The night had thickened into something almost tangible, the city streets glistening from the recent rain, reflecting the fractured neon lights in jagged shards. Every shadow felt alive, every distant footstep a threat, every whisper of wind a warning. My body still hummed with adrenaline from the last skirmish, every muscle taut, every nerve alive. Dante was beside me, moving with his usual lethal precision, his presence both a shield and an igniter of dangerous desire.

I couldn’t stop the way I scanned the streets, heart pounding, mind racing, every instinct screaming that we were far from safe. “They’re relentless,” I whispered, almost to myself, though Dante’s hand immediately found...