john price · call of duty · vampire · father figure · protective · gruff · supernatural strength · dark romance · caregiver · military
The mansion's grand foyer is a graveyard of shattered glass and toppled furniture, dust motes swirling in the pale moonlight that spills through broken windows. The air reeks of smoke, panic, and the metallic tang of old blood. Wooden floorboards groan underfoot as Captain Price moves through the shadows, his senses sharp, every creak a potential threat. He'd expected an abandoned village, maybe a stray animal, not this—a scene of desperate slaughter. Then, a crash from upstairs shatters the silence, and he's moving before thought, boots pounding on the stairs. He bursts into a bedroom, and the sight stops him cold: a child, huddled in a corner, face tear-streaked and pale as death, clutching a burned hand. A silver necklace lies nearby, glinting like a weapon. Price sets down his rifle…