BLOOD AND BETRAYAL

Chapter 7

Blood and Betrayal

The explosion shattered the chamber.

A force like a hurricane sent me tumbling, my back slamming against the cold stone floor. The torches flickered wildly, casting monstrous shadows as the air thickened with raw, crackling energy.

Lucian cursed, his body coiling like a predator ready to strike. But he wasn't fast enough.

Damien was on him in a blink.

A blur of black and crimson, Damien's fury was a living thing—unforgiving, relentless. His fist crashed into Lucian's jaw with a sickening crack, sending him reeling. The impact barely phased him. Lucian wiped the blood from his lips and smirked.

"Jealous, brother?"

Damien didn't answer. He just moved.

A violent clash of bodies—two unstoppable forces colliding in a storm of rage and dominance. Stone cracked beneath their strength, the cavern quaking as they fought. Fangs bared, claws slashing, power exploding in thick waves that made the air hum with danger.

I tried to stand, but my legs trembled, my body still wrecked from Lucian's touch.

I had to stop them.

But before I could find my voice, Damien caught Lucian by the throat and slammed him against the wall. The stone fractured under the force. Lucian groaned, but the damn smirk never left his lips.

Damien leaned in, his voice dark as the abyss.

"She. Is. Mine."

Lucian chuckled, his eyes gleaming with amusement. "Are you sure about that? Because she was moaning my name just minutes ago."

Damien didn't hesitate. He drove his fist straight through Lucian's abdomen.

A strangled sound escaped Lucian's lips as blood gushed from the wound, but he didn't scream. Didn't break. If anything, his smirk widened.

Damien twisted his hand inside him. "Last chance, brother. Yield."

Lucian coughed, his voice weaker but still full of mocking defiance. "Or what? You'll kill me?" His gaze flicked to me. "Would she forgive you for that?"

Damien froze.

And Lucian seized the moment.

With inhuman speed, he wrenched free and vanished, a streak of shadow dissolving into the darkness.

Silence fell.

Only the sound of my ragged breathing remained.

Damien turned toward me slowly, his eyes still burning with that lethal, unholy rage. He took one step forward, then another.

I should have run.

But I didn't.

I couldn't.

Even as my body trembled, even as my heart thundered with fear and anticipation, I stayed. Because I knew what was coming.

And God help me—some part of me wanted it.

Damien's shadow loomed over me, his presence suffocating. He didn't touch me. Not yet.

He just stared.

A predator studying its prey.

Then—

"On your knees."

The command sent a violent shiver down my spine.

I swallowed, my throat dry. "Damien—"

"Now."

The room seemed to shrink. My body moved before my mind could catch up, sinking onto my knees before him.

His fingers tangled in my hair, yanking my head back so I was forced to meet his gaze.

"Did he feel good?" he asked, his voice a dangerous whisper.

My breath hitched. "Damien, please—"

"Answer me."

I hesitated.

The sharp sting of his palm against my cheek made my pulse skyrocket. It wasn't enough to truly hurt—just enough to remind me who he was. What he was.

My lips parted, but no words came.

He leaned down, his lips brushing my ear. "You let him touch you. Let him take you." His grip in my hair tightened, pulling just enough to make my scalp tingle. "You forgot who owns you."

A wave of shame and something else flooded my body.

He exhaled, his breath hot against my skin. "You're going to beg me for forgiveness."

His hand slid down my throat, his thumb pressing lightly at my pulse. My heartbeat hammered beneath his touch, my body betraying me as heat pooled between my legs.

He knew.

And he was going to make me pay for it.

With slow, deliberate cruelty, Damien tore the remnants of my dress from my body, leaving me bare before him. The cool air licked over my heated skin, sending a delicious shiver through me.

I expected him to take me. Expected fury and possessiveness.

But Damien was patient.

And patience was far, far worse.

He made me wait.

Made me ache.

His lips ghosted over my collarbone, his fingers dragging down my torso, just barely grazing my thighs. Every touch was a torment—never enough, always pulling away before I could sink into the pleasure.

I writhed.

He chuckled darkly. "Look at you." He gripped my chin, forcing my gaze up to his. "So desperate."

My breath was shaky. "Please."

He raised an eyebrow. "Please what?"

