Chapter 2

Glyss's POV

Meeting those blood-red slit pupils that looked ready to pierce straight through my soul, cold sweat trickled down my forehead. My throat tightened, and my hand was already reaching for the short blade at my waist.

Facing a monster that powerful, I wasn't foolish enough to throw my life away fighting him.

But I'd heard from other blood hunters in the rear support corps how vampires treated the humans they captured.

Human men they flayed and stripped of their bones; human women they tortured to death, then tossed into the river like a worn-out rag.

My pride wouldn't allow me to die like that.

Yet before I could pull the blade free and finish myself, he caught my wrist and pressed it to his chest.

"Pull it out for me."

The voice was low, rich, magnetic. A shudder ran through me, and I looked up in disbelief at those blood-red slit pupils.

This was nothing like what the records in the blood hunters' rear files described!

In all the recorded clashes between blood hunters and vampires, no one had ever heard a vampire speak a human language!

Stunned, I said, "You can speak our language?"

He nodded, and drew my wrist to something cold.

I followed the touch and looked.

It was a silver nail, sharp and slender, driven straight through his heart. There were spells on it too.

On any other vampire, a thing like that would have reduced him to ash in an instant.

But this vampire in front of me could still hold that kind of speed and that much life force. I couldn't even imagine how strong he was.

Still, the energy the nail had poured into him was too great—even a vampire of his caliber couldn't pull it out by his own strength.

So I said slowly, "You're... asking me to pull it out for you?"

The vampire nodded. "Pull this nail out for me, and whatever you ask, I'll grant it."

I swallowed nervously, unsure whether I could trust him.

After all, in the mouths of those blood hunters, vampires were treacherous, cruel, and bloodthirsty. I couldn't afford not to be on my guard.

If I foolishly believed him, actually pulled that silver nail from his heart, and let him recover his strength, wouldn't that leave me in even more danger?

"And if I say no?"

My back against the freezing wall, I gritted my teeth and said it.

His slit pupils fixed on me. His long fingers brushed the stray hair back from my forehead. Those sharp slit pupils seemed about to see through every thought I had.

"With my strength, I could kill you where you stand, whether you pull the nail out or not."

My mind went blank for a moment. After a brief hesitation, I lowered my head, reached out, and took hold of the silver nail in his chest.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

Before he could answer, I seized the nail and yanked it out with all my strength.

My warning did nothing. Mad with pain, he threw me off, his long fingers closing around my throat and hauling me into the air, his long nails shooting out like arrows, going for my eyes.

"You promised you wouldn't hurt me!" The words came out almost on reflex.

And they worked. Those sharp nails stopped a few millimeters from my eyes and moved no further.

He set me down on the ground.

The wound in the vampire's chest closed before my eyes, and he grew stronger—I could feel it.

"Good. Now, name your request."

I glanced at him. "I haven't decided yet."

Everything that had happened tonight was beyond the limits of what I knew. My mind raced: this vampire could actually speak a human language, and he could even calmly negotiate terms with a human like me? Unbelievable.

If I told anyone what I'd seen tonight, those blood hunters would probably think I'd lost my mind.

I looked at him doubtfully. "Are you really a vampire?"

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

"No... it's just that you don't seem like what the blood hunter files describe..."

By now the fear I'd started with had settled.

At least from dealing with this vampire just now, I could tell he wasn't brutal—he even respected a contract.

The vampire sneered, his sharp teeth glinting cold in the moonlight.

"You think I must be brutal?"

"Just now, yes," I said.

"At least part of it is true. With civilized people, of course we can be reasonable. As for those bastards who love killing, we have no choice but to treat them the same way."

Thinking back on the fact that I hadn't drawn my blade on him, I actually felt lucky now.

I weighed the silver nail in my hand and recognized it as a weapon the blood hunters' war industry corps had spent half a year making. At the time I'd marveled—whoever the higher-ups ordered a weapon like this for must have been a truly terrifying vampire.

"They think highly of you," I said. "The spell on this nail was cast by the Archbishop himself. But if you have the power to grant me anything I ask, how did they manage to capture you?"

The vampire's mouth twitched, then he said through clenched teeth, "Many of your kind do things in despicable ways."

I understood. "Maybe they used some underhanded means to bring you down?"

His mouth twitched again, his blood-red slit pupils rolling in their sockets, his cold gaze slanting toward me.

I instinctively shut my mouth.

"If you have no conditions to put to me, you'll lose this chance."

"No, I do." I said it quickly.

"Speak."

"My younger brother was bitten by your kind while on a mission and became one of the blood-tainted. He's been bedridden for three years, kept alive on special medicine so he can't fully turn into a vampire. I've been searching for a cure to make him normal again."

"I read in an old book that high-ranking vampires can delay the transformation of the blood-tainted. So may I take some of your blood?"

He frowned. "Your brother may have killed countless of my people."

"But you said you'd grant me anything."

He looked at me deeply and gave a low hum. "Very well. I never break my word. Come here."

But before I could walk over, the sound of the iron door being opened came from the far end of the dungeon!

My heart hammered. I threw the silver nail into an inconspicuous corner, and the vampire vanished into the dark.

I stared wide-eyed as the light from the far end of the dungeon grew brighter.

A beam of harsh light swept past, and my vision blurred briefly.

When it cleared, I saw who was standing outside the iron door.

It was Hestia!

The iron door was pulled open from the outside by blood hunters, making a grating noise.

Hestia's gaze rested on me, without any warmth.

"Come out."