Chapter 55 Chapter 55
DAMON'S POV
I don’t know when it started.
Anna.
I didn’t plan to care about her. I had trained myself for years to be empty, cold, and ruthless. I had learned to shut down every feeling that might make me weak. Every softness, every emotion, and every spark of love—I destroyed it before it could touch me.
Because I knew what power could do.
I killed Isabella—the woman I loved—because I couldn’t control myself. I killed her because my Hybrid blood had torn through her, through me, and through everything, until nothing remained but death and regret. I had promised myself I would never allow it to happen again. I would never let someone I loved die in my hands because of the power coursing through me.
And yet… here she was.
Anna...
I couldn’t stop noticing her. I couldn’t stop the way my chest tightened when she was near. I couldn’t stop the way her voice, her stubbornness, and her ridiculous courage chipped at the walls I built around myself. Maybe it was the way she argued with me like she wasn’t afraid of me, like she didn’t know what I could do. Maybe it was the way she smiled when her hands trembled, Or maybe it was because she saw the world like it could still be good, even though I knew it wasn’t. Even though I had seen it at its worst. Even though I had lost everything to it.
Her twenty-first birthday was only days away, and when it came, her Tribid powers would return. Wolf strength, vampire hunger, and witch magic—all mixed in her blood, uncontrolled, and dangerous. And I knew what that meant because I had lived it. I had been that disaster once, and I had killed Isabella. I would not allow history to repeat itself.
What if she couldn’t control her Tribid powers?
What if she hurt someone?
What if she destroyed the pack or worse—someone she loved, like I had done with Isabella?
I couldn’t let her become another me.
And that fear haunted me every moment, like Elijah’s voice whispering through my mind.
"What if she’s innocent, Damon? What if she can control her powers? What if she doesn’t deserve death? What if she isn’t like you?"
Those questions chased me relentlessly. And they hurt worse than any wound I had ever suffered, because the truth was simple—I didn’t know what the right choice was anymore.
I didn’t know if killing Anna would be justice.
I didn’t know if sparing her would be a mistake.
I didn’t know if she would destroy the world… or save it.
I just didn’t know.
And I needed answers.
I needed a sign, a truth, or anything that could tell me whether killing her on her birthday was the only way—or a terrible mistake I would never forgive myself for.
She was still on top of me after the fall, her breath warm on my jaw, her heartbeat loud, fast, almost violent in my chest. Her hair brushed my cheek, and the air that left her lips made it impossible to think clearly. She was close enough that I could feel her fear pressing against my skin, her hesitation, her softness, her pain, everything in one tight coil I could almost touch.
“Anna… what do you think about Tribids?”
The words left my mouth before I could stop them.
She froze.
Not in fear, not in anger—just still. Her eyes widened slightly, and she tilted her head as if she hadn’t expected the question at all. Her brow furrowed, soft and hesitant, but there was a spark in her gaze.
Maybe a little caution too.
“Why… why would you ask me that?” she questioned.
I leaned back slightly, keeping my eyes on her. “I… I don’t know,” I admitted, letting the words out slowly. “I just… I want to know what you think. Everyone has opinions about them, right? But maybe you see it differently.”
She didn’t answer immediately.
She shifted slightly, her fingers twisting together in her lap, and for a moment, she seemed like she was balancing something in her mind that even she wasn’t ready to speak.
Then she said, almost in a whisper, “I… I don’t know what I think. I’ve never really thought about Tribids before.”
I almost let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. Relief struck me in a wave so sudden it startled me.
Maybe she didn’t hate them.
Maybe she hadn’t decided yet.
Maybe… maybe her opinion could change when she realized she was one.
Maybe she wouldn’t see herself as a monster.
“It’s… it’s crazy,” I continued after a moment, trying to sound casual, though my chest felt heavy. “There are no Tribids anymore. They’ve been completely wiped out. Every single one of them. Isn’t that… insane? Don’t you think it’s unfair?”
I expected her to pause, or hesitate, but she didn’t. Instead, her expression remained calm, and when she spoke, her words hit me harder than any blow I could imagine.
“It’s… the best,” she replied softly, and my entire chest went cold.
“What?” I asked, barely able to believe what I’d heard.
She didn’t look at me immediately.
“Tribids are dangerous,” she continued. “They should have never existed in the first place.”
The air left my lungs.
My mind froze, caught between shock and disbelief. I watched her hands, her posture, the way she sat so composed. She didn’t pause, she didn’t waver, and the confidence in her voice tore through me.
“They have way too much power,” she continued, and I noticed the way her jaw tightened slightly. “All three gifts in one body. Wolf strength, vampire hunger, witch magic… it’s too much. No one should ever have that much power. Absolutely no one.”
I felt something inside me twist, tight and sharp. My throat went dry. I couldn’t speak, and I didn’t try. I just waited, listening to her speak, hearing her say things she had no idea applied to her.
She had absolutely no idea that she was a Tribid.
I tried, weakly, to find some room for hope. “But… don’t you think maybe some of them could have been good? Maybe some of them weren’t dangerous?”
Her head turned slightly, just enough to meet my gaze. “No,” she answered softly, but with finality. “Even if some were good, it wouldn’t matter. It’s too much power for anyone to control. The risk… the risk is too high, and I think the world is better without them.”
I swallowed hard.
I realized then, fully, that she didn’t even know she was speaking about herself. She didn’t realize that she had all three gifts in her blood. She didn’t know she was the last of her kind. She didn’t know she was sitting here, and judging herself.
I wanted to speak, to tell her, to warn her, to shake her and make her understand—but I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
She continued, almost as if she was thinking out loud now, speaking the truth she didn’t know was her own.
“I’m… honestly glad I’m human,” she announced quietly, almost as if admitting a relief. “I could never live with that kind of power. I wouldn’t even want it in my blood.”
And suddenly it all hit me.
She hated all Tribids.
And the worst part? She believed they were dangerous. She thought they should never exist. And without even realizing it, she hated herself.
If only she knew.
If only she knew she was the very thing she had just said should be erased from the world.
And in that moment, I understood something painfully clear.
She wasn’t as innocent as I had hoped she would be. She wasn’t going to forgive herself if she ever found out she was a Tribid. She didn’t even know it yet, but she had already decided she didn’t deserve to exist.
And that… made my task simpler.
She had chosen for me.
She had told me, without realizing it, that she didn’t deserve to live.
And I had to obey.
I would have to kill her on her birthday.