Chapter 2

"You ungrateful bastards—get the hell away from me!"

There was no way I was going to die at the hands of the trash I'd once dragged home myself!

With a savage roar, I twisted the iron chains around me with my broken arms and detonated the last bit of strength left in my body.

With a deafening bang, the car door blew right off its hinges!

Arthur, Claire, Leo, and the rest of those backstabbing leeches were blasted out of the SUV and slammed onto the road.

"Avira! You crazy bitch!" Arthur rolled across the pavement and scrambled up, glaring at me.

I ignored him. Fighting through the pain, I braced myself against the seat and slammed my limp broken arms against the door frame—crack! I forced my dislocated, shattered arms back into place. Cold sweat blurred my vision as I floored the gas and left those idiots choking on my exhaust.

The SUV tore down the road and finally crashed through the iron gates of the private estate.

I practically stumbled into the underground cold room and yanked open the refrigerated storage case. The second I tore open a bag of emergency blood, a nauseating stench rushed into my nose.

Pig's blood.

Spoiled pig's blood mixed with cheap anticoagulants.

A desperate, bitter laugh escaped me.

No wonder I had gotten so weak. Pureblood vampires reject filthy blood like this on instinct. Arthur and the others hadn't just betrayed me—they had tampered with my food.

But the real nightmare had only just begun.

The first hint of dawn had barely pushed through the floor-to-ceiling windows when a series of blasts erupted from all sides. Flashbangs shattered the glass and exploded right in the middle of the living room!

"Ahh—!" I cried out, covering my eyes.

In the next second, the front doors of the estate were blown open, and more than a dozen men carrying silver crossbows stormed inside. At the front was Albert, the old madman who led the Blackwood hunter family.

He strode up to me and ground the heel of his boot down on the back of my hand.

"Lady Avira. Long time no see." Albert sneered, pressing a dagger to my throat. "Breaking into Blackwood territory? You've gotten awfully bold tonight."

"Breaking in?" Blood welled into my mouth as I glared at him. "I never stepped one foot outside this estate!"

"You're still trying to deny it?" Albert gave a cold snort and threw a dark red dress into my face.

It was my favorite dress.

The same one Claire had tried on yesterday.

In that instant, everything clicked into place.

That idiot Arthur. He knew perfectly well that cheap perfume could never hide a vampire's rotten scent. He only went along with it to make Claire happy. They must have sneaked into Blackwood territory anyway and gotten tracked from every direction. And when it became a matter of life and death, Arthur had deliberately left behind my dress so he could make it look like I—the strongest vampire alive—had led the break-in, all so I could take the fall for them.

"No... that wasn't me!" I snarled in fury, only for Albert to kick me hard in the stomach, folding me in half.

My body was already in terrible shape from the backlash of the tainted pig's blood. I had no strength left to fight back. Several hunters bound me tightly with barbed silver rope and dragged me out onto the lawn.

Dawn was almost here. The sky had already turned that dangerous pale gray before sunrise.

By the time they had beaten me half to death and my consciousness was starting to blur, Albert turned around and gestured toward the darkness behind him.

"Come out, Vincent."

A young man in a black trench coat slowly stepped out of the shadows.

Albert took a step back and handed Vincent a silver longsword soaked in holy water, his tone full of open contempt and condescension. "Vincent, that disgusting heretic blood in your veins can heal these monsters. The Blackwood family has put up with you for long enough. Now it's time for you to prove your loyalty."

He pointed the sword at me on the ground and smiled cruelly. "Take this blade and slit the woman's throat with your own hands. Kill the strongest vampire still alive, and the family will finally forgive the cursed body you were born with."

I weakly lifted my head and met Vincent's eyes.

He tightened his grip on the sword and, beneath the growing light of dawn, began walking toward me step by step.