Immortal Dark by Tigest Grima

Kidan Adane is on a mission. Her sister June has been missing for some time, and she believes she knows who took her. Not only that, but she was accused of being a murderer in her sister’s case and has become hell-bent on finding her. In their world, there are vampires, and the Adane bloodline has been bonded to a vampire bloodline to help keep them all going. But Kidan and June’s parents died, leaving them to grow up outside the arcane society of vampires and humans together. Kidan believes that the family they are linked to is the one who took June—specifically Susenyos Sagad. Kidan is constantly listening to and watching her sister’s videos from before her disappearance. June has always seen strange things throughout her life, so she saw a therapist and took medication, but her therapist suggested she make videos to talk about it. Kidan watches these videos and feels guilt for all the times she didn’t listen to June and could have helped more. Since no one is willing to help her find June, she decides to do it herself.

Kidan enrolls in Uxlay University, a place where they learn to coexist between humans and vampires. She accepts, but not out of any desire to coexist. She’s going to Uxlay to kill Susenyos Sagad, the vampire she believes kidnapped her sister and manipulated her family into handing him everything. Because somehow, despite their tragic deaths, Kidan’s parents and aunt left their entire estate—House Adane—to him. Unless Kidan lives in that house for twenty-eight consecutive days, attends class, and completes her education, the inheritance will become legally his.

Once at Uxlay, things are stranger and more dangerous than Kidan ever imagined. Her family is one of the university’s Founding Houses, which means their home is more than a building—it’s a powerful, semi-sentient magical entity. Every house at Uxlay has a binding law woven into its foundations, and the law of Adane House is still hidden. Kidan must find it to claim control of the house—or, potentially, rewrite it. Meanwhile, she must share the space with Susenyos, the vampire who is charming, arrogant, frustratingly unreadable… and maybe, just maybe, not the monster she’s painted him to be. Their interactions are tense and often veer into something emotionally charged and electric, leaving Kidan off balance and questioning everything she thought she knew. Despite all her instincts, there’s something between them—and neither of them seems able to ignore it.

Kidan’s situation grows even more precarious. Her trial for murder is in eight months, and her only bargaining chip is a deal with Uxlay’s dean: she’ll comply with the university’s expectations if they provide her with legal protection until then. Meanwhile, she combs through her late aunt Silia’s journal—full of vampire history, house politics, and coded warnings—and begins to realize that House Adane may have been targeted for destruction long before June was taken. Her sister's fate is tangled in a web of secrecy, power, and betrayal, and there’s no guarantee June is even still alive. What becomes clear is that someone or something has been hunting their family for generations—and that Uxlay may not be as peaceful or neutral as it pretends to be.

At one point, Kidan calls on the dean to help her, claiming Susenyos is there to harm her. The dean says that if she accuses Susenyos again without evidence, she will be expelled. In return, if he harms her or something happens to her, Susenyos loses the inheritance. To gather evidence, she takes his flask of blood to have it tested for her sister’s. She doesn’t think about the fact that she took away his food source, and now he is in bloodlust. The only way to get out of it is for Susenyos to tell Kidan to yank his fangs out, which she does.

The next task for the humans is to get a piece of vampire clothing willingly. Susenyos, still angry at Kidan, tells all the vampires not to give her anything, leaving Kidan stranded and worried. In a last-ditch effort, she shows everyone the fangs she took from him. Susenyos is forced to agree that he gave them to her—it’s that or admit he was overpowered by a human. She passes the course. This leads to the two dancing that night to show they are united, which turns into a temporary truce to find more information on her sister June.

Susenyos and Kidan keep having a push-and-pull relationship. Neither of them is being truthful, and both continue to betray the other. They do still work on conquering the house, though, and it takes time.

Kidan has moved into the house with Susenyos and is playing a deadly waiting game. Every day she stays delays his legal claim to her family’s legacy. She still doesn’t have proof that he took June, but she’s determined to find it—or kill him trying. What complicates things is Susenyos himself. He’s frustratingly calm, calculating, and intimately familiar with the power structures of Uxlay, and his interest in Kidan seems to go beyond politics. Whether it’s manipulation, strategy, or something real, it’s working. Kidan feels it, even as she fights it. And then there’s the bigger truth: if she fails her courses or loses her position, she’ll lose everything—and so will June.

Eventually, Kidan gets invited to join a group called the Thirteen. She doesn’t know how to feel about it, and Susenyos tells her to be cautious. Around this time, Susenyos also mentions some of his past—that he is quite old and responsible for his court turning into vampires. Soon after, Susenyos learns about a betrayal from Kidan and locks her up, furious. Once Kidan breaks out, she finds the Thirteen and realizes that they are the ones who have been setting up Susenyos to make it look like he took June. The two start a new temporary alliance.

Their alliance and investigating lead to them meeting someone else, Samson, who reveals that he is with a group called the Nefrasi and sees Susenyos as a brother. In fact, he was one of the members of his old court who turned him, and now he wants his revenge. He wants to be in the house with Susenyos and Kidan. In an attempt to solidify a new alliance with all three of them, Samson reveals that he has June. When Kidan gets home, there is a video waiting for her—from June. She happily and willingly went to the Nefrasi. They have taken care of her, and she doesn’t want Kidan to come after her. In fact, according to June, Kidan ruined all the plans by showing up at Uxlay. All of this shocks Kidan, and it takes her a while to get out of her slump. Even Susenyos tries to help her, but all he can feel from her is nothing. He tells Kidan that she needs to find a new reason to fight.

During the final ceremony, Kidan has to choose who will continue on with her. She chooses two—Samson and Susenyos.

Kidan and Susenyos share a rare, fragile week of peace—a time filled with quiet rituals, soft sunlight, shared fruit, and talk of rebellion. Their tense relationship thaws into something closer to companionship, but a distance lingers, especially on Susenyos’s side. He avoids touching her and seems increasingly fatigued. Kidan finally notices the shift when he injures himself in the kitchen and doesn’t heal—revealing that he’s no longer immortal. The house stripped his powers when he gave Kidan a clue that endangered one of the sacred artifacts hidden within its walls. Though she’s furious, Susenyos is resigned, carrying the weight of his choice and preparing to face Samson, the powerful vampire who’s coming to kill him. Their bond deepens under this shared threat, and Kidan finally realizes how much she’s come to care for him—and how much it terrifies her. As the pair wait for Samson to show back up, the door rings, and June is there.