I was a human, but my husband Damien was one of the noblest vampires.

When I was two months pregnant, I was kidnapped by a traitorous vampire whom Damien had banished, and tortured to death.

But my husband Damien, was with his first love Vivienne, accompanying her for her Blood Withering treatment.

This is an extremely rare vampire disease that requires human blood of a rare blood type for treatment.

Three days ago, he demanded I give my blood to Vivienne.

When I refused, telling him I was two months pregnant with our child, his eyes had turned cold.

"Stop lying," he had snarled. "You're just being selfish, trying to let Vivienne die."

He drove me to the edge of the territory and left me there — a human, alone in the wilds after dark. "Find your own way back since you're so heartless."

I stood there in the darkness and was taken by Silas — a rogue vampire Damien had once condemned to punishment.

He cut off my limbs. With cruel satisfaction, he called my husband.

But Damien simply didn't believe it. His response was brief and cold: "Whatever it is, Vivienne's treatment is more important. She needs me right now."

Silas let out a dark laugh. "Well, well... Seems like the great Enforcer values his ex over his own wife."

When Damien arrived at the crime scene hours later, he was horrified by the brutality inflicted on the corpse. He raged at the killer for being so savage to a pregnant woman.

But he didn't recognize that the mutilated body before him was his own wife — me.

A century ago, the great war between vampires and humans left both sides devastated. They had maintained an uneasy truce ever since.

No vampire dared to openly kill a human.

Until my body was found in an abandoned cellar at the edge of the Blood Court's domain.

A patrol guard discovered me and immediately sent word to the Enforcer's Hall. A human woman, tortured to death, dumped right inside vampire territory.

My husband Damien rushed over from the Elder Sanctum, where he had been accompanying his ex-girlfriend Vivienne for her Blood Withering treatment.

Damien was the Vampire King's Chief Enforcer — the most powerful authority beneath the throne. Three hundred years of service. He had seen every kind of brutality vampires were capable of.

But even he flinched when he saw my body.

Days of decay in the cold cellar. My face smashed beyond recognition. Deep cuts everywhere. My neck nearly severed.

Damien steadied himself, then crouched down to examine the body.

I watched, heart pounding, as he lifted the blood-soaked cord from my neck.

A braided obsidian rope with a small crimson gemstone pendant.

I had spent weeks making it for him. Braiding the cord by hand, choosing the stone, having our bonding vow engraved inside the setting in letters so tiny only vampire eyes could read them.

"It's obsidian," I had told him, pressing it into his hands. "In the old stories, it wards off curses. I want you to be safe."

He had looked at it for a long moment. I thought I saw something warm in his crimson eyes.

Then Vivienne came over the next evening.

She picked up the pendant between two fingers, her lip curling. "What is this? A trinket from a human market stall? Damien, you cannot possibly wear this in the court."

He ripped it off instantly and threw it back at me.

"You are my wife," he said coldly. "Your role is to elevate my standing, not humiliate me."

That memory still burned. But surely — surely he would recognize it now. This cord I had woven with my own hands. This stone that held our bonding words.

Damien turned the pendant over once, then handed it to his deputy Marcus.

"Bag it with the evidence."

Nothing. Not a flicker of recognition.

Marcus continued the examination, then stopped abruptly.

"Damien. She was pregnant. About two months." He hesitated. "The energy signature suggests the father was a vampire. This child would have been a dhampir."

Damien's fist slammed into the stone wall. "What kind of animal does this to a pregnant woman? If the humans find out about this, the truce is over."

I wanted to scream.

It had only been days since Vivienne's diagnosis. Blood Withering — a rare and fatal condition among vampires.

The only treatment required blood from a compatible human donor, drawn in large quantities over several sessions.

And I was the only match.

Damien had come to me that night. "You have to do this, Lena. She will die without your blood."

"I'm pregnant, Damien. Two months. That much blood loss could kill me and our baby."

His eyes went cold. "Another lie? You'll say anything to let Vivienne die."

He drove me to the edge of the territory and left me there. A human, alone, in the wilds after dark.

Now Damien stood over my corpse, full of righteous fury for a woman he didn't even know.

But his own wife's pregnancy? A lie. A manipulation. Not worth a second thought.

"Flag the pregnancy and dhampir status in the report," he told Marcus. "This is highest priority."

I shouldn't have hoped. I never existed in Damien's heart. Every word from my mouth was a suspected lie. Every plea was a trick.

All his trust, all his tenderness — it belonged to Vivienne. Every bit of it.

Clara, my only friend in vampire world, had warned me before the bonding. "He only chose you because Vivienne left him first. She walked away when he was nobody — a common foot soldier. But she is the one he loves. She always will be."

I didn't believe her then. I thought love could be built over time.

After the bonding, I couldn't pretend anymore. Every room in our quarters was filled with traces of her — old portraits, letters in her handwriting, a sword they had shared in battle mounted on the wall. Every story he told circled back to Vivienne's name.

