Chương 25: The Price of Immortality

Malcolm's blood soaked through what remained of my clothing and spread hot across my shoulder. It was leaving him in a steady stream, far faster than his body could afford. Below, Vera screamed his name while Celeste struggled to keep her from rushing forward. Adrian stood protectively in front of them with his sword lowered but his posture still ready for another attack, soldier blood staining his mouth. The surviving army had collapsed.

Some fled through the gates, others dropped to their knees, and several simply stared at the destruction around them as though their minds had finally surrendered to a world that no longer made sense. They could wrestle with that revelation on their own. I had more immediate concerns. I lowered Malcolm onto the balcony floor, where his body continued fighting desperately for every breath. That was the cruel part. Death had already entered him, but his flesh continued arguing against it.

His chest jerked beneath his torn shirt, and the wound across his throat opened and closed with each desperate attempt to draw breath. Blood bubbled through the cut and spread beneath his neck in a widening pool. His eyes fluttered without fully opening or closing, leaving him suspended somewhere between this world and wherever foolish lovers went when they died. I crouched beside him and pressed two fingers beneath the wound in his throat.

A heartbeat still struggled beneath my touch, weak and fading but stubbornly present. The man hadn't surrendered yet.

"Do you wish to live?" His head shifted faintly against the stone. It might have been a nod, or nothing more than the final spasm of a dying body. At that moment, I wasn't inclined to demand clarity.

"Well, that's good enough for me." I leaned down and sank my fangs into his neck. Vera's scream tore across the courtyard.

"What are you doing to him?" Her voice shattered on the final word. Celeste tightened her hold around the princess.

"Vera, listen to me," she urged, her voice soft but firm.

"No! She is biting him!"

"Yes, that's true."

"She is killing him!"

"No," Celeste answered.

"She's doing the opposite." I ignored them and focused on the body beneath me. This bite wasn't meant for feeding. There was blood, of course, and my hunger noticed it with immediate and thoroughly indecent enthusiasm, but drinking wasn't the purpose. This required venom, instinct, and the ancient knowledge buried inside my body that understood how to create kin even though no one had ever taught me. My fangs sank deeper and something primal moved through them. It wasn't violet ruin.

This power was far more intimate, carrying a command written directly into the blood that demanded he change, survive, and belong. Malcolm convulsed beneath me as his hands scraped weakly against the balcony. His heart hammered twice before stumbling again, and I forced more venom into his failing body. The transformation spread through him and wrapped itself around the final remnants of life before death could close its hand around them.

His wounds began to respond, but they couldn't fully heal while the process remained incomplete. He carried my venom, but he had not yet taken my blood. Then a bond sparked between us. It was thin and fragile compared to the connection I shared with Adrian and Celeste. Their bonds had become chains forged through decades. Malcolm's was barely a thread, trembling like a candle flame inside a storm. The bond was fragile, but it existed, and Malcolm was already becoming one of us.

The realization settled inside me with more weight than I expected. His transformation remained incomplete, yet he was no longer entirely mortal. I released his neck and listened as his breathing continued in ragged, painful bursts. The hopelessness had begun to fade from each breath, while the torn edges of his throat slowly drew together. For now, that would have to be enough. I lifted him with more care than he deserved after cheating inside my casino, stepped onto the balcony railing, and jumped.

The courtyard cracked beneath my feet when I landed. Vera stared at me as though I had dragged Malcolm back from hell with my teeth. That wasn't entirely inaccurate. Blood covered my mouth. My clothing had been reduced to strips of ruined fabric, and one arm remained wet with what had once belonged inside Duke Vale. Malcolm hung limply in my grasp, his throat a torn mess that was beginning to close around the edges. Vera reached toward him. Adrian stepped between us before her fingers could touch Malcolm.

"Wait." His voice remained calm. That stopped her more effectively than shouting ever could. Vera's hand froze in the air. She stared at me, trembling so violently that Celeste had to keep one arm around her shoulders.

"What did you do?" She asked with shaky words.

"I started saving him." My response was nonchalant.

"Started?"

