I used to think my worst day was when I got kicked out of my orphanage for stealing bread.
That was before the most terrifying girl in the city walked up to me in a blood-soaked uniform, holding a bag of strawberries, and asked:
"Do you want to be my boyfriend?"
I should've run.
I didn't.
And that's how I got hunted by seventeen professional killers before lunchtime.
---
Veilgrave City. Home of the corrupt, playground of syndicates, graveyard of dreamers.
I'm Kael Riven—broke, sarcasm-dependent, and 100% allergic to dying young.
That morning, I was digging through a trash can behind Don Lido's Pizza Palace, trying to find a crust that didn't taste like regret, when she showed up.
Seraphina Vellari.
Rumors said she once stabbed a guy for looking at her shoes too long. Another said she burned down an entire rival compound because someone insulted her cat.
Me? I thought she was just a myth.
Until she stood right behind me and cleared her throat like a demon schoolgirl.
"You're Kael, right?"
I turned, frozen, a moldy breadstick in one hand.
Blood. Everywhere. Splattered across her white blazer like abstract art. Her black hair was tied up in a loose braid, her eyes glowing with eerie calm.
I stared. She stared back.
"I killed them because they said something mean about you," she said.
"Who?" I croaked.
"Your bullies. The three from Iron Alley. I cut out the leader's tongue and gave it to a dog. The dog didn't like it."
I dropped the breadstick.
She handed me the strawberries, red as the gore on her shoes.
"Eat. You need energy. My family is going to try to kill you now."
---
Let's rewind a bit.
The Vellari family wasn't just rich—they were legendary. Top of the food chain. Ruling the Veilgrave underworld with a cocktail of fear, brutality, and freakish power. Their bloodline awakened insane abilities triggered by raw emotion.
They didn't just kill—they turned murder into an art form.
And this girl, this psycho angel with murder eyes, wanted to date me.
---
We ended up on a rooftop ten minutes later.
I was eating strawberries, watching her clean blood off a knife with the casualness of someone wiping peanut butter off a spoon.
"Why me?" I asked.
She tilted her head.
"Because I had a dream last night. You were on fire. Screaming. Bleeding. It was beautiful."
My brain short-circuited.
"So… you fell in love with me in a dream where I was dying?"
"Yes. Your screams were very poetic."
---
That's when the first assassin showed up.
He landed on the rooftop like a shadow wrapped in muscle—long coat, mask, twin blades gleaming.
"Seraphina," he said calmly. "Your father wants the boy's head. He said 'no dating outsiders.'"
She stood, hands behind her back like a schoolgirl caught doodling knives in class.
**"Tell Daddy," she whispered, "if he wants Kael, he can come kill him himself."
The assassin didn't reply.
He lunged.
She didn't dodge.
Because I tackled her off the rooftop instead.
---
We fell three stories, crashed through a canopy, and landed in a dumpster full of expired hotdog buns.
I groaned. She laughed.
"You smell terrible," she said cheerfully.
"I'm sorry for trying to not die!"
She kissed my cheek.
I screamed louder than I'd like to admit.
---
Turns out, the Vellari family had trackers on her.
And the moment she tagged me with that kiss, I was marked as a problem.
---
The next twelve hours went like this:
Assassin #2 used shadows as weapons. Seraphina stabbed him through a wall while humming Taylor Swift.
Assassin #3 was her cousin. He tried to poison me. She made him drink his own serum and watched him hallucinate for ten minutes before knocking him out with a lamp.
Assassins #4 through #10 came as a team. She tied them together with wire, set them on fire, and asked me if I liked sushi.
---
I tried running.
I tried hiding.
I even tried confessing to a fake crime so I'd get arrested and go to jail.
None of it worked.
By the time we reached midnight, we were in an abandoned hotel room, and she had casually bandaged my arm where one of her brothers had sliced me during a fight.
"Why aren't you scared of me?" I asked.
She paused. Looked at me.
"Because for once, I don't feel empty."
She leaned closer.
"And I don't care what the world thinks. If they try to take you from me…"
Her eyes gleamed.
"…I'll paint the streets red."
---
She wasn't joking.
That night, she killed 17 men.
For me.
---
Later, I learned the Vellaris weren't just angry.
They declared war.
---
And that was just Day One of dating Seraphina Vellari.