Chapter 1
I spent three centuries chasing the vampire lord, Sebastian.
I stood between him and silver blades, stole holy artifacts for him, all to earn his Embrace.
He wiped the blood from his lips and said, "A mortal life is a gift."
I knelt before his archenemy, Victor Delacour, offering my neck.
Victor ran his tongue over his fangs. "As you wish, my little queen."
On the night of our Embrace, my old love stormed in, wild-eyed and desperate.
I drove the stake through his chest myself.
His blood splashed onto my lips, and right then, I finally saw the truth he'd kept buried for three hundred years.
*****
The moment the dagger plunged into Sebastian's chest, I heard the sound of bones cracking.
He lowered his gaze to the silver blade, then met my eyes.
He didn't dodge.
A vampire lord, fast enough to disappear before a bullet left the barrel, didn't avoid this strike.
"Why didn't you dodge?" My voice shook as I spoke.
I shouldn't be shaking. I hated him. I had hated him for three hundred years.
Blood spilled from the wound, soaking my fingers. His blood was cold, like he always was.
Three hundred years ago, I first saw him.
On a snowy night in Bodepist, he stood on the ruins of a church, the moonlight tracing his silhouette.
His face was pale, his eyes jet-black, and there was a smear of blood at the corner of his mouth that he hadn't bothered to wipe away.
Back then, I was seventeen.
From that moment, my life had only one purpose, and that was to become his kind, to always be with him.
I spent thirty years mastering everything there was to know about vampires.
It took fifty years to earn his trust and become his loyal human attendant.
For a hundred years, I managed his affairs during the day and protected him from countless hunters.
In the two hundredth year, the Templar stormed his castle. As a silver sword stabbed toward his heart, I lunged forward to shield him. The blade ran straight through my shoulder.
I collapsed in a pool of blood, convinced I was about to die.
He saved me, healing my wounds with his blood. But that was all he did.
I knelt before him and begged him to grant me the Embrace.
He crouched beside me, gently wiping the blood from the corner of my mouth with his thumb.
Then he said, "A mortal life is God's gift."
He rose, turned, and walked away into the darkness, without ever looking back.
By the three hundredth year, my hair had turned white.
The face in the mirror was covered in wrinkles, while he looked the same as he did three hundred years ago, young, cold, and perfect.
I went to see him one last time.
He was sitting by the fireplace, a glass of red wine in his hand. When I walked in, he looked at me for a moment. "You've aged."
That was all he had to say. He felt no sorrow nor emotion.
I smiled, "Yeah, I'm old."
That night, I walked away from his castle.
Three days later, I knelt before another vampire, Victor Delacour.
He was one of the most ancient coven lords in Vyrthalia, also Sebastian's archnemesis. The blood feud between their families had raged for a thousand years.
I knelt before his throne, offering my throat. "I want immortality. I want power. I want him to regret it."
Victor stepped down from his throne, his footsteps barely audible on the marble floor.
He gently tilted my chin up, forcing me to meet his gaze.
His fangs caught the candlelight, glinting with a chilling sheen.
"As you wish," Victor leaned close to my ear, his breath icy. "My little queen."
The moment his fangs sank into my neck, my consciousness started to blur.
My last clear thought was to make Sebastian regret it.