Vampire 단편 소설 & 소설

The vampire town had one sacred custom. On the night before a Blood Oath Ceremony, the groom had to climb the abandoned church's bell tower alone. There, he tied a blood oath sash bearing his bride's name to the feet of the Goddess’s statue, calling on the ancient bloodlines to witness their vow: they would share the endless night and never let dawn tear them apart. I had spent seven years at Silas's side in that vampire town. At last, through driving rain and circling crows, he had climbed the tower for me. He came home wrapped in the night's damp chill. I had warm blood wine waiting for him, but outside the manor gates, I overheard him talking to another vampire. "You've lost your mind! If Evelyn sees Vera's name on the blood oath sash, don't you think she'll tear the whole ceremony apart?" "She wouldn't dare." Silas pulled off his black leather gloves with an air of complete indifference. "She's a human orphan her own family cast out. Who else can she marry in Ravenmist but me?" "If Evelyn hadn't been so reckless back then, Vera would never have lost the use of her legs in the Holy Silver Chapel. This sash is my way of making it up to her." "As for Evelyn... I'm marrying her anyway. Giving her a Blood Oath Ceremony should be more than enough." He thought that was more than generous enough. Those four words struck me with the cold mist of the rainy night, each one a silver needle piercing flesh. All the hopes I'd kept secret before the wedding amounted to nothing more than his attempt to make amends to another woman. I turned and sent a message to my family back in Harbor City. "I give up." "I'll come home and go through with my engagement to Theodore Blackthorn."

"If you won't meet me, we're done!" I typed out the message, my fingertips trembling with anger. A few months ago, I'd started dating someone I met on an underground comic forum. He was gentle, clingy, talented at drawing, had a beautiful voice, and best of all, he showered me with gold coins at the drop of a hat. Summer break had arrived, and I'd been begging him to meet in person. He refused every single time. Why did other couples get to hold hands, hug, and kiss? While all I got was a cold chat window, day after day. In a fit of anger, I sent the breakup message. The moment the message showed as delivered, a deafening crash erupted outside my window. The glass rattled and hummed, and the night wind surged in, dragging the curtains with it. The next second, a massive black-and-white creature slammed into my living room. It had a pair of enormous bat wings, white fur dusted with moonlight, long pointed ears, small but sharp fangs, and half-lidded green eyes. It looked like a monster that had tumbled straight out of a castle painting. I stood frozen, though my hand had already found the kitchen frying pan. "A... a bat?" Before I could scream, another cascade of clattering sounds filled the room. Gold louis, rubies, black pearls, and diamonds spilled across the floor from beneath it. For a moment, I couldn't decide whether to call animal control first or hide this pile of treasure that could buy half the building.

I was kidnapped the day my vampire boyfriend, Hades, was going to introduce me to his parents. I barely managed to escape and reached his citadel only to watch him on his knees, kissing Hestia’s hands as he announced. “I accept your arrangement, Dad and Mom. Your decision was better than mine. Hestia is truly a good match for me. As for Ares, I’ll think of a way to get rid of her quickly.” “Hades…” My voice choked, drawing their attention to me. “How can you do that to me? You said you loved me.” Hades turned to look at me, his eyes cold and distant. He dragged me out of his citadel. “You dare bring up our past, Ares? Where were you last night?” “I-I was kidnapped!” I yelled. “Really, Ares?” Hestia followed behind, “You say you were kidnapped, yet you stand tall. Not even a scratch on your body.” “I-I don't know why-” I stopped in the middle to look at Hades ’ eyes that were laced with hatred and disgust I had never seen before. “Y-You are doubting me, Hades?” “My men said you were seen with a mysterious man in a five-star hotel’s entrance. I’m not a fool to not understand what you did last night, Ares.” He spat. “Hades… I-I was really kidnapped!” I sobbed. “No need for explanation. It was already hard for me to convince my parents to accept a human mate, and now, after your bad reputation, it's impossible.” “Ten days later, I’ll take vows with Hestia. You should thank her for allowing me to keep you as my mistress. She is really a kind woman.” “Thank her?” I laughed sarcastically, “No thanks, Miss Hestia. No need to share your man with me. Please keep him to yourself.”

