Deadly Rhythm
Chapter 1
I’m a vampire. To save Jessica Miller, Ethan’s
one true love, I bit her.
Jessica woke up crying, “Ethan, I don’t want
to live. I don’t want to become a monstrous
bloodsucker.”
Ethan was furious. He dragged me into the
sunlight.
My skin smoked, my flesh peeled away. He
sneered.
“You turned Jessica into a monster. This is
what you deserve.”
Ethan captured all the vampires, researching
how to cure Jessica.
I begged him, “Use me for your experiments,
spare them.”
He agreed, but before my eyes, he executed
my kin one by one, crushing their hearts.
He forced me to nourish Jessica with my
L
blood, so she wouldn’t have to hunt.
Every fifteenth of the month, the blood pact
demanded I drink a drop of his blood.
He never made it easy.
He ordered me to stand motionless before his
bed, watching him and Jessica together.
Jessica giggled, stroking his face. “Ethan,
you’re hurting her, and it makes my heart,
ache a little.”
Ethan laughed. “Why would you care? She’s
just an immortal monster, she can’t even die,
what’s there to feel sorry for?”
“The biggest regret of my life is accepting
her blood pact when I was dying.”
This time, he dripped the blood onto
Jessica’s lips, smiling at me. “Chloe, you
need my blood, right? Take it yourself.”
I laughed. So this is how he saw me.
He didn’t know I could unilaterally dissolve
the pact, but that would leave me with only
く
one day to live.
I knelt, staring at the crimson drop on
Jessica’s lip.
It was Ethan’s blood.
But I didn’t move.
Ethan’s dark gaze bore down on me. His
brow furrowed. “What? Do you despise
Jessica? Or my blood?”
The moonlit night’s bloodlust nearly tore me
apart, but I refused.
It was my first refusal.
The pain of the blood pact churned inside me,
like countless knives slicing through my veins.
Blood beaded on my skin, but I stubbornly
remained silent.
Jessica chuckled, licking the blood from her
lips. “Ethan, it seems she doesn’t want it.”
Ethan kicked me in the chest, sending me
sprawling.
I coughed up blood, curled on the cold floor.
<
“Doesn’t want it? Then kneel.”
He ignored me, embracing Jessica, making
love right in front of me.
I listened to the grating sounds, enduring the
pain, until I fainted.
At dawn, a heavy tug on my hair dragged me
out.
I knew it was Ethan, and what he intended.
He didn’t know my body couldn’t heal like
before.
Ethan grabbed my hair, violently throwing me
onto the rooftop.
“You know, Chloe?”
“I’ve always wondered how much sunlight a
monster like you can endure.”
I looked up at him, fear absent from my eyes for the first time. “You’ll find out soon
enough.”
He was startled, unprepared for my response. Then rage ignited in his eyes. “It seems you
<
really need a lesson.”
He crouched, his left hand around my throat,
his right pulling a silver knife from his pocket.
The tip grazed my throat, searing pain
spreading.
“Your disrespect last night, your arrogance
today, will all be punished.”
The silver knife slowly cut my skin, again and
again.
The agony made me close my eyes, but I
didn’t scream, didn’t beg.
This enraged him further.
He withdrew the knife, forcing my head
towards the east. “Watch, Chloe, the sun’s
coming.”
Ethan stood back, watching the punishment
unfold from the shadows.
My skin started to sizzle in the sunlight, pain
surging, but I just watched my arm smoke.
But this time was different.
<
My skin wasn’t just burning; it was shattering,
revealing ashen flesh beneath.
“What’s happening?”
His voice held confusion for the first time.
“You…”
I smiled, seeing fear flash in his eyes.
He lunged forward, dragging me back into the
shade.
Even this rough movement tore my skin like
paper.
Blood mixed with ash, leaving a long trail on
the ground.
“What did you do?”
He shouted, his eyes burning with anger and
a hint of panic I’d never seen.
I didn’t answer; in a day, I’d be free forever.
“Tell me, what did you do?”
He leaned in, his anger blazing. “Why is your
body like this?”
I turned my head, silent.
く
With a curse, Ethan slapped me.
My cheek split like paper, the wound refusing
to heal, oozing blood.
He roared, “Chloe, tell me!”
“What did you do to yourself?”
The lab door opened, Jessica in a thin
nightgown.
