The Cursed Vampire King

Chapter 2 Not Your Blood Bag

I nudged the silver coin back to Selene with my boot.

"Keep it. You've inherited a much larger debt."

Fenrir roared inside the hall. Kaelen closed his cloak around me and led me into the night without looking back.

We crossed the distance to the Night Court through fast-moving shadows. The journey blurred the road and trees together, and Kaelen kept the cloak closed around me.

I expected a decaying fortress at the end. Instead, an obsidian castle rose beneath a sky crowded with permanent stars, its narrow spires cutting through their light.

Inside, polished black marble reflected an enchanted ceiling where captured stars moved in slow circles. The corridors were quiet enough for our steps to return from the walls.

Nothing had been abandoned. Silver lamps burned beside carved doors, and wealth appeared in the stonework long before Alistair showed me the treasury boxes.

An old vampire with ruby eyes met us beneath the main arch. His formal coat belonged to another century, though every button had been polished.

"Your Majesty. My Queen." He bowed.

"Alistair, make the Queen comfortable. Give her whatever she requires."

Alistair opened a velvet-lined box. A bed of blood-red diamonds rested on black satin, each as large as a robin's egg and lit from somewhere inside.

"For daily incidentals, my Queen."

Selene had offered one silver coin with the entire pack watching. Alistair had just handed me enough to ransom a king for ordinary expenses.

He set the box in my hands, bowed, and asked whether the room temperature suited me. No one asked what I would give in return.

That night, cold moved through my chambers and frost formed along the edge of the balcony glass. A groan came from the adjoining room. Kaelen.

I found him gripping the stone balcony with both hands. His knuckles had gone white, his shoulders had locked, and shadows twisted around his arms.

Each breath scraped out of him. The Millennium Curse had taken hold before he could seal the room.

Years as the pack's living remedy moved my hands before thought did. Whenever someone suffered, I opened a vein. I reached for the collar of my nightgown.

"Let me help."

Kaelen faced me. Black fire had swallowed the crimson in his eyes.

"Get back."

I exposed my throat anyway. The pack had taught me that pain created a debt, and my blood was always the payment.

He crossed the room before I saw him move and caught my wrist. His fingers were cold and hard around the joint, but his free hand pulled my collar closed with care.

"Never."

He took a black silk ribbon from the dresser and tied it over my eyes. The knot held firmly without catching my hair.

Darkness shut out the sight of his throat and fangs. Kaelen kept both hands away from my skin once the ribbon was in place.

"I brought you here as my queen, Elara. You will never be my blood bag. Learn to belong to yourself."

His breathing broke between the words. A shadow struck the wardrobe behind him, but he kept his grip on the doorframe and walked me back to my room.

Once I crossed the threshold, he returned to his chamber and turned the lock from inside.

I stood in the corridor with the ribbon over my eyes and one hand at the collar he had closed. The curse continued beyond the wall until dawn.

Kaelen had chosen every hour of it over taking what I offered.

Several days passed before I saw the ribbon again, folded beside my place at breakfast. That morning, a shadow courier delivered a sealed scroll.

Kaelen broke the wolf-pack wax and read the first page across the table.

"The Wolfguard are ill again," he said. "Selene's miracle cure is failing."

The Centennial Alliance Banquet was one week away. Fenrir meant to present Selene and her cure to every clan.

I folded the scroll. "Let them have their party. I wouldn't miss it."