I turned around.

Silas stood right behind me. As a high-ranking vampire, he had moved without stirring a breath of air. His expression was frozen solid, his eyes locked on my overstuffed suitcase.

Julian leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed, wearing an identical look of contempt.

Elena trailed behind them, her head lowered, but the barely contained excitement practically seeped from between the fingers gripping her skirt.

For one second, I wanted to tell them the truth. But I remembered Julian's emotionless words: "You don't need to explain yourself to us."

All my courage evaporated.

Fine. When I was finally gone, at least I could lie to myself-they simply didn't know I was leaving, rather than simply not caring.

I shoved my hands into my coat pockets, my fingernails digging into the unhealed wound on my palm, using the pain to force myself to stay calm. I shrugged with feigned nonchalance.

"As you can see, since the master bedroom has been given to Elena, I need to move my personal things to the cellar or to school."

Silas's expression froze for a beat. Then he replaced it with something even more vicious.

"Don't pull this running-away stunt on me."

"If you leave, don't ever expect me and Julian to turn you."

I nodded along with his words. "So I'm indeed not planning to accept your transformation anymore."

Silas's pupils contracted sharply-the telltale sign of a vampire's rage. I swear I wasn't trying to provoke him. I just wanted to make my exit as painless for them as possible.

Elena put on her most innocent face. "You should stay-this is your home, after all. I'll be the one to move out."

I looked at her without a flicker of emotion. "No need. Once I'm gone, I'm never coming back."

Elena's lips twitched in a smile she couldn't suppress fast enough. She quickly ducked her head and went back to playing helpless.

Julian lunged forward a step. "Who are you threatening? You think you'd survive three months in the vampire world without this family? You really want to live out your life as an ordinary human?"

Silas sneered. "If you want to leave, then leave. You think anyone would spare you a second glance without us?"

I said nothing more. I picked up my heavy suitcase and headed for the door. Fifteen years in this castle, and there wasn't much I wanted to take. Apart from a few necessities and our parents' belongings, nothing in this house was mine anymore.

I dragged two black suitcases toward the foyer. Julian's savage voice erupted behind me:

"Go ahead-and don't you dare die out there!"

I hauled the cases down the marble steps.

Silas's taunt drifted down from the terrace, dripping with casual cruelty: "Don't come crying at our door when you're starving and digging through garbage!"

I wanted to grab the black umbrella by the entrance. But his words hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest, leaving me gasping. I shoved the door open and plunged headfirst into the midnight downpour.

The freezing rain soaked through my shirt in an instant, and the cold cut straight to my bones. I dragged my suitcases through the courtyard, rain blurring my vision.

Julian's voice was still rising behind me:

"From this moment on, anyone who dares open the door for this traitor can leave with her!"

My eyes stung so badly I couldn't keep them open. I couldn't tell if it was the rain or the tears I couldn't hold back. My soaked sleeves began to seep dark red-the ceramic wound on my palm had torn open again from the strain.

Years ago, during that explosion, while Silas and Julian were being turned, I'd shielded them from interference and suffered severe burns across my back. My health had never fully recovered since.

But I couldn't feel the pain anymore. My body just felt like lead.

I wasn't sure if anyone would still be at the Council offices at this hour. The truth was, I had no idea where else to go.

Then Elena ran out into the rain, her voice pitched with theatrical urgency: "Wait! I'm sorry, this is all my fault! If you hate me, I'll be the one to leave!"

Julian's furious voice chased after her: "Elena! Are you insane? You're human-the rain in vampire territory will burn your skin! Get back inside!"

I managed a bitter, self-mocking smile. I was human too. I was half-dead from the rain, and he couldn't have cared less. But a few drops on Elena, and he acted like the sky was falling.

The world began to dim around me. Just as my body was about to collapse into the mud, a strong hand caught me firmly by the waist. The pounding rain above my head vanished instantly.

I forced my eyes up.

The man before me wore a pure black commander's cloak, a ruby medal of supreme authority pinned to his chest. This was Caspian-the First Enforcer under the Vampire King.

