Prologue

At first, I thought it was death itself, coming to finally pick me up and drag me to the deepest crevice in hell where murderers like me belong in. But instead, as the man pulled down the hood of his dark robe that cast a shadow over his face, I found myself staring into a pair of—very much alive—bright red eyes. I shivered under his gaze.

The warmth of the blood oozing out of the open wound on my stomach was seeping into my clothes and spreading all over my torso. The joints in my ankles burned. I wanted to move, to run away from the red-eyed man who was slowly approaching me. His skin was scarily pale—white, almost—that even under the dim moonlight, I could spot the veins under it. There was something sinister about him that I didn’t want to associate myself with, especially when I can’t defend myself.

My right hand twitched. The absence of the familiar sensation of my callused fingers brushing against the leathered hilt of my knife confirmed my fears. My gaze peeled off of the mystery man for a few moments to frantically look for my weapon, and true enough, it was thrown on the ground a few yards from where I helplessly lay on the concrete. I must’ve let go of it at some point of my fall.

“Your blood…” he mumbled under his breath. The stillness of the night enabled me to hear his quiet voice, and the silvery moonlight glinted off of his shiny, unnaturally sharp canines. “It smells much sweeter than most.”

My throat tightened, so when I spoke, my voice came out disappointingly small, “My b-blood?”

“Yes,” he replied as he reached me, at last. He fell onto one knee to meet my eyes.

I’ve heard about the myths. I’ve seen some people go insane with fear after claiming to have had an encounter with one of their kind. Our guild, apparently, had received a handful of requests to terminate them. But I only ever dismissed all of those as hearsay, some old lore people told for entertainment.

And yet here was I, staring right into the eyes of a vampire.

“Vampire…” was all that I managed to croak out despite the jungle of thoughts that swam through my head.

He reached out a hand, and I watched in horror as he did so, until his knuckles gently grazed across my cheekbone. His smile widened, “Yes, indeed I am.”

His hand slid down my face, then to my neck and chest. I screamed in pain and squirmed under him upon feeling his slender fingers slip into my wound. My body was on fire, my vision blurred with tears. He moved his fingers inside me for a few seconds, but it felt like forever, until he finally pulled them out.

My entire torso throbbed painfully as more blood soaked my shirt. Though weak, I surprisingly managed to lift my head to look at him. In between his index and middle fingers was a broken piece of glass. I thought he was holding it up for me to see but reckoned otherwise upon seeing him open his mouth to catch the blood trickling off of his hand with his tongue. His red eyes glinted brighter at the taste.

“You had this inside you,” he said, my blood tainting the corner of his lips. “I just had to help out.”

I doubted that.

Another doubt of mine was that, perhaps, he was death after all. Just not exactly how I pictured him all along. Maybe if he tried hard enough, he could drag me to hell.

“Are you going to kill me?” I asked him in between pants. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. Tears streamed down my face.

“Of course not,” he chuckled. He chucked the glass over his shoulder and leaned in so close that I could feel his breath tickling my lips. “Would you not like to live?”

“I would. But if I die tonight, I wouldn’t complain.”

He laughed once again. His breath smelled like mint and rust. It was not a good combination. “I’m going to save you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

No help comes for free—especially if the offer came from a vampire.

“But in return…” he trailed off before leaning in even closer, positioning his lips next to my ear. His voice significantly got deeper and quieter as he whispered, “You are going to let me feed on you. As much as my body needs.”

“For how long?”

“For the rest of your life.”