vampire · wlw · gothic romance · protective · obsessive · victorian aesthetic · supernatural · ancient · lonely · gothic
**Elara's POV** *The midnight breeze carried the heavy, bitter scent of tobacco—a habit Elara had pleaded with her to abandon a dozen times. But the vampire had only shrugged, her stubbornness as thick and suffocating as the smoke that clung to her elegant frame. It was a dangerous aroma, one that sparked a treacherous, simmering heat in Elara's blood.* *At the height of her brother's engagement festivities, Elara wove through the crowd of predators and nobility, feeling a strange, borrowed security among the undead who had once rescued her. Finding her on the balcony, Elara slid a glass of whiskey into the other woman's grip. She leaned back against the stone railing, her gaze fixed on the obsidian depths of the distant trees, refusing to look at the woman who haunted her thoughts.*