Chapter 5

The message appeared on the screen of my private phone at dawn. From Vincent.

No greeting, just coordinates and a time.

The location was one of his lesser-known daylight estates, a place shielded from the sun.

An hour later, a silent ghoul-driver deposited me at a secluded villa.

Vincent stood by a window, the filtered light making his pale skin look almost human. Lilith was seated on a chaise lounge, looking over a tablet.

“Elena,” Vincent’s tone was curt. “Lilith requires a personal attendant of unique capability. One who can operate in daylight and understands our ways.”

Lilith smiled, her expression gracious.

“We’ve discussed it, and you are the obvious choice. But the old bond is gone. A new, more direct arrangement is needed.”

She gestured to the chalice, which now glimmered with a faint, sanguine light. “A single draught of my blood. It will make you my ghoul. You will retain the strength and longevity you’ve grown accustomed to, and your service will continue seamlessly—simply under my banner. It is the most practical solution.”

The air left my lungs. Become her creature. Bound by blood-addiction and magical compulsion, my will subsumed to hers.

It was the final, complete annihilation.

“No,” I said, the word clear and final in the humming quiet.

Vincent’s brow furrowed. “Explain this refusal. You served as my blood-attendant for a decade. This is no different. It is a transfer of sustenance and duty. The source is irrelevant.”

“The source is everything,” I shot back, a cold, sharp laugh escaping me.

“I would rather feel this body grow weak. I would rather watch my hands age and my sight dim. I would rather die than become her eternal, leashed shadow.”

His confusion only deepened, a stark contrast to the icy clarity in Lilith’s eyes.

“You choose decay over eternity? This is irrational. You were my blood servant. Now you would be my fiancée’s. The chain is the same; only the hand holding it has changed.”

“The chain is not the same!” The force of my words cost me a stab of pain. “You can’t pass me around like I’m a furniture or a gun.”

Lilith’s gracious smile never wavered, but it cooled by degrees.

She placed a gentle, restraining hand on Vincent’s arm.

“Darling, please. Can’t you see she’s distraught? The pain, the upheaval… she’s not thinking clearly.”

She turned to me, her voice a model of pitying condescension.

“Elena, dear, go back to your room. Rest. Recover. We will not force this on you. Take all the time you need to… consider your future properly.”

She was painting my defiance as trauma, offering a veneer of choice while reinforcing her position as the merciful one.

Vincent, pacified by her performance, gave a stiff nod. “Go. Consider wisely. Sentiment is a luxury your position cannot afford.”

I left, the phantom ache of the severed bond nothing compared to the cold fire now burning in its place.

Back in my quarters, the silence was absolute. I went to the hidden panel, retrieved the phone, and dialed.

“It’s time,” I said when my father answered, my voice stripped of everything but resolve. “Their patience is a trap. We move tonight. Not in seven days. Tonight.”

“The team is ready. Be at the coordinates at true dark. Leave no trace.”

“There’s nothing here I plan to take.”

Lilith wanted me to rest and consider my future.

I had.

It began at midnight, and it did not include them.