We were engaged for three years. Yet Kyros delayed our vow ceremony at Hera's temple thirty-three times. The first time, he went to guide his fragile apprentice, Lyris, on her first mission. I waited alone all night by Hera’s sacred fire. I endured the agony of divine punishment. The contract mark on my ring finger burned my flesh to a crisp. The second time, Lyris whined over the comm-stone that she was scared. Kyros dropped my hand without a second thought. He left me to fight a lesser beast for her. After that, every single time we stood at the altar, Lyris somehow ran into a "deadly crisis." Then came today. "We'll have our ceremony, I promise. But I'm responsible for Lyris. She doesn't feel well, so I have to go." He kissed my ear, tossing me a casual excuse, and walked away. Through the comm-stone, I heard him laughing with his friends. "Who cares if I delay it? She's an orphan. Where is she going to go without me and the guild?" I wiped my tears. I swallowed the soul-shredding agony of Hera's wrath. I was done. He didn't know I wasn't an orphan at all. I was a Goddess from Mount Olympus. My only reason for coming to the mortal world was to spend the rest of my life with him. Now, thirty-three divine punishments later, it was time to let go of this pointless romance. It was time to go home. But when I crossed the Gates of Olympus—a place no mortal could ever reach—he broke. He fell to his knees at the foot of the mountain. He even tried to rip out his own Demon Hunter heart with his bare hands, just begging for one last look from me.

In Onyx City, the ancient Thorne clan lived by a ruthless blood-pact law. If the clan Lord granted a new fledgling his absolute protection, the reigning Consort had to yield her place. She was required to remove her bloodstone collar—the ultimate symbol of his patronage and power—and fasten it around the neck of the new ward herself, right in front of the entire clan. Mia was that fledgling. Today marked exactly one year since she had been taken under the wing of Lord Luca, the man I considered my mate. Every vampire in Onyx City was waiting for me to break down. After all, I had been his closest companion and deepest obsession for ten years. I was the dying stray he’d saved from a hunter’s silver blade. I had craved him like a drug. I used to wake up in the dead of night, begging for his bite, his blood. I only felt peace when his scent swallowed me whole. They all knew my sickening dependence on him. They had even placed bets, swearing I would never let go. Yet, as Mia tilted her pale, fragile neck at me, taunting me with her sickeningly sweet voice, I didn't shed a single tear. Without a moment's hesitation, I unclasped the heavy bloodstone collar and fastened it around her throat myself. Luca lounged on his dark velvet throne, swirling the blood wine in his goblet. His scarlet eyes gleamed with amusement. "Elara. You've finally learned how to please me." I lowered my eyes, my fingertips brushing my bare, cold collarbone. I said nothing. Luca didn't know the truth. My sealed memories had awakened a month ago. I wasn't some lowly stray who had been clinging to life on the streets. I was the lost princess of the Nightshades, the oldest and most formidable Original bloodline in the dark world. In three days, my brother would arrive to take me home. I would reclaim my true identity.

I was the only human at the vampire banquet, and the fiancée of the Prince's heir, Lucien. As a child, I once saved Lucien from vampire hunters, and the Prince and his wife chose me for him, sealing our engagement. Everyone envied me. I was merely the daughter of a human nobleman, yet I had the fortune to marry above my station into the Prince's family. To be worthy of him, I worked to make everything perfect. But among vampires, I always seemed slow and clumsy. They moved faster than me, heard far more than I could, and even the simplest vampire customs took me longer to memorize. Every time I reacted a step too slow, Lucien would remind me with a frown. "How are you ever going to be a proper wife like this?" He always said that compared to the girl he grew up with, his former fiancée, I still fell far short. Every single time, I was laughed at without mercy. Lucien would never let anyone hurt me, but he never once defended my dignity. Eventually, I broke off the engagement and decided to marry someone else. Lucien's face darkened. "You're really going to marry this human?" "Yes. Because he has never once called me stupid." Lucien scoffed. "That's your reason?" I nodded. "That's my reason."

