Prologue: A Beastial Enemy.

"Fucking bitch!" Roman Augustus threw Soren Hermès across the forest with a loud growl, and watched her shoot through the canopy of trees like a cannonball.

He expected her to slam into the large oak tree he had aimed her at, and hopefully get impaled on one of the branches, so he could have some time to figure out how to kill her once and for all. But she landed gracefully on her feet.

"You're a lot better than that, Romanus!" Soren Hermès cackled bitterly, her dark eyes glittering like silver daggers under the dim luminance of the full moon.

"I've heard so much about how brutal you've become, Romanus! I am expecting this fight to be a chartbuster! That is, if you can even call this ignominious charade a fight!" She cackled in affluent mockery, as her body slithered through the thicket of trees with a lethal ease and speed no human could possess.

"Come on, Romanus! Unbound all of that centurial rage roiling and toiling behind those eyes of ice, and bare your ugliest self to me!"

Soren's voice seemed to come from every angle and shadowy corner of the dark forest that was only dimly illuminated by the moon. And even the moon seemed to be rapidly melting away into the darkness Soren had cocooned the entire forest in.

She had vanished into the shadows and blended so artfully with the darkness, that it was hard for Roman to find her, despite him listening ever so keenly, and watching with hyper sharpened gaze.

"Come out then! If you're so eager to fight me! Stop playing around and come out!" Roman taunted, hoping to lure her out of the game she was so obviously playing with him.

A sniveling laugh echoed through the forest, followed by fits of mocking giggles.

Soren Hermès was toying with him. He was her forever pawn, and she was his master at this game of chess.

"I could rip your unworthy heart from its cage right at this moment," Soren's voice dropped into a seductive whisper when she spoke again, and it seemed to come from a breadth of space behind Roman's ear.

He whipped around, but the space behind him was empty, only crawling with darkness and thick foliage he couldn't see through.

"But where's the fun in that?" Soren continued with a giggle, her sing-song voice a hair-raising purr in Roman's ear.

He whipped around again, and yet she was not there.

His fingers balled into fists. He was growing agitated and immensely annoyed. He wanted nothing more than to snap the bitch's neck, and rip her heart from her chest once and for all, so they could be rid of her.

But it wouldn't be that easy. Soren was powerful. Too powerful. He knew he was no match for her—none of them were. Which was why he had to protect them from her.

"You're quiet, Romanus," Soren Hermès purred, her breath hot on Roman's ear, and yet she wasn't there when he whipped around again.

"Are you coming up with ways to kill me in that morbid mind of yours?" She moaned, her voice deceptively sad.

"Well, you better think fast!" Her voice sharply turned cruel and grating again. "Time's ticking, boy! And your little whore is still in that school. In her little dorm room, with that baby vamp who has managed to out-do you in every ramification. They're probably fucking,"

Soren Hermès let out a slow, disappointed sigh. "Honestly, Romanus. You let a year old vampire you sired steal your whore? Pathetic!" She snickered loudly and Roman growled, anger burning through his veins.

"I'm running out of patience, boy! Dally too long with my demands, and I'll carve her heart out for you to feed upon!"

Soren cackled, and the sound of it was mechanical and so loud, that it grated on Roman's earbuds like chalk being dragged agonizingly slow against a black board.

"Maybe I'll carve out the boy's heart along with hers. I know you care for them both. Despite the pathetic contradictory hatred you harbor for them." She scoffed.

"Bye bye now! You know where to find me!" Soren Hermès giggled, and with a whoosh of biting cold wind, she was gone.

The darkness that had wrapped itself around the forest along with her presence lifted, and Roman's dead heart picked up pace in his chest as he glanced around in search of his long gone nemesis.

"No," he whispered, eyes frantic as he darted through the trees in search of her.

"Soren!" Roman thundered, searching for her fruitlessly. "Don't touch her! Don't touch Jade, you sick bitch! I'll do anything! Please..." his yelling trailed off as his heart tightened in his chest.

The thought of Soren touching Jade...torturing her—it made him violently sick, and he lurched forward with his hands on his knees as panic flooded his body.

No.

Soren was a thousand year old Vampire. A deranged psychopath whose macabre mind had been addled by immortality.

Soren was beastial, bloodthirsty. Unhinged even. She enjoyed to draw out the deaths of her victims in a messy, but perfectly calculated mimicry of psychopathic serial murders.

She was ruthless, and she was here in Bloodstone Academy for reasons he was yet to uncover. But he knew she was unto Jade.

Roman's stomach twisted violently further as he thought vividly about Jade being subjected to Soren's captivity.

That couldn't happen. He had to find her. He had to find them.

He he had to warn Jade and the others. He had to let them know what was coming.

He had to...