The moonlight spilled through the shattered doorway, casting long, jagged shadows across the polished floorboards. Count Valerius stepped over the threshold, his black cane clicking rhythmically against the wood. Each step felt like a hammer blow to the heart.
"You speak of hearts, Wangji," the Count said, his voice a smooth, cultured baritone that carried the chill of a mountain glacier. "But have you forgotten? Yours stopped beating the night I found you on the battlefield of the Red Cliffs."
Lu Chen's posture remained rigid, but Xiaowei saw his hand tighten on the hilt of his hidden blade. The air in the room grew heavy, smelling of old roses and wet earth—the scent of a tomb that had been opened after centuries.
"I remember everything, Valerius," Lu Chen replied, his English accent sharpening into a deadly edge. "I remember the blood. I remember the choice you forced upon me."
The Count turned his golden-tipped gaze toward Xiaowei. "Did he tell you, Little Warden? He didn't become a monster to save his own life. He was a General of the Lin clan, sworn to protect your bloodline. When the palace fell and the assassins came for your ancestor, he was dying. He begged me for the strength to keep fighting. He traded his soul to stay by her side for one more night."
Xiaowei looked at Lu Chen. The "debt" he had mentioned wasn't just a favor; it was a curse he had invited into his soul out of a love so fierce it had defied death itself.
"And look at him now," Valerius mocked, gesturing to Lu Chen's butler attire. "A King of the Night, reduced to polishing silver and steeping tea. It is an insult to our kind. If you will not return to the Council, I shall simply remove the distraction."
The Count raised his cane. The skull tip began to glow with a sickly, violet light.
"Lu Chen, watch out!" Xiaowei cried.
She lunged forward, the Moon-Slayer held high. The blade's white light clashed against the Count's violet aura, creating a shockwave that blew the remaining curtains into rags. The Count's eyes widened in surprise; he hadn't expected a "mere human" to have such control over the Warden's light.
"A spirited one," Valerius hissed. "But light eventually fades in the deep dark."
He moved with a speed that made Lu Chen look slow. He bypassed Xiaowei entirely, aiming a strike with his cane at her heart. But Lu Chen was faster. He threw himself in front of her, taking the blow across his shoulder.
A sound like sizzling meat filled the room as the dark magic burned through Lu Chen's jacket. He gasped, falling to one knee, but he did not let go of Xiaowei's waist, pulling her behind his protective shadow.
"Is that all you have, Teacher?" Lu Chen snarled, his fangs fully extended now. He reached up and ripped the burning fabric from his shoulder, revealing skin that was beginning to turn a bruised, obsidian black.
"You are weak, Wangji. Serving her has drained you," the Count sneered. "But there is a way to end this. You know the legend of the Warden's blood. One drop, given freely by the last of the Lin line, can break the vampire's curse. It would turn you back into a mortal man. You would grow old. You would die. But you would be his again."
Xiaowei froze. "I can turn him back?"
"At the cost of his power," Valerius laughed. "And without his power, how will he protect you from the rest of us? The Council is coming, girl. If you make him human, you sign his death warrant. If you keep him as he is, he remains a monster who can never truly touch you."
Lu Chen stood up, his breath coming in ragged silences. He looked at Xiaowei, his red eyes filled with an agonizing longing. For a thousand years, he had wanted nothing more than to feel the warmth of the sun and the beat of a human heart. But he also knew the darkness that lived in the world.
"Do not listen to him, Mistress," Lu Chen whispered, his voice trembling. "I do not wish to be a man if it means I cannot be your shield."
The Count laughed and raised his cane again, preparing a spell that would level the entire manor. "Then die as a servant!"
But as the violet light reached its peak, Xiaowei didn't run. She didn't hide. She stepped forward and grabbed Lu Chen's hand, pressing the sharp edge of the Moon-Slayer against her own palm.
"What are you doing?" Lu Chen gasped.
"I am making a choice," she said, her eyes flashing with the same fire her General ancestors once possessed.
A single drop of crimson blood welled up on her palm. It glowed with a pure, golden light—the true essence of the Warden. She didn't press it to his lips. Instead, she pressed her bleeding hand against the black burn on his shoulder.
The reaction was instantaneous. A pillar of white fire erupted from where they touched, throwing the Count backward through the ruined doors. The manor groaned as the light scoured away the darkness, the rot, and the shadow-magic.
Lu Chen let out a cry that was half-scream, half-sob. The blackness on his skin vanished, replaced by healthy, tan flesh. His fangs retracted, and for the first time in ten centuries, a soft, thumping sound began to echo in his chest.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
He collapsed into her arms, gasping for air. His skin was warm.
"You... you did it," he whispered, his eyes turning a clear, chocolate brown. "I can feel... I can feel the air."
But the victory was short-lived. In the courtyard, Count Valerius stood up, his face twisted in a mask of pure hatred. He was singed, but far from dead. And behind him, dozens of red eyes began to glow in the forest.
The Council had arrived.
Lu Chen looked at his hands—human hands, with no claws and no supernatural strength. He looked at the army of monsters approaching. He was no longer a Vampire King. He was just a man with a broken sword and a girl he loved.
"Lu Chen," Xiaowei said, gripping the Moon-Slayer. "Can you still fight?"
