Darkness wrapped around Tobias, thick and heavy, pulling him down like water closing over his head. Heat pulsed under his skin, fighting the cold bite of runes that held him still. Something inside clawed to get out, furious and impatient.
Voices filtered through the haze, sharp and close.
Garron's growl cut first. "This is on you two."
Seraphine's laugh drifted in, low and unrepentant. "That girl started it. I only ended it."
"You always push," Garron snapped. "And now he's paying for it."
A fist hit wood hard enough to rattle. Tobias twitched inside the dark, body refusing to move.
"He wasn't ready," Garron said, voice dropping lower, edged with something close to fear. "I felt it when he threw that vampire. That power wasn't training. It was something breaking loose. You shoved him right into it."
Seraphine went quiet a moment. When she spoke again, her tone carried a rare defensive note. "He's stronger than you give him credit for. Stronger than any of us expected."
"Strong enough to burn himself out?" Garron asked. "Or take half the terrace with him? Because that's what almost happened."
Elyndra's voice sliced through, calm and final. "Enough. We fix this now."
Kael muttered, sheepish and a little slurred. "In hindsight, club night might've been a bad call. Like, monumentally bad."
Garron snarled something low and vicious that Tobias couldn't quite catch.
Elyndra spoke again, closer now, her words clipped with urgency. "His signatures are spiking. The essences are trying to merge. We need the stabilizers immediately."
Cold metal snapped around his wrists. Runes flared, icy against his skin. The heat inside recoiled sharply, caged and furious.
Her hand settled cool on his forehead, steady and reassuring. "Sleep, Tobias. We have you."
The runes pulsed once, hard and commanding, and everything went black.
He woke later to dim ward-lights and the low, constant hum of restraints. His wrists carried faint golden scars where the runes had bitten deepest. Every heartbeat felt too loud in the quiet room, like a warning. The air smelled faintly of antiseptic and ozone, the familiar scent of Accord medical wards. He tested the cuffs gently. They didn't budge.
Footsteps approached, soft and deliberate.
Seraphine stepped from the shadows, moonlight hair loose and spilling over her shoulders, crimson eyes catching the faint glow. She wore a silk robe that clung like it had been poured on her skin. The room seemed to shift around her, as if the darkness itself leaned in to listen.
"Midnight check-in," she said, voice low and amused. "How perfectly dramatic."
Tobias let his head sink back against the pillow. "Visiting hours are over."
"Rules are for people who follow them." She sat on the edge of the bed without waiting for invitation, the mattress dipping slightly under her weight. One cool finger traced the rune band on his wrist, slow and curious. "Overkill. Elyndra does love her precautions."
"They're keeping me from burning up."
Seraphine's gaze lifted to his face, sharp and searching. "Are they really?"
He didn't answer. The memory of marble cracking under a thrown body still lived in his muscles, in his bones.
She leaned closer, breath cool against his throat. "You were beautiful out there tonight. When you finally stopped holding back. The heat rolling off you in waves… I could have lived in it forever."
"I almost killed someone."
"You protected what mattered," she said, soft and certain, as if it were simple fact. "And you were glorious doing it."
Her fingers slid up his arm, nails light and deliberate, tracing faint veins. Cold skin against his warmth sent conflicting signals racing through him.
"Seraphine."
"Quiet." She pressed a finger to his lips, gentle but firm. "You're thinking too much again. Always thinking."
He swallowed hard. "You came here to gloat?"
"I came here," she said, voice dropping to something intimate and dangerous, "to see if you're still afraid of me."
"I'm always a little afraid of you."
Her smile curved slow and delighted. "Good. Fear tastes better than boredom. It keeps everything sharp."
Her fangs grazed the shell of his ear, not breaking skin, just reminding him how easily she could.
The heat inside him stirred again, curious and responsive.
She felt it immediately. Her eyes flared crimson.
"There," she whispered against his skin. "That thing waking up. It likes me. It reaches for me."
He couldn't deny it. Not when the warmth coiled tighter at her words.
She pulled back just enough to meet his gaze, expression unreadable for once. "One day you'll stop fighting it. You'll let it out all the way. And when you do, I'll be right here to watch what you become."
She rose smoothly, robe whispering as she moved, and melted back into shadow.
"Sleep, darling," she murmured from the darkness. "You'll need strength for what's coming."
The restraints felt heavier after she left, as if her presence had lightened them for a moment.
The heat settled, quiet and listening.
He liked her promise more than he wanted to admit.
Tobias drifted in shallow, uneasy sleep until the ward-lights brightened gradually, shifting to a soft morning glow.
