Chapter 60: Crimson Vow
The dawn of the final night began not with silence, but with fire.
Flames crackled along the horizon, far beyond the castle walls—torches held high by a rebellious sect of vampires who refused the ruling of the Tribunal. They were known as the Severed Veil, a fanatical order who believed no mortal blood should ever rule alongside the undead.
And tonight, they had come to end what they called a mockery of vampiric purity.
Inside the highest tower of the Blood Castle, Queen Ella stood in full ceremonial armor, forged of dark crimson steel and adorned with ancient runes. Beside her stood Liam—no longer the awkward human who had stumbled into her world, but the bearer of the fused mark that now glowed permanently along his chest.
He too wore armor, crafted in the weeks after the Tribunal—a perfect union of mortal resilience and vampiric strength. His eyes no longer held fear. Only purpose.
They had one night to stop a civil war.
Ella turned to him. "This is our final stand. The contract, the power we now share—it means nothing if we can't defend it."
Liam reached out, intertwining his fingers with hers. "Then let's show them what our bond truly means."
---
The battle erupted at moonrise.
The Severed Veil, led by Lord Arkon—a former elder stripped of his title after backing ancient blood rites—stormed the gates with hundreds of loyalists. Their weapons were laced with gravebane, a poison deadly even to purebloods. Their war beasts snarled and howled, monstrous hybrid wolves bred for siege.
But Ella's forces stood ready. The loyalist vampires, house guards, and even former dissenters who had seen the transformation in their Queen and her consort, all took up arms.
And in the center of the fray—Liam.
His blade shimmered red, forged from a shard of the shattered contract itself, now a living weapon known as Vermis. With every swing, it hummed with their shared heartbeat.
He fought not like a vampire, nor like a human, but like something entirely new. Arkon sought to crush him first, knowing that Liam had become the symbol of the Crimson Union.
But Liam would not fall.
Not tonight.
---
Meanwhile, within the castle, Ella faced Arkon's twin daughters—Lysera and Morran—who wielded dark spells older than the crown itself. The fight was brutal, magic shaking the very stones of the fortress.
Ella drew power not just from her lineage, but from Liam's unwavering belief in her. When Lysera struck her through the shoulder with a cursed spear, Ella didn't fall. She let the pain fuel her. She retaliated with a scream of raw power, unleashing the blood sigil awakened by their fusion.
Lightning red and silver shot from her palm, tearing through both sorceresses, ending the ancient bloodline of the Severed Veil.
Outside, the tide of battle turned.
With Arkon exposed, Liam faced him in single combat.
"You are nothing but an experiment!" Arkon roared. "A parasite in royal blood!"
Liam grinned, blood staining his teeth. "Then let me show you what this parasite can do."
He lunged, Vermis flashing, clashing with Arkon's obsidian blade. Blow for blow, they fought until Liam tricked Arkon into overextending. With a swift pivot, Liam drove his blade into Arkon's heart.
The former elder fell, eyes wide with disbelief.
The Severed Veil shattered.
---
When dawn rose, it painted the castle walls gold for the first time in centuries. Vampires, once creatures of the night, stood side by side with the one who had brought dawn to their lives in more ways than one.
Ella was crowned not just as Queen, but as the First Monarch of the Crimson Era.
Liam knelt before her as was tradition—but she lifted him, kissed him before the entire court, and placed a second crown in his hands.
"No longer consort," she declared. "But king. By bond, by blood, and by fire."
The crowd roared.
And so, with their people united, their enemies buried, and a new world ahead of them, Liam and Ella stood atop the balcony of the Blood Castle, watching the sun rise together for the first time.
The contract was no longer a chain.
It was a vow.
Eternal. Unbreakable.
The Crimson Vow.
And their story had just begun.
[End of Volume 2]