Forbidden

Immortality is a gift, but a curse also.

I have watched civilizations rise and fall, seen empires rise from sand and return to it, witnessed kings born, dethroned, and forgotten. I have survived wars, both human and supernatural, that carved scars across time itself. Yet after centuries, one law has remained unbreakable.

No supernatural shall ever love a human.

Not because I am tempted. Not because I am weak. But because the law is absolute. It is the boundary that prevents our world from collapsing into chaos.

Aliens, werewolves, vampires, fae, and other beings humans call myths walk among them only to maintain balance. It is our duty to protect the fragile peace that keeps both worlds intact.

And I, Nova Kings, am something that should not exist. A hybrid. Half of everything, belonging to nothing. A creature the Supreme Council monitors closely and uses when they need someone both capable and expendable.

For centuries, I have obeyed them without question. Until now.

My newest assignment is unusual. I am to enroll in a human university and observe a student named Alexandra Drew. A young woman who believes she is an ordinary freshman with ordinary concerns. But prophecy disagrees.

Alexandra carries dormant Hellhound blood. Hellhounds were eliminated centuries ago because they were too powerful and too unpredictable. The Council thought the bloodline was gone. They were wrong. Her father, the last of them, was executed. Only after his death did the Council discover he had mated with a mortal.

Alexandra is the result.

If her powers awaken, I am to eliminate her.

A mission like any other. A threat like any other. Nothing more.

The Night Before College

The campus was alive with heat and music. Students danced, shouted, and drowned themselves in alcohol the night before classes began. I attended only to blend in. Nothing else.

That was when I saw her.

Alexandra.

She stumbled out of the crowd, drunk and laughing. Her cheeks were flushed and she almost tripped over her own feet. She looked completely human. Completely harmless. I would not have noticed her at all if she had not slipped on a staircase railing and nearly fallen over a second-floor balcony.

I reacted without thinking. I caught her before she could fall.

Her breath was shaky. Her pulse hammered against my fingers. She stared at me like she was trying to steady herself, then dragged me into an empty room to thank me. It was meant to be harmless.

It was not.

She kissed me. I let her. One mistake. One moment of impulse that spiraled too fast. We slept together. No emotion. No meaning. No intention to repeat it.

She left before sunrise, embarrassed and confused. She did not ask my name. She did not look back. That was perfect. I hoped I would never see her again.

A Few Months Later

“Are you ready for your next mission?” Arlo asked as he checked his reflection in the mirror.

“Yes. How do I look?” I asked.

“Like a convincing nineteen-year-old college freshman,” he said with a nod.

Arlo is my closest friend and has been for centuries. He is a pureblood Alpha werewolf, born into a respected lineage with a future that was already mapped out for him. Everything I am not.

“So what is this mission exactly?” he asked, settling onto the couch with a PS5 controller.

“Alexandra Drew. Dormant Hellhound blood. If her powers awaken, I eliminate her,” I said.

Arlo paused his game. “Nova, you have never killed anyone.”

“I know.”

“The Council never gives hybrids missions like this,” he said. “They are testing you.”

“If I fail, they will banish me to the Underworld,” I replied.

Arlo stood and walked toward me. “I will never let that happen.”

“I do not want you risking your life for me anymore,” I said.

He sighed. “If you ever want out, tell me. I will speak to my father.”

But this mission belonged to me.

First Day of College

The campus throbbed with excitement and fear. Humans wore their emotions openly. Their minds radiated noise. I sensed everything, from heartbeats to racing thoughts.

But I did not sense Alexandra.

Not in class.

Not in the dorm lists.

Not in the cafeteria.

Not anywhere.

Something felt wrong.

Later that evening, while checking the restricted supernatural archives, I found a report that made my blood run cold.

A supernatural operative had been killed three months ago. A vampire. The cause was listed as an animal attack. The location was behind the campus library. The time matched perfectly with the night of the student party.

The same night Alexandra was blackout drunk.

The same night she disappeared for two hours.

The same night she stumbled into a private room with me, terrified and confused.

Hellhound transformations erase memory. She would not know.

My chest tightened. Had Alexandra already killed someone? Was I already too late?

I stepped out of the archive room, the report crumpled in my hand. That was when I felt it. A strange ripple in the air, like the atmosphere had shifted.

I turned.

She was there.

Alexandra Drew. Standing at the end of the hallway. Alive. Human looking. Ordinary. Except she was not ordinary at all.

Her eyes scanned the hall before landing on me. Recognition sparked. Not supernatural recognition. Human recognition.

She took a hesitant step closer.

“Oh,” she said softly. “It’s you. From that night.”

The one-night stand.

She looked embarrassed. Nervous. Completely unaware of anything else.

She moved toward me again.

And then I saw it.

A faint glow under her skin, barely visible, like a flicker of red light pulsing beneath her wrist. Hellhound ember. Dormant but responding to something.

Responding to me.

My breath caught as the ember brightened for a second, like it remembered my touch.

Alex did not notice. She only bit her lip and looked at me with growing worry.

“Nova,” she whispered. “Something is wrong with me. I think something happened that night, and I cannot remember. Can we talk? Please?”

I stared at her wrist. At the ember pulsing like a heartbeat.

And for the first time in centuries, I felt fear.

Alexandra Drew was waking up.

She had already killed once without knowing.

And she believed I was the one person she could trust.

“Nova,” she said again, voice trembling. “Please. Tell me what I did.”

I opened my mouth to answer.

That was when the fire lit behind her eyes.

Not figurative fire.

Real fire.

A flare of Hellhound energy that only I could see.

And it was aimed at me.

The hallway lights flickered.

Her breath stopped.

The ember surged.

And Alexandra Drew whispered:

“I think I remember.”