Chapter 11

Ten days later, a downpour hit Santvela.Cold rain laced with slivers of ice hammered the glass, and the street lamps blurred into smears of light behind curtains of water.Vesper had closed for the evening.I was in the back laboratory mixing a new pain-relief perfume when the guard hurried in."Dr. Vester, Damian Blackwood is outside. He's refusing to leave."I didn't look up."Have the guards escort him away.""They can't." The guard's expression was odd. "He didn't come by car. He doesn't have any of his men with him."My hands went still."He crawled here."I pulled on a coat and walked to the second-floor window, cracking it open.In the curtain of rain, Damian lay soaked and wretched on the steps below.Both his legs had lost all sensation. He could no longer stand. To get around the vehicle exclusion zone the Night Council had set up, he had dragged himself the length of the street all the way to Vesper's door.Mud caked the military uniform he had once worn with such pride, an

Chapter 12

That rain extinguished the last of Damian's hope.Both his legs were fully paralyzed.After a medical evaluation, the Night Council determined that he was no longer fit to lead the Northern Night Watch. They revoked his military command and left him only with an honorary seat in the Blackwood clan.Once the authority was gone, the people who had gathered around him scattered.And Cecilia, cast out of the estate, fared worse by the day.The Silverfrost powder flared constantly, and she needed heavy doses of painkillers to get through each night. The Vesters, unwilling to antagonize the Blackwoods, refused to take her back, so she checked into the cheapest motel near the Night Market.She burned through her money fast.Desperate, she dragged her aching body to the back door of the Blackwood estate and begged Damian, in tears, to take her in."Damian, it's Cecilia. You've been saying since we were children that you'd protect me. Open the door. Let me in. I'm in so much pain I could die."

Chapter 13

At the depth of winter, a strange blood plague erupted across Santvela.At first, only vampires showed symptoms.After drinking blood distributed by the city's blood bank, they would spike a high fever, lose control, develop a red web-like rash across their skin, and finally cough up black blood in extreme pain. Soon after, some of the humans who handled blood bank transport and sanitation began exhibiting the same symptoms.The medical bureau couldn't identify the pathogen for days on end, and the city tipped toward panic.The Night Council sealed off three districts and suspended all public blood distribution. Without a steady supply, young vampires lost control to hunger, and attacks surged.The surface world knew only that an unidentified epidemic had broken out. News broadcasts ran on a constant loop, and crowds pressed against hospital entrances waiting to be tested.Lucien came to Vesper's quarantine laboratory himself.I had isolated fine silver-red sediment from a patient's bl

Chapter 14

Sure enough, less than half a day later, a Blackwood lightproof car pulled up outside Vesper.Damian didn't appear. He sent his aide with a temperature-controlled silver case and a handwritten letter.The handwriting was uneven, the ink smeared in places by water."Evelyn, the Moonfrost orchid is in the case. I know you need it to save the city."I'm no longer asking you to forgive me, and I'm not asking you to fix my legs. I've already lost the legion, the clan's standing, and the use of my legs."I just want to see you one more time. Just let me know that you haven't completely forgotten me."I read the letter without a trace of expression.Then, in front of his aide, I opened the temperature-controlled case.Inside were cold packs to keep the temperature down and a single empty glass plant cloche.No Moonfrost orchid.The aide's face went white.I pushed the empty case back."Go tell Damian not to test me with an empty box. If he wants to lure me out to see him, he should find a les

Chapter 15

The active serum made from my blood was a success.The first batch of Crimson Purge perfume reached the quarantine hospitals within twelve hours.The perfume mist first slowed the vampires' runaway healing, and then the injected serum neutralized the silver deposits. Fevers in critical patients began to break, and the red rashes across their skin gradually faded.Three days later, the daily death count dropped to zero.One week later, the public blood bank completed its decontamination, and Santvela lifted the lockdown.Tens of thousands of humans and vampires survived.The medical bureau publicly credited Vesper's treatment protocol, and the Night Council passed an emergency resolution designating my blood perfume therapy as the city's standard response to silver-toxin events.The night of the commendation, I stood in the central hall of the Night Council in a deep red gown.The Speaker conferred on me the lifetime title of Chief Blood Healer of Santvela and granted Vesper an entire m

Chapter 16

The snow fell all through the night.After that, news of Damian and Cecilia rarely reached me.I heard that the Night Council's investigation into the blood bank poisoning uncovered evidence that the Blackwood legion had once unlawfully retained hunter weapons, and Damian, as its former commander, bore responsibility. Several clan properties were seized. He was stripped of his honorary seat and exiled to a silver-mine detention facility in the far north, under lifelong supervision.There were no soldiers for him to command there, and no one who bowed to his bloodline.His legs would never recover. He would spend the rest of his life relying on a wheelchair and painkillers.Cecilia, meanwhile, bought adulterated painkillers at the Night Market.The money she had gotten for the Moonfrost orchid was quickly swindled away by underground dealers. On the last rainy night of a Silverfrost flare-up, she bit through her own tongue in a cheap motel room and bled to death.They had both once beli