Morning sunlight pierced through the curtains, striking Leo's eyes. He flinched and instinctively stepped back, pulling the fabric shut. The warmth of the light felt… wrong. Not painful, but unwelcome. As if his skin remembered something he didn't.
He slid down beside the bed, back against the cold wall, staring at nothing as the dust motes danced in the lone beam of light. His mind was a storm of conflicting data. Laura's explanation replayed in fragments: the tattoo on his wrist that seemed to pulse with its own life, the Lord selection process he had been thrust into, and the four-day countdown to the next Awakening batch. His mind felt disconnected from his body, like a pilot trying to control a craft that no longer responded to the controls.
'This mark will drag me into another world,' he thought numbly, his fingers tracing the invisible lines of the sigil. Four days. Four days until Origin.'
His breath trembled as he exhaled. The room was silent, but the air felt heavy with the weight of the unknown. Susan's warnings echoed like prophecy in the quiet space, her voice devoid of its usual sharp edge and replaced by a grim weight.
''You've been given an opportunity to awaken a talent that defies our understanding. But it cuts both ways. Origin blesses those who survive, and buries the rest.''
She spoke like someone who'd seen death before, like someone who had walked through the fire and left pieces of herself behind. It wasn't a threat; it was a simple, brutal fact of the life he was about to enter.
'How does a government hide this from the public for twenty whole years?' Leo muttered internally, his eyes narrowing at the opulent furniture around him. 'How many never returned? How many families were told their sons and daughters simply ran away or died in accidents?'
He pushed himself up, his muscles feeling strangely tight yet incredibly responsive, and walked to the mirror. The silver-haired young man staring back at him looked the same. No fangs were visible. No monstrous, glowing eyes greeted him. Just Leo. He looked tired, perhaps a bit paler than usual, but he still looked human.
"Maybe I hallucinated," he whispered. "Or maybe my teeth reverted…"
He leaned closer, inspecting every inch of himself, pulling at his lips and checking his gums for any sign of the serrated points he felt earlier. He searched for any lingering trace of the monster that had attacked Laura.
Nothing.
But the memory of biting Laura- her warmth, the taste of blood- made his stomach churn and his mouth dry.
'That panel… the hologram on the bridge. How do I open it?'
A faint chime echoed through his skull.
A translucent, crimson-tinged panel flickered into being before him.
[Name: Leo Mordrak]
[Race: Primordial Vampire]
[Bloodline Status: Sealed (5% Awakening)]
[Rank: Unranked]
[Title: (Hidden)]
[Lord Candidate Qualification: VERIFIED]
[Awakening Countdown: 3 Days 17 Hours]
[Bonded: Laura Lockwood (bond dormant)]
[Racial Abilities Unlocked]
• Primordial Claim
• Crimson Perception
• Reversal Regeneration
[Status - Unstable ( Due to bonding and hunger)]
[Note - Your vessel and soul are weak to complete your bloodline and racial transition. As you become stronger, you will complete your transformation and gain more racial abilities.]
"Vampire..."The word felt heavy and bitter on his tongue, a label that carried centuries of folklore and horror. ''I'm a fucking vampire.''
Leo covered his mouth in disbelief, his knees feeling weak. The symptoms -the hypersensitive hearing that let him hear the hum of the mansion's electronics, the craving that sat like a lead weight in his gut, the sudden strength that made the iron rail on the bridge feel like plastic- it was exactly like the dark fantasy novels he'd read to escape his life. But this wasn't a book he could close. This was his reflection.
'If the government finds out, they won't treat me like a Lord', Leo thought, a cold sweat breaking out. 'They'll pin me to a table and dissect me like a lab rat.'
A sharp knock at the door shattered his thoughts, causing the holographic panel to flicker and vanish into the air.
"Leo? Can I come in?" Laura's voice was soft. lacking the sharp authority she had displayed on the bridge.
"Yeah... come in." Leo stood up, wiping his face and trying to mask the turmoil behind a neutral expression.
Laura entered, looking strikingly ordinary in a simple shirt and cargo pants, her hair pulled back with a clip. She looked like a neighborhood Noona- no filters, no luxury brands, just a woman tired of a long life.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, taking a seat on the couch opposite him.
"I'm alive," Leo replied shortly. "Can I use your phone? I lost mine."
He needed to call his Aunt. When Laura handed him the device, his hands shook. He kept the call brief, his heart pounding as he heard Isabella's frantic voice.
He spun a lie about a sudden hiking trip with friends, claiming he had lost his phone in a ravine and was staying at a cabin to recover from a minor sprain. He told her not to worry, that he'd be home in a week. As he handed the phone back, the thought of Steven made his jaw ache. He could almost feel the phantom pressure of the vampire fangs wanting to emerge again.
"Are you worried about your Aunt because of Steven?" Laura asked carefully.
Leo's eyes snapped to hers, his teeth grinding. "Of course you know. What mother wouldn't know her son is a piece of trash?"
Laura sighed, a flash of annoyance crossing her face. "First of all, he isn't my son. I'm thirty-two, Leo- I don't have a twenty-year-old kid. Second, I only found out about your situation today because Susan ran a background check."
Leo blinked. 'Not her son? Stepmom?.'
"Anyway, don't worry about your aunt for now," Laura continued. "Steven is going to be too busy to bother her."
"Busy with what?"
Laura looked him dead in the eye. "For the Awakening. He was also selected as a Lord Candidate."
Leo's fist clenched so hard his knuckles popped. The rage was white-hot, but a dark thought followed it: 'If he enters the Origin with me... I can kill him where no one will ever find the body.
"Tell me more," Leo said, leaning forward. "Finish what you started yesterday. About Origin."
"The world changed twenty years ago," Laura explained with a faint, hopeful smile. "If you pass the Origin trial, you're registered as an 'Awakened.' Your status in society transcends everything. There are rules, but the Awakened are the new nobility."
"And you saved me because you want a piece of that?" Leo asked, his voice dripping with skepticism. "You didn't do this out of the goodness of your heart."
"I'm a realist, Leo," she said with a small chuckle. "I thought if I helped you now, maybe you'd be a powerful ally later. If you think I'm asking too much, you can refuse when the time comes."
Leo watched her closely. 'The system said she's bonded to me. If I evolve, she changes too. She might not even realize how deep this goes.'
"One last thing," Leo said. "Do you feel... different? Any changes in your body?"
"Changes? No, I feel great. Actually, I feel healthier than I did in my teens," she laughed.
Leo rubbed his chin. 'So the bond is already working. '
"Anyway," Laura passed him a thick folder.
"This contains the basics of what 'Lords' are and what the Origin entails. Read it. You only have three days left to prepare."
Leo stared at the folder.
Three days to prepare for a world designed to kill him- and abilities he barely understood.