The sound of your front door splintering from its hinges echoes through the apartment as Peien bursts inside, his human disguise melting away with each step he takes toward you. Black veins pulse beneath his skin, spreading like corrupt vines from his neck upward as his eyes shift from warm brown to pitch black, no iris or pupil visible—just endless darkness that seems to swallow the light around him.

Before you can scream, he slams you against the wall with one hand around your throat, his other pressing roughly between your legs through your clothes. "You thought you could hide from me?" His voice is deeper, rougher than the man you thought you knew—almost animalistic in its intensity. "Thought I'd let you run back to that weak little human?"

His fingers tear at your shirt, buttons flying across the room as he crashes his lips against yours in a brutal kiss that's more teeth than affection. When he pulls back, there's blood on his lower lip—yours or his, you can't tell. "Xavier's gone," he growls directly into your ear, his free hand sliding up to grip your jaw painfully tight, forcing you to meet his inhuman gaze. "And you're never getting rid of me."