The rain had been falling for hours, each drop carving its cold path along the ancient streets of Taipei. Lian Mei's umbrella did little to shield her from the relentless drizzle. She hated nights like this—when the city felt heavier, almost… alive, like it was watching her, waiting. And tonight, that feeling gnawed at her relentlessly.
She pulled her coat tighter, her heels clacking sharply against the cobblestones. Her office, usually a sanctuary of fluorescent light and stale paperwork, had felt suffocating all day. Something in the air whispered secrets she wasn't ready to hear, secrets she would soon be forced to confront.
As she rounded a corner toward her apartment building, a flash of black movement caught her eye. A man? No… not quite. His silhouette seemed to ripple, almost like smoke, and the shadows around him deepened unnaturally. Lian Mei froze, a chill running down her spine.
"You shouldn't be here," a voice said, low and smooth, carrying an edge that made her heart pound faster.
She looked up. His eyes were… impossibly red, glowing faintly through the darkness. Horns curved elegantly from his head, black as midnight, spiraling like ancient obsidian towers. He was beautiful. Horrifying. Unfathomably powerful.
"I… I'm just going home," Lian Mei stammered, clutching her bag like it might shield her.
He stepped closer, and the world seemed to contract around him. Each movement he made was deliberate, impossible to ignore. His gaze pinned her, reading her like an open book, yet hiding depths she couldn't touch.
"You are… different," he said, voice like velvet laced with steel. "Mortal, yet… resilient. Curious. Dangerous."
Lian Mei swallowed hard. "I… don't understand."
"You will," he murmured. Then, as if testing her, he extended a finger—just one—toward her chest. The air shimmered. A spark of heat ignited where his finger hovered. Lian Mei's heart raced, a mixture of fear and a strange, undeniable pull.
The rain intensified, pounding against the pavement, but somehow it felt distant, muted, as if the world around them existed only in the space between his gaze and hers.
"You feel it, don't you?" he asked, his voice now closer, intimate. "The pull between our worlds? The shadow calling to you?"
"I… I don't know what you mean," Lian Mei whispered, though she did. Something had awakened inside her the moment she saw him. A fluttering in her chest, a heat rising through her veins, a whisper of something she could not name.
He chuckled softly, and the sound wrapped around her like silk and steel. "Very well. Then you will learn."
Before she could react, the space between them dissolved. The world tilted, colors bending, the cityscape stretching and warping into an impossible horizon. Lian Mei gasped, clutching her bag, trying to ground herself. But the ground beneath her feet was no longer the familiar Taipei pavement—it was smooth obsidian, glowing faintly under a crimson sky streaked with black clouds.
"Where—what is this?" she demanded, fear and awe mingling.
"This is where your life truly begins," he said. His eyes burned into hers. "I am Kuro, the Demon Prince, and you… are meant to be mine."
The air around him shimmered with power so tangible it pressed against her skin. Lian Mei felt herself trembling, her pulse racing in a way that wasn't just fear. There was something magnetic about him, something primal and overwhelming that drew her closer despite every instinct screaming to flee.
"You speak as if I have a choice," she said, her voice steadier than she felt.
"You do," he replied, tilting his head, a smirk curling across lips too perfect to be human. "But the choice will not be easy. Desire, power, survival… one will demand everything of you."
Lightning split the sky behind him, illuminating the vast palace rising before them. Towering spires of black stone, adorned with glowing runes and flickering flames, seemed to stretch endlessly upward. This was no mere building—it was alive, humming with dark energy that made the hairs on her neck stand.
Lian Mei's instincts screamed at her to run. Yet she couldn't. Not when every fiber of her being seemed tethered to him, drawn into a gravity she couldn't resist.
"You have questions," Kuro murmured, stepping closer. The air between them sparked with energy. "And I will answer them. But first… you must trust me."
"I don't even know you," she whispered. Her voice trembled, yet there was an undeniable thrill coursing through her.
"And yet," he said, his eyes flashing crimson, "you do."
Before she could respond, he lifted a hand, brushing a strand of wet hair from her face. The contact was electric, a jolt that traveled deep, deeper than fear, deeper than reason. Lian Mei's knees threatened to buckle. She wanted to pull back… and yet, she leaned closer, drawn against her will.
"The world you knew is gone," he said softly. "And in its place… lies everything you could ever desire. Pain. Pleasure. Power. Love. Hate. All at once. You will not leave unchanged."
A clap of thunder shook the obsidian ground, and Lian Mei realized her life had irrevocably shifted. One step forward, and she would cross a line she could never return from. Yet the pull of him—the danger, the heat, the impossible intensity—made her heartbeat race in a way she had never known.
She swallowed, feeling a mix of fear, curiosity, and longing. "And if I say yes?"
He smiled, a dark, predatory curl of lips that made her shiver. "Then, mortal… I will own you entirely."
Lightning struck again, and in that moment, Lian Mei felt the world tilt completely. Her ordinary life, her mundane fears, her safe little routines—all vanished. Only him. Only desire. Only the shadowed world where the Demon Prince waited, and she was now a part of it.
And in that instant, she realized: she did not want to leave.