Chapter 1

My family's fate was sealed in an ancient war. We saved the lord of the Clare clan. In return, their lord forged an ancient blood pact with my line.

Each generation, a woman from my family can choose a mate from the Clare heirs, to birth a hybrid child—one who walks in daylight, blessed with eternal life.

When my time came, I didn't hesitate. I chose the eldest son, Evan, who had been in a cursed slumber for a century.

Every vampire in the room was in disbelief.

After all, everyone knew I'd spent the last few years obsessed with the third son, Julian. It had to be him, or no one.

In my last life, I got my wish. I bonded with Julian and helped him seize control of the family's vast biotech empire.

But after our union, he started an affair with my adopted sister, Chloe.

To punish her for breaking the blood pact, the family exiled Chloe.

Julian, however, was convinced I had orchestrated the whole thing. He hated me to his very core.

From then on, he kept a string of lovers, and every single one of them looked like Chloe.

The heartbreak shattered me.

In the end, he poisoned my life-sustaining elixirs, making my flesh rot from my bones, and sacrificed my very soul in a dark ritual.

Reborn, I decided to let them have each other.

But I never imagined Julian would be reborn, too.

……

"Look. That arrogant human is back."

I’d barely stepped out of Lord Alistair’s study when their sharp, mocking voices found me.

A group of young pureblood vampires clustered in the corridor of the old Clare castle. They were dressed in expensive black gowns and suits, their crimson eyes filled with contempt.

"So desperate. She has no shame at all."

"A lowly human, dreaming of immortality through the blood pact?"

"A filthy half-breed. Their child would be a monster, not a gift."

I walked past them, my face a blank mask. Every word was a nightmare I’d heard a thousand times before.

In my last life, I walked through this same chorus of mockery straight to my own grave.

"Maggie."

Julian’s voice cut through the crowd, dripping with his usual cold arrogance.

I stopped and slowly turned.

The third son, Julian, stood in the center of the crowd. He had the signature silver hair and blood-red eyes of the Clare family, his perfect features like a masterpiece carved by God himself.

I was once obsessed with that face. Utterly lost to him.

How ridiculous it all seems now.

"I'm warning you," Julian said, stalking toward me, his every step a threat. "Stop using your ancestors' pathetic pact to force my hand."

"Force you?" I let out a soft laugh. "Lord Julian, when have I ever forced you?"

His eyes flashed with impatience. "You made a scene, telling everyone in the city that you'd have no one but me. What is that if not force?"

The purebloods behind him snickered.

"Exactly. A human woman, brazenly chasing after a vampire noble."

"Utterly shameless."

I kept a calm smile on my face, looking at the man I once loved so deeply.

"With all due respect, Lord Julian, I came today at the Lord's personal invitation."

"The Lord invited you?" One of his followers burst out laughing. "Why would the Lord summon a wretched human for a private meeting?"

"Because," I said, my eyes fixed on Julian, "the Lord himself is hosting my eighteenth birthday ball."

The laughter died instantly.

The entire corridor fell silent.

The rules of our Blood Bond are absolute.

On my eighteenth birthday, the Lord will name the one I am bound to.

That person automatically becomes the next head of the Clare family, and with that power comes control of our most sacred asset: the family Blood Bank.

A few seconds later, a wave of congratulations rushed in.

"Congratulations, Lord Julian!"

"To our future Lady!"

"After the pact, you will be our new master!"

A smug smirk touched Julian's lips, but his eyes were still ice-cold as he looked at me.

"In that case," he said, stepping right in front of me and looking down his nose at me, "I have a condition."

"And what's that?"

"To ensure tragedy does not repeat itself," he lowered his voice, "after we are bonded, we will not interfere in each other's private lives."

Tragedy does not repeat itself.

Those words made my heart stop.

I stared hard into Julian's eyes, searching for any sign, any clue.

Could he be reborn, too?

"Tragedy?" I laughed softly. "What tragedy are you referring to, Lord Julian?"

His pupils constricted for a split second before returning to normal. "I just don't want this... arrangement... to affect other people."

Other people. Like Chloe?

"Julian?"

A delicate voice called from the end of the hall.

Chloe, dressed in a pure white gown, looked pale and fragile. She walked with a slight limp, a perfect picture of fragile beauty designed to be pitied.

"Chloe!" Julian’s expression softened instantly. He rushed over and took her arm. "What are you doing here? Does your leg still hurt?"

"I'm fine," she said, biting her lip, tears welling in her eyes. "Mom and Dad were worried about my sister coming to a vampire castle alone, so they insisted I come with her."

She looked at me, a flicker of triumph in her eyes. "Even though my sister was the reason I fell down the stairs just two days ago, and my leg still aches... family has to look out for each other, right?"

Julian’s face went dark. His eyes blazed with fury as he glared at me.

"Maggie! Look what you've done!"

The vampire onlookers started pointing at me.

"She even attacks her own sister."

"So vicious."

"No wonder Lord Julian doesn't want her."

I looked at Chloe's innocent face and remembered how she had destroyed my life, one step at a time.

Fell down the stairs?

She threw herself down them to get Julian's sympathy.

But none of that mattered to me anymore.

"If you're so scared of the castle," Julian sneered at me, "then why are you so obsessed with marrying me?"

He suddenly lunged forward and grabbed my wrist.

"Maggie, if you keep being this selfish and cruel, I will never bond with you!"

He flung my hand away and, without another glance, led Chloe away.

The crowd dispersed, leaving me alone in the corridor. A small smile played on my lips.

Julian, this time, even if you begged me to bond with you, I wouldn't make the same mistake again.

I have a much better choice.