Chapter 90 90
Enzo
The place is thick with murmurs—unsettling voices sliding through the shadowy corridors of the fortress. The stone walls seem to whisper among themselves, repeating the same revelation in a spectral tone, as if they were witnesses to something that should never have happened.
Another vampire walks beneath the sun.
The words spread through the fortress like an infection, seeping into every shadow, feeding disbelief and fear. It’s not a rumor. It’s not exaggeration. It’s real.
My jaw tightens.
My fangs press against my own flesh.
My hands clench into fists so hard my nails threaten to pierce the skin.
Irritation. Fury. Incredulity.
None of those emotions—scorching as they are—compares to the incandescent rage consuming me when I think of him.
Aidan.
He escaped.
But not just any escape.
Burning.
Like a shooting star defying its own fate.
The fire didn’t destroy him. It embraced him.
He became it.
Like Thorne’s twins.
That thought slices through me like a sharpened blade. In all my centuries of existence, I had never witnessed anything like it. Aidan’s very existence was already an anomaly—an impossible error that defied our rules, hidden among wolves thanks to a collar that masked his true nature.
But now… he has become something more.
Fascinating.
And at the same time, terrifying.
A vampire who walks under the sun. Who burns with it… but is not consumed.
The implications are too vast to ignore. Too dangerous.
My anger clashes with my curiosity in a boiling conflict. A fire that devours my thoughts, demanding answers.
I have to meet with Thorne. I have to give him an explanation. But I don’t have Aidan.
What shame!
He slipped away from me.
And crossed into human territory.
That’s the worst part.
Not because humans pose a real threat. I could crush them with a thought. Tear their world apart in a blink. No, they’re not the problem.
The problem is the wolves.
Pathetic creatures with airs of superiority—stinking dogs who think they’re at the top… but if not for Thorne and his bloodline, I’d have them in a dungeon corner, chained like the dogs they are.
Fuck… I’m letting this rage carry me away. There are wolves I respect, but right now the anger dominates my instincts, and I consider myself a danger even to myself.
If it hadn’t been for the she-wolves, we would be at the very top. We had the potential, the strength, the determination, and the cunning needed to control everything. This whole damned world when the veil fell.
Right now, Thorne is the one holding the balance—he practically acts as a regulating force between us, the humans, and them. The “fairies” are another, more extreme matter, far removed from what is now called “civilized.”
But right now the wolves are on top. And they’ll stay there. I knew it when Thorne had the twins. Emmanuel’s power came with him from birth—those eyes… so innocent and destructive. I know he’ll reach a power greater than his father’s. That’s saying something. And if Ezequiel masters it too, even the supposed “balance” will be undermined.
They’ve despised us since the beginning of time, waiting for the exact moment to annihilate us.
We’ve walked on fragile peace—a balance that doesn’t favor us.
If the wolves decide Aidan is a threat—if they believe his uncontrolled power could break the rules of this game—they won’t hesitate to use it as an excuse to declare us the enemy.
Because right now, responsibility for Aidan falls solely on me. Even if he’s not from my clan, it’s understood that every damned vampire in this world is under my supervision—which should be the case… until now. Even so, it’s considered my responsibility, which brings conspiracies that aren’t real. I don’t know where the hell that kid came from.
And Thorne…
Thorne will be waiting for a single mistake.
One.
In moments like this, we’re not friends—just leaders, each watching over the good of his people.
I exhale hard. The air feels heavy, thick with ash and electricity. Aidan’s trail is impossible to ignore.
It’s not just a trail.
It’s an open scar on the earth.
A path of absolute destruction.
The flames still crackle, alive, as if refusing to die. But they’re not ordinary flames.
Not the fire of a torch, nor of a burning house.
They are flames from another world.
Alive. Primordial.
Raw, searing energy that doesn’t die with the wind but spreads with it.
If Aidan doesn’t learn to control it, it will be his own downfall.
And if he does…
It will be ours. Especially because he’s not our ally—he grew up with the wolves and I’m certain he believes he’s one of them.
The scorched ground stretches beneath my feet, black and cracked, a testament to the impossible.
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes…
If I hadn’t felt the heat of his power on my skin as he escaped…
I would never have believed it.
But it’s real.
And as I gaze at the horizon, where the fire still devours human territory, a smile curves my lips.
The chaos has only just begun.
And this might bring war.
Many pieces have moved at once; it only remains to see how they’re interpreted. For that, I have to go see Thorne.
I turn toward the wolf border and run. I take a single step inside, and Thorne appears almost instantly, like a breath. At his side are his beta Darius and his Luna Morgana.
“Seems a call isn’t necessary,” I say, noting the unfriendly surroundings. “Won’t you invite me in?”
“You’re already inside, Enzo,” Morgana replies.
“It wounds me when you use that tone with me,” I answer her.
She walks toward me—so small, so fragile… her delicate appearance is deeply misleading. She is lethal.
A worthy Luna for the strongest pack of these times.
“And it bothers me when I don’t know if you’re friend or foe, Enzo,” she says, giving me a kiss on the cheek.
Thorne sheds his massive fur and approaches as well.
“All the human territory alarms are active. Something entered from your border with them… and there’s a fire that won’t go out, Enzo. What the hell have you done?”
“In my defense… I did nothing. The thing escaped me and… I couldn’t stop it—because it was a damned ball of fire!” I let my anger out, gradually trying to stay calm. “Aidan is supposedly a vampire—something that, despite everything, still leaves me doubtful. I know he’s not a damned wolf, but now that his body burned without being consumed, it unsettles me more. He’s escaped into human territory, and only now does the idea occur to me that maybe you had other sons. I don’t know… some affair you hid that’s getting out of hand, because—” His fist swings toward my face—a move I dodge as if it were a child’s strike, though it was only a feint for his other hand, which lands brutally in my stomach. His beta growls without moving, Thorne’s free hand fists my collar, his eyes boring into mine.
“You think this is a game? You think I can waste time with you like this? What happened is a grave violation, and if you don’t take it with the seriousness it deserves, I won’t treat you with respect, Enzo. How the hell am I supposed to believe the vampire burned in flames and fled to the humans?! What the hell have you done?! You’d better say it now. Because I don’t intend to start over with all this, or go to war with the humans—but if you can’t handle the situation and the balance is lost, rest assured you’ll be the first I crush. I won’t go against the humans; they’re no threat to my people—you are. And you’re plotting something.”