Chapter3

Slam.

The heavy metal door locked from the outside. I was left completely alone in the dim, sterile backup blood-draw room.

The only thing keeping me company was the blood percolation machine humming beside me, empty bags already hanging from the rack. The thick, pure silver IV catheter remained buried deep in the vein of my left arm, primed for the next round of extraction.

I sprawled on the cheap carpet, surrounded by a suffocating silence. Separated by only a single wall, the VIP suite next door was a different story. Even though they deliberately kept their voices down, every microscopic sound drilled into my heightened ears.

"Are you feeling any better? Does it still hurt?"

"With you here, Kael, the pain is gone," Chloe’s frail voice dripped with coy sweetness. "But... Elara must hate me. She must hate me for taking her credit, and for getting her locked up next door..."

"Don't mention that disgusting woman," Kael cut her off. "Mutilating herself just out of petty jealousy. She owes you. Even if we drain her completely dry today, she deserves it."

"Daddy, the fairy candy Auntie gave me is so yummy!" Leo’s childish, muffled voice chimed in. "When Auntie gets better, can she buy me more? I never want to drink the bad woman’s blood next door ever again. It’s bitter and foul, it tastes gross."

"Of course, sweetie. Auntie will buy you as much as you want," Chloe giggled softly.

Kael let out a low, affectionate chuckle. "Go play on the sofa, buddy. Be careful not to press on Auntie’s wound."

A family of three. A picture of perfect harmony.

I slowly pushed myself up from the floor, staggering over to the blood machine. Squelch. Without batting an eye, I ruthlessly yanked the thick silver catheter from my vein barehanded. I turned and walked toward the medical cart nestled in the corner.

On the bottom shelf of the cart sat a row of chemical reagents. My gaze locked onto the glass vial right in the middle, bearing a stark biohazard warning.

High-concentration liquid mercury.

Few knew that for royal Purebloods, this was also the only extreme catalyst capable of thoroughly shattering "Suppression Runes" from the inside out.

Seven years ago, just to be with Kael, just to give birth to Leo, I had personally embedded seven forbidden runes into my flesh, sealing away the absolute, terrifying power of a Pureblood Queen. Swallowing this vial of mercury would trigger a violent toxic rejection, obliterating those seven seals and allowing me to reforge my royal bloodline.

But the price was astronomical. I would lose all capacity to love, devolving into an absolutely cold, arrogant, and ruthless monster.

I reached out and took the vial. As the man’s tender whisperings and my son’s candy-crunching laughter drifted through the wall, a faint, razor-sharp smile crept up the corners of my mouth.

With trembling fingers, I wiped the fresh crimson oozing from my arm. Then, turning to face the pristine white wall, I used my fingertip to trace a line of blood across the surface. The moment I finished the last letter, I unscrewed the cap without a shred of hesitation and downed the liquid straight down my throat.

"Agh—!"

My knees gave out as I crashed onto the floor. The human fraction of my flesh began to frantically dissolve under the hyper-toxicity. But immediately after, the dormant Pureblood royalty resting deep within my soul let out a terrifying roar.

Beneath my skin, the seven rune shackles flared to life. Under the mercury's fierce corrosion and the frantic ramming of my royal blood, they began to shatter inch by inch.

With the destruction of each rune, I felt it with agonizing clarity: something inside my mind was being ruthlessly erased. The heart-flutter of when I first saw Kael, the coy warmth when he slipped the ring onto my finger, the tears I shed when Leo first called me "Mommy"... All the warm, soft emotional bonds that had constructed my life over the past seven years evaporated into nothingness.

The final seal detonated directly over my heart.

An ancient, terrifying vampiric aura—suppressed for centuries—blasted straight through the crown of my head. My eyes instantly turned the piercing crimson of blood diamonds. Two razor-sharp pureblood fangs punctured my lower lip.

But this mortal vessel—drained of its base blood and ravaged by pure silver—ultimately couldn't withstand the explosive shockwave of the pureblood reformation.

The very next second, my body spontaneously combusted in a blinding blaze of scarlet light. In a matter of seconds, the discarded woman named Elara completely vanished from the floor of the room.

The fluorescent lights flickered twice before dying out. All that remained was a pile of scarlet ash radiating an eerie, pale glow quietly scattered across the carpet.

And a single, blood-stained necklace.

On the wall, the fresh crimson letters slowly dripped stinging beads of blood down the grooves of the tiles.

Enjoy my blood. It’s to die for.