Carmine Galante

The Introduction: The Ignition point A curse doesn't look for a willing savior—it hunts down the only soul capable of surviving its heat. The heavy steel exit door of the nightclub hissed shut, cutting off the rhythmic, thumping bass that had filled Mia’s ears for the last eight hours. It was well past 3:00 AM, and the city streets were entirely dead. Wrapping her jacket tightly around her gorgeous hourglass frame, Mia hurried down the dim, shadow-drenched alleyway, her heels clicking sharply against the wet concrete as her feisty, independent nature urged her to just make it to her car quickly. She didn't notice the three heavy, quiet footsteps trailing her from the main street until it was entirely too late. "Hey, sweetheart," a rough, menacing voice hissed from the dark. ?Before Mia could use her sassy wit to threaten them, a brutal hand shoved her against the cold brick wall. Another attacker violently ripped her designer handbag and phone straight out of her grip, shattering the strap, while a third cornered her into the dead end, his eyes filled with a horrific, malicious intent to hurt her. Mia’s breath caught in her throat, her stubborn defense mechanisms completely failing as she looked around the empty, pitch-black alley. "Don't scream, girl," the first thug growled, stepping closer as he drew a weapon. But the words had barely left his mouth when the temperature in the alleyway spiked violently, shifting from a freezing midnight chill to a suffocating, blistering heat. The bricks began to crack. The puddles of rainwater on the concrete literally began to boil and hiss into thick white steam. Out from the absolute darkness stepped Carmine Galante. He looked magnificently terrifying, his broad-shouldered frame draped in a heavy leather trench coat, his piercing eyes locking onto Mia's terrified face with an immediate, unshakeable wave of intense recognition.