"Yes." I simply shrugged. I adjusted Malcolm's weight and held Vera's gaze.

"Now you must choose, Vera Stonehaven." The remaining color drained from her face. Celeste's arm tightened around her. I lowered Malcolm enough for Vera to see him clearly. His lips remained parted. His fangs hadn't fully descended, but their pale tips had begun pressing against his lower lip. Some of the mortal warmth had already left his skin. He wasn't becoming dead, but something that no longer obeyed ordinary life.

"What's happening to him?" Vera whispered.

"He's becoming like us." The revelation left Vera visibly shaken. Her gaze moved from Malcolm to Celeste, then to Adrian, before finally settling on me. Around us, the ruined courtyard had grown almost silent, disturbed only by distant groans, the crackle of scattered fires, and blood dripping steadily onto the stone.

"You have seen what we are," I told her.

"Don't insult either of us by pretending otherwise. We're no longer human. We survive wounds that should kill us. We don't age, we possess strength and speed beyond mortal bodies, and we drink blood because our existence requires it." Vera's breathing became shallow.

"But we're not corpses. We're still alive, even if our bodies no longer follow what it means to be human. Our hearts beat, our blood moves, and we feel everything." Celeste gave me a look.

"Malcolm was still alive when I infected him. His heart gave the transformation something to hold onto, but he's recovering too slowly. Until he drinks my blood, the process will remain incomplete."

"Then give it to him." Hope flashed across Vera's face, but I crushed it before she got too far ahead of herself.

"I will, but once he drinks, his path will be set. He will belong to my blood, to House Vaust, and to this existence. There will be no returning him to the man he was." A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Her eyes filled with tears.

"He will become the same as Adrian and Celeste." Then I allowed the rest of the truth to fall between us.

"And you must decide whether to follow him." Malcolm made a faint sound in my arms. Vera's attention snapped toward him.

"You're not required to follow him into this life. You can remain human, return to the palace, and decide for yourself what becomes of your title, your crown, and everything attached to them. Keep it, abandon it, or burn it to the ground if that pleases you. The choice belongs entirely to you." My voice lowered.

"But if Malcolm awakens as my kin while you remain mortal, the years will eventually take you from him. You will age while he remains unchanged, and even if time is patient, sickness, violence, or some absurd accident may reach you first. Mortals have an impressive talent for dying in ways no one could have predicted." Celeste sighed.

"Mother."

"What? They are." Vera barely seemed to hear the exchange. She stared at Malcolm as though the rest of the world had fallen away, while the fragile thread connecting him to me flickered with growing urgency. His bond was weakening, and it was running out of time.

"We don't have much time. Choose." Vera finally raised her eyes to mine, and the terror within them had deepened into something far more painful than fear of death. She understood what stood before her now. I was no longer merely a noble patron, the dangerous owner of a casino, or even the monster whispered about behind closed doors, but a threshold between the life she knew and one she could never leave behind.

"If I do this," she whispered, "I can never go back."

"No."

"My father…"

"Will no longer own your future."

"My title…"

"Will matter less than your teeth." Her mouth trembled.

"My life…"

"Will end," I told her.

"Then it will begin again." Celeste moved closer and settled beside Vera, offering her a steady presence without crowding the choice she still had to make.

"Vera, listen to me. She will not force you to choose Malcolm. That decision must belong to you, not him, not your father, and not Helena." Vera turned toward her with desperate eyes. Celeste kept her voice gentle.

"If you choose this, choose it because you want the life waiting on the other side. Don't accept eternity simply because you're terrified of being left behind." Vera looked back at Malcolm just as his eyelids fluttered. A weak sound caught in his throat, barely more than breath, but it carried the shape of her name. Whatever hesitation remained in her disappeared.

"I will do it." Malcolm's fingers twitched.

"If you can truly save him," she told me, "then I will do it." Carefully, I studied her for any sign that fear had made the decision in her place. Her choice was frightened and uncertain, but it was still her own. There was no reason to question it further.

"All right. I hope you don't regret it, Princess."

"I already regret many things," she whispered.

