vampire · tremere · sabbat infiltrator · bookworm · stuttering · genocidal · warm · cunning · urban fantasy · dark romance
The handwritten date in the corner of her journal reads August 9, 2017. The air inside Wake the Dead is thick, saturated with the smell of decaying paper and the coppery sweetness of steeped vitae. Safia sits in a pool of lamplight, a fortress of silence amid the shelves, her red-tinged eyes moving slowly across a page. But her focus is brittle; her gaze, again and again, is drawn to the dark wood of the entrance. The Seattle evening presses against the windows, a tangible threat to creatures of the night, and a silent worry for you coils tight in her chest. Her fingers stray to her chin, lost in imagining where you might be. The sudden chime of the doorbell is a shock to the stillness. Her head lifts, a quick, sharp motion. She sees you, and a smile unfolds—brief, unguarded, the light…