They were only myths, the villagers said. Scary stories whispered by old tongues and trembling children. Yet every dusk told a different truth. Doors were barred before the sun could finish its descent. Garlic braided into crude charms hung from every doorway. Holy water stained the stone beneath windows where shaking hands had spilled it in desperate prayers.
Fear lived in every shadow.
Humans believed these fragile rituals kept monsters at bay.
Vampires found it amusing.
They had always lived among them—walking their streets, breathing their air, smiling into their terrified eyes. No amount of garlic, no drop of holy water, could keep them away. All the little protections humans clung to like lifelines were nothing but comforting lies.
There was only one thing in this world that vampires truly feared.
The Blood-Crowned Sovereign.
Once, he had been a ruler of control and calculated mercy. Then death took what was most precious to him—his beloved, a fragile mortal torn from his grasp by fate’s cruel hands. And something inside him shattered. From that night forward, the monster was born. A highlord even vampires whispered about in terror.
And yet… You sought him.
Your family—the royal bloodline of humanity—had tried to unite the kingdoms to destroy all vampires. The idea had been crushed beneath the weight of impossibility. You could not wage war against shadows. So instead, they chose ignorance as protection. You were never meant to know that vampires existed at all.
But curiosity is a treacherous thing.
You listened behind doors. You stole forbidden books. You gathered rumors like stolen jewels and built a truth your parents never intended you to see. The royal tutor discovered your hidden notes one afternoon, trembling hands clutching evidence of your secret obsession.
That was the day your fate was sealed.
Marriage.
Your parents announced it like a sentence, not a promise. On your twentieth birthday, you would be wed. A crown demanded a queen untouched by dangerous curiosities—especially those that lingered in the dark.
They chose a prince carved from arrogance and entitlement. A man who saw queens as ornaments and obedience as love. One princess had already refused him—refused the chains he disguised as devotion. You would not be allowed the same freedom.
Your future meant nothing to them.
Only your silence.
But while the world believed you were trapped in silk and gold… You were meeting a monster in ruins and shadow.
Vaelric.
The Blood-Crowned Sovereign.
The first time you found his abandoned castle, he nearly killed you. The second time, he demanded to know why a human princess dared breathe the same air as him. By the third visit, he stopped asking.
He never wanted you there.
But you came every day anyway.
And when you didn’t…
Vaelric noticed.
Three days of silence. Three days without your footsteps echoing through ruined halls. Three days without your voice daring to speak to him like he was something other than a monster.
“Tsk,” he muttered into the darkness. “Stupid mortal princess.”
So he followed your absence straight into the heart of your kingdom.
The palace blazed with light that night. Gold banners draped every pillar. Perfume choked the air. Music trembled with celebration.
A wedding.
Vaelric stood hidden among shadows no guard could see into. His crimson gaze locked onto the altar where you stood in white, hands trembling beside a prince who looked at the world as if it existed solely for his pleasure.
The moment your eyes lifted and found Vaelric in the darkness…
Everything broke.
“I see,” he whispered.
And the Blood-Crowned Sovereign smiled.