Chapter Four

Darkness. Murmured voices, blurred.

“…Forget it. Take her away. She’s gone—her heart’s been stopped too long.”

Then more darkness.

Thud.

Heavy. Slow.

A long, dead interval.

Thud.

A second beat—precise, one minute and forty seconds later.

Then a third, a fourth, a fifth…

The thirteenth.

My eyes snapped open.

An empty operating room.

I sat up. The center of my chest was healing—excruciatingly slowly. A cold, inhuman force seeped up from deep within this broken shell.

I raised my hand. My fingers were stiff, chilled to the same icy temperature as the room.

—This body had returned to a vampire state.

Mina.

I slid off the metal table, bare feet on tile. I pushed through the door and staggered forward, guided by the faint, nearly severed yet stubborn thread of blood-sense deep inside me. It led me to a hospital room. The door was ajar. Warm light spilled out. Soft voices flowed.

Kael sat with his back to the door beside the bed.

And in that bed was Selene—still pale, but her expression delicate, pitiful in that “survivor” way.

“…I truly thought I was going to lose you. Only then did I finally realize how important you are to me. Don’t scare me like that again, Selene.”

Kael leaned over her, voice low, trembling with a tenderness and fear I’d never once heard from him.

I pushed the door open.

“Where is Mina?”

My voice was dry as gravel, ripping through the nauseating warmth in the room.

Kael jerked around. When he saw me, shock flickered across his face, followed by something complicated—awkward.

“Vera? You… how are you…” He let go of Selene’s hand and stood.

“Mina. Where. Is. She.” I said it again.

He frowned. “Mina? Shouldn’t she be with you—”

“I gave heart’s blood.” I cut him off and stepped closer, eyes locked on his. “I gave my blood to Mina. I told you to save her. Where is she? Where? Tell me.”

Kael froze. For a moment his expression went blank, a flicker of something like disbelief crossing his eyes—as if he were struggling to process my words.

Then his gaze flicked, fast, toward Selene on the bed.

“So… it was your blood?” he said.

Selene coughed softly at just the right time, drawing attention, her eyes full of false surprise and gratitude.

“No wonder…” she murmured. “I recovered so quickly. I really… should thank you.”

She paused, lashes lowering, her tone slipping into a thin show of remorse. “But… it’s also my fault. If my leg hadn’t been cut—if I hadn’t lost that much blood—maybe Kael would’ve had time to… keep an eye on your daughter…”

All color drained out of the world, leaving only black and white and a dead ringing in my skull.

“…What does that mean?” My voice sounded far away, even to me.

“You used my heart’s blood…” My words were barely a whisper—so cold it was frightening. “…to save her?”

Kael’s lips moved. His face went whiter and whiter. “At the time—at the time you said—said it could be used… I thought…”

“As for Mina, she must’ve been placed in the standard observation wing! She’ll be fine—”

“Kael Shadowmoon!”

I struck before he finished, fist closing in his collar and jerking him forward so he stumbled. A pale red haze filled my vision; it felt like I could hear capillaries bursting behind my eyes.

“How dare you think I’d be willing to trade my life to save a shameless mistress who broke into someone else’s family and schemed her way into your bed?!”

Selene’s face tightened immediately.

“Vera!” Kael flared, anger snapping into place. “What the hell are you saying—”

The instant his hand lifted, I shoved him back hard. He staggered two steps before he caught himself, shock and fury still on his face.

“Alpha Kael.” I stared at him, every word soaked in blood and hate. “You’d better pray Mina is alive. Otherwise…”

“I will kill you—even if it takes everything I have.”

Then I turned and bolted out of the room.

“Vera! Where are you going? What is wrong with you!” he roared behind me.

I didn’t look back.

I grabbed every staff member in scrubs I could find, my voice breaking apart. “A child… four years old, black hair, glass-colored eyes, a little girl brought in today—where is she?!”

Most of them shook their heads and avoided me. Until I cornered a young nurse. She stammered, terrified by the blood all over me. “A—A little girl? The—morgue. There’s one… no family came…”

The morgue.

No.

No, no, no—

I let her go and ran, cold air ripping into my lungs. I slammed through the metal door. Inside was an even sharper cold. My eyes searched without stopping until—

That princess dress, now dulled to gray. A tiny bundle on the central low table beneath a sheet.

I walked over and lifted the sheet gently.

Mina’s eyes were closed. Long lashes lay over bloodless cheeks. Her little face was so quiet it broke something inside me. Her lips were bluish-white, and her body was stained with a wide, dark bloom of blood.

Exsanguination.

“Mina…”

My hand shook as I gathered her into my arms, my voice so soft it was as if I was afraid to wake her.

“Mina, wake up. Mommy’s here… Mommy’s right here…”

She didn’t answer.

Just then, the door swung open. Two werewolves dragged a corpse inside. When they saw me, they paused, then broke into familiar sneers.

“Hah. Still holding her?” one of them scoffed. “That little prop’s dead. Good. Peace and quiet at last.”

The other chimed in, tone light and nasty. “Better off dead. Our Luna’s got a steady one in her belly, after all. Some people should stop dreaming.”

Their words hit my ears. I looked up, eyes turning blood-red as I locked onto them. The sneers froze. They shut up instinctively and hurried out.

A long while passed. Mina didn’t react. She lay wrapped in white cloth—cold, stiff.

“It’s okay, Mina,” I whispered into her cold ear, as if I were making a promise. “Mommy’s taking you home.”

“Mommy’s taking you home right now.”

“Mommy will… make you live again.”

I didn’t linger. I lifted her—sheet and all—and carried her out.

The night wind cut like knives.

I walked away from the wolves’ territory, in the exact opposite direction—toward the forest border forgotten by moonlight, toward the ancient realm of night.

Barefoot. Blood footprints trailed behind me, darkening toward black, branded into the night.

The moment I reached the forest’s edge, a dim black shadow—too quick to catch—melted into the endless dark of vampire lands ahead.