HER TRUE BLOODLINE

Chapter 9

Her True Bloodline

Darkness.

It curled around me like a living thing, pulsing with ancient whispers. I wasn't falling, but I wasn't standing either. Suspended in nothingness, weightless, powerless—until a single voice shattered the silence.

"Wake up, little one."

A sudden pull—sharp, violent.

I gasped, my body jerking upright. My lungs burned as if I had been drowning.

I was no longer in Selene's temple.

Instead, I stood in a vast chamber—ornate, ancient, wrong. Crimson banners hung from towering obsidian pillars. Silver braziers flickered with ghostly blue flames. And at the center of it all was a black throne, its surface carved with symbols that pulsed like a heartbeat.

Selene sat upon it, watching me with the patience of a queen.

"You've slept long enough," she murmured.

I tried to move, but my limbs were sluggish, my body still bound by the remnants of her magic.

"What did you do to me?" I rasped.

Her lips curved into a slow, knowing smile. "Nothing you weren't already meant for."

She rose, stepping down from her throne with inhuman grace. "Do you know why you survived my curse?"

I clenched my jaw. "Because Damien loves me."

Selene laughed—rich, indulgent. "Oh, my dear, love had nothing to do with it."

She reached out, her fingers trailing down my arm, cold as death.

"It was your blood."

A chill ran down my spine.

"My blood?"

Selene nodded, her black eyes gleaming. "You are not human, little one. You never were."

My stomach twisted. "That's not possible."

She tilted her head, considering me. "Hasn't it always felt impossible? The way you heal faster than you should. The way you sense danger before it strikes. The way Damien and Lucian both felt drawn to you—like moths to a flame."

I sucked in a breath.

I had always dismissed it. The strange instincts. The pull of the darkness. The way I could withstand things no human should.

Selene stepped closer, her voice a whisper of silk.

"Your blood is ancient. Older than Damien. Older than me."

She touched my chest, right above my racing heart. "It sings with power—my power. Because you, little one, are of the lost bloodline."

My pulse pounded.

She smiled, her fangs gleaming.

"You are Vampire Royalty."

*******

The words crashed over me like a tidal wave.

Vampire. Royalty. Me?

My head spun. "No," I whispered. "That's not—"

A sudden, sharp pain shot through me, my body doubling over. A fire unlike anything I'd ever felt ignited in my veins. It wasn't agony.

It was hunger.

Raw. Primal. Unforgiving.

Selene purred in satisfaction. "Ah. You feel it now, don't you?"

I gasped, gripping the cold stone beneath me. My senses sharpened. The flickering flames seemed brighter. The pulse of magic in the air thicker. And beneath it all—

Blood.

I could smell it.

Taste it.

Selene's smile widened. "Yes… you are awakening."

I clutched my chest, my nails digging into my skin. "Make it stop."

She laughed. "Why would I? This is who you are."

I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting it. This isn't real. This isn't me.

But deep inside, something else whispered—

It always was.

A sudden crash erupted from the far end of the chamber.

The doors exploded inward, shadows swirling like a storm.

Damien.

My heart leapt.

He stood framed in the doorway, his storm-gray eyes wild with fury. Blood dripped from his knuckles, his chest rising and falling with sharp breaths.

His power crackled, making the air hum with violent energy.

Selene merely sighed. "How predictable."

Damien's gaze snapped to me, his expression shifting from rage to something else.

A flicker of shock.

He could see it.

The change in me.

The way my eyes had darkened. The way my breath came in shallow, aching pants.

His jaw tightened. "What did you do to her?"

Selene smirked. "I simply showed her the truth."

Damien moved fast. One moment he was across the room, the next—his hand was around Selene's throat, slamming her against the wall. The stone cracked under the impact.

"Undo it," he growled.

Selene only laughed. "You can't fight what she is, Damien."

I staggered to my feet, my body burning with the need for something.

For him.

My gaze locked onto Damien's.

A hunger deeper than anything I'd ever felt coiled inside me. A need so sharp it was painful.

He felt it too.

I saw the exact moment his restraint snapped.

He released Selene, his attention fully on me now. "Come here."

I obeyed before I could stop myself.

Because this—he—was the only thing grounding me.

Damien caught me against him, his hands gripping my waist. The heat between us exploded. My nails dug into his back, my body arching into his.

He didn't hesitate.

His lips crashed into mine.

It wasn't soft. It wasn't careful.

It was claiming.

Pure, desperate possession.

I devoured him.

My fingers tangled in his hair, my mouth parting to taste him—all of him.

He growled against my lips, lifting me with effortless strength. I wrapped my legs around his waist, heat pooling low in my stomach.

"I need—" My voice was barely a gasp.

"I know," he rasped.

Then he was inside me.

A sharp, perfect stretch that sent a shock of pleasure through me.

I shattered.

Not just from the way he moved inside me, slow and deep and unrelenting, but from the way our power twined. His darkness fed mine. His hunger fueled my own.

For the first time, I didn't fight it.

I embraced it.

And Damien?

He welcomed it.

He growled my name, his movements turning frantic, punishing. My back met the cold stone, but I barely felt it. Only him.

Only the fire between us, burning hot and endless.

I came undone around him, my body tightening, trembling, breaking.

But Damien wasn't done.

He pressed me against the wall, his hand gripping my jaw, forcing me to look into his storm.

"You are mine," he growled.

I whimpered. "Yes."

His lips curled into something dangerous.

"And now…" His fingers traced my throat.

"You'll never be anything else."

The Ritual of BloodA slow clap echoed.

Selene.

She stood, watching us with amusement. "Beautifully done," she mused.

Damien tensed, his body still caging mine.

But Selene wasn't looking at him.

She was looking at me.

"Now that you've awakened," she purred, "it's time for your blood to fulfill its purpose."

My stomach clenched.

"What purpose?"

Selene smiled.

"You are the last of your kind. And with your blood, I will wipe Damien's entire bloodline from existence."

The air turned ice cold.

Damien's grip tightened on me.

And I knew—

The real war had just begun.