Lucien's POV
I kill the first three attackers before they cross the courtyard.
My sword cuts through Viktor's soldiers like they're made of paper. They're young vampires—newly turned, barely trained. Cannon fodder sent to test my defenses.
Marcus and Jade hang back, letting their pawns die first. Smart. Cowardly, but smart.
Through the mate bond, I feel Seraphina's terror like a knife in my chest. Every spike of her fear makes my dead heart beat faster. It's distracting. Dangerous.
I haven't felt anything in three hundred years. Now I feel everything, and it's going to get us both killed.
"Misha!" I shout. "Get her to the north tower. Lock it down."
"Already on it, my lord!" Misha appears beside Seraphina, pulling her toward the keep's entrance.
But Jade intercepts them, moving with new vampire speed. She blocks their path, smiling.
"Hello, Sera," Jade purrs. "Did you miss me?"
Through the bond, Seraphina's emotions hit me—betrayal, rage, pain. She's frozen, staring at the woman who destroyed her life.
"After everything I did for you," Jade continues, circling like a predator. "All those years of friendship, and you never appreciated me. Always so perfect. So smart. So loved." Her voice turns bitter. "Not anymore."
I start moving toward them, but Marcus blocks my path.
"Lord Nocturne." He bows mockingly. "Viktor sends his regards. And a message: return the girl, and we'll leave peacefully."
"Tell Viktor," I say coldly, "that if he wants war, I'll give him one he won't survive."
Marcus laughs. "Big words for someone who just got his heart working again. That bond makes you weak, Nocturne. Vulnerable. One threat to her, and you'll do anything to keep her safe."
He's right. And I hate that he's right.
"Test that theory," I growl. "See what happens."
Marcus's smile fades. "With pleasure."
He attacks.
He's fast for a young vampire, but I've been fighting for three hundred years. I dodge his strike and counter, opening a line across his chest.
But while I'm focused on Marcus, more vampires pour through the breach in the eastern wall. Twenty. Thirty. Too many.
Through the bond, I feel the exact moment Jade grabs Seraphina.
My vision goes red.
I abandon Marcus mid-fight and move faster than I've moved in decades. I cross the courtyard in a heartbeat and rip Jade away from Seraphina so violently that the younger vampire crashes into a stone pillar.
"Touch her again," I snarl, "and I'll show you why they call me a monster."
Jade coughs blood, struggling to stand. "Viktor said you'd be like this. Obsessed. Protective. He said the bond would make you stupid."
She's trying to distract me. It works.
More vampires surround us. Seraphina is at my back, pressed against me, her heart racing so fast I can hear it.
"I don't know how to fight," she whispers.
"Then stay behind me and don't die," I reply.
Through the bond, I feel her spike of indignation. Even terrified and powerless, she hates being told what to do.
Good. Fear makes people freeze. Anger makes them survive.
The vampires attack all at once.
I fight like the weapon I was forged to be—the Queen's Blade, trained to protect Sanguine royalty against impossible odds. My sword becomes a blur of silver and red.
But there are too many. For every vampire I kill, two more appear.
One slips past my guard and lunges for Seraphina.
She screams.
And something impossible happens.
Power explodes from her—pure, raw, ancient Sanguine magic that hasn't been seen in three hundred years. A wave of silver light bursts outward, and every vampire it touches drops to their knees, forced down by the weight of royal blood.
Even I feel it. The command in her blood, the authority that made the old queens gods among our kind.
The attacking vampires are frozen, unable to move against her will.
Seraphina stares at her hands, shocked. "What did I do?"
"You commanded them," I breathe. "That's a queen's power."
Through the bond, I feel her confusion, her fear, her dawning realization that she's not helpless after all.
But the power drains her. She sways, and I catch her before she falls.
"I've got you," I murmur.
Marcus and Jade, farther away, weren't caught in the blast. They stare at Seraphina with shock and hunger.
"She awakened," Marcus says. "Viktor needs to know—"
"Retreat!" Jade shouts to the remaining vampires. "Fall back now!"
They disappear into the mist like shadows, dragging their fallen with them.
The courtyard goes silent except for Seraphina's ragged breathing.
Misha approaches cautiously. "My lord, the breach is sealed. They're gone for now."
"For now," I repeat grimly, still holding Seraphina. "They'll be back with more. And next time, they'll know what she can do."
Seraphina looks up at me, her eyes wide. "What am I?"
"Dangerous," I say quietly. "More dangerous than you know."
Through the bond, emotions tangle between us—her fear and my protectiveness, her confusion and my certainty, her vulnerability and my resolve.
"Come on," I tell her. "We need to get you somewhere safe while I figure out how to keep you alive."
I lift her into my arms—she's too weak to walk—and carry her into Blackthorn Keep.
Behind us, fires still burn from the attack. Smoke curls into the night sky.
Through our bond, I feel her heart slowing as she slides toward unconsciousness from exhaustion.
"Don't leave me," she whispers.
Something in my chest—my newly beating heart—clenches painfully.
"I won't," I promise.
It's a foolish promise. Everyone I've ever protected has died. The curse made sure of that.
But as I carry her through the dark corridors of my keep, I make a vow to the universe that took everything from me three hundred years ago:
This time will be different. This time, I won't fail.
Even if keeping her alive destroys me completely.
I place Seraphina on the bed in the north tower—the most secure room in Blackthorn Keep. She's already asleep, drained from using power she didn't know she had.
Misha appears in the doorway. "The perimeter is secure. But my lord, we need to talk about what just happened."
"She commanded thirty vampires with untrained power," I say, staring at her sleeping face. "Viktor will come himself next time."
"Then we have a problem." Misha's voice is grim. "Because there's something you should see."
He hands me a blood-stained letter one of the attackers dropped. It's written in Viktor's handwriting:
Lord Nocturne,
The girl belongs to me. I created her. I shaped her entire existence. The bond between you is unfortunate but irrelevant. Return Seraphina within three days, or I will bring every house in the empire to your gates.
You cannot protect her from all of us.
Choose wisely.
—Viktor Corvus
I crumple the letter in my fist.
"Three days," Misha says quietly. "That's not enough time to—"
"Then we'll make it enough." I turn to face him. "Contact Soren Blackwood in the Eastern Territories. Tell him I'm calling in my debt. I need allies."
"Soren hates you, my lord."
"He hated failing the queen more." I glance at Seraphina. "And he'll recognize what she is the moment he sees her."
Misha nods and leaves to send the message.
I stay by Seraphina's bedside, watching her sleep. Through the bond, I feel her dreams—nightmares about Marcus and Jade, about being trapped and helpless.
I reach out and take her hand. Her nightmares calm.
My heart beats steady and strong for the first time in three centuries.
"You're going to get me killed," I whisper to her sleeping form. "And I'm going to let you."
A sound from the window makes me freeze.
Someone's on the ledge outside. Impossible—we're fifty feet up.
I draw my sword and move to the window.
Perched there, wings spread like a demon, is a vampire I recognize immediately.
Lady Helena Frost. Head of the Vampire Council. Viktor's secret ally.
She smiles at me through the glass.
"Hello, Lucien," she says. "We need to talk about your new pet. The Council has already voted. Seraphina dies in three days, bond or no bond. And if you try to stop us, you die with her."
She disappears into the night before I can respond.
I turn back to Seraphina, my hand tightening on my sword.
The entire vampire empire is coming to kill her.
And I just realized something that changes everything:
I would burn the world down before I let them touch her.