In the final year of my bond with vampire lord Saul, the curse of our pact struck, and I was overwhelmed by agony, but my lord was nowhere to be found.

He had gone out. He left me to suffer. Alone.

When the door finally creaked open the next morning, I looked up through bloodshot eyes—hope flickering like a dying candle.

But he wasn't alone.

He carried an unconscious woman in his arms, her head resting against his chest like she belonged there.

Ignoring me as I curled up on the floor in pain, he first carried the woman to his room and called the old butler anxiously.

"Jacinda's passed out. Hurry! Check if she's all right!"

The old butler cautiously pleaded on my behalf, hoping our lord could save me first, but Saul frowned and interrupted:

"Jacinda is in danger, and I have no mind to drink her blood now. She just needs to pull through herself. Believe me, she won't die. Right now, the priority is to save Jacinda."

A frown and a glance in my direction was his only response to the old butler's desperate plea.

With my only hope shattered, I clenched my teeth and slashed several long wounds on my arms and hands to drain blood for self-rescue.

After a long period of weak convulsions, the curse of the pact finally ended.

I lay in a pool of blood, sending a message with my last faint consciousness.

"I promise I will leave him."

In the final year of my bond with vampire lord Saul, the curse of our pact struck, and I was overwhelmed by agony, but my lord was nowhere to be found.

He had gone out. He left me to suffer. Alone.

When the door finally creaked open the next morning, I looked up through bloodshot eyes—hope flickering like a dying candle.

But he wasn't alone.

He carried an unconscious woman in his arms, her head resting against his chest like she belonged there.

Ignoring me as I curled up on the floor in pain, he first carried the woman to his room and called the old butler anxiously.

"Jacinda's passed out. Hurry! Check if she's all right!"

The old butler cautiously pleaded on my behalf, hoping our lord could save me first, but Saul frowned and interrupted:

"Jacinda is in danger, and I have no mind to drink her blood now. She just needs to pull through herself. Believe me, she won't die. Right now, the priority is to save Jacinda."

A frown and a glance in my direction was his only response to the old butler's desperate plea.

With my only hope shattered, I clenched my teeth and slashed several long wounds on my arms and hands to drain blood for self-rescue.

After a long period of weak convulsions, the curse of the pact finally ended.

I lay in a pool of blood, sending a message with my last faint consciousness.

"I promise I will leave him."

...

The next day when I woke up, my wounds were bandaged, and the thick smell of blood in the air had vanished, leaving only a faint scent of tobacco.

Was it the old butler who helped me?

I struggled to my feet in a dizzy spell, put on a coat to hide the terrible wounds.

I wanted to find the butler—to thank him.

Right after stepping out of the room, I ran into Saul.

He barely looked at me. A quick, careless glance, then his cold voice:

"Prepare the meal for me."

When I nodded, another dizzy spell hit and I quickly braced myself against the wall. But Saul had already turned around.

He wasn't the same Saul who used to rush over and fuss over me whenever I had the smallest injury.

Following the daily routine, I prepared animal blood and took it to his room.

The woman from last night—Jacinda—was lying in his bed, wrapped in soft blankets, her face peaceful.

I pulled my gaze back and approached the room with the meal.

Saul looked at it, frowned sharply, and in the next second, he slapped the tray out of my hands. Blood splashed across my coat, warm and thick.

Despite his aristocratic bearing, his voice was sharp.

"What is this? Take it away! You're useless! "

The noise woke the woman. Her eyes fluttered open.

Saul immediately leaned forward nervously, asking if she felt any discomfort.

She shook her head, then giggled as her stomach growled. She smiled, sweet and shy.

Saul's frown eased, and he pinched the woman's cheek gently and affectionately.

Then he turned to me again, expression cold as stone. "Go make her something to eat. Now."

That's when I realized I had misunderstood. The woman he brought back wasn't a vampire, but a human. Like me.

After silently stepping out of the room, I heard their conversation at the door.

"Is she a vampire like you too?" Jacinda's voice held curiosity about me.

"No, just my bloodslave. Because of the blood pact, I can only drink her blood, so don't worry, I will never hurt you."

The bond between a human and a vampire lasted for five years. I should have left long ago, but I was willing to stay for him.

I had always thought Saul and I were in love.

But in his eyes, I had always been nothing more than a slave to supply blood.

It was all my one-sided wish.

Moving numbly, I took off the dirty coat, took off the sticky, wet bandage, and went back to the kitchen to prepare human food.

Footsteps came from behind, and Saul was drawn by the smell of blood. "Why does it smell so strong?"

Then he saw the shocking wounds on my arms.

He pulled me over in one motion, looking at me with a complicated expression.

"Did you hurt yourself last night?"

