The night sang with the cries of the dying.

Sebastian stood in the center of the battlefield, the scent of burning wood and spilled blood thick in the air. Bodies littered the ground—some still twitching, others nothing more than hollowed-out husks. He had left none standing. It was a massacre, the kind he had become known for.

The Huntresses had fought fiercely, as they always did. But against him they never stood a chance.

He ran his tongue over his fangs, savoring the taste of the carnage. He was young, but having risen swiftly through the ranks of the vampire elite, they already whispered his name in fear. Sebastian, the Blood Reaper. A predator carved from night, born to kill. Possessing no soul, no mercy and no remorse.

And tonight, he had claimed his ultimate prize.

At his feet lay the greatest of them all—the Huntress Queen.

She had been his obsession, his challenge, the one opponent who had made him work for his kill. But in the end, even she had fallen before him, just like the rest. Her legendary blades lay broken beside her, her blood soaking the earth, her breath rattling in her throat.

Sebastian crouched beside her, brushing a strand of blood-matted hair from her face. She coughed weakly, her piercing eyes locking onto his. There was no fear in them, no pleading. Just a quiet certainty, as if she had made peace with the inevitability of her death.

He grinned, sharp and wicked. “Tell me, Nyssara, was this the fate you had imagined for yourself?”

Her lips curved slightly—not in fear, nor regret. But in something that made his smile falter. “I had hoped for a battle that would shake the heavens, but I guess this will do,” she rasped.

Sebastian frowned, his amusement dimming. He leaned in closer and said, “Then let’s see if we can give you a fate far more fitting for a Queen.”

She reached up with the last of her strength, her fingers barely grazing his cheek, as if trying to mark the face of the one who had ended her. A chill ran through him, foreign and unwelcome.

“The prophecy…” she murmured, her voice barely a whisper. “This was always meant to happen. You rise so that you can fall.”

A sneer curled his lips. “Prophecies are fairy tales for the weak. Did you really think that sending those whispers of nonsense would turn me away? If anything, it only strengthened my resolve. To destroy and devour you.” He studied her face. “Queens are a delicacy in these parts, you know. Hard to catch. Or so I’ve heard. Yet here you are. Ready for me to savor.”

Her fingers tightened slightly, her nails digging into his skin. “You will fall, Sebastian. And it won’t be by a blade.”

There was something unsettling in the way she looked at him, but her gaze held no meaning for him. She exhaled one last time. Her body went still, her hand slipping away.

Sebastian watched in silence as death claimed her and light faded from her eyes. And then he laughed.

Loud, dark, victorious.

Queen Huntress Nyssara Vayne, the greatest Huntress that ever lived, was dead, and he had been the one to kill her.

There was no force in existence that could stop him now that she was gone.

Before he could truly revel in his conquest, a sudden, fervent whisper floated through the darkness, laced with something ancient, coiling around him.

It sounded like a language older than the kingdoms, woven into the very fabric of the earth.

Sebastian turned, his fangs bared, expecting the last remnants of the Huntresses to throw themselves at him in a final, foolish act of vengeance. But the battlefield had fallen into an eerie silence.

And then he saw her.

A woman cloaked in deep reds and blacks, standing just beyond the wreckage. Not a warrior. Not a Huntress. A gypsy.

Her presence didn’t belong in war, but she stared at Nyssara’s lifeless form with grief so raw it made the air tremble.

Sebastian sneered. “Come to mourn? You should have run, little lamb.”

She did not run. Instead, she stepped forward, her eyes burning with something more than sorrow—something primal.

“Do you know who she was?” She asked and when he did not answer fast enough, she screamed, “DO YOU KNOW WHO SHE WAS?” 

He watched her carefully. “My prize.” 

Her eyes blazed with fury. But her voice was soft when she responded. Deadly. “She was my love. You have taken my love, Blood Reaper.”

“My sincerest apologies.” How he liked toying with his food. He found that it whetted his appetite. 

She angled her head peculiarly. “You do not know what you have done.” 

“Increased my morsel into a satisfying meal by luring a little lamb to the foot of my dining table?” He bowed, regally. 

She smiled then. “You have walked through this life without burden, without consequence. That ends tonight.”

Sebastian moved before she finished speaking, a blur of shadow and bloodlust. He would rip her throat out before she could say another word.

But she was faster.

Not in movement, not in strength—but in power.

She raised her hands, and the air crackled. Pain tore through him, different from any wound he had ever suffered. It was not physical—it was inside him, burrowing through the black void where his soul should have been.

Sebastian staggered back, clutching his chest.

“What… have you done?” His voice was not a roar but a whisper of rage.

The Gypsy watched him with cold, unyielding satisfaction. “I have given you what you lack, Reaper.”

The agony sharpened, and for the first time in centuries, he felt something he could not understand. Guilt. Revulsion. The weight of every death he had ever caused pressing into his mind like molten iron.

Sebastian screamed.

His vision blurred. The world tilted. He fell to his knees, fingers clawing at the dirt as if he could tear the feeling out of himself.

His guards rushed forward, but before they could reach him, another figure emerged from the shadows. An elder, her skin weathered by time, her eyes as deep as eternity itself.

She raised one frail hand. The air howled. 

The guards didn’t have time to scream. Being lesser vampires that had not yet developed greater protection against magic, they burst apart—flesh, bone, and blood dissolving into nothingness.

Sebastian lifted his head, his mind a storm of rage and agony, but his body gave away. His strength failed and his vision darkened.

The last thing he saw was the gypsy elder standing over him, staring down, before the void swallowed him whole.

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Story Blurb

Sebastian was the most feared vampire of his time—ruthless, relentless, a nightmare made into flesh. His greatest triumph is in killing the greatest Queen Huntress to have lived. But this very act twists his fate when in an act of retaliation, the gypsies lay a curse on him, reuniting his soul with his body.

Tormented by grief and guilt, Sebastian longs for death and begins the mission of bringing about his own demise. Yet he cannot surrender to it. He alone holds the balance between humanity and the supernatural, a tenuous order that would collapse in his absence. Especially with rumblings of a possible alliance between the Incubi and the Succubi, who are better apart than together.

In the midst of a brewing war, the Queen’s daughter, Alina, enters his court on a diplomatic mission. Yet he recognizes the true purpose of her visit: his assassination. And he welcomes it.

But as he watches her, learns her, he sees something he never expected—not just a hunter, not just an assassin, but a leader. A force as unyielding as her mother once was. She has the power to uphold the balance in his absence, to take his place when he is gone. She is both his destruction and his salvation.

Yet the closer he gets to her, the more he begins to waver. The more he wants to live. But the more he cares for her, the weaker he becomes. Another cruel trick of the curse? Or the final answer to his suffering? The one thing that makes him want to live…may also be the thing that kills him.

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Author Bio

Hey there! New writer here on GWUWI.com. I like to write slow-burn paranormal romances. If that sounds up your ally, then please consider subscribing to stay updated whenever a new chapter goes up!

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Disclaimer: I may or may not make changes to past chapters as I write. This is not a finished product, but a work in progress, hope you understand. Thanks in advance!