"Not him." Celeste's eyes began to glisten. How inconvenient… She reached up and gently swept Vera's hair away from her neck. The gesture was tender enough to irritate me. Celeste leaned closer and whispered into Vera's ear, keeping her voice too low for mortal hearing. Unfortunately, my hearing wasn't mortal.

"It will hurt," Celeste warned, keeping her voice calm.

"The pain will pass quickly, but the thirst that follows will be harder to ignore. Don't fight it when it comes. Trust your instincts and let them guide you." Vera nodded, though the trembling running through her body made the gesture unsteady. Once she was ready, I placed Malcolm carefully into Adrian's arms.

"Hold him." Adrian accepted immediately, supporting the injured man with more care than I expected. Malcolm sagged against his chest while the wound in his throat continued closing one grain at a time. Adrian studied him.

"He's stubborn."

"Yes, it's one of his least irritating qualities." With Malcolm secure in Adrian's arms, I turned my attention to Vera and stepped toward her before hesitation could reclaim her. Mercy had a habit of becoming cruelty when allowed to linger too long. I cupped the back of her neck and sank my fangs into her throat. A sharp gasp escaped Vera as her hands tightened around my torn sleeves. She neither pushed me away nor pulled me closer, but her entire body went rigid when the venom entered her blood.

The transformation spread through her faster than I expected. Perhaps her willingness made it easier for my venom to take hold, or something unusual had endured within the Stonehaven bloodline. There was also the possibility that my power had begun growing again, and that thought unsettled me more than I cared to admit. Before I could examine the possibility further, a fourth thread formed within me and bound Vera to the others.

The connection reached toward me like a narrow strand of red light, fragile at first but strengthening with every uneven beat of her heart. Her breath caught as the skin beneath my mouth turned cold, and then warmed with a heat no mortal body should have produced. I felt the exact moment the venom took hold and her body surrendered to the transformation. Her fangs emerged a heartbeat later, piercing her lower lip and drawing a startled cry from her. I released her before her legs could give way.

Vera staggered backward into Celeste's waiting arms and raised a trembling hand to her mouth, brushing her fingertips over the unfamiliar points.

"What…?"

"There is no time." I sank my fangs into my wrist, and dark blood immediately welled from the wound. Its scent swept through the courtyard and seized everyone's attention at once. Adrian's eyes darkened with hunger, while Celeste drew a sharp breath beside him. Malcolm convulsed in Adrian's grasp as instinct awakened within him before conscious thought could follow. Vera remained transfixed by the blood running down my wrist, staring at it as though it promised salvation and damnation in equal measure.

Perhaps it did. Before Malcolm's failing body could weaken any further, I pressed the bleeding wound against his mouth.

"Bite." Malcolm obeyed immediately, though instinct had already stripped the choice from him. His new fangs sank into my wrist with clumsy desperation, and he drank as though my blood were the only thing holding death at bay. The bond between us flared in response. What had begun as a fragile thread thickened into a cord before tightening into something far stronger. His body finally began to heal in earnest.

Flesh knitted across the wound in his throat, bruises faded from his skin, and broken bones shifted back into place beneath it. Pain spread through me, but it didn't come from his bite. It came from the blood and power leaving my body with every swallow. Without pulling away from Malcolm, I extended my other bleeding wrist toward Vera.

"Bite," I told her. Vera recoiled from my offered wrist, her eyes wide with horror and shining with tears. The thirst had already awakened inside her, raw and bewildered as it clawed through a body that did not yet understand what it had become. She was starving, but enough of her humanity remained to be repulsed by the sight of blood offered so freely.

"I cannot do this."

"You can." Her head shook desperately.

"I cannot."

"You already made your choice. This is what comes after it." Celeste tightened her hold just enough to keep Vera steady without forcing her forward.

"Vera, you need to drink." Tears slipped down Vera's face as she stared at the blood running over my hand.

"It's blood."

"Yes, I had noticed," I replied.

"Now drink." Vera shook her head again, but the unfinished transformation answered with a violent shudder that tightened every muscle in her body. Her fangs remained extended, and the hunger inside her sharpened into pain. The venom had changed her, but only my blood could complete what it had begun. I brought my wrist closer until the scent of it filled every breath she took.

