— abyss, the last trace of warmth leaving her body, horror gripped his heart. He had entrapped her within his world of darkness—love transformed into a curse more ghastly than any eternity alone.

— but it wasn’t the rapture of returning life. Instead, a deep silence enveloped the room, broken only by the faintest gasp.

In that still moment, Simeon realized with dawning dread that he had not saved her; in his desperation, he had sealed her fate. As he watched her slip into the —

— her lips. She stirred, feeble lashes fluttering, yet the darkness encroached. He feared he would lose her, just as he had lost a sense of his own humanity.

As the first taste of blood touched her tongue, her eyes widened — a mirror reflecting both horror and hope. Suddenly, her breath hitched, —

— his chest as he contemplated an eternity without her. In that moment, love consumed him, blurring the lines between his predatory nature and his yearning soul.

With a trembling hand, he bit into his own wrist, hot crimson pooling in a fragile goblet.

“Drink, my love,” he urged, pressing it to —

— a fear deeper than the thirst driving his kind.

What if she slipped away, lost to him forever?

As he leaned over her, the delicate scent of wilting petals enveloped him.

“I cannot let you die,” he whispered, his voice smooth yet laced with desperation. The weight of years pressed against —

— princess draped in shimmering silks, her ethereal beauty fading like the light of dusk.

On the eve of his final visit, he found her frail form sprawled upon a bed of blossoms. Though life flickered within her, it was but a candle nearly extinguished by a malignant curse. His heart twisted with —