Chapter 1

I was an up-and-coming vampire, about to be made a countess at the Blood Bond Ceremony.

Prince Alaric personally selected eight human blood thralls from his territory as gifts for me.

They had been raised to see their vampire masters as their only religion, serving them with absolute obedience, except Arthur Sterling.

It was his defiant nature that drew my attention and made me willing to share both my immortality and power with him.

On the first day after the Blood Bond Ceremony, I stood atop the cathedral dome, basking in the sunlight.

Then Arthur betrayed me. To elope with his childhood friend, Lillian Hart, he used a silver dagger blessed with holy water to sever our blood bond forcibly.

Exposed to the blazing sun, my flesh burned away piece by piece. I collapsed in agony as my body crumbled into ashes and scattered into the wind.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the Blood Bond Ceremony.

Arthur was still kneeling before me on one knee. This time, I kicked him aside without hesitation and pointed at Carl Whitmore crouching in the darkest corner.

I said, "I choose him."

The moment the words left my mouth, the entire coven fell silent.

Arthur crashed onto the floor and stared up at me in disbelief. "Victoria, are you insane? Are you seriously messing with the blood bond just to get back at me?

"All I did was leaving the castle without asking you yesterday. I only went to visit my parents. Aren't you being too controlling?"

Victoria? When my name left his lips, I glanced at him, feeling disgusted.

Arthur had always hated being constrained by his identity as a blood thrall. Therefore, I had foolishly granted him permission to call me by name.

I thought it meant closeness. Instead, he took it as permission to challenge my authority.

"You're nothing but a blood thrall. How dare you address me so casually?" I said.

Arthur clearly hadn't expected me to humiliate him in public after years of indulging him without question. For a second, he was left speechless.

But it didn't take long for that look of defiance and arrogance to return to his face. He rose slowly and brushed the dust from his trousers.

He stared at me, a mix of confusion and accusation in his voice.

He said, "Countess Victoria, you don't need to use another man to test me. I've told you that freedom is all that matters to me."

Freedom? I let out a cold, mocking laugh.

He talked endlessly about freedom while enjoying every privilege I had handed him.

Yesterday, he sneaked out of the castle and stole the rarest healing potion from my territory.

He claimed it was for his parents. In reality, it was for his childhood friend, Lillian, who was suffering from tuberculosis.

I used to be generous, thinking that exchanging those trivial things for his smiles was more than worth it.

Yet in all those years, he had never given me so much as a single daisy.

I looked down at him, my crimson eyes glinting with icy indifference. "If freedom is what you want, then I'll grant it to you.

"From this moment on, Arthur is stripped of his status as the First-Class Blood Thrall. Throw him into the Blood Dungeon."

Arthur's expression became even more resolute, as if he were unafraid of any punishment.

He said, "If Countess Victoria would rather ruin the solemnity of the Blood Bond Ceremony just to disgrace me before everyone, then I'll accept the punishment."

The other blood thralls lowered their heads in silence. None of them dared move against him.

They had long grown used to my endless tolerance toward Arthur and his authority as the First-Class Blood Thrall.

In my previous life, they had always acted the same way.

Back then, Arthur claimed the coven's rules were too harsh and begged them to hide Lillian's existence from me. And they helped him.

They once said, "Arthur's been serving you since childhood. Isn't it normal for him to visit his parents sometimes?

"Humans only live a few decades. If he doesn't visit them often now, he'll regret it once they are gone."

One night, Arthur sneaked out of the castle, leaving me starving after returning from managing the family estates. I nearly lost control of my bloodlust and slaughtered innocent people. Yet they blamed me instead.

They said, "Arthur only wants to see whether you truly meant it when you promised to drink no one's blood but his. If you could hold back from drinking other thralls' blood until sunrise, he would believe your promise is real."

Thinking of that, I fully released my vampiric forces.

The temperature around the castle dropped sharply, frost creeping across the hard obsidian floor in an instant.

Arthur was pinned to the ground by my power. A dull crack echoed through the hall as his kneecaps struck the stone.

Shock flashed across his face. He truly hadn't believed I would ever hurt him.

I ignored him completely and walked straight toward Carl.