Chapter 1
When I was silent, Ethan Ward's eyes darkened. His grip on my shoulders tightened until it was almost unbearable.
"Freda! Why aren't you saying anything? This is a matter of life and death! Doris is my sister. You expect me to just stand here and watch her die?"
His sister? A sister he held hands with, he hugged, kissed, and even slept with?
We were supposed to be a loving couple. Yet looking at the man standing in front of me now, I felt like I was staring at a complete stranger.
I bit my lip so hard I could barely feel it. After what felt like forever, I finally found my voice.
"She can't take my blood."
"Freda!"
Ethan assumed I was making excuses. His face instantly turned icy.
"You've been different since you came back, Freda. Selfish, even. She's not asking for your life. It's just a little blood!"
I stared blankly at the furious man before me.
For a brief moment, it felt as though my long-dead heart had started beating again, only so it could ache.
Ethan didn't know. I'd been dead for three years. Even if I agreed to donate blood to Doris Hayes, the second I was wheeled into the operating room, the surgeons would be terrified.
"Freda..." His voice softened into a plea. "I'm begging you. Please come to the hospital with me. Doris is waiting. She needs this transfusion to survive."
Even as he begged, his hand clamped tightly around my arm, trying to drag me out by force.
The moment he opened the front door, he froze.
Outside, Doris was sitting in a wheelchair. Her eyes were swollen red, tears streaming down her face like pearls slipping off a broken string.
"Ethan, don't make things harder for Freda."
She forced a fragile smile. "I guess this is just my fate. If Freda doesn't want to save me, that's okay. I deserve this. I'm not worth saving."
As soon as she finished speaking, she clutched her chest and broke into a violent coughing fit.
Ethan's eyes instantly filled with panic. He looked at her as though she were the most fragile treasure in the world. Even his voice became unbelievably gentle.
"Doris, why did you leave the hospital? Don't worry. You're going to be okay. I won't let anything happen to you."
Those words... I'd heard them before.
Years ago, one of Ethan's enemies had sent assassins after him.
To save his life, I'd taken seven knife wounds.
Back then, he'd held me just like this, his whole body shaking.
"Freda... Freda... You're going to be okay. I won't let anything happen to you."
Now he was saying those exact same words to another woman.
Ethan turned toward me, his voice raw.
"Freda! You see how critical her condition is. Are you really still refusing to save her?"
Pain spread through my chest in relentless waves. That was when I realized even vampires could have their hearts broken.
"Save her?"
I looked at him with a mocking smile. "You mean save your lover?"
Ethan froze. But he seemed certain I wouldn't see through his betrayal, so he straightened up and said, with all the nerve in the world, "What are you talking about? Doris is my sister. It's not what you think! Did someone tell you rumors? None of that's true. You know I only love you!"
He did love me. But he'd also fallen in love with someone else.
Sitting in her wheelchair, Doris weakly shook her head.
"Freda, you've misunderstood. Ethan and I are innocent. This is all my fault. I never meant to make you two fight. Ethan, please don't force Freda anymore. This is my fate. I've already accepted it."
Doris suddenly coughed again. Then her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed.
"Doris!" Ethan rushed over like a madman, pulling her into his arms.
"I'm taking you to the hospital right now. Doris, you'll be okay. I swear nothing's going to happen to you."
Without another glance in my direction, he carried her out the door.
Silence settled over the house. For the first time, I realized just how empty the home Ethan and I shared really was.
I walked into the bathroom and washed my face.
To be with Ethan and live as a normal human, I'd almost stopped drinking blood. I ate human food with him, followed his life—and now my body was weak, my vampire abilities fading.
The woman staring back at me in the mirror had skin as pale as snow. It was the complexion unique to vampires.
Around my neck hung a ruby necklace. To everyone else, it was just jewelry. But every vampire living among humans carried one. It was our communicator.
Without hesitation, I took it off and crushed it in my hand. The ruby shattered.
A beam of crimson light shot into the air. Moments later, a deep, familiar voice answered.
"Freda?"
"I want to return to the vampire world. Please come and take me home."
Three years ago, I came back because of Ethan. Now that he'd betrayed me, there was no reason for me to stay anymore.
