Chapter 5

Lucien

Another century.

Another ceremony.

Another initiation.

Another bride.

I stood before the towering stained-glass windows of my private chamber, staring at the crimson horizon beyond the palace walls. The setting sun painted the sky in shades of blood and gold, casting long shadows across the marble floor.

Immortality was a curse disguised as a gift.

For anyone, eternity sounded appealing. Endless time. Endless possibilities.

The reality was far crueler.

After thousands of years, every day felt identical. Every century bled into the next until memories became difficult to distinguish from dreams.

At least I wished something would change.

Anything.

My kingdom had known peace since the Great War that nearly destroyed the world itself. No rebellions. No invasions. No threats.

Only silence and routine.

And I hated routine.

The beginning of our existence had been vastly different.

Long ago, supernatural beings were created for a singular purpose—to fight the darkness that threatened humanity.

God's favorite creations, Humans. We fought beside them to protect them. We bled for them and together, we won.

Unfortunately, victory proved far more dangerous than the war itself.

Every race claimed responsibility for defeating evil.

The witches insisted their magic had secured the triumph.

The werewolves boasted about their unmatched strength.

The vampires believed their speed and mind-reading had turned the tide.

Arguments became rivalries.

Rivalries became hatred.

Hatred became war.

Soon, supernatural creatures were fighting one another instead of protecting the world.

The conflict spread like wildfire.

Entire human settlements were destroyed as collateral damage.

Thousands died and God became furious. His punishment was swift and merciless.

The werewolves were cursed to lose themselves beneath the full moon, transforming into mindless beasts driven solely by instinct.

The vampires were condemned to burn beneath sunlight.

The witches were cursed to live in constant fear of their own power.

He didn't stop there, he divided us and gave us separate kingdoms, separate territories, and separate lives.

No species was permitted to cross into another's domain. He ordered no exceptions. and no forgiveness.

For years, everyone obeyed. Everyone except me. A bitter smile touched my lips. Because I had been foolish enough to fall in love.

Her name still echoed within my soul Ravenna. Even after all these centuries.

She was a witch. A Beautiful, brilliant, and stubborn one. The first person who ever made me feel something meaningful.

The first person who ever looked at me and saw a man rather than a creature.

I entered the Witch Kingdom knowing the consequences.

Knowing I was breaking God's command. Yet I crossed the border anyway.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Because every moment spent with her felt worth any punishment.

At first, she feared what would happen if we were discovered.

I still remember her trembling voice.

"Lucien, we cannot keep doing this."

I had laughed and stolen a kiss.

"Then we'll simply get better at hiding."

She laughed too.

Gods...

I would trade everything to hear that laugh again.

We met beneath moonlit forests.

Along hidden rivers.

Inside abandoned cottages forgotten by time.

For a while, we convinced ourselves we could outrun fate.

We were young, in love, and incredibly foolish.

Nothing remains hidden forever. One night, another witch discovered us. The next morning we were dragged before their queen.

I can still remember the fear in Ravenna's eyes, not for herself but for me.

The queen hesitated. She didn't know how to judge us so she summoned God himself. A mistake that changed everything.

The heavens split open, the skies turned white and God descended.

His fury shook the world.

"You dare defy my command?"

The memory still haunted me. His voice had sounded like thunder, like judgment, like death.

I begged, pleaded, and offered my own life.

"Punish me instead."

But he refused. Ravenna never cried, screamed, or even begged for mercy.

Even as divine flames engulfed her body and even as her flesh turned to ash.

She looked at me and smiled.

A small, trembling smile. And her final words still haunted my dreams.

"I love you."

Then she was gone. Burned alive before my eyes. My fists tightened. The pain had dulled over centuries. Yet it never truly disappeared.

God wasn't finished. He cursed me to live forever. To never love again, to never feel emotion, and to exist as an empty shell.

And for a hundred years, I wandered the world consumed by grief.

No.

Not grief.

Even grief was an emotion.

I felt nothing.

Nothing except a hollow emptiness that threatened to swallow me whole.

Then I made the greatest mistake of my existence. I summoned the Devil.

Still, that memory filled me with disgust. He appeared from darkness itself.

Smiling, patient, and waiting.

As though he had known I would come.

"You seek revenge."

It wasn't a question and I nodded.

The Devil grinned.

"Then I shall help you."

Every bargain demands payment, I knew that yet I accepted anyway.

He transformed me into a creature that made me thirst for human blood, crave destruction, and into something far worse than a monster.

What's worse is I embraced it. I drank and slaughtered as my life depended on it. I fed until entire villages disappeared overnight.

The Devil revealed another gift. Any creature that consumed my blood would become like me so I created more.

And more.

And more.

An army of monsters.

An army without mercy.

Without conscience.

Without humanity.

The world drowned in blood, and millions died.

Humans.

Werewolves.

Witches.

Anyone unfortunate enough to stand before us.

Kingdoms burned.

Cities collapsed.

Children screamed.

And I felt nothing.

Not guilt, nor regret. Nothing.

Then the Great War began. Every species united against us but they failed because no one could kill me. Not even when they tore my body apart. I always returned.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Eventually, God intervened. The heavens opened once more and this time, he did something unexpected.

He returned my emotions. The first feeling that struck me wasn't relief. It wasn't happiness. It was guilt.

Crushing.

Unbearable.

Infinite guilt.

Every face returned, every victim, every child, every mother, and every innocent soul whose life I had stolen.

I collapsed, screaming, begging, and praying for death but death never came.

God looked upon me with pity. Perhaps because he realized his curse had created this disaster or he regretted his own actions.

I never asked. Instead, he made me King of the Vampires. He restrained my bloodlust, he restored order and he issued another decree.

Every century, I would be given a bride.

A companion.

A chance to find what I had lost. The irony was almost laughable because his original curse remained. I could never truly love again, not the way I once loved her, my Ravenna.

The surviving humans demanded another miracle. They wanted every supernatural creature cured and wanted everyone to become human.

God refused. Yet he offered a compromise. A cure.

One cure capable of removing any supernatural condition.

Vampire.

Werewolf.

Witch.

Anything.

The cure was hidden away, protected by fate itself and locked behind a final condition.

Only the blood of a pure human soul could reveal it.

A soul untouched by corruption, untouched by darkness, untouched by selfishness. Such purity was nearly impossible.

Centuries passed, and no one found it. Many searched and many died. The cure remained hidden.

A myth.

A legend.

A dream.

My thoughts were interrupted when the chamber doors creaked open.

The scent reached me before I turned around.

Fresh blood. Rich, metallic, and ancient.

I sighed.

The ceremony had begun, and standing in the doorway was Leliya, my wife from the previous century.

Dark-haired and elegant as ever. In her hands rested a white ceremonial cloth stained with crimson blood. The mark of another chosen bride.

Another woman destined to enter my life and eventually leave it.

Just another century, another marriage, and another routine.

Or so I believed.

Until I sensed the blood, something was different. The scent struck me like lightning. My entire body froze.

My dead heart skipped a beat.

To be Continued