Alexi smiled, casually cracking his knuckles as he prepared his next question.
Iris felt a chill run down her spine as she watched him.
There was something deeply unpleasant about the way his crimson eyes lingered on her, as though she weren’t a person standing in front of him but some rare prize he’d stumbled upon.
Something he wanted to claim, keep for himself, and enjoy watching slowly fall apart.
“Now, before I ask my next question, I’d like to establish your understanding of a certain concept,” Alexi said pleasantly.
He took a step forward.
Iris barely saw him move.
One moment, the vampire stood several feet away.
The next, he was directly beside her, his mouth only inches from her ear.
Iris’s fingers tightened around her flaming lance as his voice dropped to a whisper.
“It’s perfectly fine if you aren’t familiar with the term. I’d be more than happy to teach you.” His smile widened.
“Tell me, Iris Blackwell. Do you know what a regressor is?”
Iris flinched.
It was small, almost imperceptible, but she couldn’t stop herself.
Her heart lurched, and she immediately stepped away from him, raising her lance between them.
‘How the fuck does he know about regression?’
Alexi watched her retreat.
His eyes narrowed.
“How odd.”
Iris forced herself to breathe normally.
“What’s odd?”
“As you may know, vampires possess a rather acute sensitivity to blood.” Alexi tapped a finger against his own chest.
“Throughout our little conversation, I’ve been listening to the rhythm of your heart. The rate at which it pumps your blood can reveal quite a lot about your emotional state, particularly when you’re frightened or attempting to deceive me.”
He tilted his head.
“And that wasn’t even my main question. I merely wanted to know whether you understood a certain word.” His pleasant expression sharpened.
“So why did your heart suddenly begin beating so much faster?”
‘Fuck.’
Iris took another step back.
“Because you suddenly appeared next to my fucking ear, you dirty, perverted coffin rat!” she snapped.
“What kind of creepy bastard does that just to ask a basic question? Gross! Go die in a ditch!”
Alexi blinked at the sudden outburst.
“And another thing!” Iris continued, pointing her lance directly at his face.
“Calling a sixteen-year-old your potential bride is fucking demented! You’re an ancient bloodsucking freak! Find someone your own age, preferably in a graveyard!”
She glared at him, making absolutely no effort to hide her disgust.
‘Come on.
Get offended.
Say something stupid about your precious vampire pride.
Anything but regression.’
Alexi stared at her for a moment before chuckling.
“You humans are all children to me, regardless of how many years you’ve lived. What difference does sixteen make?”
“It makes you a fucking creep!”
“Perhaps.” Alexi shrugged, entirely unbothered.
“But that doesn’t answer my question.”
Iris went quiet.
The vampire’s smile returned.
“I just explained that I’ve been monitoring your heartbeat, Miss Blackwell. Yet you chose to offer me an explanation that doesn’t quite account for your reaction.” He slowly raised one hand and dragged a sharpened nail across his finger.
A thin line opened in his skin, allowing a single drop of blood to gather at the tip.
“Why did you lie?”
Iris watched the blood fall.
Alexi made no move to use it.
Not yet.
“Awfully bold for a woman who knows what happens when she refuses to answer.”
Iris tightened her grip around her lance.
‘This bastard’s getting too close.’
“The more I speak with you, the more I find myself wanting to claim you,” Alexi said, slowly extending his bloodied hand toward Iris.
“I’d love to watch the light in those eyes of yours gradually fade. That fire you possess is utterly unbecoming of a woman. I think I’ll enjoy snuffing it out.” Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping.com.
Iris’s grip tightened around her lance as he reached for her.
Every instinct screamed at her to move, but she knew how absurdly fast the bastard was.
If he attacked now, she might not even have time to react.
‘Fuck.
Not again.
I don’t want to die to this gross leech again.’
Then Alexi’s arm fell off.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
His severed arm struck the crimson floor with a wet thud, blood spilling from the stump as the vampire stared at it in genuine confusion.
“…Oh?”
Iris’s eyes widened.
She hadn’t seen anything strike him.
Then she noticed the man approaching from farther down the bridge.
He carried a lantern in one hand, its warm light cutting through the darkness.
Blood dripped from a small cut on his right index finger, and he walked toward them with the relaxed expression of someone who’d stumbled upon an old acquaintance rather than a vampire capable of tearing people apart.
Iris recognized him immediately.
There was only one person she knew who could sever a monster’s arm so casually.
Humanity’s Strongest Cursebearer.
A man whose Curse granted him an almost unmatched offensive ability, along with naturally possessing a near-perfect immunity to Miasma.
Markus Valentine.
The Reaper.
“Finally, I found someone!” Markus called out with a grin.
“Was starting to think I’d be wandering around this damn place all night.” He glanced between Iris and Alexi before casually licking the blood from his injured finger.
“And just in time, apparently. Another minute and you might’ve gotten gobbled up by this red-mouthed creep.”
