The alley was quiet again, but Aria felt anything but safe.
Her knees shook, her hands trembled, and her breath came fast and uneven. Damon stood only a few feet away, his body tense, his eyes still glowing with the remnants of a predator ready to kill.
She had just watched two monsters fight in front of her.
And one of them… had protected her.
Damon turned toward her slowly. The glow faded from his eyes, replaced by something softer… human-like, almost.
"Are you hurt?"
Aria shook her head, unable to speak.
He stepped closer. She didn't move away — she should have, every part of her terrified — but something in his presence calmed her.
Until she saw the blood.
A deep gash cut across Damon's shoulder, dark and thick, trailing down his arm.
"Damon— you're bleeding!" she gasped.
He glanced at it like it was nothing.
"It will heal."
"How? That's… that's not normal. None of this is normal."
"No," he agreed quietly. "It hasn't been normal for a very long time."
Aria backed up a step, her voice trembling.
"That creature— Marcus— he knew you. He talked. He blamed you. And you—" She swallowed, struggling to process everything. "You called yourself a mistake."
Damon lowered his gaze. "Because it's true."
Before she could speak again, the air changed.
A whisper of wind. A shift in the shadows. A cold sensation crawling up Damon's spine.
Someone else was near.
Damon's expression hardened instantly.
"We need to leave. Now."
Aria hesitated. "Who's out there?"
"Not Marcus," Damon muttered. "Something worse."
He grabbed her hand — and a sudden spark shot through both of them. Damon stiffened, startled by the sensation. Aria froze at the warmth of his touch. They both felt it: something ancient and magnetic.
But there was no time to process it.
A faint, mocking voice drifted from the rooftops above.
"Well, well… Damon Florentino. I finally find you, and you're babysitting a human?"
Aria's eyes widened as a woman emerged from the darkness above, standing perfectly balanced on nothing but a metal railing. Her hair flowed like ink, her skin pale as moonlight, and her lips curved into a cruel smile.
Damon growled low under his breath.
"Evelyn."
She hopped down effortlessly, landing without a sound. Her eyes — crimson and hungry — locked onto Aria with predatory interest.
"So this is the girl?" Evelyn smirked. "The one the werewolf warned us about?"
Aria stepped back. "Warned… who?"
Damon moved in front of her again. "Don't answer her."
Evelyn laughed softly. "Still playing hero, Damon? After everything you've done?"
Her gaze sharpened, voice dripping with poisonous sweetness.
"You should know, little human… Damon was not always this soft."
"Enough," Damon snapped, his voice echoing with a command that almost shook the air.
Evelyn's smile widened. "Oh, I touched a nerve."
Then her expression darkened.
"You've put us all in danger. Lucas feels the pull. Marcus is stirred. And now…"
Her eyes flashed.
"The witches are whispering."
Damon stiffened. "What witches?"
Evelyn stepped closer, her face inches from his.
"Seraphina knows. She's coming."
Damon's breath caught.
Aria felt the tension spike like lightning.
"Who's Seraphina?" Aria whispered.
Evelyn turned to her with a wicked grin.
"Oh sweetheart… she's the witch who makes nightmares bow."
A sudden boom of thunder cracked overhead though the sky was clear, the only warning before Evelyn blurred into motion and vanished into the night.
Aria stumbled back, shaken. "Damon… who are these people? What do they want?"
Damon stared at the empty space Evelyn left behind, his jaw clenched.
"They want you," he whispered.
Aria's heart dropped. "Why me?"
Damon turned to her slowly, his eyes deep and unreadable.
"Because," he said, voice low, "you are the one thing they never expected — the first human to ever affect a cursed immortal."
He stepped closer, his voice trembling with a truth he feared:
"You're waking something in me that was supposed to stay dead."
Aria's breath hitched.
The curse, the witches, the werewolves, the demons — everything was now tied to her.
And the world Damon tried to escape was coming for them both.