He had long been searching for a way to make vampires completely immune to holy water and crucifixes. He'd noticed my talent in blood pharmacology and had extended multiple invitations on the King's behalf-to join a century-long isolation project. Once you entered, you were cut off from the world entirely.

I'd always refused because I couldn't bear to leave my brothers. But now, there was nothing left here worth staying for.

His black Rolls-Royce idled in the rain. Several vampire attendants in black suits stepped out in perfect unison and took my luggage.

Silas and Julian went white the moment they saw the scene. As vampire nobility, they recognized exactly whose people these were. Almost reflexively, they straightened their spines and bowed in a formal gesture of submission to Caspian.

Silas's voice trembled. "Sir? what brings you here? If my sister has offended you in some way-"

A flash of worry crossed his eyes. Obviously, he assumed I'd gotten myself into trouble. In their minds, being singled out by Caspian meant one of two things: being taken as a lowly blood slave, or being dragged away to die.

Just as Caspian gestured for me to get in the car, Silas and Julian moved in unison. Even facing the overwhelming pressure of a superior, they gritted their teeth and threw themselves in front of the car door.

"Sir! If Alice has offended you, we'll take her punishment!" Julian's hoarse shout made something clench in my chest. That reckless protective instinct-I hadn't seen it in so long.

But Caspian merely gave a cold snort. He didn't even raise a hand. The sheer force of his bloodline authority radiated outward like a hammer blow, sending both of them hurtling backward into the estate's thick stone wall.

Two heavy thuds. Cracks spiderwebbed through the masonry as they slid to the ground, coughing up dark blood.

I instinctively started toward them, worry flashing in my eyes. Then I looked down at my own blood-soaked palm and remembered the serum they'd taken from me.

I stopped dead in my tracks, said nothing, and got into the car.

Caspian swept a cold glance over the two crumpled figures. "I'm taking Alice."

He opened the car door for me himself, as gently as if escorting royalty, and shielded me from the rain overhead.

Silas and Julian stared, stunned.

Julian wiped blood from his lip, and the worry in his eyes instantly turned to the wild fury of someone who'd been deceived. He braced himself against the wall and stood, his voice sharp with scorn:

"So that's why you suddenly grew a spine-even daring to leave home!"

"You climbed into the Enforcer's bed. Alice, you'll really do anything to get back at us, won't you?"

Silas hauled himself upright too, his smile sharp and hollow. "All this just to secure your next meal ticket. You even staged that whole martyr act. Get lost-and don't you ever call yourself one of ours again."

The window rose slowly, cutting off their venomous curses.

Caspian looked at my bloodied hand, his expression dark. "This is how they treat you? I truly don't understand why you insisted on going back for more."

I watched the streetscape blur past the window. A long time passed before I murmured, "Because they used to be? really good to me."

Caspian said nothing. He didn't believe me.

Tears finally mingled with the rain and slid down my face.

"Really. My brothers used to love me so much."

I leaned back in my seat, exhausted, but my mind wouldn't stop dragging me back to childhood.

I was three when our parents died in that lab explosion. They had been commissioned by a vampire clan to develop an affordable drug that would protect vampires from holy silver and crucifix burns. It threatened the profits of the old pharmaceutical giants, and a rival had detonated the laboratory before dawn.

When the explosion hit, Silas and Julian threw themselves over me. They were left on the brink of death-saved only because a passing Vampire King turned them just in time. I survived too, but with permanent damage. My lungs were scarred, and I'd been physically frail ever since.

Those first years after being brought to the vampire castle were the most terrifying of my life. I was at the age when human blood smells sweetest. As newly turned, bottom-tier vampires, my brothers walked me into a predatory world filled with hungry stares. Powerful old-blood vampires wanted to snatch me away as a premium blood source.

My brothers were still weak then, but every single time, they hid me inside a battered coffin and fought those monsters tooth and nail-literally.

Silas once had half his shoulder torn off. Julian nearly had his heart ripped out. But they always smiled and told me: "Don't be afraid. We'll get stronger. No one's ever going to touch you."

