My Vampire fiancé, Vincent, was the powerful prince of New York's most influential coven.

He had lived for centuries and was notoriously ruthless, yet he bestowed upon me, and only me, every honor imaginable.

But one month before our Union Ceremony, he suddenly insisted on postponing it.

The reason was his childhood friend, Camilla, was dying from a rare condition known as Bloodline Degeneration.

To repay a life debt from long ago, he wanted to hold a mock wedding with her to fulfill her last wish to wear a wedding gown.

I refused outright. It was a flagrant violation of coven dignity. But he pressured me relentlessly, using a supposed ancient code of honor as emotional blackmail.

Then, two weeks before the ceremony, I received an anonymous email containing an advanced blood analysis report.

Only then did I learn that he hadn't just been preparing a wedding; he had already secretly formed a Mutual Blood Bond with her, a pact that would bind their lives together for eternity.

In that moment, I finally understood. My two centuries of devotion to him had been nothing more than a joke.

And so, I called off our union and set fire to everything he had ever given me.

On the day of the ceremony, I traveled to Europe's Supreme Institute for Vampiric Research in Italy and took charge of the Institute's most secret and critical project.

From that day forward, I would have nothing more to do with the noble prince. We were finished.

One month before my Union Ceremony with my Vampire fiancé, Vincent, he insisted on postponing it to hold a mock wedding with his childhood friend, Camilla.

I disagreed. The vows of a High Coven are unbreakable. Yet he brought it up daily, as if the decision had already been made and he was simply informing me of it.

Then, two weeks before the ceremony, I received an anonymous package.

It was a blood analysis report from an advanced medical facility in the Undercity.

The data was clear: Camilla's weak bloodline was now deeply infused with Vincent's pureblood.

They had formed a Mutual Blood Bond, the kind reserved only for mates.

In that instant, I understood everything. The night he'd stayed out wasn't to quell a werewolf uprising as he'd claimed.

He had already made all his decisions. He just needed me, his official fiancée, to graciously step aside.

I stood before the castle's floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing out at the endless, moonlit night as a chill seeped into my very bones.

The next day, I dismantled the magical wards at the ceremony venue and destroyed the scroll formalizing our families' alliance.

I set everything he had ever given me ablaze, including the Blood Ring that symbolized my status as the Prince's consort.

On the day of the Union Ceremony, I was not at the sacred altar. Instead, I boarded a private flight to Florence, Italy, alone.

I had officially joined Europe's Supreme Institute for Vampiric Research, starting a new life dedicated to the study of vampiric pharmacology.

From that moment on, Vincent and I were finished.

"Elena, I've explained this to you countless times. Camilla's bloodline is degenerating irreversibly. She won't last much longer."

"The elders say she won't survive the winter."

"Her only dying wish is to wear a wedding gown."

"I owe her my life... This isn't just about a life debt; it's an ancient code of honor among our kind that cannot be violated."

Vincent stood before me, his tone still as arrogant and cold as ever, but every word was like a silver dagger, twisting into the softest part of my heart.

Two hundred years ago, on the streets of Chicago, the De Rossi family clashed with a band of southern vampire hunters. He was ambushed, and someone risked everything to drag his gravely wounded body from the burning sun.

He was convinced it was Camilla. From that day on, she became untouchable, a line not even I could cross.

And now, to repay that debt, he was willing to cast my dignity aside completely, and with it, any love that remained between us.

"It's just a formality," he said, his brow furrowing slightly, clearly displeased by my resistance. "I'll stabilize her condition and go through with the ceremony for her. That's all."

His fingers brushed against my cheek. "Elena, you've loved me for two hundred years. You've always been so reasonable. Be sensible this time."

I slapped his hand away and shot to my feet, my voice trembling with hurt. "Vincent, we're supposed to have our Union Ceremony next month! And you went behind my back and formed a life-sharing Mutual Blood Bond with her! Then tell me, what does that make me?"

He fell silent.

He was likely weighing the interests of his clan against my emotions, a cold calculation he made out of habit.

The next moment, he looked up, his expression returning to its usual cold calm. "Elena, it was the only way."

"Without the bond, she wouldn't even have the strength to put on the dress. This is also to finally settle the debt from all those years ago."

"I can't just watch her turn to ash."

I looked at him, suddenly feeling as if I were staring at a stranger, as if the two centuries we had shared were a ridiculous joke.

For two hundred years, I, a high-born vampire, had endured torment in my lab, all to develop a Daylight Serum that would protect him from harm.

I thought my devotion would earn me his equal love.

The truth was, he had simply grown accustomed to my sacrifices, accustomed to me being the 'proper' consort for a prince: sensible, rational, and never one to cause trouble.

There would always be a more important place in his heart, reserved for someone he saw as fragile and truly in need of his protection.

Did he love me? Perhaps a little.

But when his ancient code of honor and Camilla's tears were on the line, I would always be the one cast aside.

He was about to exert his princely authority again when his phone rang.

He answered it quickly, turning to walk out onto the terrace.

As he spoke, his voice instantly dropped to a soft, low murmur.

I couldn't hear what was being said on the other end, but I saw the gentle smile that graced his lips.

It was a smile I hadn't seen him direct at me in two hundred years.

He didn't even try to hide the call from me.

Even without trying to listen, my vampiric hearing could still pick up Camilla's weak, breathless voice on the other end.

"Vincent, my chest hurts so much… Can you come see me?"

The smile on Vincent's lips hadn't fully faded.

He hung up and turned to throw on his black velvet coat.

"Camilla's condition is flaring up again. I have to go."

I lowered my head, my gaze sweeping over the advanced blood analysis report once more.

The date of the bonding was two weeks ago.

And on that night two weeks ago, he had disappeared for the entire night for the first time in two centuries.