Elyndra entered quietly, healer's coat crisp and pristine, silver hair bound tight in its usual severe style. Crystalline instruments orbited her slowly like calm, obedient stars.
"You're awake," she observed.
"Barely." He pushed himself up as far as the cuffs allowed, muscles protesting the movement. "How bad is it?"
She summoned the holo of his bloodwork without preamble. The five signatures had twisted into a single angry helix, pulsing unstable gold.
"Convergence," she said quietly. "The essences tried to fuse completely. It should have been impossible. It should have killed you."
He stared at the image, throat tight. "I felt it wanting to finish. Like it was reaching for something whole."
"It nearly did." She met his eyes, steady but troubled. "The stabilizers stopped it. Barely."
Stabilizers. Accord tech designed specifically to keep hybrid subjects from overloading, from letting the blended essences run wild. He'd read about them in old restricted files, never imagined he'd need them wrapped around his own wrists.
"What triggered it?" he asked.
"Emotion," she said. "Protective instinct. Possession. Something, or someone, pushed you past the edge."
Seraphine's fangs flashing in the club lights. Amira's laugh echoing warm against the terrace railing.
Both memories collided in his mind.
He looked away.
Elyndra noticed, of course. She always noticed everything.
"We'll talk more when you're steady," she said, already turning to leave. "Rest. Truly rest this time."
The door closed softly behind her.
Tobias stared at the ceiling until the world tilted again.
Not pain this time. A sudden, sharp pull, like his mind slipped sideways into someone else's sight.
He saw the corridor outside the ward.
Garron blocking a woman's path. She was tall, lean, golden-eyed, claws flexing at her sides.
"You lied to me," she hissed. "Told me he was just another project."
Garron didn't move, didn't flinch.
"He's an abomination," she continued, voice rising. "A human stuffed with stolen bloodlines. The packs deserve to know what you've hidden."
"They won't."
"They should." Her eyes blazed pure gold. "We need one true apex, not this mockery."
Garron's voice dropped to a register that made the lights flicker. "Say that again and I'll strip your rank myself."
She laughed, bitter and sharp. "Protecting a monster out of guilt? How noble."
"I protect what the Accord built," he said. "What we all agreed to."
She spat at his feet and stalked away, footsteps echoing long after she vanished.
Garron stayed in the corridor long after her footsteps faded, fists clenched tight, staring at the floor.
He whispered, exhausted and raw. "Damn it."
The vision snapped.
Tobias jerked against the restraints, heart racing, breath short.
The heat inside stirred, slow and alert, as if it had seen the same thing.
Elyndra walked the corridor minutes later, tablet clutched in one hand, stabilizer case under her arm. Doubt gnawed deeper than it ever had. Tobias wasn't just data anymore, wasn't just a patient. He was a person caught in something vast and ruthless. The ethics of the Hybrid Program had always sat uneasy with her, but Lord Vaelor's vision turned that unease into something colder.
The ornate doors at the end of the hall opened for her without touch.
Lord Vaelor stood at the tall window, city lights sprawling below like captured stars. His presence filled the room, ancient and unyielding.
"Your report," he said without turning.
She bowed slightly. "The convergence is accelerating. Last night nearly completed it."
He studied the projected holo as she brought it up. "Catastrophic or transformative?"
"It could kill him," she said, voice steady but firm.
"Or make him the bridge we need." Vaelor's voice carried quiet, burning fervor. "Six centuries of fragile peace, Elyndra. Races living beside each other, never truly together. Mistrust festering. Tobias can change that. One being carrying all bloodlines. Living proof that unity is possible in flesh, not just empty words."
She gripped her tablet tighter. "At what cost to him?"
"The cost of progress." His gaze hardened as he turned to her. "Monitor every surge, every fluctuation. Report directly to me. His role is too vital to risk."
Elyndra hesitated, the words heavy on her tongue. "He's not a tool."
"He is the bridge," Vaelor said, voice like carved stone. "The one who will carry us into a new era, willing or not. Fail to guide him properly, and the old divisions win forever. Succeed, and we end the cycle. He will unite us all, or he will force the change we've waited centuries for. His destiny cannot be left to chance."
A chill settled deep in her chest, colder than any spell.
"Be gentle with him," he added, almost kindly. "But be thorough. The future depends on it."
She bowed and left, the doors sealing behind her with quiet finality.
As she walked away, one thought circled relentlessly.
If they pushed too hard, the bridge might burn before anyone crossed it.
And somewhere in the dark between sleep and waking, Tobias dreamed faintly of violet eyes and a laugh cut short too soon, a warm hand reaching through thick smoke that hadn't happened yet, fingers brushing his just out of reach.
The heat inside him listened carefully.
And waited, patient as ever.