I was just a three-year-old human child, terrified of the darkness and the bats in the castle. So Silas and Julian slept beside me every night. These two ice-cold fledgling vampires would suppress their thirst for blood and patiently pat my back, murmuring old bedtime stories until I drifted off.

To ensure my transformation at eighteen would go smoothly, they trained with me from the time I was small.

"Come on, little princess, one more lap," Julian would say with a grin, wiping the sweat from my forehead. "Once you're stronger, the First Embrace won't hurt as much."

They'd even spent every last coin they had, scouring half of Europe, to find that legendary calming serum.

Vampire territory had no sunlight. As a child, I didn't understand vampire taboos. I saw the Caribbean on television and begged to go. I was so desperate for the sunlight of the human world, but vampires simply couldn't survive under that kind of light.

I remembered Silas's deep frown. But in the end, he just sighed: "If that's what you want, we'll find a way."

To make my dream come true, they began training obsessively to resist ultraviolet light, enduring the agony of their skin being slowly scorched away.

Now they'd finally grown strong enough to walk freely in the sun. But the person they were taking wasn't me anymore-it was Elena.

The "orphan" left behind by the human hero who had tried to save our parents in the explosion before being killed.

It took Silas and Julian fifteen years to find her in a rundown orphanage. But fate had a cruel sense of humor.

Six months after Elena was brought to the castle, I ran into the orphanage director at an off-campus restaurant-dead drunk. She grabbed my hand, sobbing and confessing: the real hero's child had died of heart disease at the age of three. The current "Elena" was just a replacement-another girl who couldn't afford heart surgery. The director had swapped her identity so my brothers would foot the bill, and maybe even grant her immortality through the transformation.

I'd stormed back to the castle in a frenzy and caught Elena rummaging through my room.

The crash was deafening. Our last family photo-the only picture with all five of us-shattered on the floor. As always, Elena had deliberately cut herself on the glass and was sitting there looking pitiful, waiting for Julian to come to her rescue.

I lost it. I grabbed her arm and screamed, "Take your lies and get out!"

That was the first time Julian ever turned on me. Even Silas, normally so reserved, looked at me with disappointment. "Alice, you're too selfish. Rein in that princess attitude."

I told them the truth. I saw the panic flash across Elena's face. She was healed now-she had no right to steal my home, to destroy my memories.

But Julian's response hit like a wrecking ball:

"Enough, Alice! Why do you have to pick on an orphan?"

"Her father was blown to pieces trying to save Mom and Dad-she's all that's left of him! You'd make up such a vicious lie just to get rid of her? Don't you feel even a little guilty?"

After that, the house went cold. A month ago, Elena struck again-she smashed the necklace I always wore, the one that held my mother's ashes. I chased her to the top of the stairs and slapped her in a blind rage. She let herself fall.

I lunged to catch her, but my weakened body betrayed me-I tumbled down the stairs after her. My arm was torn open against the hard stone steps. I was still struggling to get up and explain when-

Slap.

Julian hit me. The first time in his life.

Silas, usually the calm one, stood over me with ice in his eyes and revulsion in his voice:

"Alice, if you can't get along with Elena, get out of this house."

They carried the uninjured Elena to the hospital and left me bleeding on the cold hallway floor.

That was when I finally understood. The brother who once promised to take me to the sea, who swore to protect me forever-he was already dead.

It didn't matter anymore. It would all be over soon. I would never have to see them again or intrude on their perfect little family of three.

I went back to school and sorted through the last of my things in the dorm. There were my parents' pharmaceutical research notes-containing the preliminary formula for a drug that could free vampires from the threat of crucifixes entirely.

The next day, I was sitting on a bench with the notebook, waiting to meet Caspian, when I spotted Silas and Julian in the hallway.

Elena had dragged them to a bench not far from mine. Her bright laughter echoed through the corridor.

"Behave yourself," Silas said, ruffling her hair. "We leave for the Caribbean in a few days. You can wear any dress you want there."

