Chapter 7: Blood Vows

The wedding day arrived beneath a sky heavy with storm clouds.

Black luxury cars lined the circular driveway of the Reeves estate while armed guards patrolled every corner like soldiers preparing for battle instead of a ceremony. Inside the castle, chandeliers glowed gold against marble floors, but beneath the beauty lurked tension sharp enough to cut skin.

Everyone knew something was coming. No one knew death had already entered the building.

Oren stood in front of the mirror in the bridal suite, staring at herself in silence.

The dress was breathtaking, black silk stitched with silver embroidery that shimmered like moonlight. The long sleeves hugged her arms while the back plunged low, exposing skin like temptation itself. She looked less like a bride and more like a queen being prepared for war.

Behind her, two women adjusted the train carefully before leaving without a word.

The moment the door closed, Oren’s expression changed. Cold. Focused. Dangerous. She reached beneath the vanity table and pulled out the small silver gun James had hidden there for her an hour earlier.

“Just in case,” he had whispered.

Oren slid the weapon into the garter strapped against her thigh. Then she looked at her reflection again.

Yesterday she had wanted revenge against James Reeves. Today she was about to marry him. And together, they were hunting Harry Vida.

A soft knock came at the door. “Come in,” she said quietly.

James entered wearing a black suit tailored to perfection, dark hair slicked back, jaw tense with restrained violence. The moment his eyes landed on her, he stopped breathing. For several seconds he simply stared.

“You’re beautiful,” he said finally, voice rough with emotion.

Oren’s pulse stumbled.

There was something terrifying about the way he looked at her now. Not like a possession anymore, but like someone he genuinely could not survive without.

James crossed the room slowly. “You armed?” he asked.

Oren smirked faintly. “You taught me well.”

His gaze darkened with approval. “That’s my girl.”

He stopped in front of her, adjusting a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The tenderness of the gesture felt almost more intimate than the desperate kisses they had shared the night before.

“You nervous?” he murmured.

Oren looked into his eyes. “No,” she said honestly. “Angry.”

A dangerous smile touched James’s lips. “Good.”

Suddenly, alarms exploded through the estate. Red lights flashed across the ceiling.

Both of them turned instantly.

One of James’s men burst through the door, breathing hard. “Sir, east perimeter breach. Three guards are down.”

James’s face became ice.

“Vida,” Oren whispered.

James grabbed her hand immediately. “Stay behind me.”

“The hell I will.”

Gunfire echoed somewhere below them. Screams followed. The wedding guests were panicking now, rushing through the hallways while Reeves security tried to contain the chaos.

James pulled a handgun from inside his jacket and checked the chamber calmly. “You still want to marry me?” he asked darkly.

Oren pulled the silver gun from her thigh holster. She cocked it.

“Try surviving long enough first.”

For the first time all day, James laughed.

Then the castle descended into war. The grand staircase became a battlefield.

Masked men flooded the lower floor firing automatic weapons into the walls while guests scattered in terror. Glass shattered. Smoke filled the air. Somewhere below, one of the chandeliers crashed violently onto marble.

James fired twice with lethal precision. Two men dropped instantly.

Oren stayed close behind him, adrenaline roaring through her veins. She had never fired at a real target before today, but survival erased fear quickly.

A masked attacker lunged from the corridor. Oren pulled the trigger instinctively. The man collapsed. Silence hit her for half a second. Oh God.bShe had actually killed someone.

James grabbed her face immediately, forcing her to focus on him. “Don’t freeze,” he ordered sharply. “That hesitation gets you killed.”

Another wave of gunfire erupted. They moved again.

Floor by floor, room by room, the Reeves estate transformed into chaos. Harry Vida’s men had come prepared — not just to stop the wedding, but to slaughter everyone inside.

And at the center of it all stood Harry Vida himself. Watching. Waiting.

James finally spotted him across the ballroom balcony above the burning remains of the ceremony stage. Harry Vida stood dressed in white. Like he was the groom instead.

His silver hair gleamed beneath the flashing emergency lights while blood stained one sleeve of his jacket. Even from a distance, his smile looked monstrous.

“Well,” Vida called lazily, voice echoing through the ruined ballroom. “Doesn’t this feel romantic?”

Oren’s entire body went cold with rage. “You killed my mother,” she shouted.

Vida tilted his head almost affectionately. “She was becoming inconvenient.”

James raised his gun instantly, but Vida’s men appeared around him with rifles aimed directly at Oren. Everything froze.

Vida smiled wider. “There she is,” he murmured. “My perfect little poison.”

James stepped slightly in front of Oren. “You touch her,” he said softly, “and I will rip this entire city apart looking for pieces of you.”

Vida laughed. “You already belong to me, James. Both of you do.”

Then his gaze shifted to Oren. “You think Reeves loves you?” Vida asked. “No. I made him need you. I built this obsession piece by piece. Every trauma. Every loss. Every manipulation.” His eyes gleamed. “You were designed for each other.”

Oren felt sick hearing it spoken aloud. Like her entire life had been engineered by a monster.

But beside her, James suddenly reached for her hand. Not possessively. Not forcefully. Just... firmly. A choice.

Oren looked at him.bAnd in that moment, she realized something Harry Vida did not understand. Manipulation may have brought them together. But what existed between them now was real.

James squeezed her fingers once. Then he whispered, “Ready, wife?”

Oren looked back at Harry Vida. Safety clicked off beneath her finger. And for the first time since her mother died, she smiled.

“Let’s end him.”