I was just a placeholder. A human substitute keeping the seat warm until the real heroine decided to return.

Marcus wrapped up his notes. "Young human female. Throat cut. Signs of prolonged torture before death."

"If this leaks before we find the killer, the human factions will use it to break the truce," Damien said. "We close this fast."

Even in death, I was just a problem for him.

Marcus glanced at Damien. "Warn the people close to you. Whoever did this is still out there."

"Vivienne is safe at the Elder Sanctum," Damien said dismissively. "It's Lena I can never keep track of."

He pressed a hand to his chest, wincing.

Marcus noticed. "Blood thirst again?"

"It's fine. Lena made me a tonic — it's back at the quarters."

He went quiet.

His supposedly defiant human wife had always tended to his condition with care.

He suffered from blood thirst, requiring him to drink large amounts of human blood daily to alleviate his physical pain.

However, after the great war between humans and vampires, the supply of human blood had long been insufficient.

He lived in extreme restraint and agony every day. It was I who painstakingly concocted a special blood-based medicine to alleviate his blood thirst.

Marcus patted his shoulder. "Be kinder to her. A human who chose to live among us — that's not nothing."

Damien shook his head. "Vivienne has Blood Withering. Lena won't even give blood to save her. Made up some pregnancy story to get out of it."

"What if she really is pregnant?"

"Impossible. I haven't touched her in over two months."

"But the autumn blood feast — two months ago — you drank too much and could barely stand—"

"Vivienne was with me that night," Damien cut him off. "She said Lena never showed up."

My soul ached.

The one by your side that night was me, Damien.

I held your hand while the blood fever shook your body. I pressed cool cloths to your skin until dawn. I stayed awake, terrified, watching you until the shaking stopped.

But Vivienne told you I never came. And you believed her. You always believed her.

"Lena hasn't been back in days," Damien went on. "Probably off somewhere causing trouble. I never should have bonded with a human."

I listened to him say these things, standing right over my body, and felt the last warmth inside me go cold.

Damien, I didn't choose to stay away.

I can't come back anymore.

Your defiant human wife died the night you left me alone in the wilds.

My body is right here in front of you, carrying the child you refused to believe in.

Back at the Enforcer's Hall, the atmosphere was heavy.

Marcus displayed his findings before the assembled enforcers. "The victim endured extended torture before death. Multiple broken bones, systematic blade wounds. The methods were deliberate — whoever did this took their time."

The faces around the room darkened.

The cellar wasn't the original crime scene. The body had been moved there, which meant the real location was still out there, along with whatever evidence it held.

"Search every patrol log from the past week," Damien ordered. "Check the boundary wards for anomalies. Someone carried a human body into our territory — the wards should have flagged it."

He turned to Marcus. "Run the Blood Tracing Rite. I want to know who she is."

Then he swept out with his team.

My husband poured more effort into identifying a stranger's corpse than he had ever spent on me while I was alive.

I thought of last month, when I gave him my mother's talisman.

It was the only thing I had left of my family. A small bronze disc engraved with protective symbols, worn smooth by decades of use.

"My mother said it kept her safe her whole life," I told him, pressing it into his palm. "Now I want it to keep you safe."

For a moment, something shifted in his expression. His fingers closed around it gently. I thought — maybe, finally — I had reached something real inside him.

Vivienne came by the next evening.

She spotted the talisman on the table and picked it up, holding it like something diseased. "What is this? Some human superstition charm?" She laughed. "Damien, wearing something like this is an insult to your bloodline."

She dropped it on the floor and ground it under her heel.

I slapped her. Hard. The crack echoed through the room.

Damien's reaction was instant. He seized my wrist, his grip so tight I felt the bones shift. A vampire's full strength against a human arm.

"You dare strike Vivienne?" His face was twisted with rage. "A human, raising her hand against a pureblood? You should be grateful she even acknowledges your existence."

He dragged me to the underground chamber and threw me inside.

Two days. No food. No water. Just darkness, and the sound of Vivienne's laughter drifting down from above.

Now, as Damien's hands moved gently over my ruined body, he murmured, "Tortured like this... her mate must be devastated."

I almost laughed. My mate would probably feel relieved. One less inconvenience.

His fingers traced the long scar running down my back.

I got that scar a year ago. A rogue hunter had ambushed Damien with a Holylight dagger — one of the few weapons that could truly kill a vampire. I saw the blade arc toward his back before he did.

I didn't think. I threw myself between them and took the strike.

A human body against a weapon designed to kill immortals. The blade carved a wound from my shoulder to my hip. The healers said I was lucky to survive.

But afterward, Damien couldn't stand to look at the scar. "Cover it up," he would snap. "I don't want to see that thing."

The scar that proved I would die for him disgusted him.

Could he recognize me through it now?

