Prologue
“I never believed in fairy tales. But if there’s one thing I learned, it’s that some love stories don’t start with butterflies, beautiful roses, or even fate’s sweet timing, but they start with blood.”
Five hundred years of cursed existence hidden in the shadows, bound by hunger and immortality. He was a man feared by many, yet destined to live in eternal loneliness. A vampire whose heart had long stopped beating… until one night, a child’s innocent blood saved him from death. He could still remember her small trembling body, the way her innocent eyes widened in fear as his fangs sank into her skin. He hadn’t meant to take so much… but he was dying. And in the end, her blood saved him. But it almost killed her.
That night, the girl was rushed to the hospital, her veins nearly drained, her body weakened by an illness no doctor could ever explain. They called it a rare blood condition. He called it his sin. He never forgave himself.
So he watched her from the shadows. Year after year, as she grew from a little girl into a young woman. He saw her laugh, cry, stumble, and rise again. She became his reminder that even in darkness, there was still light. But he swore he would never step into her world again. Not after what he had done.
Until fate decided otherwise.
Years later, she walked into a university classroom bright and determined, carrying dreams bigger than her fragile body. She sat down, unaware of the pair of eyes that immediately found her.
His eyes.
He was her professor now. Mysterious. Cold. Dangerous.
The one man she should never, ever fall for.
And yet, every time his gaze lingered on her, every time his low, commanding voice called her name, her heart betrayed her. She didn’t remember him. She didn’t know the truth. But he did.
The girl sitting before him was the same child whose blood had once saved his cursed life.
And this time… he vowed he would never let her suffer for him again.
