Chapter 1. A Deal with the Loneliness
Tokyo. Night.
Neon light from the street seeped through the gaps in the curtains, striping Maria's face. Two centuries of life, and she still hadn't gotten used to that intrusive glow. It was as foreign as everything else in this city.
Venice drowned in silence, broken only by the splash of water. Paris smelled of wine and old books. And this city... it hummed. Constantly.
She leaned back in her chair, looking away from the screen where lines of encrypted messages were blinking. Her fingers instinctively found the scar on her neck, almost invisible beneath the high collar. Old habit. A reminder of why "hiding" and "surviving" were not just words.
That's when her gaze caught a strange message on one of the forums. Not another tale about ghosts in the metro. No. It was about Inokashira Park. About an attack. With strange details: the victim got off with a fright, but claimed they saw a girl with burning eyes and claws that glowed in the dark.
Maria slowly exhaled.
A werewolf. And clearly one who can't control her fury. Or... her pain.
She knew that feeling.
***
Maria reached the park, guided by instinct and what she'd read on the forum. The air smelled like pine and... something wild and metallic. She stepped into the clearing where the attack was said to have happened. And then — she emerged from the trees.
A girl with moonlight-colored hair and burning amber eyes. She stood rigid, lips pressed tight, fingers clenched into fists — knuckles so white they seemed ready to become claws.
“You!” Yuki growled, her voice low, almost feral. “You're the one hunting in my forest?”
Maria froze. She didn't see a monster — she saw a reflection of her own loneliness. Pain locked behind a wall of anger.
“Yours?” Maria didn't raise her voice, but her words came out with the icy clarity of a centuries-old habit of dominance. “Last time I checked, parks belong to the municipality. Or do werewolves have their own cadastre now?”
She saw how Yuki's lower lip trembled at her calmness. Rage is always a shield. Maria knew this better than anyone.
“I don't hunt people,” she shot back, watching for a reaction. “Unlike the one you're looking for.”
Yuki's eyes widened for a split second. A hit. Maria caught not just fury in them, but confusion. She'd seen that look in the mirror too often.
“You don't know anything,” the werewolf snarled again, but there were already cracked notes in her voice. “They... they come and ruin everything! Hunt on our territory! And then they pin the blame on us, on ones like me!”
On ones like us, flashed through Maria's mind. But she didn't say it out loud. Instead, she slowly, deliberately lowered her hands, showing she wasn't going to attack.
“So you know who they are. Or at least you've seen them.” Maria paused, letting the words hang in the cold night air. “A lone wolf against an unknown enemy... not the best strategy. Even for you.”
Yuki snorted, but her claws slowly, painfully began to retract. “And what, do you have a better offer, bloodsucker?”
Maria allowed herself a barely noticeable smile. The corners of her throat ached from holding back her fangs for too long. “Maybe. A temporary truce, for example. An exchange of information.” She looked straight at Yuki, and her gaze held no pity, no condescension. Only cold, practical calculation. “You show me what you've found here. And I'll tell you what I know about these... hunters. After that, we decide what to do next.”
She wasn't offering friendship. She was offering a deal. The only language that lonely predators like them understood.
Yuki stayed silent, searching Maria's face, trying to read her hidden intentions. But Maria's face was like a closed book, written in a language she didn't know.
“I'm Maria,” the vampire said, and the name didn't sound like an introduction, but as a term of the deal. “Now you know who you're dealing with.”
She hesitated, then gave a short nod.
“Yuki.”
They exchanged names like hostages, and there was more sense in this than in any oaths.
“Fine,” she finally breathed out, and the word sounded like a surrender. “But one wrong move, and I'll rip your throat out.”
“Likewise,” Maria parried.
She took a step forward. Yuki didn't back away. There were only a couple of meters between them. The barricade of mistrust and old wounds hadn't collapsed yet, but the first breach had appeared in it.
