The vampire and his Bride

Moonlight washed through the shattered glass of Castle Virel's broken windows, painting ghostly shapes across the crumbling stone floor. Stepped into the abandoned throne hall, her footsteps echoing like whispers from another life. The scent of old blood, burnt silk, and forgotten magic lingered in the air.

Something was off with today, the air breathed differently, and where was Doria??

Lora wasn't comfortable with the atmosphere.

She moved slowly, her fingers trailing over the blackened remains of the throne Dorian ruled from. As her hand touched the scorched velvet, something deep inside her twisted. A memory stirred—not her own, not recent, but ancient and vivid.

Her knees buckled.

Suddenly, her vision blurred, and time bent like a shattered mirror.

The throne was whole again. The tapestries were vibrant, torchlight dancing along the walls. Music played in the distant courtyard. She wore a crimson gown threaded with gold, her hair pinned up in the style of a long-dead queen. Dorian stood at her side, robed in black, silver circlet glinting on his brow.

This was before everything.

Before the betrayal.

A storm had gathered that evening. Thunder rolled over the high towers of Castle Virel as Lora, restless and suspicious, slipped into the chapel, then into the dungeon where she had kept him.

He had escaped.

But how.

She'd noticed Gabriel's footsteps. The prisoners are also missing. Whispers of foreign riders at the border. Scrolls are missing from the library.

The thought ran wide in her mind that Gabriel had escaped.

He is the only one who knows where Saraphine is; without him, she can't know where Saraphine is buried.

But Tonight.

She followed him.

The ruined chapel was cold and slick with rain. She crept behind one of the pillars and peered around it. She followed his footsteps as she left the castle, to her surprise, he wasn't far away.

"I'll have to hide beside these castle walls, he must not notice me," she whispered to herself.

Gabriel knelt before a tall figure cloaked in the storm's shadow. A silver crescent glinted from his gauntlet

"Who was that beside him in the forest" Lora noticed a figure beside him.

The figure held so much power just by looking at him, though he wore a mask, but Lora's memories couldn't betray her.

She knew him.

Ronan. King of the Eastern Reaches.

The man she had betrayed Dorian with, if her memories were not playing her.

"Your armies are within the castle, as we speak, my lord," Gabriel said, his voice a bitter blade. "Everything is done as planned ."

Ronan's voice was smooth and cruel. "You want Dorian dead, I want the woman alive."

Gabriel looks at him disappointingly, "Don't tell me you have eyes for her".

He had spoken before he knew what he had just done.

Ronan dragged him by his throat fiercely," You will do as I say, and you will not question my authority". He then dropped him on the floor as he gasped for breath to save himself from death.

"What about the crimson court" Rolan asked

"They are after the girl" Gabriel coughed out his words

Saraphine

"Change of plans, we go after the girl," Rolan said, disappointed. He needs to buy a mother and daughter.

Lora gasped. The sound betrayed her.

"Come on, come out from there, my love, it's been a while,won't you like to see your lover?" Rolan said, smiling wickedly.

Gabriel turned slowly, eyes wide.

"You," he whispered.

She stepped backwards, fury rising.

She could hear chaos in the castle.

No

No

No

She turned and ran before Rolan could get hold of her. She won't let this happen again. What happened a century ago won't repeat itself.

Not again.

She has to warn Dorian.

Her heart skipped for him. Where was he?

Roan's eyes were full of fake pain. "You can run all you want, darling," he laughed as he walked majestically towards the gate she had run through.

He would get her, just a matter of time, he thought to himself.

___

Night fell heavy and fast. Horns blared from the outer walls. The enemy was upon them.

Dorian stormed into the throne room, armor half-strapped, eyes blazing, and he had searched all over for Lora. She was no longer in their chambers.

His heart skipped, and he couldn't think of the thought of losing her again.

"They're inside," he said. "A traitor opened the gates."

Some soldiers surrounded him.

There was blood everywhere, with the few traitors and the Rolan soldiers they had killed.

He turned as he saw Lora run towards him. But he caught her in a tight hug

"My God, you are safe, where are you, Lora?" he said into her ears.

"I saw him, he is coming Dorian" she shouted

"Gabriel betrays again, "Lora told the soldiers. "They are everywhere".

"Darian, he is going after Saraphine, we have to go before him."

He took Lora's hands. "You will stay with Harvard, I must go."

"No—"

He pressed a cold blade into her palm. "To the catacombs. If I don't come, survive."

He kissed her fiercely as if it would be his last.

The siege was a blur of blood and steel. Lora ran through secret corridors, dodging falling stone. She heard screams from the towers above, saw Ronan's black banners rising over the battlements.

From a window slit, she saw Gabriel leading the invaders.

An explosion rocked the east wing.

Someone had ignited the blood scroll vault—an effort to keep ancient spells from the enemy. But the magic reacted. Flames burst from the very stones, consuming tapestries and wood with unnatural speed.

Lora, breath ragged, raced through the halls. She saw knights engulfed in flame. The air thickened with smoke.

In the western corridor, she saw Gabriel one last time. Standing in the firelight, ash clinging to his face.

"He doomed us all," she cried.

He vanished into the flames.

A beam collapsed. Lora fell, trapped beneath splintered stone. Her gown burned at the edges.

Then—cool hands. Lifting her.

Dorian.

His face was almost burned, blood streaking his jaw, but his eyes were the same.

"I won't let them take you."

He carried her to the cliffside outside the castle. Their two horses were already presented by Harvard.

"You have to go with your woman, my lord." he looked at him hard in the face, No one can protect her like you would. I promise to protect the castle with my life".

Dorian saw that Lora was in support of it, as she was already on the white horse. Leaving him the black horse.

____

With the castle behind them ablaze, he whispered an ancient binding spell.

"Let's go, my love. You must live, let's go find our daughter".

A child's voice echoed through her mind.

Saraphine.

---

Far away.

A monastery hidden in the mountains. Silence. Bells.

They dug with sacred hands and shaking breath.

The monks and nuns who had kept vigil over the buried prophecy were silent as they unearthed the coffin. Dust of centuries floated in the air like stardust.

Inside, wrapped in silver-threaded burial silk, was a girl.

She looked ten.

She was a century old.

But her skin had not withered. She looks as if she just died a minute ago. Her lashes were long, as if dreaming. And her lips were stained faintly with dried blood.

They wept. Not from fear. But from awe.

"Saraphine," whispered one of the Sisters with a rosary of a cross with each of them. "Child of dusk and dawn. Your time has come."

And as moonlight touched the coffin, her fingers moved.

Her eyes opened—glowing with the same fire Lora once held.

She gasped her first breath in a hundred years.

"Mama?"