When the pact curse struck, only my lord Saul drinking the my blood could lift the curse, otherwise, I was in absolute agony, lost all sense of reason and restraint. The worse, I would even kill.

The only way I can save myself was: I must make deep cuts on my arms and hands with the silver dagger to drain all my blood.

If I was lucky and I would endure until the curse ended, while I was unlucky, I would went into shock and died.

I was lucky, just like he said I could endure and get through it, and wouldn't die.

What died was my unrealistic expectations of him.

I met his haughty gaze with defiance, refusing to be cowed by his superior attitude. I pulled my arms back and said flatly, "It's nothing."

My indifferent attitude instantly made his eyes turn cold.

"You're blaming me for not saving you."

"I wouldn't dare."

He blocked my hands when I was about to wash dishes and stood by the faucet to stop me from turning it on.

"Wounds shouldn't touch water, so stop doing that."

Again with this commanding tone. I stubbornly refused to let go of the vegetables in my hands.

After a few seconds of stalemate, he snorted coldly: "Do as you please, you fool."

He turned to leave, but after walking a few steps, he stopped and said in a low voice:

"I'll save you next time."

I didn't say a word because there wouldn't be a next time.

The ancient castle was as dim as ever, with only a few candles burning on the candlestands.

I lit a candle to check the light-blocking in the castle. When I slightly pulled back the curtain, the glaring sunlight outside would stream in.

Having lived here for a long time, I was already used to the darkness. But Jacinda—bright and alive—couldn't stand it.

She begged Saul to let her feel the sun on her skin.

There was tenderness in Saul's eyes as he replied, "Okay."

Years ago, when I had just arrived, I had made a similar request to him.

At that time, he only emphasized to me that vampires couldn't be exposed to light and that following the rules was the only way to survive in this world.

Reading a lord's expressions was an instinct for a bloodslave to survive, so I never brought the request up again later.

Now it seemed that it wasn't impossible, just that the person who asked was different.

Jacinda pulled Saul up to me, wore a bright smile, and asked if I wanted to go with them.

I was stunned for a moment, then lowered my head and said, "I'll stay here to prepare the meal for you."

My refusal made her smile fade, and she looked disappointed.

Sensing her mood change, Saul turned his gaze to me and said without negotiation, "Don't be so stubborn. Go with us."

I looked up at him and the candlelight shone on my expressionless face, and he just noticed my pale lips from excessive blood loss.

His tone became less harsh. "You're badly injured. Don't take blood recently. Just prepare animal blood for me."

Jacinda warmly grabbed the hand where I held the candle and persuaded, "Come with us! You must haven't walked in the sun for a long time! Let's enjoy the sun."

The long-lost body temperature of the same kind made me feel a little trance, and I didn't notice the candle wax was dripping down.

Saul's eyes flashed, and he quickly pulled Jacinda's hands away. "Careful, don't get burned by the wax."

A tingling pain came from my fingertips. I looked at their holding hands and silently switched the candle to the other hand.

After rinsing the burn of the candle wax, I tore off one page from the calendar.

When I tore off the rest two pages, the blood pact would be full, and I would have a chance to break the pact.

After preparing the meal, I opened the door, and sunlight poured in.

After spending thousands of days in the darkness, my first reaction was to hide.

But Saul was wearing his magnificent black robe, letting Jacinda pull him outward.

I cautiously took a step behind them and mustered the courage to step into the long-lost natural light.

Every inch of my exposed skin gradually felt the temperature of the light, and for a moment, I didn't know why I had the urge to cry."

My eyes habitually looked for Saul's figure but caught the scene of Jacinda standing on her tiptoe.

"Can I see your teeth?" She was healthy and curvy, her long hair shining beautifully, and the smile on her face was extremely bright.

Saul held her waist, lifted the hood of the black robe for her, smiled gently and he really showed two fangs belonging to a vampire.

He wasn't worried about attacking Jacinda in front of him because of my existence as a bloodslave.

In the unnoticed corner, I took two steps back and hid in the shadow again.

I used the tree shadow to cover my withered hair and hid my thin and ugly hands in my sleeves.

The sunset, and night was about to fall.

Seeing that the duty time was approaching, I came out and proposed to leave first.

Saul seemed to not expect that I had been there. When he just wanted to say something, Jacinda asked him, "It's time for me to go too. Will you walk me back?"

Saul surely would, but he suddenly noticed my presence and said to me, "I'll walk you too."

The communication between the vampire world and the human world relied on the border train, and my other job was to be on duty at the train platform every night.

Saul had never offered to walk me.

Feeling tired, I refused his whim: "Thank you, Lord, but no and I can go myself. Pls walk Miss Jacinda back."

