Chapter 2
I pretended I didn't know anything for three days.
I smiled as I drank the blood he offered, accepted his embrace, and echoed his love through the bond.
Now, those words of affection sounded like knives, each syllable stabbing into my heart.
But I had to keep smiling because I needed to make him let his guard down and find a chance to escape.
I wasn't doing this for myself but for the child growing inside me.
I could die, but my baby must live.
The opportunity came sooner than I expected.
*****
Late on the third night, Sebastian was called away by Isabella.
They went into the study, closed the door, and locked it.
I slipped out through the back door.
The moonlight was bright, illuminating the forest behind the castle.
I ran for my life into the woods, past the jagged branches, and the crows startled by my footsteps. I didn't dare look back.
My body was still weak, and I hadn't fully recovered from the Embrace yet. The blood of the demon hunter and the power of the vampire were locked in a battle, sending waves of agony surging through my bones and organs.
But I couldn't stop.
If I stopped, the child would die.
After about twenty minutes of running, when the glow of car headlights was about to break through the darkness ahead, a wave of dizziness hit me.
My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the ground.
It felt as if someone wrung my brain out. A familiar, cold, and powerful consciousness intruded into my thoughts.
Sebastian had found me through the spiritual bond.
"Emily." Sebastian's voice echoed deep in my mind, simmering with suppressed rage. "What are you doing?"
I forced myself to shut him out, burying all my fear, anger, and disgust in a place he couldn't reach.
"I-I couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk," I said.
There was a brief silence before he said, "Do you think I'd believe that?"
Then, a cold hand clamped down on my shoulder from behind.
I screamed and spun around.
He stood there in the moonlight. His black coat was dusted with leaves. His gray-blue eyes were void of warmth.
He watched me like someone eyeing a bird desperate to break free from its cage.
He dragged me back to the castle, but he didn't take me back to the topmost room.
He took me to the basement with a skylight no bigger than a bucket.
The walls were rough stone. The floor was covered in a thin layer of hay.
There was a rusty bucket in the corner, reeking of something foul.
The air was cold and damp, thick with the stench of mold and blood.
He threw me to the ground.
"You can't escape," he said. "As long as the bond is there, I'll always find you wherever you are.
"I made you. This connection isn't something you can break because you want to."
I bit my lip, trembling, not from fear, but from anger. "What if I break it?"
He paused and then smiled. It was the same smile he gave me the first time he kissed me. It was gentle and doting, the kind that made me want to melt into it.
But now, seeing that smile, I felt a chill crawling down my spine.
"You won't," Sebastian said. "Breaking the bond takes a ton of willpower and agony. Your body couldn't bear it."
He pulled a syringe from his pocket. The clear tube gleamed, the needle shining coldly. "Give me your hand," he said.
I pulled my hand back, clutching my belly protectively. "You'll hurt the baby."
"I won't. I'll be careful with the dose," he said.
"I don't believe you," I said.
His eyes narrowed. "You don't have a choice."
He grabbed my wrist. His grip was so tight that my bones felt like they might snap.
The instant the needle pierced my vein, I arched my back in agony.
It wasn't ordinary pain. It was like my blood was burning outward from my veins.
The demon hunter blood and the vampire blood still hadn't fully merged inside me. When it was being drawn, it felt like my veins were being ripped open.
I watched as the bright red blood flowed through the tube into the container. It was so red that it hurt my eyes.
When he finished, he let go of my hand.
I crumpled to the floor, dizzy and drenched in cold sweat.
He stood up, picked up the blood bag, and turned to leave.
"Sebastian," I called out.
He paused, but didn't turn around.
"Have you truly loved me? Even for a single minute?" I asked.
He stood in silence.
Then he left.
The door slammed shut behind me.
The sound of the key turning in the lock was like the hammer of a coffin nail.
*****
I was unconscious in the basement for two days.
When I woke up, my whole body ached as if I'd been torn apart and put back together.
My mouth was so dry that it felt like I had a mouthful of sand.
My body was screaming for blood, not human blood, but vampire blood.
Newly turned vampires needed regular doses of their creator's blood to keep the transformation from tearing them apart.
But Sebastian never gave me any.
The craving kept getting worse, starting in my throat and spreading through every vein in my body. It felt like fire was eating me alive, burning from the inside out.
I grabbed handfuls of hay and shoved them into my mouth, trying to fill my stomach with anything, but it wasn't because of hunger. I needed blood, his blood.
I thrashed on the hay. My nails dug into the cracks of the stone floor, leaving bloody trails in the rock.
I screamed. I buried my face in the ground, crying out his name. "Sebastian, please, give some blood. A little bit..."
No one answered.
The light from the small skylight flickered from bright to dark and bright again.