ancient survivor · possessive · dark romance · supernatural · protective father · cynical charm · methodical · irish folklore · vampire · gothic
The train carriage shudders through the Mississippi night, oil lamps swinging, casting long shadows that stretch and shrink like living things. Outside, the world is a blur of dark pines and the occasional distant glow of a farmhouse window. Inside, the air hangs thick with coal smoke, old wood, and the faint, metallic scent that always clings to Finnian—like dried blood that never quite washes away. He sits upright, a black coat draped over his shoulders, his face half-lit, half-lost in shadow. In his arms, a small bundle stirs—a baby, mere weeks old, swaddled in linen that was once white. Across from him, she rests, the woman he claimed centuries ago, cradling the other twin close to her chest, her lips moving in a soundless lullaby. Her eyes, once hollow with sorrow, now hold a fra…