All Chapters of My Vampire Husband Thought I Was Jealous, but I Was Dying: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Elena's POVWhen Adrian leaned in close, his gaze settled on my face.These past few days I'd been wearing heavy perfume.The medication the doctor gave me masked the strange scent in my blood, too.I put on makeup every day, painting my lips a little redder than usual.Adrian didn't notice.That wasn't surprising, really.He rarely looked at me this closely.Even when he did come home now and then, he only pulled me into a careless embrace when he needed me to do something for him.I used to live for those brief embraces.Looking back now, all I felt was how pathetic it had been.“You haven't looked well lately.”He changed the subject, ignoring what I'd said before.I lowered my eyes. “I'm probably just tired.”“Then rest for a few days.”He said it so easily, just like always, deciding on his own where our argument would end.“And don't go throwing around words like divorce so casually from now on.”I looked at him, that handsome, gentle face exactly as it had been the day we met.T

Elena's POVThe day of the banquet, the relentless stabbing in my chest woke me early.I lay in bed a long while, recovering, before I could force myself upright.The curtains were still drawn, the room dim.The woman in the mirror was pale, her lips so colorless they were almost invisible.I stared at myself for a moment, suddenly unmoored.Ten years ago, before my first banquet as Adrian's wife, I'd sat in front of this same mirror for a long time.Back then my eyes had been bright, full of anticipation.I kept thinking that if I were just a little lovelier, a little more poised, if I tried a little harder to please him, Adrian might spare me a second glance.And I did learn a great deal in the years after.I learned how to smile, how to deflect the ill-meant probing aimed at him.I also learned how to swallow my anger and heartbreak when he came home carrying another woman's scent, and to set everything right for him.And still he never came to love me.A soft knock came at the door

Elena's POVThe moment the silver bullet grazed my arm, I caught the smell of scorched flesh.My gown was torn open.Blood welled quickly from the wound and ran down my arm, dripping.The deep red of my skirt was already vivid enough, yet where the blood fell it bloomed into a small patch of something darker.Screams rose all across the hall.The guards finally rushed in.The hunter was pinned to the floor within moments, and the alarm passed.Everyone was backing away. Only I stood in front of Adrian, my arm aching to the point of numbness.I'd thought I had already let him go.But the moment I saw that silver bullet streaking toward him, I couldn't rein in my own instinct.Ten years.Some habits, it turned out, were truly frightening.Even after I'd decided to let him go, my first reaction was still to protect him.Adrian stood behind me.He wasn't hurt.That bullet might never have reached him at all.He was the vampire Prince's heir, far faster than any human.And still I'd thrown

Elena's POVAfter leaving the Prince's estate, I sat at the station the whole night through.The wound on my arm had mostly stopped bleeding.Only the place where the silver had grazed me still burned faintly.I pulled my shawl tight and counted the cash I had on me.It wasn't much, but for someone about to die, it was enough.In the end, I spent what I had on the cheapest ticket to the sea.The clerk asked, “Will you be needing a return ticket, ma'am?”I paused.Then I shook my head.“One way is enough.”The truth was, I'd wanted to go to the sea for a long time.Before the engagement, Adrian had been endlessly tender with me, telling me to get ready in advance for our honeymoon.After the wedding I wavered for ages before settling on a little seaside town in the south of the human world.There was a long white beach there.A blue sea.And a gallery right at the water's edge.Many of the artists I loved had been born there, and I'd always wanted to see it.Back then I'd tucked the bro

Adrian's POVIt was already dusk the next day when the test results came back.The steward stood in the study, his face grim.I took the report, and my fingers froze after only a few lines.That half a pill was no ordinary painkiller.It was a powerful scent suppressant.The kind made to mask the smell of failing blood, diseased organs, and the abnormal odor a human gives off in the late stages of a terminal illness.Taken in excess over a long time, it would only hasten the body's collapse.I stared at those few lines.For a long while I said nothing.The steward's voice was so low it was nearly inaudible.“Lord Adrian, Madam may have been ill for a long time.”Ill for a long time.As those words landed, the air in the study seemed to turn cold.But I was a vampire.I wasn't supposed to feel the cold.“What do you mean?”I heard my own voice.Low, and unfamiliar.The steward bowed his head.“I had it looked into.”“Madam had been to a human hospital.”“The diagnosis was bloodline fail