I was a human bride chosen by the Elder Council. Because my bloodline could give the vampires powerful half-blood heirs, I was married to Cassian Blackwood, heir to the vampire throne. Throughout our five-year marriage, Cassian was gentle and attentive, no matter how demanding his duties became. Even after my repeated miscarriages, his tenderness never wavered. He told me I was his wife, and no matter what happened, he would always love me. Then, just before our anniversary, I stumbled onto the truth. When I went to the boutique to pick up his gift, the clerk recognized the ring on my finger at once. "Ma'am, you're so lucky. We made only two rings in this design, and your husband bought both of them." The clerk didn't notice my hands shaking. At my request, she showed me the order. My husband had given the other ring to a woman named Seraphina Vale. Worse, the inside of the ring he gave the other woman read, "Love you forever." Mine was blank. I quietly followed the address on the order, and there was Cassian. He had his arm around another female vampire, his expression full of the tenderness I knew so well. Beside them stood a child of about four. The boy looked up with a smile and called my husband Daddy.

On the night of my birthday, Adrian didn't come home until three in the morning. That human girl had run away from the estate again and nearly died at the hands of lesser vampires. When Adrian got the call, his voice was ice cold. "If she wants to get herself killed, let her. No one is to stop her." But after he hung up, he still went after her. Ever since Vicky's parents took a vampire hunter's silver bullet for Adrian, he could never let her go. By the time they returned, the guests had already gone home disappointed, and the frosting on my birthday cake had long since collapsed. Vicky buried herself in Adrian's arms, trembling as she sobbed. "I'm sorry, I just dreamed about my parents last night..." I had heard this excuse countless times. Every time something happened to her, Adrian would leave me behind. From my coming-of-age ceremony to every single birthday. I looked at Adrian. He didn't push her away. Instead, he said quietly to me, "Elena, she's not in a good state right now. Maybe... we should wait until next year to discuss the engagement." This wasn't the first time he had postponed our engagement ceremony. The entire vampire world had long since turned me into a laughingstock. This time, I just smiled, nodded, and agreed. After all, in one month, I would be marrying someone else.

In my first life, my twin sister and I were born with a rare bloodline, and tradition demanded that we marry into rival factions. I married Lucian Vale, crown prince of the Vampire Court, and became the princess everyone revered. My sister was sent to the Hunters' Order. Within a few years, its brutal discipline had killed her. Lucian blamed me for stealing my sister Rosalie Ashford's future and driving her to her death. He poured all that hatred into punishing me, then drained every drop of my blood to feed his Bloodmoon Scepter. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day our marriages were arranged. I changed the bride's name on Lucian's contract to Rosalie's without a second thought. Everyone believed Rosalie and I carried the same bloodline, only hers was a little weaker. Only I knew the truth. Her blood had mutated years ago, turning into a lethal curse. If Lucian loved her so much, then he could drink the poison from her veins himself.

My five-year-old son and my husband’s mistress were both trapped inside the vampire hunters’ Sun fire Array. As the most powerful Shadow Wielder in the vampire realm, I was certain I could save them both. But my husband, the revered vampire Prince Arthur, had my mother dragged before me in silver chains, stopping just inches from the blazing sunlight. “Give Ella the Shadow Shield first, or I’ll turn your mother to ash.” He gave the order without a trace of emotion, all to protect the human woman he loved. I had no choice but to shield Ella first. Seconds later, the Sun fire Array detonated ahead of schedule. I could only watch as Noah crumbled to ash, still screaming for me. I lunged toward where he had disappeared and scooped up his scorching ashes with my bare hands, even as the white light burned my fingers bloody and raw. Ella nestled against Arthur’s chest. “Noah may be dead, but at least you saved me, Serena. Why are you so determined to blame Arthur? Shouldn’t you be grateful that two people didn’t die today?” “Exactly,” Arthur said coldly. “Serena, if you hadn’t deliberately stalled, someone with your power could have saved them both.” I stared at Arthur, and every last trace of love I had carried for him over the past century turned to hatred. Arthur had forgotten one thing. I was more than his wife and the clan’s High Priestess. I was the sole master of the Shadow Barrier. The barrier that had protected his territory for a century had never belonged to him. When I appeared before Arthur again on the arm of Lucas Kane, the First King of the North, the once-untouchable vampire prince finally broke. Arthur fell to his knees in the tundra snow and begged me to come back. But this time, his territory, his throne, and his life were all mine to decide.

