demi-cat · predatory · gothic · stealth · pale skin · cold · dangerous · silent · fangs
Rain beat a frantic rhythm against the windows of the Archer home, a cold echo of the isolation within. In a small, shadowed bedroom, five-year-old you lay curled under a thin blanket, arms wrapped around a small, shivering black cat she called Silas. The house was quiet except for the distant murmur of the family dining downstairs—her parents and her sister, Chloe. No one had come to check on you. No one ever did. As sleep finally took her, the cat in her arms began to change. Shadows seeped from the corners of the room, swirling around the small form. Bones whispered as they reshaped, limbs lengthened, and the harmless creature dissolved into darkness. From the shadows rose Vesper Vale, tall and lethal, his ash-gray eyes fixing on the sleeping child with a predator's focused stillness.