Chapter 1

In my past life, simply to buy a smile from his mistress, Lilianna, Valerius insisted on shutting down the territory's ultraviolet defense grid on the night of a meteor shower.

I fought him tooth and nail. In return, he shattered my legs and threw me into the dark like a bag of trash.

The horde swarmed in. It took three agonizing hours of being eaten alive by a dozen ghouls before I finally bled out.

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in front of the control room's master lever.

If fate brought me back, it wasn't to play the pathetic saint again. This time, I'm going to step aside and quietly admire the symphony of death they compose for themselves.

...

My hand gripped the lever of the backup generator, knuckles stark white from the strain.

"Lady Nyx, please let go."

A large hand clad in a tactical glove clamped over my wrist like a vice. It was Silas. Valerius's most loyal Captain of the Guard. Impatience and a thinly veiled sneer were written all over his face.

The phantom sensation of putrid ghoul saliva dripping onto my face—the agonizing tear of my own organs being ripped out—surged wildly in my mind. I gasped sharply, locking eyes with Silas.

I had been reborn.

"Silas, do you even know what you're doing?" I met his gaze, my parched voice sounding entirely alien to my own ears. "It's the polar night outside—ghoul breeding season! If you shut down the UV grid now, this entire territory will become a slaughterhouse!"

"His Grace, the Prince, has given the order," Silas replied, his tone devoid of any inflection. "Tonight brings a once-in-a-century Alpha meteor shower. Lady Lilianna has always yearned to watch it under an unobstructed sky. The light pollution from the grid would ruin the experience. His Grace said it will only be down for two hours. The ghouls couldn't possibly gather that fast."

I looked at him and let out a sudden, dry laugh.

In my past life, I had pleaded with him just like this. I had even drawn a dagger and held it to my own throat, trying to force him to activate the backup power. And the result?

He shattered my ribs and tossed me into the plaza like garbage. By the time I regained consciousness, ghoul claws had already eviscerated my stomach.

"Shutting down the grid... for a meteor shower?" I laughed out of pure anger. "Silas, have you and Valerius let the ghouls eat your brains? Those scent-starved freaks only need five minutes to tear through the outer walls. Two hours is more than enough time for them to butcher everyone here."

Silas furrowed his brow, seemingly disturbed by my mockery. "My lady, watch your tongue. Lady Lilianna has been frail lately, and His Grace merely wishes to bring her some joy. As the Prince's lawful wife, instead of being understanding, you're fear-mongering and attempting to ruin His Grace's mood. It is exceedingly undignified."

"Undignified?" I took a step back, my gaze sweeping across the control room's massive floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside, the purple electrical grid was already beginning to dim—the precursor to a total shutdown.

I stared at Silas's face, a portrait of blind loyalty and arrogance. He had stopped me exactly like this in my previous life, ultimately causing the total collapse of our defenses. Even his beloved fiancée had been eaten alive right inside her stasis pod.

I didn't waste another breath. I drew the stun gun from the small of my back and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

A high-voltage blue arc instantly struck the guard to Silas's left. The man dropped into seizing convulsions before he could even scream.

"Are you crazy?!" Silas roared. He drew his broadsword and slashed down at me. The sheer physical power of a high-tier vampire made his movements a blur.

But I knew his fighting style better than he did. I sidestepped, letting the lethal strike graze past me. The heavy blade struck the metal floor in a shower of sparks. Using the momentum, I closed the distance. My dagger darted out like a viper, sliding perfectly through the gap in his pauldron and plunging deep into his shoulder.

Silas let out a muffled grunt, the burning pain stalling his movement. He countered blindly, driving a savage elbow back toward my throat.

I ducked, simultaneously driving my boot into the side of his knee. The sickening crunch of dislocating bone echoed sharply in the cavernous hallway. Silas dropped to one knee. But before I could lunge for the blast doors, the remaining two guards tackled me from behind.

The absolute disparity in strength made it impossible to break free. Two pairs of vice-like hands wrenched my arms behind my back, slamming me against the wall.

"Chain her!" Silas snarled, his eyes bleeding red as he staggered up, clutching his wound—which was now smoking faintly.

A guard pulled out specialized steel shackles soaked in verbena, binding my wrists tight. The verbena extract immediately seeped through my skin and into my bloodstream, sending waves of debilitating weakness and searing pain through my veins.

Right then, a male voice laced with arrogance and anger drifted from the control room doorway.

"Nyx, what are you throwing a tantrum about now?"

Valerius stood there, draped in a lavish robe, cradling the petite, fragile form of Lilianna in his arms.

Lilianna shrank against Valerius's chest, her eyes slightly red. "Valerius, let it go... If sister Nyx is really this frightened, we shouldn't watch the meteor shower. I'll be fine. Even though it's been my dream since childhood... I don't want sister getting this angry because of me."

"Lilianna, this isn't your fault." Valerius kissed her forehead tenderly before snapping his gaze to me. His eyes were heavy with absolute disgust. "Nyx, you are a completely unreasonable lunatic. You're so jealous of my affection for Lilianna that you'd spin such cheap lies to ruin our evening? Ghouls? The territory has three layers of physical perimeter walls. Even without the UV grid, there's no way they’re getting in!"

"Physical walls can't stop a ghoul horde in mating season," I stated, my expression utterly devoid of emotion. "Forcing the grid offline is no different than lighting a beacon in the dark, inviting them to a feast."

"Enough!" Valerius slashed his hand through the air. A surge of telekinetic vampiric force slammed into me from across the room.