat felt dry.
He replayed the video once more.
The same light. The same unnatural posture. The same limp body.
“This doesn’t make sense,” he whispered.
He looked at Anna, searching her face for deception, for exaggeration, for drama.
Instead, he saw fear.
“I don’t know what it is,” Anna said softly. “But it’s not normal.”
Sebastian stared down at the phone in his hand.
The night around them felt heavier somehow.
“I don’t understand,” he repeated, his voice barely above a whisper. “What was Sarah doing to him?”
Anna’s answer came just as uncertain.
“You tell me.”