Chapter 2
For three whole years, Carly never once saw the sun. Her eyesight faded, her voice was poisoned into silence, and her body wasted away until she weighed less than 60 pounds when she died.
She was like a rag wrung dry, tossed by her parents into a filthy sack and thrown into the wolves' ravine behind the castle.
On the morning before her death, Mia stood outside the iron cage in a lavish gown covered in black diamonds, holding a pure gold fan to her face as she looked down at Carly, laughing.
Mia said, "Oh, my dear sister, did you really think I was born with Holy Blood? The Holy Court's blood-testing crystal already showed my blood is just plain, inferior type A.
"Grand Duke Morton only trusts me because all the blood in my veins is yours. But don't worry, once you're dead, Father and Mother promised to grind your ashes into powder.
"I heard the elders of the vampire clan love to brew their tea with sacred pure-blood bone powder."
Those words still echoed in Carly's mind, each syllable carrying the hellish scent of blood.
"Carly, are you deaf?" Rosemary shrieked, her patience finally snapping as Carly remained motionless.
She lunged forward, her claw-like hands clamping down on Carly's arm. With a vicious swing, the silver bloodletting knife in her right hand slashed straight at Carly's left wrist vein.
This wasn't just some routine bloodletting. The force behind that blade was so ruthless that it was like she was trying to slice right through Carly's tendons.
A loud slap echoed through the silent bedroom.
A shadow flashed before Rosemary's eyes. Carly, who was always supposed to be meek and obedient, suddenly dodged to the side with surprising speed.
Then, with her right hand, Carly landed a stinging slap across the back of Rosemary's hand.
The blow was so strong that the special silver bloodletting knife flew from Rosemary's grasp, clattering across the marble floor and finally coming to rest in the ashes by the fireplace.
"You... you rebellious wretch! How dare you strike me?" Rosemary shrieked, clutching her swollen hand, her face twisted with disbelief and fury.
Her face, already ghostly pale from too much powder, now looked like a zombie clawing its way out of the grave.
Manfred's face darkened, his whole presence radiating the authority of someone born to rule.
His cane thudded against the floor as he barked, "Carly, have you lost your mind? How dare you lay a hand on your mother?
"Guards, restrain this insolent little beast who doesn't know her place!"
The two tall guards stationed outside the door heard the commotion and immediately pushed open the heavy black iron door, striding into the room with blank expressions.
On the bed, Mia's eyes flashed with a barely concealed glint of satisfaction and malice. She was happy to see Carly make a scene.
As long as Carly was branded as rebellious and selfish, even if they knock her out and drain every last drop of blood from her today, no one outside would dare say a word against it.
But there wasn't a trace of panic on Carly's face. She didn't cry, didn't try to run.
With icy composure, she stepped back three paces and made her way to the lavish obsidian table at the center of the room.
Right in the middle of the table was an ornate wooden box draped in black velvet.
Inside, a crystal the size of a fist lay quietly, clear as glass, but pulsing with a faint golden light. It was the Holy Court's blood-testing crystal.
In the Eternal Night Empire, vampires ruled with absolute power, and their laws about the blood type and purity of human blood slaves and brides were harsh to the extreme.
Different blood types could boost a vampire's strength in dramatically different ways, and "Holy O-Type" was known as the "Blood of the Gods".
It was able to absorb the rampage of pure-bloods and slow their decay.
To stop human nobles from sneaking ordinary blood slaves into the ranks of the pure-bloods by pretending they had sacred blood, the Holy Court rolled out a fresh amendment to the Blood Mate Code just last month.
Any woman making a Blood Mate with one of the thirteen clans had to take a public blood type test, witnessed by a Holy Court supervisor, on the eve of her Embrace.
Carly's slender fingers glided over the icy crystal. Then, with everyone staring in shock, she grabbed the crystal and held it up for all to see.
"Father, Mother, hold off on the guards for now," Carly said, her voice soft but carrying a chill and biting sarcasm, like it had been tempered in hell itself. dragging us all down to hell together.
"Since you keep saying tonight is crucial for the whole Buckley family, I want to ask you this.
"Now that Grand Duke Morton's carriage is already at the edge of the Black Forest, why are you so desperate to force my blood into Mia's body?
"Are you really saving the family, or are you pulling the whole family down with you?"