Chapter 1To Sire My True Love

My blood can cheat death, but it cannot read a human heart. I once gave my immortal life to the woman I thought had saved me, only for her to destroy me.

But time rewound. And in the eyes of another dying girl, I saw the locket I had lost as a child.

My grand sacrifice was a lie. A stolen identity.

This time, I will awaken the one I truly owe my life to. And as for the imposter? She will repay every ounce of the suffering she caused... a hundred times over.

* * *

As one of the Blood Kindred, I was born with an eternal curse. A life force pulses in my blood, potent enough to turn back the tide of death itself.

In my last withered lifetime, I used that power to heal Seraphina de Valois, the most dazzling jewel of Parisian society. My reward was her family’s cold vow: the healer would be bound to the healed, his fortune and his miracle absorbed into the Valois legacy.

The forced engagement shattered Seraphina. Her true love, a man named Julien Reed, was in the Alps at the time, searching for some mythical herb to cure her. When the news of our betrothal reached him, he fell from a glacier. They never found a body.

A year later, she did. She found him perfectly preserved in a crevasse of ice.

She made me slice open my wrist. On that frigid night, I could hear the frantic, unhinged rhythm of her heart. I could smell the sharp, metallic scent of obsession clinging to her like a bitter perfume. She forced me to feed my life into his frozen corpse.

“If you hadn’t interfered, Julien would have brought back the divine medicine and saved me! You killed him!” she shrieked, her voice like shattering crystal. “If your blood is such a miracle, then bring him back to me!”

“Seraphina, he’s been dead for a year,” I pleaded. “My blood can mend living flesh. It cannot resurrect the dead.” But she just watched me with cold, flat eyes as my life drained away, drop by drop, along with the ancient, inhuman power that flowed within it.

When I opened my eyes again, time had rewound. I was standing in the de Valois mansion on the very day they first summoned me. The stale air, a cloying mix of expensive perfume and old dust, assaulted my senses.

I glanced at the pale figure in the wheelchair. Beneath her meticulously applied makeup, I could smell it—that faint, sickly-sweet odor of decay. It was the signature of a life force slowly extinguishing itself.

“Mademoiselle de Valois, your legs… they have withered. No power on this earth can restore what is already dead.”

At my words, Seraphina’s head snapped up. A furious blush stained her delicate features.

“You charlatan! Get out of my house!”

The ghost of a smile touched my lips. I turned to her mother. “Madame de Valois, if my family—the von Valerius line—declares a decay irreversible, then it is final. You are still young. Perhaps you should consider conceiving a new heir.”

Before the words had fully settled, Seraphina’s teacup came flying at my head. To a mortal eye, it would have been a blur. To me, it moved with the lazy grace of a floating feather. Without shifting my feet, I simply tilted my head and plucked the porcelain from the air. The rose-gold rim was steady in my hand, not a single drop of the warm tea spilled. I placed it back on the table without a sound.

Madame de Valois, thoroughly shaken, rushed forward. “Monsieur von Valerius, please, forgive her. Seraphina’s condition has made her…”

I waved a hand, a gesture of deep, unutterable weariness. “I understand. I don’t deign to bicker with a cripple whose life is so fleeting.”

As I turned to leave the gilded cage of a mansion, I could feel Seraphina’s entire body trembling with rage. Her frantic heartbeat was a drum against my ears.

Madame de Valois hurried after me, her voice a desperate whisper. “Monsieur, is there truly nothing that can be done? If you could cure Seraphina, the Valois family would give you anything you desire.”

The problem wasn't that I couldn't. It was that I wouldn't. The memory of my last life was a brand on my immortal soul, every breath a reminder of the terrifying depths of mortal greed.

“I’m afraid I can do nothing for Mademoiselle de Valois’s legs.”

Seraphina had wheeled herself to the doorway, just in time to hear me. Her sweet voice was laced with venom. “Mother, Julien is already on his way back to Paris. He’s bringing the Starflower of the High Mountains. My legs will be healed.” She glared at me. “This has nothing to do with you. I don’t need a stranger’s pity.”

Madame de Valois sighed, the sound heavy and tired. “My child, the Starflower may help you recover, but it won’t be enough to let you stand again…”

Seraphina remained defiant. “I told you, Julien will heal me.”

I gave her one last, long look before taking my leave of her mother.

As I stepped out of the mansion’s grand entrance, a horseless carriage roared to a stop before me. A woman emerged, despair carved into the lines of her face, and fell to her knees at my feet.

“Monsieur von Valerius, I’m begging you… please, save my daughter.”