What Is The Ending Of Dracula'S Guest: A Connoisseur'S Collection Of Victorian Vampire Stories?

Vampires are a myth, but for Charlie Preston vampires are real. With the mysterious appearance of a man by the name of Maxwell Barnett, Charlie’s life changes in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, not for the better. Every vampire is assigned a bloodline and Charlie is about to learn that she’s Maxwell’s property. There’s no easy way of accepting that you were born to nourish a vampire. No easy way of accepting that he wants you to be his vampire bride. From seduction to murder, Charlie and Maxwell face many obstacles together and against each other, but what Charlie doesn’t know is that death is the only way to survive what’s coming.

In order to execute a centuries old plan, Rowan orders his son Declan to attempt healing the billionaire heiress, Aster Montgomery, who is suffering from a mysterious terminal illness. Torn between saving his girlfriend from a brutal, untimely death at the hand of his father, and his strong convictions, Declan does something that he swore he'd never do - take a vampire bride, a process that will bond them to each other for eternity. After years of suffering, Aster just wants to die, but her father, Edward Montgomery, has other plans for her. He refuses to give up on his only child. Sick and in pain, Aster has little hope that anyone can help her, but to make her father happy, she gives in and allows Declan to attempt healing her. Soon, she finds out that he is more than just a faith healer; he is a vampire that brings with him the promise of immortality, and a chance at a future. But all is not as it appears, and soon after he takes her as his bride, Aster and Declan learns the truth about her destiny, and they are thrown into a life of turmoil, full of twists and turns, lies, deception and dark secrets. The fate of the world rests on Aster's shoulders, and if she can't carry out Rowan's devious plans, life as we know it will come to an end.

I am the young lady of the vampire house of Kaelaris. Having reached marriageable age, I chose, from a stack of portraits, the eldest son of the human family Norefax. My family indulged my preference and arranged our engagement, awaiting the day of my wedding. I do not drink red wine, but for the sake of human ceremony, I secretly went out—without telling my family—to select a rare century-aged vintage, intending to prepare it for the engagement ritual. The woman beside me glanced at the cabinet I had pointed to and immediately instructed the sales associate, “That bottle looks quite fine. Let me have a look.” Without hesitation, the associate rudely brushed me aside and handed the bottle straight to her. A chill entered my gaze as I spoke, “There is an order to everything. I selected that bottle first. What you’re doing is hardly proper.” She looked me up and down with open disdain and let out a mocking laugh. “This bottle costs sixteen thousand six hundred dollars. Dressed like that, I doubt you even qualify to smell it.” “I am Ethan Norefax’s stepmother. In New York’s Upper East Side, so-called ‘rules’ have always been decided by the Norefax family.” What a coincidence—Ethan was precisely my fiancé, and the very reason I wanted to buy that bottle. I dialed his number at once and said evenly, “Your stepmother has taken the bottle of wine I reserved for our engagement. How do you intend to handle this?”

In the final year of my bond with vampire lord Saul, the curse of our pact struck, and I was overwhelmed by agony, but my lord was nowhere to be found. He had gone out. He left me to suffer. Alone. When the door finally creaked open the next morning, I looked up through bloodshot eyes—hope flickering like a dying candle. But he wasn't alone. He carried an unconscious woman in his arms, her head resting against his chest like she belonged there. Ignoring me as I curled up on the floor in pain, he first carried the woman to his room and called the old butler anxiously. "Jacinda's passed out. Hurry! Check if she's all right!" The old butler cautiously pleaded on my behalf, hoping our lord could save me first, but Saul frowned and interrupted: "Jacinda is in danger, and I have no mind to drink her blood now. She just needs to pull through herself. Believe me, she won't die. Right now, the priority is to save Jacinda." A frown and a glance in my direction was his only response to the old butler's desperate plea. With my only hope shattered, I clenched my teeth and slashed several long wounds on my arms and hands to drain blood for self-rescue. After a long period of weak convulsions, the curse of the pact finally ended. I lay in a pool of blood, sending a message with my last faint consciousness. "I promise I will leave him."

On our fifth wedding anniversary, I nestled in the arms of my vampire husband, Alaric, and offered my neck to his lingering kisses. My breath caught as my hand fumbled in my pocket for the pregnancy test crystal. It glowed faintly, showing a clear positive result. I planned to reveal my pregnancy as my final surprise for the night: we were going to have a half-vampire child of our own. Alaric's confidant, Roman, grinned suggestively and asked in the Old Tongue of the Kindred: "Your Highness, and what of your childhood friend, the beautiful pureblood Elise? Does she satisfy you?" Alaric's mocking laughter rumbled against my chest, sending a chill down my spine. He replied in the same Old Tongue: "Like fire, wild and intensely hot. The harder you bite, the sweeter she yields." His fingertip was still tracing the bite marks on my neck, but his gaze was far away. "Just be sure to keep this quiet. I'd be ruined if my dear wife found out." The clansmen chuckled, raising their blood-filled goblets to pledge their secrecy. The warmth in my blood ran to ice. They had forgotten. Born of a noble human line that had intermarried with the Kindred for generations, I was fluent in their Old Tongue. I forced myself to remain calm, keeping the perfect hostess's smile plastered on my face, but the hand gripping my glass began to tremble. Alaric probably thought that if I found out, I would cry and demand to know why he treated me this way, just as I had before. But what he didn't know was that this time, everything was different. The marriage contract was void. I sent a message to my father: "Father, I've lost the bet. I am coming home to inherit the family estate."

Lena Moreau never believed in monsters until she started working for one. She gets an elite internship at Vale Biotech, the world’s leading blood research company. There, she meets her boss, Sébastian Vale—powerful, distant, and impossible to ignore. He only works at night, avoids mirrors, and reacts strangely to her presence. Because Sébastian isn’t just a billionaire. He’s a vampire. Four hundred years old, he has spent his life trying to stop his kind from feeding on humans. He has no desire and no warmth until Lena walks into his world. Her scent draws him in. Her presence weakened his control, and she looked exactly like the woman he once loved and lost. But Lena is now a target. A dangerous vampire enemy believes her blood holds the secret to walking in sunlight and will stop at nothing to get her. To protect her, Sébastian must face the darkness he tried to leave behind. Because loving her could destroy her and feeding on her could kill her.