He told me there was an uprising in a low-coven territory in Brooklyn that required the Prince's personal intervention.

But thinking back now, he had spent that entire night by Camilla's bedside.

He had sliced open his own veins, feeding his pure, princely blood drop by drop into that woman's body, forging a Mutual Blood Bond that fused their very life forces.

It turned out I had long been written out of his destiny.

He was just waiting for the right moment to "inform" me, and he never cared what I thought.

I had fantasized countless times about our wedding day.

I looked forward to taking his arm under the gaze of all the North American coven elders.

I looked forward to him seeing me in my wedding gown.

But now, all those delusional hopes had turned to dust in the sunlight.

A gust of wind, and they were gone.

After Vincent left, the vast castle fell into a dead silence. My phone suddenly vibrated.

It was an encrypted number from Florence, Italy. I answered.

"Elena, it's been a long time."

"I know your Union Ceremony is next month."

"But I have to ask you one last time. Are you absolutely sure you won't reconsider coming to Florence?"

"If you come, you'll be the sole director of this classified experiment, with the highest level of research authority."

My mentor had invited me to join this top-secret project six months ago.

But joining the project meant severing all contact with the outside world.

For months, or even years, not a whisper about my existence would get out.

At the time, believing I was about to be a bride, I refused without a second thought.

My research on the 'Daylight Serum' had always been for Vincent, to protect him from the sun's scorching rays and allow him to walk more freely in the daylight. I had no greater ambitions.

But looking back now, I saw what a complete and utter fool I'd been.

Since he never cherished our relationship and took my two centuries of companionship for granted…

Then everything I had done for him had lost its meaning.

"Mentor, I've made my decision."

I turned my head and looked at a framed photo from our engagement party on the vanity.

I raised my hand and swept the frame directly into the trash can beside it.

"I accept the invitation. I'll go directly to the secluded underground lab."

"I don't need any special leave privileges. We can proceed with the most rigorous experimental schedule."

My mentor's voice was filled with undisguised excitement and joy.

"A wise choice. A genius like you shouldn't be wasted in the political mire of New York."

He paused. "I heard you have a Union Ceremony next month. In that case, I'll send a private jet to pick you up the day after your ceremony?"

I looked out the window at the cold, endless night and replied softly,

"No. The day of the ceremony is fine."

My gaze slowly drifted to the parchment calendar on the antique desk.

On the tenth of next month, I had once joyfully circled the date in dark red ink.

Originally, I wanted to look at it every day, to count down the days until he placed the crown on my head and made me his rightful Princess Consort.

But now, this sacred date had become the countdown to my final escape from Vincent.

In two weeks, the high and mighty Prince and I…

We would never cross paths again.

That night, Vincent did not return to the castle.

I didn't use my Sight to check on his whereabouts; I'd already seen Camilla's social media feed.

The photo showed two hands clasped tightly, holding a magnificent solid-gold blood goblet.

The caption read: "You are my endless night, and you are my sun."

I zoomed in on the photo, my gaze fixated on their overlapping wrists.

Beneath their pale skin, two dark red, thorn-like marks were starkly visible.

The Bond Mark.

Only vampires who had formed a Mutual Blood Bond, their souls and bodies deeply intertwined, would develop this indelible mark.

For two hundred years, I had poured my heart and soul into him.

Because he was highly sensitive to light, I spent day after day in the lab developing the Daylight Serum.

Countless times, I suffered extensive burns from high-intensity UV lamps, the pain so great my entire body would seize.

But he merely watched with cold indifference, never showing a single shred of genuine concern.

He always said that a noble, pure-blooded vampire didn't need such frivolous experiments that went against their nature.

I thought he was just arrogant from being in power for so long.

It wasn't until Camilla, this duplicitous "savior," appeared that I finally saw the truth. He understood everything perfectly.

He just reserved that understanding for someone else.

Now, I had no idea what I was to him anymore.

That afternoon, I met my maid of honor, Linda, at a café.

"You can cancel the fitting for the couture gown in Milan," I told her calmly. "The ceremony is off."

Initially, Vincent had despised such ancient, cumbersome rituals.

It was only after my repeated pleading that he reluctantly agreed to give me a grand ceremony.

Linda shot up from her seat in shock, about to ask what happened, but I shook my head to stop her.

An indescribable bitterness welled up inside me.

Everyone in the coven knew I loved Vincent. There was no need to say more.

How could it not hurt to sever a devotion that had lasted two centuries?

But this relationship had been a one-sided sacrifice from the very beginning.

I had walked on eggshells in this relationship, conceding ground step by step.

I had retreated so far that now it was his wedding with someone else, his blood bond with someone else.

In the end, I couldn't bring myself to speak the humiliating truth.

I only told her that I was joining a top-secret experiment at the European Institute and would be making very few public appearances in the future.

I drank at a bar until the early hours. When I returned to the castle late that night, Vincent had just gotten back as well.

He sniffed the air sharply, his brow immediately knitting. "You were out drinking?"

"I've told you before. Stay away from those places in the human world. They're not safe."

I gave a self-deprecating smile. In the past, a seemingly caring remark like that would have moved me to tears.

Without a word, I turned and ascended the spiral staircase, showering the scent off me in the bathroom.

When I emerged in a silk nightgown, Vincent was leaning back on the velvet settee.

His long fingers were tapping quickly on his phone screen, a soft smile playing on his lips.

I coldly averted my gaze, preparing to go straight to my room to rest.

But he suddenly called out to me.

"There's something I need to discuss with you."

My steps halted abruptly.

The last time I heard those words was when he first proposed holding a mock wedding with Camilla, which led to a fierce argument between us.

Now, he had already formed a Mutual Blood Bond with her.

What else could he possibly need to "discuss" with me?