Chapter 1

Damian assumed I was trying to provoke him.

He didn't chase me, and he didn't send anyone to stop me.

That night, the Blackwood estate blazed with light. Damian held a welcome banquet for Cecilia, and nearly every official from the Night Council, every representative of the vampire clans, and every notable in the city had turned out.

I, meanwhile, was thrown out with my luggage by the butler and banished to the most remote corner of the estate: the old garage.

It had been abandoned long ago. There was no heating, and the cracks in the walls reeked of damp mold. The December wind sliced through the broken roller door like thin blades dragging across bare skin.

For the past three years, I had been draining a full cup of blood every month to make Damian's medicine. My body was already far weaker than it should have been. My hands and feet were perpetually ice-cold, and the slightest chill would set my heart racing and my vision spinning.

I didn't cry. I didn't go begging.

I just held tight to the wooden chest in my arms.

Inside were my blood perfume formulas, a few sets of tools for crafting scents, and every coin I had saved from mixing medicines for the military doctors and Night Watch soldiers in the North.

In those three years, I wasn't just Damian's wife and blood physician.

I was also the best blood perfumer in the North.

The next evening, just as darkness fell, Cecilia's personal maid Lina kicked the garage door open.

"Miss Evelyn, the lady of the house would like you at the main residence."

She leaned hard on the word "lady," contempt written all over her face.

I secured the chest and followed her through the frost-covered garden.

The fireplaces in the main house roared. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, snow filled the sky, but the rooms were warm enough to make you drowsy.

Cecilia sat beside Damian, wearing the deep red gown that should have been mine, and around her neck hung the black diamond necklace I had only reclaimed by pawning my mother's last keepsake.

She leaned against his shoulder like a white rose kept under glass.

"Evelyn, you've worked so hard these past three years." Her eyes glistened as she looked at me, though victory lurked beneath the tears. "I heard the garage is freezing, so I've had two space heaters sent over. We're sisters, after all. I'd never let you go without."

Damian sat in a high-backed chair, looking down at me.

"Cecilia is delicate. She can't be mistreated. The master bedroom and control of the household will pass to her. You took care of me for three years, and I won't leave you with nowhere to go."

He paused, as though announcing a decision generous enough to be grateful for.

"Once the marriage is dissolved, I'll register you with the Night Council as a secondary bond-holder. Apart from not attending clan affairs as my wife, your life won't change much."

I stared at him.

He stood ramrod straight, the legs beneath his black shirt long and powerful.

Those legs. I had dissected silver bullets and tested their toxicity over and over in the North, dragged him from the floor back to his bed during every flare-up, and ripped them from death's grip by sheer will.

Now he was walking toward another woman on legs I had saved, and expecting me to be grateful he was letting me stay as his dependent.

"A secondary bond-holder?"

I laughed once, then walked slowly toward Cecilia.

Damian assumed I was about to bow my head and accept. The tension in his brow eased slightly.

The next second, I raised my hand and slapped Cecilia across the face as hard as I could.

The crack echoed through the living room, silencing it completely.

Cecilia screamed and fell back into the sofa, blood beading instantly at the corner of her mouth. The scent of it deepened the pupils of every young vampire in the room, but none of them dared move.

"Who do you think you are, wearing my necklace, sleeping in my room, and playing the loving sister to my face?"

"Evelyn!"

Damian shot to his feet. With a vampire's speed, he was in front of me in the blink of an eye.

A silver-edged saber slid from his belt, its blade pressing against my throat.

It was no ordinary weapon. It was a silver blade issued to the Northern Night Watch for subduing feral vampires. Half an inch more would have been enough to sever a human's carotid artery.

His eyes burned with fury.

I met the blade without flinching.

"That slap was for stealing my things and dirtying my room."

I tilted my head, shifting my gaze to Damian's face.

"As for you..."

I raised my hand and slowly pushed the back of the blade aside with two fingers.

"You disgust me. Keep the secondary bond-holder spot for someone who's willing to kneel and take orders."

Damian's face went rigid, but the blade never fell.

I turned and walked away without looking back.