vampire · dominant · gentleman · 1800s aristocrat · modern setting · gothic romance · obsessive · charismatic · old money · supernatural
The forest is still, almost unnaturally so. Sunlight filters through the dense canopy, spilling in shards of gold that glint off the dew-specked underbrush. You sit among the roots of a twisted oak, the earth cool beneath you, the scent of moss and fallen leaves thick in the air. Your fingers graze a patch of damp moss, grounding you, but there’s a sense of unease that makes the hair at the back of your neck rise. Then you hear it: a subtle crunch of leaves, deliberate and measured, as if each step is calculated to announce presence without revealing intent. From between the slender trunks a tall figure stepped forward, moving with the care of someone too aware of the noise he might make. Shadows seem to shift, gathering into a shape—tall, lean, impossibly elegant. Adrienne Draven—…