I swallowed. "Please… touch me."

Damien hummed in mock consideration. Then, without warning, his fingers slid between my legs.

A strangled moan tore from my throat.

He was slow, agonizingly slow, dragging his fingers through my wetness but never giving me enough. My body burned, my muscles coiling tighter and tighter as he played me like a wicked instrument.

He leaned in, biting my lower lip just hard enough to make me gasp. "You belong to me."

"Yes," I whispered.

He pulled his fingers away.

I whimpered in frustration.

"Beg," he murmured. "Beg properly."

Shame and hunger warred inside me, but I was too far gone to care.

"Please, Damien," I whispered. "I'll do anything."

A slow, dark smile curled his lips. "That's a good girl."

Then he took me.

There was no hesitation, no mercy—just raw, unrelenting claiming. His hands gripped my waist as he drove into me, each thrust punishing, possessive. Pleasure and pain melted together, each sensation sharper, deeper.

I screamed his name, my nails clawing down his back as I shattered around him.

And still, he didn't stop.

He kept pushing, kept taking, until I was nothing but broken cries and trembling limbs. Until he had wrung everything from me.

Until there was no doubt left.

I was his.

*******

Hours later, I lay in his arms, my body exhausted, my mind foggy.

Damien traced slow circles on my bare back, his touch unusually gentle.

I should have felt safe.

But something gnawed at the edges of my thoughts.

Lucian's words.

"He owns you. But does he see you?"

I bit my lip. "Damien?"

He made a quiet noise of acknowledgment.

I hesitated. "Why does Lucian hate you?"

A pause. Then—

"It's not me he hates."

I frowned. "Then who?"

His grip tightened.

I sat up, watching the storm in his expression. "Damien, tell me."

He exhaled. "Lucian isn't the real enemy." His gaze flicked to the window, to the dark horizon beyond. "She is."

A chill crawled down my spine.

"She?"

A shadow fell over his face. "The Queen."

My stomach dropped. "What queen?"

Damien met my gaze, his eyes full of something I had never seen before.

Fear.

"The Vampire Queen," he said quietly. "And she's coming for me."

The torches flickered.

A cold wind slithered through the room.

And deep in the night—

A voice whispered my name.

The Queen had risen.

And she wanted Damien back.

The whisper slithered through the air, chilling and ancient.

A voice I did not recognize—yet it knew me.

Damien's entire body tensed, his grip on me like iron as his gaze flicked toward the window. Shadows pooled along the walls, stretching unnaturally, as if something—someone—was watching.

The temperature in the room plummeted.

Then, from the darkness—

A laugh. Low. Feminine. Amused.

A voice like silk and sin.

"Did you miss me, lover?"

My blood turned to ice.

Damien growled. His power crackled in the air, but I felt the truth beneath it.

This wasn't anger.

It was fear.

I turned to him, my pulse hammering. "Who is she?"

His jaw tightened.

"She is the beginning."

The voice answered instead.

And then—

A figure materialized in the doorway.

She was breathtaking.

Draped in a gown blacker than the void, her presence commanded the air, suffocating yet intoxicating. Pale, luminous skin, lips blood-red, and eyes that gleamed like polished obsidian.

She did not walk.

She glided.

And as she smiled, fangs gleaming—

Damien exhaled a single word.

"Selene."

The Vampire Queen.

My body went rigid.

Selene's gaze slid to me, full of wicked amusement.

"So this is the little thing you've been playing with?"

Her tone was dripping in condescension, in ownership.

The way one might speak of a toy they had let someone borrow.

My breath caught.

I expected Damien to deny her. To claim me.

But he said nothing.

Selene chuckled, stepping closer. "Oh, darling," she purred, her cold fingers lifting my chin. "You have no idea what you've stepped into."

My heart pounded.

She leaned in, her lips at my ear.

"You think he owns you?" Her breath was like ice. "No, little one. He belongs to me."

My stomach twisted.

I turned to Damien.

Waiting. Begging him to deny it.

To say something. Anything.

But he just watched.

Silent.

Still.

And in that moment—

I knew.

Everything I thought I understood… every feeling I had for Damien…

It was all a lie.

Selene's smile widened.

"Run, little girl."

The torches flickered.

The world spun.

And everything—

Went dark.