Bloodsong

The moon over Elarion looked like a silver coin dropped into a sea of ink.

Aelion Bloodwaters stood beside the university fountain, his hands tucked into the pockets of his black coat. Beyond the courtyard, Elarion University rose in dark towers and ancient stone arches, its windows glowing with the last traces of evening lectures. Magical lanterns floated above the pathways, illuminating students of every supernatural lineage as they hurried between buildings.

Aelion preferred the campus after dark.

The crowds thinned. The noise softened. And, most importantly, nobody expected him to make conversation.

He leaned against the fountain and watched the water ripple beneath the moonlight. His reflection stared back at him: pale skin, dark wavy hair falling over his forehead, one crimson eye and one ocean-blue eye.

Vampire and siren.

Two inheritances that rarely agreed with one another.

His vampire instincts preferred silence, shadow and solitude. His siren nature longed for the ocean, music and the strange comfort of being heard without having to explain himself.

Most days, he managed to keep both sides satisfied.

Tonight, however, his thoughts had been unusually restless.

Aelion closed his eyes.

A melody slipped from his lips.

It was quiet at first, little more than a hum. The tune had no words, and he could not remember when he had first learned it. His mother had once told him it was older than their family, a song passed down through generations of sirens.

He had never thought much about that explanation.

The melody belonged to him. That was enough.

As the notes rose, the fountain’s water began to shimmer.

Aelion stopped.

The ripples continued moving.

He frowned and leaned closer, watching faint threads of crimson and blue twist beneath the surface. They resembled strands of light caught in the water, weaving around one another before disappearing into the darkness.

“What in the—”

The fountain went still.

A sudden pressure settled behind his ribs.

It wasn’t pain. It felt more like someone had reached across an impossible distance and touched the very centre of his chest.

For one startling second, Aelion sensed something that wasn’t his own.

Warmth.

Amusement.

A fleeting impression of laughter.

Then it vanished.

He stepped away from the fountain.

“Absolutely not.”

He glanced around the courtyard, searching for anyone who might have witnessed the strange display. A pair of witches crossed beneath an archway, arguing over an assignment. Two werewolves hurried towards the eastern dormitories. Nobody seemed to have noticed anything unusual.

Aelion exhaled slowly.

Perhaps he was tired.

Perhaps his hybrid magic was acting up again.

Either explanation was preferable to the alternative: that something had somehow answered his song.

He adjusted the silver rings on his fingers and started towards the library.

He had an assignment to finish, a lecture to survive in the morning and absolutely no intention of investigating a mysterious fountain.

Behind him, the water rippled once more.

Deep beneath the university, something ancient stirred.

And somewhere across campus, an incubus woke from a dream he couldn’t remember having.

Neither of them knew it yet, but the song had already begun.