DAGON MANSION

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: ALEXANDRA

WARNINGS: This chapter contains descriptions of a violent/sexual nature. It is about explaining the relationship between Ryan and Alexandra, which in my opinion is important to know, to understand what happened in the Shadow Cult. 

The moment they crossed the threshold, Mia felt it.

The city breathed — and hungered.

Urbs Custodes Sanguinis stretched before them in a maze of narrow alleys and black-marbled streets, buildings rising like jagged fangs toward a starless sky. Cold sifted through the stones, ancient and predatory, as though the walls themselves remembered every scream they had ever absorbed.

Mia shivered.

This place isn't haunted. It's alive.

Ryan walked like a ghost in his own skin. Every step was a shard of memory pricking through his façade — nights lost to bloodlust, pleasures sought without conscience, Alexandra's laughter echoing in the dark like a sin he once worshipped.

What was I then? And why did she feel inevitable?

Theolinda stayed close, her hand finding Ryan's as though anchoring herself — or him.

Ahead, the castle emerged from shadow: vast, obscene in its grandeur. Red light pulsed behind its windows like a heartbeat gone wrong. Symbols older than empires clawed up its walls, etched deep enough to feel, not see.

The courtyard opened beneath a blood-tinted sky.

Silence.

Then movement — too fast to track.

Vampires materialized around them, pupils dilated with hunger, breath sharp as broken glass. Their presence pressed in like a physical force. Theolinda stiffened, fingers trembling in Ryan's grip. Mia's pulse spiked — not fear, but a rising heat, a reckless boldness that frightened her more than fangs ever could.

A snarl. Muscles coiled. Claws bared.

And then —

A voice.

Warm velvet over steel. Elegant. Commanding. Fatal.

"Enough. They are mine."

Alexandra stepped into view.

Her hair fell like a curtain of midnight, her skin pale as porcelain kissed by flame, alive in a way no other vampire here dared to be. Her body was lush, unapologetically sensual — power made flesh.

Her gaze landed on Ryan and the world shrank to the space between them.

Ryan's lungs forgot air.

She had not changed.

The danger. The beauty. The hunger that once felt like salvation.

Memories surged — not romantic, but ritualistic, dark, intimate in the way storms are intimate with the sea. Her feeding, sacred and savage. His surrender — not seduced but claimed. Blood on his tongue, sin in his veins, pleasure twined with revulsion until neither could be untangled.

Now, staring at her, he felt something colder than fear.

Shame.

Alexandra smiled — slow, knowing, cruel in the way that comes from infinite practice.

"Welcome back, Ryan," she murmured. "And you've brought such... fragile company."

Theolinda flinched. Mia's jaw tightened — not in jealousy, but fury, raw and trembling.

Ryan steadied his breath.

He would not be that man again.

"Alexandra," he said, voice flat. "We don't have time for your games. I have a request."

Her eyes glittered. "Always so impatient. What is it you want?"

"I want you to stop sending vampires to Glouminster."

A bored sigh. "Done. Hardly worth summoning me for."

"And," Ryan continued, "I want you to lift the curse."

The air stilled.

Amusement slid from Alexandra's face, replaced by interest — sharp, predatory.
"Lifting it carries a price. What do you offer?"

Ryan didn't blink.

"Me."

A silence so vast it felt like a collapse.

Theolinda sucked in a breath.

Mia's heart stuttered; something fractured in her expression — rage, betrayal, grief, fear, all fighting for dominance.

Alexandra studied him like a jewel she once owned.

"All of you?" she asked softly.

"Body, will... loyalty?"

"If that's what it takes."

For a moment — just a moment — something flickered in her gaze. Something almost human.

Then she laughed, low and delighted, hunger thick enough to taste.

"You offer yourself so easily, Ryan. As if you were not already mine."

Mia stepped forward, voice shaking.
"No. He isn't."

Alexandra didn't even look at her.

She only smiled at Ryan.

"Very well," she whispered. "Let us discuss the terms."

Ryan stood very still — not brave, not resigned, but condemned by his own sense of duty.

Mia stared at him, hollow-eyed, and for the first time since entering this world of monsters and gods, she looked like the most dangerous thing among them. She would defeat Alexandra.