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بيت / The Ninth Blood Bond / Chapter 1 -الفصل 10

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Chapter 1

"Eve, I'm taking Lillian to the night hospital first. The silver shard in your shoulder isn't deep. Call a UV-shielded cab, go home, and pull it out yourself, okay?"Adrian said this with one hand still resting on Lillian's shoulder. Lillian was slumped against him, her lips completely drained of color, her breathing ragged. "I'm so scared. Did I ruin the registration for you and Eve again? Did I mess things up again?""No, it's not your fault. Don't cry. You've only just awakened. It's perfectly normal to lose control of your breathing after a scare." Adrian ducked his head to comfort her, his voice so gentle you'd think she was the one with silver embedded in her flesh.I stood beside the wrecked car. The silver in my shoulder kept burning, and blood had already soaked through half my blouse. Our kind healed faster than humans, but wounds touched by silver wouldn't close on their own. Adrian knew that perfectly well. He simply didn't look back."I'll go, then," I said.He didn't even
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Chapter 2

Adrian came home at two in the morning, carrying the mingled scent of hospital disinfectant and fresh plasma.He tiptoed into the bedroom and, seeing the bedside lamp still on, asked softly, "You're still up?""Waiting for you."He took off his coat, sat on the edge of the bed, and reached over to touch my face. "Your eyes are red. Didn't you get all the silver out? I'll take you in for a checkup tomorrow night."I looked at his face and remembered a stormy night three years ago. Vampire hunters had cut the power to our building, trapping me in an elevator with a silver-plated lock. Adrian had gripped the lock barehanded and wrenched the door open. The silver burned clean through his palm, but the moment the door opened, he'd pulled me tight against him, buried his face in my neck, and said over and over, "You scared me to death. Eve, thank God you're okay."His fear that night had been real. His deception now was real too. The two didn't contradict each other. He had loved me, and he
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Chapter 3

"Ms. Hart, the old silver fragment near your grandmother's heart has shifted and started corroding her blood vessels. She needs surgery immediately. Please come to the night hospital right away."I had barely left my parents' house when the call came. The nurse's voice was urgent. I called a UV-shielded cab and rushed to the hospital, running through the underground corridors to the night ward.When my grandmother was young, she had saved many vampires from hunters. A silver bullet had been lodged near her heart for decades. As she aged, her healing weakened, and the silver poisoning had begun to spread. No general surgeon would risk removing it. Only Dr. Victor Hale had ever performed that kind of operation.A nurse stopped me outside the operating room. "Dr. Hale was just reassigned on short notice. No other doctor here is willing to perform this surgery.""Reassigned where?""Mr. Mohr gave the order personally. He said there's a VIP upstairs whose blood has become unstable. He needs
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Chapter 4

"Time of death, four thirty-seven a.m."Dr. Hale peeled off his bloodstained gloves and quietly told me he was sorry. He said the silver fragment had already pierced my grandmother's heart before surgery began. The silver poisoning had suppressed the last of her healing ability. They removed the silver, but they couldn't bring her back.My grandmother lay on the hospital bed, her face so peaceful she could have been asleep. Just last winter, she had been making me hot apple cider and scolding me for not resting properly after my night shifts.I held her hand, willing my warmth into her. But when a vampire died, the body grew colder than any human corpse. No matter how long I held on, that hand would never be warm again.Over the next three days, I handled everything alone. I signed over a dozen hospital and cemetery forms, confirmed her identity at the heavily guarded vampire funeral home, and made five trips on the underground train, racing the sunrise each time.The night we buried h
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Chapter 5

When the night flight landed in Vancouver, Dr. Margaret Bell was waiting for me. She was an old friend of my grandmother's.The last time my grandmother was lucid before she died, she had pressed a manila envelope into my hands. Inside was money she'd saved over the years, a letter of recommendation, and Margaret's address and phone number. She had squeezed my hand and said, "Eve, I don't have much to leave you. This isn't about running away. It's so that when everyone is pushing you to turn back, you'll still have a road that leads forward."I hadn't understood then why she'd said that. Now I did. She had seen long ago that something was wrong between Adrian and Lillian. She had also seen me growing quieter in that house with each passing day.Margaret ran a night clinic in Vancouver that treated vampires who couldn't go to regular hospitals. She also tended to humans who had been injured in vampire-related incidents. She needed an assistant with experience in blood work and silver wo
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Chapter 6

