Chapter 1

Mom and Dad couldn't take it anymore. That night, they hog-tied me and dumped me deep into the mountains.

"This is the Village of the Damned. It's crawling with cold-blooded killers! An ungrateful brat like you won't last three days in there. The villagers will grind your bones to dust!"

Mom rolled her eyes beside him. "You can come back when you've learned your lesson, admitted your mistake, and begged us to take you back to give Chloe more blood!"

After being kicked out of the car, I took in the all-too-familiar gravel road and the smoke rising in the distance and almost burst into laughter. Had it never occurred to them to wonder where I'd learned to be evil in the first place?

The moment I got out of the car, I took off running toward the village.

The very next second, Dad kicked me in the lower back. I went flying, and my chin slammed into a rock.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Before I could roll over, he grabbed me by the back of my collar, hauled me up, and landed a punch on my left cheek. Half my face swelled up in an instant, and I couldn't even open my eye.

"If you run into that village, you'll only die faster, you pathetic little bitch!" He pulled a nylon rope out of the car, bound my hands tight behind my back, and took a wad of filthy rags from his pocket and stuffed them into my mouth.

Mom got out of the passenger seat and looked at my swollen, battered face. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "God, she's hideous. Is she really my daughter?"

Just then, a figure slowly approached us with his black iron walking stick from a distance. I recognized him in an instant. He was Thomas Miller, the village chief, and the person who cherished me most in the world.

Dad grabbed a fistful of my hair and jerked my head up, forcing me to look in that direction. "Do you see that limp of his?"

He lowered his voice, and his tone sounded as though he were telling a ghost story. "Years ago, three businessmen from out of town came here to build a factory. Without uttering a single word, he snuck into their construction site in the middle of the night and took on all three of them alone. He beat every last one of them into a vegetative state.

"He ended up with a shattered shinbone, and he's been limping ever since. Later, someone called the cops, but the officers who arrived were blocked at the village entrance and sent packing. Do you know why? Because everyone in the village claimed those three men had fallen and injured themselves."

He let out a chuckle. "How many days do you think a young woman like you can survive in a place where even the law can't do a damn thing?"

Lying on the ground, I listened as Thomas' footsteps drew closer.

Back in the day, he could easily take on three men at once. None of them could even get close.

He'd broken that leg a decade ago, when he'd piggybacked me, who was burning with a high fever, across the mountain in the dark to find a doctor. He'd missed his footing and fell, breaking his leg on the mountain path.

Those businessmen, on the other hand, had planned to build a chemical plant with a discharge pipe leading directly into the river behind the village where the children swam. If Thomas hadn't stopped them, the village's drinking water would have been poisoned.

However, I couldn't tell them the truth because the rag in my mouth pinned my tongue down.

Mom went up to greet him with a smile. "Sir, our youngest has been a handful since she was a child. She steals, beats people up, and lies compulsively. We've reached our wits' end. So long as you don't kill her, feel free to discipline her however you see fit!"

She pulled a thick wad of cash from her bag and held it out to him. But Thomas didn't accept it. He rested on his walking stick three paces away, his murky eyes sweeping over me.

It was too dark for him to get a good look at me. My face was swollen beyond recognition, caked in mud and blood.

He didn't recognize me. Hence, he asked coldly, "Is that all? I don't see much use for this young lady. Why don't you just knock her out and dump her in the river behind the mountain? That would save you the trouble."

Mom's expression changed drastically, and she hurriedly stopped them. "No, she can't die! She has a rare blood type. Our eldest daughter isn't in good health, and she needs regular transfusions. This girl is our living blood bank. If she dies, where are we supposed to find another one?"

Thomas cocked his brow and took another look at me. "She's a walking blood bank? In that case, that's going to cost you extra."

Mom gritted her teeth and pulled another thick wad of cash from her bag. That was when she let go of my shoulder.

Summoning the last of my strength, I sprang to my feet and slammed my head into the wad of cash in her hand. My only goal was to let Thomas get a clear look at my face.

The bills burst apart, scattering through the air like a storm of money.

Thomas' gaze landed on me, but Dad was one step faster. He drove his foot into my chest.

It sent me flying backward. I crashed to the ground, the back of my head striking a rock. My vision flashed white for a split second.

"Will you fucking behave yourself?" He lunged at me, pinned me beneath him, grabbed my index finger, and wrenched it backward.

The very next second, a sickening pop rang out as my joint dislocated.

My whole body shuddered, but the rag stuffed in my mouth muffled my groan. He didn't stop there. He moved on to my middle finger, ring finger, and pinky.

After all ten of my fingers were dislocated, he tossed my hands aside, stood up, and wiped the sweat from his palms. "These hands are best at causing damage. I disabled them so she'll learn to behave."

I curled up on the ground, trembling uncontrollably. The veins on my forehead bulged, but I didn't beg for mercy.

I turned my head and stared long and hard at Thomas with the only eye I could still open. He stood a couple of steps away before saying, "Fine. I'll take her in."