The century-long war between werewolves, vampires, and humans was finally over. To keep the peace, the Council made a decree: The first hybrid heir born would become the new world's Supreme Ruler. In my past life, my sister Cora chose the powerful, untamable Werewolf Alpha. I was given the frail, brooding Vampire Prince. But Cora’s brutal mate drove her mad. She became the laughingstock of our world. Meanwhile, the Prince spoiled me. I became pregnant with our hybrid child. The future King. On the night I went into labor, Cora stabbed a dagger through my heart. She dragged me off the high tower with her. Now, I’m reborn. This time, my sister snatched the blood-red rose from the Vampire Prince—the symbol of our betrothal. She smirked at me. “Alina, this time, I will be the one to bear the future King.” She thinks she stole my happy ending. She stole the vampire, remembering our last life. But she has no idea. Beneath that pale, elegant facade lies a brutal, bloodthirsty monster. As for me? I am done being a breeding machine. Last time, I sacrificed everything for my family. I gave up my passion for supernatural genetics. I willingly hid my talents. This time, I won't put my hope in any man. My destiny. My glory. I will claim it myself.

I went to the largest jewelry shop in Greyharbor before dusk. When I stepped inside, a young woman wearing a sunstone pendant stood behind the counter. She had an innocent face and a warm, sweet smile. "You have wonderful taste, ma'am. This moonstone brooch would look lovely on you." I was impressed by how much she knew about gemstones. I was even more surprised that someone so young owned this century-old shop. She touched the rare sunstone at her neck and said shyly, "My protector paid off my turning debt and bought this shop for me. He was worried I'd just been turned and wouldn't have a way to support myself." Most newly turned vampires had to serve their makers for years before they could repay the blood debt. For someone to buy her freedom and give her a shop on top of that, he clearly cared for her deeply. I couldn't help feeling a twinge of envy. "He must really care about you, to think so far ahead for you." Her words made me think of my husband, Adrian Vaughn. Three years ago, after we'd sworn our blood oath, I wanted to manage the estate accounts and oversee the family's properties in Greyharbor. But Adrian refused. He said the Chief Magistrate's wife should not dirty her hands with business, let alone mingle with commoners and blood servants. The young woman rolled her eyes. "Dirty your hands? He's just afraid that once you have power, he won't be able to control you anymore. If it were me, I wouldn't put up with a man like that for a single night." Just then, steady footsteps sounded from downstairs. She lifted her crimson skirts and hurried toward the staircase. "That must be someone my protector sent with rose blood jelly. The Twilight Parlor just released this new recipe tonight. I only mentioned it once, but he remembered." I followed her gaze. The one coming up the stairs with a black lacquered food case was Caine Mercer, Adrian's most trusted personal guard.

I once believed that saving my vampire fiancé from the hunters was the best thing I had ever done. At that banquet, I drew the hunters away from him. A bullet struck my shoulder. But when I woke in the hospital, everyone said my cousin Sophia Ashford was the one who had saved him. Cassian Vale wanted to repay her by breaking off our engagement and marrying her instead. I tried to explain, again and again, but no one believed me. They all assumed I was lying to keep my place as his vampire bride. The dispute went before the Elder Council, but Cassian's plan was rejected because Sophia lacked a pure human noble bloodline. In the end, I married Cassian after all. Not because he believed me, but because of my bloodline. Because I could bear him a powerful half-blood child. Soon after, Sophia was married off to the North, where she fell ill and died. From that day on, Cassian was convinced that my jealousy had killed her. After our wedding, hunters attacked again. In the chaos, I threw myself in front of a bullet meant for him and lost my baby when I was eight months pregnant. Still, he regarded me with nothing but coldness. In the months before I died, wasting away from illness, he never came to see me. Not once. I opened my eyes again. I was back on the day Sophia claimed the credit for saving his life. This time, I did not explain. I simply took off the ring. "Cassian, I agree to end the engagement."

After the Silvermoon pack lost the war, the vampire prince demanded a noble she-wolf as the price of peace. Everyone knew what that meant. No she-wolf sent to the Blood Court had ever been allowed to return to her pack. Our Alpha had no daughter, so he ordered his Beta’s two daughters Evelyn and me to draw lots. Before the draw, my fiancé Rowan whispered to me, “I marked the safe parchment with a crescent moon. Choose that one.” I trusted him and I chose the crescent. But when I unfolded the parchment, two words stared back at me: VAMPIRE BRIDE. My mother pulled Evelyn into her arms in relief. “Thank the Goddess it wasn’t Evelyn.” My father showed no sympathy. “You’re the eldest. Protecting the pack is your duty.” Rowan wouldn’t meet my eyes. “You saved the Alpha’s life once. If anything happens, he’ll bring you home. Evelyn has no such protection.” They all thought I had a way back. They didn’t know I had already used the Alpha’s life debt three years ago to save Rowan from execution. The draw had never been fair. They had chosen me to be the daughter who never came home. Fine. I would leave and never return.