Listening to them, my chest felt suffocating. Just then, a classmate called my name, and I stood up to go over. When I came back, Elena was holding my notebook, tearing out the pages one by one.

My vision went white. I rushed over and snatched it back.

Elena let herself tip backward, striking her forehead on a stone pillar with a sharp cry. Every vampire student in the hallway turned to look.

My hands trembled as I opened the notebook. It was my parents' life's work-and five years of my own research. All destroyed. The pages had been ripped to shreds, and the remaining ones were smeared with a silver-ion solution that had blackened the text beyond recognition. On top of the pile of ruined paper, she'd drawn a large, mocking smiley face in marker.

Silas was at my side in an instant, not bothering to ask a single question before erupting: "Alice! Have you lost your mind? Why did you push her?"

Julian helped Elena up, his face dark as a storm.

Caspian walked over then. He took one look at the destroyed pages in my hands, and his expression turned lethal.

"Your research notes were destroyed?" he asked in a low voice.

Silas's fury faltered. He leaned in to examine the torn paper and frowned. "That's impossible. Elena wouldn't do something like this?"

"Let's go," I said to Caspian, my voice flat. I didn't wait for Silas to finish. Strange-I should have been hysterical. I should have screamed and raged the way I had so many times before. But all I wanted was to leave.

I'd been fighting them for six months. Six months of arguments, and the outcome was always the same. Since I was leaving anyway, there was no point wasting my breath.

I walked toward the exit with the ruined notebook clutched to my chest. To my surprise, Silas followed.

His tone was as cold as ever, but there was something oddly strained beneath it: "Give me the notes. I'll try to restore them with a restoration spell."

I didn't look back. "Don't bother."

I had originally planned to give this notebook to Julian-he'd once shown a deep interest in pharmacology.

Silas seemed to sense something was off. He grabbed my arm. "Alice, what's going on with you lately?"

There was a thread of anxiety in his voice I couldn't quite place. I simply reached out and gently pushed his hand away.

We stood at an impasse for a moment before he spoke again: "Elena is still young. If she really tore it, it couldn't have been on purpose."

Of course. He was only worried I'd "retaliate" against his precious darling.

I stepped into the elevator and pressed the close button. In that moment, the part of my heart that had refused to give up finally went still, and went completely numb.

As the elevator doors closed, I said softly, "It's fine. Don't worry about it."

Julian came running-he seemed to want to stop the elevator, but it was too late.

As the elevator descended, the last thing I glimpsed was the flash of panic in his eyes.

At noon, Caspian accompanied me through the final preparations for my audience with the Vampire King. That was when Julian suddenly called.

After I picked up, there was a long silence. Just as I was about to hang up, he finally spoke, his voice hoarse: "When are you coming home?"

I hesitated. "School's been busy. I'm not coming back."

"What about tonight?" he pressed.

I was confused. "I have plans."

Another long silence.

"Today's the anniversary of us being turned into vampires," he said, awkward and halting.

I held the phone for a long time without speaking. In years past, I'd always started planning months ahead-expensive gifts, and I'd tell them that even though vampires had eternal life, every day had meaning as long as you had family. I'd even begged them, eyes brimming with tears, to turn me on that very date, so the day of our rebirth would be the same forever.

But now?

"Happy anniversary," I said flatly. "Just go ahead and turn Elena."

Caspian plucked the phone from my hand, his tone frigid. "Your birthday gifts have already been sent to the castle. I'm sure you'll find them quite 'surprising.'"

After he hung up, Caspian shook his head. "I sent over the medal of honor for your research project."

I smiled and shook my head. They probably wouldn't believe it. Or if they did, they wouldn't care.

Caspian then took me to the Vampire King's castle. He was already waiting on his throne. I lay on the bed that had been prepared in the great hall.

The King looked down at me, solemn. "Are you ready for your new life?"

I nodded calmly and closed my eyes. After the First Embrace, all former ties of blood would be severed forever.

Sharp fangs pierced my skin, and the scalding royal blood surged into my veins. A tearing agony engulfed me, and I slowly sank into unconsciousness.