The vampire and his Bride

Castle Virel — Midnight

The torches along the stone corridor flickered as Dorian returned from the eastern ramparts. His coat was damp with mist, and the blood under his nails was not his own. The assassins had begun probing the perimeter in silence, rats testing the walls before the flood.

He was exhausted, but Lora's presence haunted him like a fever he couldn't shake.

She was changing.

Remembering.

And if she remembered everything, would she still love him?

He paused before entering his chamber, noticing the soft scent of jasmine and sandalwood lingering in the air.

"You're late," came a voice behind him.

Samantha.

She leaned in the archway of his door, clad in a velvet nightgown that shimmered like ink in moonlight. Her golden hair was unbound. Her eyes, centuries old,held the same devotion they always had.

"The watch ended an hour ago," she purred, stepping closer. "You haven't slept."

Dorian sighed and stepped inside his room. "There is no sleep tonight."

But she followed him in.

Uninvited.

"She betrayed you once," Samantha said sharply, voice low. "And you still want her?"

Dorian said nothing as he removed his blood-stained gloves.

"You and I—" she continued, voice trembling, "we held this castle together after she died. You broke into pieces, and I—" her breath hitched, " I stayed. For a hundred years, I waited."

He turned to her, brows furrowed.

"Samantha…"

"I loved you," she hissed, stepping closer, her hand brushing his chest. "You loved her ghost. I was here, warm and loyal and alive. But the moment she returns, you forget everything."

He caught her wrist gently.

"You don't understand."

"Then help me," she whispered, leaning closer. "Let me take her place."

She rose on her toes, lips brushing his, eyes begging.

For a moment, Dorian's face softened, but only with sorrow.

"Samantha… I can't."

Her face crumpled.

"Why? She left you to die! She chose power, war, betrayal—I chose you!"

"You chose a broken man," he murmured. "I will always be grateful. But what I feel for her… even death couldn't bury it."

She stepped back, trembling with rage and heartbreak.

"Then you deserve to suffer when she destroys you again."

And she left him alone in the candlelight.

But before she vanished from the doorway, her eyes glimmered with something darker than pain.

Jealousy.

Resentment.

A dangerous temptation.

That same night, Samantha slips into the tower chamber where the Crimson Court emissary lies dead.

She kneels beside the cold corpse and whispers, "I can give her to you. But when she's gone… he will be mine."

A pair of crimson eyes open in the dark behind her.

---

Assassins in the Night

Lora couldn't sleep after Gabriel's confession.

Saraphine. The name rang in her skull like a bell, sharp, haunting, familiar.

She stood in the dark of her chamber, eyes scanning the moonlit garden beyond the terrace. Somewhere deep in the earth, her child slept, alone.

Her breath fogged the glass as she leaned closer.

Then she felt it: a pulse in the air. Like static. Like heat before a storm.

The candles flickered. The silence was too thick.

Until the shadow moved across the ceiling.

---

They came through the ceilings, the cracks in the walls, the hidden passages in the stone, vampire assassins, cloaked in gray, armed with silver-thread blades. The mark of the Crimson Court burned on their collars.

The first dropped into her chamber with the grace of a spider. His blade was already out, glinting.

Lora moved before she even thought, her body reacting on pure instinct.

The blade slashed across her arm, but blood didn't spill.

The cut fizzled, and vanished.

The silk-binding was weakening.

As another assassin lunged, Lora's hands moved—and the curtains behind them ignited in flame.

She gasped.

The second assassin hissed. "She's waking!"

Outside, the guards were already dead.

And then the door exploded open.

Dorian. Blood on his hands. His coat slashed. Fangs bared.

The sight of him in full battle rage took her breath away.

Dorian fought like a creature from myth. One blade in hand, the other crackling with shadowfire, he tore through the assassins with a fury Lora had never seen before.

"You dare enter my house?" he roared, slicing through two at once. "You touch her, you die screaming."

But there were too many.

Lora tried to defend herself, but something inside her pulsed. Hot. Chaotic. Magic that wasn't magic.

An assassin aimed for her heart, and her eyes flared gold, stopping him mid-air.

He fell to the ground, writhing.

"She's resisting the silk," one whispered. "She's remembering."

Dorian saw it too. His gaze widened. But before he could speak—

—a blade sank into his back.

"Dorian!" she screamed, catching him as he collapsed.

The assassin who stabbed him lunged again, but Evelyn stood over Dorian's fallen body and let go.

The silk spell snapped inside her like the tearing of cloth in a storm.

The air vibrated. The castle shuddered. Every mirror cracked.

Power surged out of her like a heartbeat, knocking every remaining assassin across the chamber like dolls.

She stared at her own hands.

They were glowing.

"It's starting," whispered one of the dying assassins. "The Blood Queen is returning…"

But Lora wasn't listening.

She turned to Dorian. He was pale. Blood poured from his shoulder and lips.

"You're not dying," she whispered. "I won't let you."

Dorian coughed, smiled weakly.

"You were magnificent," he rasped. "I knew you would be."

Lora gripped his collar, her eyes wild. "Why didn't you tell me everything? Why bind me?"

He didn't answer, only looked at her as if she were his whole world.

The pain was too much. She leaned down, instinct overriding reason, and sank her mouth to his throat.

Not to hurt.

To drink.

The moment her lips met his skin and his blood touched her tongu, a vision exploded in her mind.

She wasn't in the castle anymore.

She stood in a throne room bathed in firelight.

Her hands were soaked in blood. A crown lay broken at her feet.

And across the chamber knelt Dorian—on one knee, with a child behind him.

Saraphine.

Lora was older. Stronger. Wearing black silk and red leather. A queen—but broken.

The court was screaming around her. Betrayal. Death. The prophecy.

"Forgive me," Dorian whispered. "I couldn't stop them. They're going to take her—"

"Hide her," Lora whispered, her voice cracking. "Take her far. Lock her magic. I will buy you time."

And then she turned to face an army.

The vision shattered.

Lora woke with a gasp, her lips still on Dorian's throat.

He stirred,weak, but breathing.

Their eyes met.

"I saw it," she whispered. "All of it."

Dorian looked terrified. Not of her,but for her.

Before he could speak, the chamber door slammed open.

Samantha stood there, eyes wide.

"They're coming. The Crimson Court knows she's awakening. They'll burn the castle to ash."

Lightning cracked in the sky.

Lora stood slowly.

Her hair hovered around her face. Her skin shimmered with pale fire.

"Then let them come."

---