I held my breath, watching his face.

"Old wound," he said flatly. "Unrelated to the case."

He moved on.

Marcus spoke up. "There's something lodged in her throat." He reached in carefully and extracted a crumpled piece of paper, forced deep enough to choke on.

Damien frowned. "Too damaged to read. Send it to the analysts."

Just then, Vivienne reached out through their blood bond — the telepathic link between bonded vampires. Damien's entire demeanor shifted instantly. The hard lines of his face softened. His voice dropped to something tender.

"Vivienne? What is it?"

"Tomorrow's treatment ritual — will you be there?" Her voice carried that signature sweetness, fragile and brave. "And please, don't pressure Lena about the blood donation. I understand if she doesn't want to help me."

"Nothing is more important than your treatment," Damien answered. "And as for Lena — I will make her come. A human doesn't get to decide whether you live or die."

"I heard she's claiming to be pregnant with your child?" Vivienne sighed softly. "She must be so frightened of the blood draw to make up something like that."

"She's not pregnant," Damien said. "She's lying to avoid saving you. I won't let her get away with it."

Vivienne's voice turned gentle with concern. "Be careful, though. Someone killed a human in our territory. That's unsettling."

"You focus on getting better. Lena can go wherever she wants — as long as she doesn't disappear before I get your blood from her."

They said all of this just steps away from my body.

They planned my future — my blood, my compliance, my usefulness — not knowing that everything Vivienne wanted from me had already gone cold on that stone floor.

My death was Vivienne's design. Every step of it — the fake illness, the impossible demand, the hired killer — all her.

But Damien's blindness made it possible.

Even if he found out the truth right now, would he grieve? Or would he simply rage that Vivienne had lost her only compatible donor?

Damien had barely finished his connection with Vivienne when Clara appeared at the Enforcer's Hall.

"Damien, have you heard from Lena? She had an appointment with a human physician tomorrow — a pregnancy checkup. It's been scheduled for weeks."

Clara was my only friend in the vampire world. She had known Damien before me, but she chose my side. In a world full of vampires who treated me like mobile blood bank, Clara's friendship was the only warmth I had.

"Pregnancy checkup?" Damien's lip curled. "What pregnancy?"

"I've been trying to reach her for days," Clara pressed. "No response to anything. Nothing. I'm worried, Damien."

"Worried about what? She's probably off somewhere throwing a tantrum."

Clara's voice sharpened. "She's your mate. She could be carrying your child. Do you not care at all?"

Damien cut her off. "You don't understand how things work among vampire and human, Clara. Don't let Lena use you. She made up this pregnancy to avoid giving blood to Vivienne. She has always been selfish."

"Tell her this," he continued, his tone turning cold. "If she still refuses to donate, I will dissolve our bonding vow. I won't let her selfishness kill the woman I love."

The woman he loved.

Not me. Never me.

He walked away before Clara could respond.

Later, Marcus approached him quietly. "Lena's been out of contact for days now. Should I send someone to look for her?"

Damien waved it off. "She probably went back to the human world, waiting for me to chase after her. She'll come back on her own in a day or two."

I remembered the first time Damien brought me to meet the pureblood aristocrats. It was shortly after our bonding ceremony — a formal gathering at one of the Court's grand halls.

I had agonized over what to wear. Tried my best to look presentable. I was nervous, excited even — Damien said he wanted to introduce me to an old friend.

He didn't tell me Vivienne was his first love.

The hall was full of purebloods. Vivienne stood at the center, radiant, every gesture dripping with centuries of grace. When she saw me, she smiled.

"Damien, so this is your human mate?" Her gaze swept over me from head to toe. "She looks... healthy, at least."

Soft laughter rippled through the room.

Damien's face darkened — not at Vivienne's mockery, but at me. For embarrassing him.

"Can't you dress properly?" he hissed. "You're humiliating me in front of everyone."

I was already wearing the best thing I owned. But a human in a room full of immortal aristocrats — it didn't matter what I wore. I would never fit in.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Just go," he said. "I'll stay with Vivienne."

That was the first time I understood — I would never belong in his world.

Back at the Hall, a junior enforcer delivered his report. "No humans have been registered as missing in the territory over the past several days."

Another enforcer shook his head. "A human woman killed in our domain, and nobody has come looking for her? What kind of mate doesn't notice his wife is gone?"

"Hard to imagine," Damien agreed.

He had no idea they were talking about him.

Damien would mobilize his entire unit for an unknown corpse. But his own wife vanishing for days didn't deserve a second thought.

He handed the crumpled paper from the body over to the analysis team.

Marcus hesitated. "Damien, what if something really happened to Lena? Maybe I should look into it..."

"You know how she is," Damien said. "Give it a couple of days. She'll come back on her own."

But there would be no "couple of days."

No one was coming back.

No more apologies. No more begging for a love that was never mine.