Lu Chen stood up, his legs shaky but his gaze steady. He picked up one of the silver meat skewers from the floor and straightened his ruined cravat with a shaking hand.
"I may be mortal, Mistress," he said, a defiant smile touching his lips. "But I was a General long before I was a ghost. And a butler never leaves his post until the guests have been properly seen to."
The first of the Council's warriors leaped over the silver circle, which had been broken by the Count's dark magic. The battle for the Lin Manor had only just begun.
The golden light of the Moon-Slayer flickered. Without Lu Chen's immortal energy to bolster the manor's defenses, the shadows pressed in from every side.
Count Valerius stepped forward, his golden fangs glinting. "Look at you, Wangji. A man of clay. You traded the throne of the night for a heartbeat that will be silenced in mere seconds."
The wave of vampires crashed against the porch. Lu Chen fought like a demon possessed, using every ounce of his ancient martial knowledge. He moved with the precision of a General, parrying claws with his silver skewers and using his own body as a shield. But he was bleeding. His human breath came in ragged, painful gasps. He was no longer a blur of light; he was a man being slowly torn apart.
"Xiaowei, get back!" he roared, but his voice was drowned out by a sickening thwack.
A Harvester's claw had bypassed his guard, striking Xiaowei across the chest. She fell back against the stone pillar, the Moon-Slayer slipping from her numb fingers. The white light of the blade died instantly, plunging the courtyard into a terrifying, oppressive gloom.
"No!" Lu Chen screamed. He crawled toward her, his hands shaking as he pressed them against her wound. "Xiaowei! Stay with me! You cannot leave me now!"
Her eyes were glazed, her skin turning as cold as the marble Lu Chen used to be. The life was draining from the last of the Lin line, and as her pulse slowed, the sea of vampires circled closer, their predatory laughter echoing through the bamboo.
Suddenly, the air grew thick with the smell of crushed lilies and sulfur. The vampires froze. Even Count Valerius lowered his cane, a look of wary respect crossing his face.
Out of the blackest shadow stepped Lady Meiling. She didn't look like a warrior; she looked like a dream of death. She moved with a swaying, seducing grace, her tattered silks clinging to her like a second skin. She knelt beside the dying Xiaowei and the broken, human Lu Chen.
"How pathetic you are, my dear Wangji," she whispered, her voice a silken caress against his ear. "To have the sun in your veins for one hour, only to watch it set forever."
"Save her," Lu Chen begged, his tears falling onto Xiaowei's pale face. "You have the old magics. Save her!"
Meiling leaned in closer, her milky white eyes glowing with a devilish temptation. "I can save her. But there is a price, little General. The Warden's blood is poisoned by the dark magic of the Harvesters. The only way to purge it is for a vampire she trusts—one she loves—to drink the tainted blood from her heart and replace it with the gift of the night."
She ran a long, sharp fingernail down Lu Chen's cheek. "But you are a man. You have no gift to give. Unless... you take back the curse. Accept the darkness again. Become my King once more, and I shall give you the strength to pull her back from the gate of ghosts."
Lu Chen looked at Xiaowei's cooling lips. He looked at the monsters waiting to feast. He looked at his own trembling, human hands.
"I accept," he whispered.
"Lu... Chen... no..." Xiaowei's voice was a ghost of a sound, but he heard it.
"I am sorry, Little Rose," he murmured, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "I would rather be a monster for eternity with you, than a man for a moment without you."
Meiling smiled, a terrifying, beautiful sight. She bit her own wrist, letting a drop of ancient, black blood fall into Lu Chen's mouth.
The transformation was violent. Lu Chen's back arched as his bones cracked and reformed. His chocolate eyes exploded into a supernova of crimson. The warmth left his skin, replaced by a power so immense the ground beneath him shattered. He rose, not as a butler, but as the Vampire King of the East.
He turned to the dying girl. With a tenderness that broke the heart, he leaned down and sank his fangs into the wound above her heart. He drank the poison, his own immortal essence flowing into her veins.
Xiaowei's eyes snapped open, glowing with a faint, reflected red. Her wound sealed. Her breath returned, cold but steady.
Lu Chen stood up and turned to Count Valerius and Meiling. He didn't say a word. He didn't need to. He simply unleashed a wave of pure, concentrated killing intent.
Meiling laughed, her goal achieved. "Welcome back, King."
Valerius stepped back, sensing the shift. "You think this changes—"
Before the Count could finish, Lu Chen flicked his wrist. He didn't use a weapon. He used the air itself. A ripple of blood-red energy swept through the courtyard.
Count Valerius and Lady Meiling didn't even have time to scream. Their bodies didn't fall; they simply turned to gray ash and vanished into the wind, scattered like dust in a storm. The entire sea of vampires was erased in a single heartbeat.
Silence returned. The manor was empty of enemies.
Lu Chen turned to Xiaowei, who was standing up, her hand over her heart. She looked at him—at his glowing red eyes and the blood on his lips. She saw the butler she loved, trapped once again in the prison of the undying.
"You're back," she whispered.
Lu Chen bowed, his movements once again perfectly refined, though his shadow now looked like a god of war. "I am your butler, Mistress. And I am afraid I have made a mess of the courtyard. I shall begin the cleaning immediately."