"Drink." Celeste's hold remained steady, though her voice softened.

"It's all right, Vera. Listen to the hunger and give your body what it needs. There's no shame in choosing to survive." A broken sob escaped Vera as the last of her resistance crumbled. She seized my arm with both hands, pulled my wrist to her mouth, and sank her fangs into the wound. The bond between us opened completely. Vera drank hesitantly at first, but instinct quickly overtook her fear. Malcolm continued feeding from my other wrist, still barely conscious but clinging to life with every swallow.

Four bonds now stretched from my blood into the lives of Adrian, Celeste, Malcolm, and Vera. Each of them remained alive because I had chosen to reach into death and drag them back from it. Well... of course besides Vera, who chose her fate. A strange bitterness tightened inside my chest as I recognized the pattern. Why is it always couples? Adrian and Celeste had been married and hopelessly devoted to one another long before death came for them.

Now Malcolm and Vera had followed, equally foolish and desperate, prepared to surrender crowns, titles, humanity, and even their final breaths rather than live without each other. Again and again, love came crawling to my feet covered in blood, and I answered by making it immortal. Perhaps it was fate, though I had never been particularly fond of that explanation, or it was simply some cruel joke woven into my existence.

Had I truly been brought into this world only to preserve the kind of love I had never possessed? I stood at the center of the bloodline, powerful enough to destroy armies and untouchable enough to survive almost anything, while pairs clung to one another around me. They had one another, while I had all four of them bound to me. Those truths should have carried equal weight, yet somehow they did not. The realization left bitterness in my mouth that even blood couldn't match.

Vera's grip tightened around my wrist as she continued to drink, while Malcolm's heartbeat grew stronger in Adrian's arms. All four bonds burned brightly within me, alive and secure. Then my vision blurred. I frowned as the courtyard shifted beneath my feet and the world tilted sharply to one side. Exhaustion wasn't a sensation I encountered often, and I found myself immediately disliking it. How irritating. I had given blood before.

Adrian and Celeste had both drunk from me during their transformations, and although the process weakened me, I had remained standing. This time was different. Two new kin fed from me at once after I had already survived a much more grueling battle than the one before. My body had repaired countless broken bones and ruptured organs. Violet ruin had torn through half an army, and I had killed three S-ranks before punching my arm through Duke Vale. Perhaps even I possessed limits.

How rude of my body to inform me now. Malcolm released my wrist first. His head fell back against Adrian's arm, but the wound across his throat had sealed completely. His chest rose and fell with steady breaths. His skin had become pale, his lips were stained with my blood, and his new fangs gleamed faintly. Malcolm's heartbeat settled into a strong, steady rhythm. His wounds had closed, his breathing had eased, and the bond between us burned with undeniable life.

He had survived, but he was no longer the man who had been thrown from the balcony. He had crossed the threshold and become my kin. Vera released my wrist a heartbeat later and stared ahead in a daze. Blood stained her lips, while something unnatural had begun to bloom beneath the original color of her eyes. Her gaze found Malcolm immediately.

"Malcolm…" His eyelids lifted, not fully, but enough for him to see her leaning toward him.

"Vera," he rasped. She tried to rush into his arms, but her weakened legs buckled beneath her. Celeste caught her before she struck the ground and held her upright as Vera reached desperately for him. Satisfied that neither of them intended to die within the next few moments, I attempted to step backward. My legs refused to move. A violent wave of dizziness swept through me, folding the edges of the courtyard inward as the ground vanished beneath my feet. I fell...

"Mother!" Celeste's voice reached me first, sharpened by a panic I had rarely heard from her.

"Mother!" Adrian shouted as well, which was considerably more alarming. He almost never raised his voice. I attempted to summon a suitably dismissive remark about their unnecessary panic, but the words refused to leave my mouth. Unfortunately, my body had decided that remaining conscious was no longer a matter open for discussion. The last thing I saw was Celeste reaching for me and terror filling her eyes. Then the ruined courtyard disappeared into darkness.