On the day of our wedding, my vampire husband confessed that he had a severe emotional disorder. He could barely understand other people's feelings and had no idea how to respond to them. Because I had already fallen in love with him, I chose to accept it. I believed that if I gave him enough time, he would eventually learn how to love me. The day the vampire hunters attacked, I threw myself in front of a bullet meant for him. A bullet struck my arm, and the pain nearly brought me to my knees. Adrian Blackwood only glanced down at the carpet. "Go get that wound taken care of." He frowned. "Don't get blood everywhere." Every vampire in our circles knew my husband didn't love me. I had become the punchline everyone whispered about. But I never blamed him. I truly believed he simply wasn't capable of loving anyone. Until I finally got pregnant and went to surprise him with the news, only to hear his human blood servant laughing on the other side of his office door. "She actually believes you have an emotional disorder?" To my shock, Adrian laughed too. His voice was so gentle I hardly recognized it. "She loves me that much. Of course she believes it." "If it weren't for an heir, I never would have married her." I stood outside the door and looked down at my arm. The scar from the silver bullet was still there, jagged and ugly. There was no point in sharing this surprise anymore. I would take my baby and disappear from his world for good.

Adrian Mohr and I had been together for seven years. We'd tried to register our blood bond eight times and failed every single one. The first time, his father said the Mohr clan's nighttime shipping routes had been targeted by vampire hunters, and Adrian needed to attend an emergency family meeting. The meeting ran from dusk until the following dawn. He never showed up before the registry closed. The second time, my mother said she'd found hunters' silver markings outside our front door and insisted that leaving the house would expose the entire family. She blocked the doorway and even threatened that if I insisted on going, she would pull back the blackout curtains and step into the sunlight. The third time, my best friend, Claire Donovan, called me in tears, saying hunters were following her and she was hiding in a bell tower, too afraid to come down alone. I rushed to her side, and by the time we confirmed the area was safe, the registry had already closed for the night. ... The ninth time, we took care of everything ahead of schedule and got into a car with UV-tinted windows, heading to the registry through the underground tunnel. We had barely crossed one intersection when a black sports car shot out from a side street and slammed into us. The side window shattered, and a sliver of silver-coated glass lodged in my left shoulder. For most vampires, a crash like that was nothing, but silver suppressed healing. The wound burned immediately, and the bleeding wouldn't stop. Lillian Hart stumbled out of the sports car in a panic. She was my sister, a newly awakened vampire. She rushed to our car door, her face drained of color. "Oh God, I didn't mean to! Adrian, Eve, are you hurt?" Adrian grabbed her wrist first, checking whether she'd touched any silver. Only after confirming she was completely unharmed did he turn back to me. "Eve, looks like we won't make it to the registry today either." "Yeah. I guess not." I pressed my hand against my still-bleeding shoulder

Cecilia refused to marry Damian Blackwood, Commander of the Northern Night Watch, after he was struck by a vampire hunter's Eclipse Silver. The poison had corroded his spine and left both his legs paralyzed, and she refused point-blank to honor their families' marriage pact. So my parents slipped sedatives into my dinner and loaded my unconscious body onto the night train heading north. By the time I woke, a blood bond mark had been seared into my wrist. The North was a land of endless snowstorms, where vampire hunters and feral vampires took turns besieging the fortress. The Eclipse Silver had locked down Damian's body, rendering his healing almost useless. To save him, I studied the silver bullets the hunters left behind, experimented with dozens of reagents, and slit my wrist again and again to use my blood as a catalyst. Three years later, I finally developed a blood perfume capable of dissolving the silver poison, and I put Damian back on his feet. The night he reclaimed command of his legion and returned to Santvela in triumph, Cecilia burst into the welcome banquet in a black evening gown and threw herself into his arms, sobbing. She claimed their parents had forced her to flee the engagement, that she had spent all three years praying for him in a church. Damian believed her. "Evelyn, the one who was supposed to marry me was always Cecilia. You were just a stand-in to fulfill the blood bond." "I'll dissolve our public marriage. As compensation, you may remain with the Blackwood clan as a secondary bond-holder. " A secondary bond-holder. In vampire law, that was not a wife. It was a dependent registered under a master's name, whose blood and abilities could be called upon at will. I looked down at the glass vial in my hand. One sip would purge the last traces of silver poison from his heart. "All right." I unscrewed the cap right in front of him and poured every drop of the dark red liquid into the drain outside the banquet hall.

