Chapter 2

I don't know how long I lay there.

The pool of blood beneath me grew larger.

I was fading, drifting away, when the door suddenly burst open.

"Gods above!" a familiar voice cried out.

Healer Alistair.

The Alucard family's head healer. The only one who had treated me throughout my pregnancy.

He rushed to my side, dropping to his knees in my blood. His trembling hands felt for my pulse.

"Lady Rowan!" His face was white with horror. "What in the gods' name are you doing down here?! Lady Lilith told me you were merely anxious and resting!"

"Lilith—" I gasped. "She locked me in here—"

"Don't talk." Alistair lifted my blood-soaked skirt to check me. His expression turned to one of pure terror. "Gods, you're fully dilated! Your water has broken... and you're hemorrhaging! We have to move. Now!"

He tried to use his communication crystal. The screen flashed: NO SIGNAL.

"Damn this shielding matrix!" he swore. He looked at me, his eyes wide with urgency. "My Lady, I have to get you to the Healing Sanctuary. Right now."

The vampire guards outside tried to stop him as he carried me out.

"Halt! Lady Lilith said—"

"Lady Lilith said WHAT?" Alistair roared, his voice filled with a healer's authority. "To let a woman in labor bleed to death in the abandoned altar? Get out of my way!"

The guards actually flinched and stepped back.

Alistair stumbled through the halls with me in his arms, a gruesome trail of blood marking our path.

"Hold on," he panted. "The top floor has the best equipment. We're almost there."

The castle stairs seemed to stretch on forever. Every step was a new wave of agony.

My vision was blurring, but I could feel my baby fighting, struggling to be born.

"How much longer?" I whispered.

"Two minutes," Alistair said, his eyes fixed on the top of the spiral staircase. "Just two more minutes."

We finally reached the top floor. He kicked open the door to the private, luxurious Healing Sanctuary—

It was open.

We burst inside, and then we both froze.

The room was empty.

The state-of-the-art magical medical equipment—all of it was gone.

The life-monitoring arrays, the shadowless light orbs, the auto-regeneration blood pool, even the birthing bed. Gone.

Nothing remained but four bare walls and a few shattered power crystals on the floor.

"This is impossible," Alistair whispered, standing stunned in the doorway. "Where is the equipment?"

Footsteps echoed from the hall.

Lilith appeared, flanked by her servants.

"Oh, the equipment?" she said breezily. "It's all been moved to Isadora's suite."

Alistair's face went even paler. "What?"

"Isadora is birthing the one true heir of the Alucard line," Lilith said, her words sharp. "A pure-blood. She gets our best resources. Obviously."

"But Lady Rowan is also in labor!" Alistair yelled. "She needs an emergency intervention!"

Lilith glanced at me, then shrugged.

"Stop the act, Rowan. The elixir is harmless. You're just desperate for attention. Trying to disrupt Isadora's moment."

I stared at her perfectly made-up face.

I suddenly remembered a year ago, when I gave her a rare, ancient book from my collection to help her with her blood magic.

She had hugged me, her voice filled with joy. "Rowan, you're like a real sister to me!"

How ironic.