Iris had never been so relieved to hear that reckless idiot’s voice.
Alexi, meanwhile, looked more irritated than frightened.
He bent down, picked up his severed arm, and pressed it against the stump.
Flesh began knitting together almost immediately as he flexed his newly reattached fingers.
“Excuse me,” Alexi said, his smile noticeably strained.
“I was in the middle of disciplining my future bride. Run along, human. This doesn’t concern you.”
Markus raised an eyebrow.
“Your what?”
“Please kill this disgusting creep!” Iris shouted.
She immediately ran toward Markus and ducked behind him, putting as much distance between herself and Alexi as possible.
Markus glanced over his shoulder at her.
Iris pointed her flaming lance at the vampire from the safety of his back.
“I’m serious! Kill him!”
Markus looked at Alexi again, his grin slowly returning.
“I already disliked vampires, even with A.E.G.I.S having a non-aggression pact with your kind,” he said, raising his right hand.
“But preying on a child? That’s just fucking disgusting.”
The centipede-like Sigil across his body began to glow.
“Curse of the Mad Destroyer.”
Alexi’s expression changed.
He instinctively stepped back as Markus held up his hand, his thumb pointed directly toward the vampire.
Then Markus’s thumbnail disappeared.
A massive hole opened in Alexi’s stomach.
“Gah—!”
Blood poured from his mouth as he stumbled backward, staring down at the empty space where much of his abdomen had been.
Iris hadn’t seen Markus move.
There had been no projectile, no explosion, nothing to warn Alexi before his flesh was simply destroyed.
‘Ah, there it is.
That absurd fucking Curse.’
“Arrogant humans…” Alexi snarled, blood dripping from his sharpened teeth. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“Very well. Killing the strongest among you mongrels was already one of my desires.”
The blood scattered across the bridge began rising from the ground.
It gathered into miniature hearts, each one beating as it floated back toward him, merging with his ruined body and accelerating his regeneration.
The hole in his stomach slowly began closing as his expression twisted into a delighted grin.
“I’ll show you the power bestowed upon me by my master. My Dreadgrace of Love! Now die, you huma—”
Another fingernail vanished.
A hole tore through Alexi’s head, destroying his left eye and sending him staggering backward before he could finish speaking.
“You talk too much,” Markus said coldly.
“You’re going to make my ears bleed.”
Iris’s eye twitched.
‘My ears are already bleeding from his fucking laughter earlier.’
Alexi clutched the side of his face as blood gathered around the missing flesh, desperately attempting to rebuild what Markus had destroyed.
His remaining eye widened as he stared at the man in front of him.
“Wh-what the hell are you?” he demanded.
“Why do you even exist? I refuse to believe you’re human! That power is utterly absurd!”
Markus glanced at his own hand.
“Maybe it is.”
He raised it again.
By the time Alexi noticed that a third of Markus’s fingernails were missing, one of his legs had already been severed.
The vampire collapsed onto the crimson bridge, his remaining limbs scrambling against the stone as blood spread beneath him.
For the first time since Iris had encountered him, his expression held something other than amusement or arrogance.
Fear.
“Not like this!” Alexi roared.
He threw himself toward the edge of the bridge with all the strength his ruined body could muster.
Markus raised his hand once more, another fingernail disappearing just as Alexi hurled himself into the darkness.
His remaining leg was blown off.
Then the vampire vanished over the edge, falling toward the black water far below.
Markus clicked his tongue.
“Damn. Was aiming for his heart.”
Iris cautiously approached the edge of the bridge and peered down.
The darkness made it impossible to tell whether Alexi had reached the water, let alone what had become of him afterward.
“Any chance that killed him?”
“Rule of thumb,” Markus replied, lowering his hand.
“Unless you see the corpse and double-tap it, assume your prey’s still alive.”
Iris sighed.
‘Of course he fucking survived.
Vampires.’
Markus ran a hand through his hair before turning toward her.
His expression softened slightly as he glanced at the flaming lance still clutched in her hand.
“Anyway, I’m glad you’ve already gotten so skilled with your Curse. That’s going to make things a hell of a lot easier.”
“You make it sound like you need my help.”
“I do. This place is enormous, and I’d rather not wander around it alone.” Markus lifted his lantern, illuminating the next stretch of crimson bridge.
“Come on. We’ll find my brother and your mother, then figure out how the hell we’re getting everyone out of here.”
Iris nodded, her grip tightening around her lance.
“Yeah. Let’s go!”
Markus started walking, and Iris quickly followed beside him.
For the first time since she’d awakened within the Black Ocean, she had someone she could properly rely on.
Someone who knew how to fight, understood the supernatural, and had enough raw power to make even Alexi Wallachia flee for his life.
But as Markus glanced toward the endless darkness ahead, his smile faded.
“Let’s just hope we’re not too late.”
Iris looked up at the black ocean hanging above them.
‘Mom.
Wallace.’
She quickened her pace.
‘Please, just hold on a little longer.’