Half an hour before I was to seal a blood bond, my vampire fiance's steward stopped me outside my own bedchamber. "I'm sorry, Your Grace, but your key doesn't fit this lock." His words made my stomach drop. "That's impossible. Crowley Ashbourne handed it to me himself." "According to our records, the bedchamber is currently occupied by Lady Elsa Ashbourne, Lord Crowley's adopted sister. She set a ward over it, and only Lord Crowley's blood seal can open the door." My lady's maid, Marta Bell, went white at the steward's answer. The bonding gown, the moonstone ring, every single thing the ceremony required, all of it was still inside that room. In half an hour, vampire nobles from every territory would be seated in the great hall. And I, the bride, could not even get to my own ceremonial dress. I sent Crowley a blood message at once. He came quickly, but his gaze went first to the closed door. Only after he had sensed that Elsa's aura was steady did he turn to me. "Elsa has spent every day helping us prepare this ceremony. She has only just managed to lie down. Go and get ready in my room. Don't wake her." I looked straight at him as he blocked the doorway. "Crowley, everything we need for the bond is in that room!" "What's the rush? When she wakes up, I'll get everything for you." I didn't argue with him any further. I looked at the clock on the wall and gave him an ultimatum. "You have three more minutes to open this door. Otherwise, there will be no blood bond."

At the Bloodline Rite of the Nightborn, Count Louis Ashford knelt on one knee and asked the Council of Elders to approve our eternal blood pact. In my last life, I was so overwhelmed that I slit my wrist, ready to seal the pact, when Louis's attendant, Owen Mercer, suddenly burst in. He accused me of stealing the Sacred Blood Crystal offered to the First Ancestor, of plotting to betray the clan. They found shards of the crystal in my room, along with a forbidden curse hidden inside my amulet that veiled my scent. The whole clan denounced me as a traitor and called for a wooden stake through my heart. At the last moment, Louis risked everything to beg the Council to spare me, then forced me into a master-servant blood pact and made me his blood slave. To repay him for sparing me, I poured every drop of my ancestral power into helping him ascend to Prince. But on the day he donned the Prince's crown, he ordered me nailed to a cross on the city wall and left to burn beneath the sun. While I screamed myself raw, he was kissing the witch apprentice Ellie Marlowe. "Ellie, I had the Sacred Blood Crystal planted in her room." "If I hadn't ruined her name first, how else would she ever have let me devour that pure ancestral power of hers?" The flames consumed me alive until nothing remained but ash. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the Bloodline Rite. This time, the moment Owen brought out the crystal shards, I smiled and bowed to the Council of Elders. "But first, Grand Elder, I have a pact of my own. I ask the whole clan to bear witness."

A lie. That’s all it took. They locked me in the clan’s Sunken Church. For five years, the sun-torture burned away every last scrap of my pureblood pride. But when my sentence ended, I walked out and straight back into the same nightmare. My mate looks at me like I’m filth. Disgusting trash. My once-best friend is curled in his arms. She’s wearing my dead mother’s robes. She has stolen my life. Even my own son glares at me with pure hate. He says a traitor like me should have died in that cage. They all call me a monster. The one who murdered her own parents. A disgrace to the pureblood name. But I remember the truth. This time, I won’t go silently into silver chains. I won’t let them break me. I will not beg. When Owen flaunted my “best friend” in front of me again, trying to provoke me, to see that old spark of jealousy… my heart was stone. I found another man. The Prince who always warned me to leave Owen, the one who watched me from the shadows. “I see everything clearly now,” I told him. “Is your offer still good? I’m done with this trash.”