Caius’s POV

“Caius, I still feel so awful… Stay with me tonight, please?”

Evangeline draped herself over me, her warm breath ghosted across my ear. Her voice was pure syrup, laced with a desperate need.

Normally, that kind of naked dependency would have fed the ego of the man—the sire—who made her.

I would have looked at that pitiful look on her face and felt like her one and only savior.

But now, seeing the hunger she couldn’t hide in her eyes, Larissa’s last words in this room echoed in my head.

“I don’t drink someone else’s slop.”

Those eyes that always looked at me with such warmth were flat. Empty.

For some reason, a wave of revulsion hit me.

“Enough.”

I shoved her away. Harder than I meant to.

Evangeline tumbled onto the sofa, staring at me in disbelief. Her eyes instantly filled with tears. “Caius? You…”

Before I could say anything, my heart stopped.

A brutal, decisive force tore through my very soul without warning.

It felt like someone had reached into my spirit and ripped out the Soul-Brand I had seared into Larissa’s spirit a century ago. Flesh, blood, and all.

The backlash was agonizing. A strangled grunt escaped me as I slammed onto one knee.

The pain was a thousand times worse than silver poisoning. It felt like a piece of my very soul had been flayed away.

Cold sweat soaked my back. The agony turned my vision red.

“How is this possible…”

I clutched my chest, gasping for air, my pupils shrinking.

That Brand signified absolute ownership. It was the ultimate blood bond.

It could only be broken if the one marked possessed power far beyond the caster’s.

Or… she was willing to shatter her own soul—to destroy us both—just to be free of me.

Larissa… that fragile woman who trembled at the sight of a thunderstorm. How could she? How dare she?

It must have been some kind of dark magic artifact!

Was she doing this to punish me for tonight? To force me to heel? Was she really betting her life just to spite me?

“You’ve gone too far this time, Larissa!”

Rage burned through the pain.

I shot to my feet, not even glancing at Evangeline on the floor.

“Caius, what’s wrong? You look terrifying…” Evangeline, horrified, reached for my hand.

“Get away from me!”

I threw her off. I dissolved into a furious black mist and shot into the night.

I had to get home. Now.

I was going to punish this reckless woman. Lock her in the cellar. Teach her that some games are not to be played.

But when I teleported onto the villa’s balcony, consumed by rage, I was met with dead silence.

No warm fire in the hearth. No scent of bloodwine welcoming me home.

And no sign of the woman who always sat on the sofa, waiting for me, no matter how late.

The entire villa felt like a massive tomb. Dark enough to unnerve me. Cold enough to chill my bones.

“Larissa!”

My voice trembled as I threw the door open.

No answer.

Panicked, I snapped my fingers, lighting every candle in the house.

The moment the light flared, I froze.

It was empty.

All the little touches Larissa had woven from her illusions—the singing flowers, the floating starlight, the velvet curtains that changed color with her mood—were gone.

All that remained were the villa's original cold, rough, gray stone walls.

Even the faint scent of roses that always lingered in the air had been wiped clean.

It was as if she had never existed here at all.

I stormed into the master bedroom, my eyes landing on our moving, magical portrait on the nightstand.

It was my favorite. Taken on our fiftieth anniversary.

In the photo, she was nestled in my arms, her eyes sparkling as she smiled.

But now, the frame showed only me, smiling like an idiot, holding nothing but air.

The other half of the picture—where Larissa should have been—was just a black, scorched void.

My hand trembled as I picked up the frame. My fingertips brushed the scorched mark and recoiled as if burned.

In that instant, a tide of panic I’d never known drowned me.

I thought of the Shadow Amulet I’d given Evangeline tonight. The vial of "The Artist's Blood."

The blood-diamond necklace on Evangeline’s neck, the warding bracelet on her wrist…

And then, I thought of Larissa.

In a hundred years, what had I ever given her?

Thirty-three canceled weddings. Endless waiting. Cheap promises…

I couldn’t name a single decent gift.

Even that "eternal" Soul-Brand was just a brand I'd seared onto her to claim my property when I proposed.

And now, she had torn even that to shreds.

That power… the power that could so easily shatter my soul’s brand… could that really belong to the Larissa I had to protect?

What if it wasn’t all an illusion… what if she had been hiding her strength this whole time…

A vast emptiness seized me. My fingers spasmed. The frame slipped, hit the floor, and shattered.

Shards of glass flew up, one cutting my cheek. I didn’t feel it.

“No… She can’t leave me. She’s nothing without me.”

I muttered the words, trying to convince myself.

Her pathetic little family could barely afford decent blood for her.

She has nowhere else to go!

She must be hiding in some cheap motel, waiting for me to find her, waiting for me to grant her another one of my apologies.

Yes. That had to be it.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The fear of losing control twisted into a sick obsession.

I spun around and shot out of the villa, heading straight for the Vampire Council.

I would use the Council's power to lock down the city. Even if she was hiding in the sewers, I would drag her back.