On New Year's Eve, when the city is noisy with excitement and hope, Aria Moretti merely wants to hide. Instead, she finds a dying guy in an alley-bleeding, dangerous, and inexplicably quiet. Dante Russo is not a stranger fate intended her to save. He is a man made by violence, linked by blood oaths and secrets that may kill her. Helping him means crossing a line she can never uncross. Letting him go means surviving... but losing something she never knew she wanted. As love burns in the shadows and danger follows them through locked doors and whispered threats, Aria must decide how much of herself she is willing to risk for a man who lives in darkness. Because loving Dante doesn't only mean heartbreak. It signifies blood. It signifies battle. And it implies that after midnight passes, there is no turning back.
Aria's POV
The city smelt of smoke and champagne, the streets alive with laughing and flashing lights. I shouldn't have come out tonight-my phone vibrating with New Year's wishes felt like a reminder that I was alone-but something dragged me into the mayhem.
Then the gunshot shattered everything.
People yelled, bottles smashed. My heart slammed against my ribs as I hid behind a trash bin. And there he was.
A man, slumped against the alley wall, blood dripping through his white shirt. Not panicked. Not begging. Just... waiting, controlled, menacing, like a predator in pain.
"Please," he said, voice low, hoarse. "Help me."
Every instinct shouted at me to run. But I couldn't. Something in his eyes-fierce, vulnerable, magnetic-pinned me to the spot.
"Okay," I whispered, voice quivering. "Let's get you somewhere safe."
He leaned into me, weight substantial and real. My fingertips stroked his chest to calm him, and heat flashed through me-not fear, not just adrenaline-but something sharper, deeper. My pulse raced as I felt his heartbeat against mine, irregular, yet constant in a peculiar rhythm only I could feel.
The countdown from the square reached our ears:
"Ten... nine... eight..."
Fireworks exploded overhead, bathing the streets in gold. I realized, as I helped him walk, that I had no idea who he was, what danger trailed him, or why my chest clenched with every glimpse at his pale, bloodied face.
"Why... are you helping me?" he murmured suddenly, voice so gentle it made me shiver.
I choked, words stopped in my throat. "Because... I can't just leave you here."
His lips curved-half a smile, half a grimace-and for a heartbeat, the world narrowed to just us. And then everything went wrong.
A shadow moved in the alley. A whisper of movement, yet enough. My stomach fell as he stiffened. His hand sprang out-not toward me, but toward something behind me.
"Run," he hissed.
I turned. Someone was coming. Someone meant to kill him. Or me. I couldn't tell which. The last firework erupted right above, and in that moment, I saw his eyes-dark, stormy, impossible-and knew one terrifying truth:
I was already in too deep.
Chapter 1 Midnight Vows
30/01/2026
Chapter 2 Shadows Between Us
30/01/2026
Chapter 3 The Man Behind the Blood
30/01/2026
Chapter 4 Marked
30/01/2026
Chapter 5 The Knock That Knew My Name
30/01/2026
Chapter 6 A Dangerous Choice
30/01/2026
Chapter 7 When the World Burn
30/01/2026
Chapter 8 Blood Calls Blood
30/01/2026
Chapter 9 The Choice That Breaks Us
30/01/2026
Chapter 10 Taken
30/01/2026
Chapter 11 Lessons in Power
30/01/2026
Chapter 12 When He Comes for Me
30/01/2026
Chapter 13 The Sound of a Heart Stopping
30/01/2026
Chapter 14 What Wakes in the Dark
30/01/2026
Chapter 15 What He Sees When He Wakes
30/01/2026
Chapter 16 The Bloody Throne
31/01/2026
Chapter 17 The Chain Crown
01/02/2026
Chapter 18 The Ritual of Crimson Silence
01/02/2026
Chapter 19 The Blood That Should Not Exist
01/02/2026
Chapter 20 The Man Who Chose War
01/02/2026