He saw that I was in a bad mood, unconsciously took a step closer to me, and insisted, "I'll walk you."

Jacinda looked at the interaction between us, sensed something, and took the initiative to hold Saul's arm.

"Come with us if it's on your way. I heard you've known Saul for a long time, and I also want to learn more about him from you."

She built a high wall of defense in her words.

Saul patted her hand and was very pleased with these words.

I didn't know him so much. At least, these expressions of his in front of Jacinda were extremely unfamiliar to me, as Saul was always condescending towards me.

But I no longer refused and gave a slave's bow. "Then thank you, my lord and Miss Jacinda."

When I stood up, my eyes met Saul's dark eyes.

I just did what a slave should do as he said, although there was never a rule of saluting in the rules he set for me.

When we arrived at the border platform, I was ready to put things in the duty room when Saul suddenly pulled me.

"Wait for me and I'll pick you up and buy your favourite vanilla ice cream after it's over."

Really?

Would he come back tonight?

Vanilla ice cream was my absolute favorite; its flavor and shape stay perfect at the vampire-cold.

I didn't ask anymore because Jacinda watched us intently the whole time.

The pager rang, and my colleague was looking for me, so I nodded hurriedly to say goodbye.

They quickly boarded the night train to the human world and vanished before my eyes.

The routine inspection went smoothly. The station clock ticked on, and the number of vampires coming and going first decreased, then increased, then decreased again.

By the time the last train arrived, I still hadn't seen Saul.

I went back to the duty room, too tired to do anything but slump in the chair, and fell asleep gradually and soundly.

I stopped waiting for those who wouldn't come. Why did I take promises without results seriously?

When I opened my eyes, I saw the familiar ceiling.

Saul was sitting by my bed.

There was also a sweet smell. I sniffed and turned my head to see a half box of popcorn on the bedside table. There was no my favourite vanilla ice cream.

"For you."

In the dim light, our eyes met.

The next second I looked away, saying "thanks" in a flat voice.

My reaction was clearly not what he expected. He frowned, explaining somewhat irritably:

"I had an emergency last night. I didn't mean to make you wait, Jacinda..."

"It's fine." I cut him off, not wanting to hear more.

He'd abandoned me too many times to count this as a new offense.

Having not eaten for a long time, I felt dizzy and reached for the popcorn.

Saul, who'd looked annoyed after being interrupted, spoke again:

"It turns out Jacinda was right: women all love sweet popcorn. What else do you humans like to eat? Tell me quickly!"

My hand froze.

So the popcorn was an afterthought after buying it for Jacinda. That's what he meant. He totally forgot the vanilla ice cream he promised me.

I pulled my hand back, lay down again despite the discomfort, and said listlessly: "Just ask Miss Jacinda."

"What's the hell..." He was at a loss for words, frowning at me.

Ding...

A message came in and he stood up with his expression changed in a hurry and left without a word.

I tore off the second page from the calendar.

I gave the popcorn to the old butler to thank him for bandaging my wounds.

After grabbing some food and changing my bandages, I went to the border platform.

My fellow bloodslave colleague was surprised to see me so early, then told me she'd just seen my lord Saul.

"A beautiful human somehow ended up here alone. The platform was full of vampires—almost caused a commotion.

Your master arrived just in time, or she might've been in danger.

I saw them hugging. What's their relationship?"

A surge of bitterness rose in my chest. I lowered my eyes and shook my head, saying I didn't know.

Then I handed her baked cookies and asked about the conditions for breaking the blood pact, as it was the real reason I'd come early.

She'd broken a pact before and now served a second lord.

When I suddenly brought up breaking the pact, my bloodslave colleague wanted to ask more, but seeing the wounds on my arms, she held back.

Finally, she just rubbed my shoulder knowingly and told me everything she knew.

After saying goodbye, I quit my platform duty job and returned to the castle in the thick night.

As I pushed open the door, something felt wrong.

Clothes littered the floor, and there were suppressed gasps.

Following the light, I found a door wide open. Saul's pupils were deep red, and his fangs sunk into Jacinda's neck as he drank her blood. She didn't struggle—instead, her hands circled his waist, trusting him completely.

The sound of my backpack falling alerted them. Saul's eyes snapped to me, sharp as daggers. With a sweep of his hand, he threw the picture frame on his nightstand at me.

The picture frame held a photo of us. The frame hit my shoulder hard, then fell to the floor with a loud crash, shattering.

"Get out!"

I snapped back to reality, realizing what they were doing.

The First Embrace: a vampire bit a human on the neck and drained a human's blood to mark ownership, then fed them vampire blood, turning them into a vampire.

Under Saul's enraged shout, I was silent for two seconds, then I figured out what happened and left the room quickly.