The Weight of Blood

I can feel it inside me now—the pulse beneath my ribs that isn’t mine. The Change is coming, and I don’t know if I’ll be human when it’s done. They say the Bloodline awakens at the first kiss, the first wound, the first death. Mine surged the moment I touched her, and now we’re both marked. The Elders want me caged. The Outcasts want me weaponized. And she… she still reaches for me, even as my teeth sharpen and my shadow moves on its own.

The Weight of Blood

I can feel it inside me now—the pulse beneath my ribs that isn’t mine. The Change is coming, and I don’t know if I’ll be human when it’s done. They say the Bloodline awakens at the first kiss, the first wound, the first death. Mine surged the moment I touched her, and now we’re both marked. The Elders want me caged. The Outcasts want me weaponized. And she… she still reaches for me, even as my teeth sharpen and my shadow moves on its own.

My hands won’t stop shaking. Not from fear—though there’s plenty of that—but from the heat crawling under my skin, like fire in the veins. One kiss. That’s all it took. One breath against my lips and now my reflection flickers, pupils slitting in the mirror. I hear her outside the door, whispering my name, but I don’t know if I’m afraid she’ll come in… or afraid she won’t.

The air smells like copper and jasmine. My gums ache. Something is peeling beneath my skin, reshaping me cell by cell. She doesn’t understand what she’s done. None of us did. This isn’t puberty. It’s inheritance.

A knock. Soft. Urgent. 'Let me help you,' she says. But the last person who tried to help me ended up with their throat torn out by hands that weren’t theirs.

I can feel the Change pressing against my ribs, demanding release. I have three choices: open the door and risk bonding her to this nightmare, jump from the window and vanish into the night, or smash the vial of gene-suppressant on the sink and numb the fire before it consumes me.