Two months later, I was working late at the clinic one night, entering patient records, when the doorbell rang.I didn't look up. "We're closed for the night—"The words died in my throat.Adrian stood in the doorway. He had lost a lot of weight. His trench coat hung loose on his frame, cheekbones jutting sharply, the dark red beneath his eyes betraying how long he'd gone without feeding properly. Stubble covered his jaw. His hair was unkempt. The Mohr heir who had always been immaculately dressed, never so much as a cufflink out of place, looked as though two months had drained every ounce of his pride.He saw me and froze. His hands hung at his sides, trembling slightly, his throat working as if he had a thousand things to say but couldn't decide which one he still had the right to speak."Eve." His voice was wrecked. "Are you okay?"I stayed in my chair, not moving. "How did you find me?""The New York clinic said you never showed up. I traced night flight records and contacted ever
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Chapter 7

That morning, Margaret showed me a post Adrian had made. The photo was of the departure hall at Vancouver's night terminal. The caption read simply: I'm sorry. The comment section was empty. All the people who had once crowded around the Mohr heir were nowhere to be seen.I set the phone face down on the windowsill and watched the sky lighten along the horizon. The UV-treated glass kept out the dangerous sunlight, but the outlines of this unfamiliar city were perfectly clear.Compared to the house I'd lived in for the past seven years, this small apartment felt more like home. Because here, no one required me to trade away pieces of myself for peace.A week later, Margaret knocked on the office door. "Eve, three people are here to see you. They say they're your family."I walked out and saw my parents and Lillian.My mother wore no makeup. Her hair had gone noticeably grayer, and her eyes were swollen. My father's shoulders were stooped, his faded coat hanging loosely, and he looked sh
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Chapter 8

Margaret soon arranged a training program for my night physician license. After that, my evenings were spent at the clinic, my nights in class, and my predawn hours at home with thick medical textbooks. I often studied until the world beyond the blackout curtains had already gone bright.My days were so filled with studying and patients that I barely had time to think about the people and things I'd left behind in Boston.Noah still came two or three times a week. Under specialist care, his condition had stabilized enough that he no longer needed frequent checkups, yet he still showed up whenever the clinic was at its busiest. He never overstepped, never pressed me about my past. He would quietly help Margaret organize the medicine cabinet, or leave a bag of fresh plasma on my desk when I got too busy to feed.One rainy night, he showed up at my apartment with an insulated pot. "Margaret says you've been pushing yourself too hard. I made chicken noodle soup, and I brought some warm blo
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Chapter 9

"Congratulations, Ms. Hart. You've passed the night physician licensing exam."The examiner handed me my results as the first spring rain of the year fell over Vancouver. It had taken me two attempts. The night I failed the first time, I cried alone until dawn. Not just because of the exam, but because I suddenly missed my grandmother so much it hurt.I wanted to tell her that I hadn't wasted the way out she gave me. That I was becoming a real doctor on my own. And that the next time a patient lay before me with silver in their body, I would never let anyone with power simply pull the only doctor who could save them.I sent the results to Margaret. She replied immediately: Dinner tonight to celebrate. Invite Noah.I said yes.On my way home, my phone rang. A Boston number. I hesitated for a moment, then answered."Eve." Adrian's voice was rougher than the last time, but calm. "I'm not trying to bother you. I just wanted to ask. Are you doing okay?""I am. I just passed my licensing exa
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Chapter 10

That night, Margaret cooked a full spread. Noah uncorked a bottle of vintage blood wine and poured a glass for each of us."To Dr. Hart." Margaret raised her glass. "It's been a hard road, but you made it through."I clinked my glass against hers. The blood wine slid down my throat, bitter at first, with a faint sweetness in the finish. "Thank you. Without you and my grandmother, I wouldn't be here.""Ruth entrusted you to me. All I did was open the door. You're the one who walked through it."Noah ate quietly beside us, glancing up at me now and then. There was no impatience in his eyes, only quiet happiness for me.After dinner, he stayed to help Margaret clean the kitchen. When that was done, we walked out of the clinic, one after the other.The rain had just stopped. The night air was clean and cool. Noah walked on my left, half an arm's length between us. Not too close, not too far. Exactly the distance that put me at ease.After two blocks, he spoke. "Evelyn.""What is it?""Are
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