I Replaced My Bratty Blood Servant - Chapter 1

I watched Fael hold court at the soirée, surrounded by admirers, and bitterness welled in my chest.

After squeezing my way to the front, I tugged at the hem of his coat and quietly asked whether he was coming home. Fael mistook it for an attempt to hurry him along. His expression changed at once.

He flung off my hand and snapped, “Sian, are you trying to control me?”

I froze, then shook my head in a panic. “No. I only wanted—”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses. I’m not going back. I haven’t had enough fun yet.”

Fael turned away and melted into the crowd, laughing with unfamiliar vampires from much too close. The human boy with chestnut hair wore a brilliant smile—one I could never coax from him.

My nose stung. Puffing out my cheeks, I turned and left.

On the way home, I could not stop thinking about the year I had spent with Fael. I had applied to the clan for a blood servant and received him: a brown-haired, brown-eyed boy who carried himself with all the haughty elegance of a ragdoll cat.

For someone as hopelessly susceptible to pretty faces as I was, he had been devastating.

In my daze, I had thought, I must protect this human. He is my family now.

I had never imagined he would hate me so much.

The light dimmed in my eyes, and I made up my mind. The moment I reached the castle, I headed straight for its deepest chambers, a place no other vampire dared enter. Nothing barred my way.

At the center of the pitch-dark, frigid room sat an understated yet sumptuous coffin. Its lid stood open. The man who should have been sleeping had already awakened.

He sat on a sofa by the window in a red silk robe, pale, bloodless fingers curled around a glass of crimson liquid. Every movement carried an air of patrician grace.

This was Vandro Winderman, head of the Winderman clan.

I pushed open the door. “Father,” I called dejectedly.

Vandro arched a brow. His golden eyes settled on me, and after a moment, a helpless chuckle escaped him.

“What has my drooping little penguin so unhappy? Come here to Father.”

I shuffled over and curled up in his lap as naturally as breathing. Twisting a lock of his scarlet hair around my fingers, I grumbled, “Father, assign me another blood servant.”

Vandro stroked my back in slow, steady passes. His voice was deep and rough with sleep. “I thought you liked him. You even gave up sleeping beside me for his sake.”

Annoyed by all the questions, I gave his hair a mean little tug. “You ask too much.”

He let me pull. His fingertips pressed to my back, tracing the shape of my shoulder blades. Gradually, his voice hardened.

“Sian. How long has it been since you last drank blood?”

I said nothing.

Brooking no refusal, Vandro slid a finger between my lips and pried my mouth open to inspect my teeth. The longer he looked, the colder his face became. The impossibly handsome vampire was well and truly angry.

Guiltily, I tried to explain. “But I hate the smell of blood. It makes me throw up.”

He gave a soft laugh. “A hundred years old, and you still hate drinking blood. What am I to do with you?”

He tugged open the collar of his robe, baring the side of his neck. Beneath his pallid skin, blood pulsed through a dark vein.

I stared.

Amusement warmed his eyes as he guided my head down and pressed me to his neck.

“Drink.”

My sharp teeth pierced his skin, and satisfaction flooded my body.

I had originally been a human with a heart condition. After my parents died, Vandro took me in. At nineteen, my heart finally failed. Vandro bit my neck and gave me the Embrace, turning me into a vampire who could live for centuries.

One hundred years had passed since then, and I still had not grown used to drinking blood. Yet without it, my body weakened. That was why Vandro would get angry and hold me down until I drank from him.

He was the vampire who had Embraced me. His blood held an irresistible pull and extraordinary restorative power. One feeding could sustain me for half a year.

My black eyes reddened with pleasure. With no sense of restraint, I drank greedily until Vandro cupped my face and pushed me away.

“Greedy child.”

At the sight of the twin punctures in his neck, I narrowed my eyes in contentment. Full and happy, I stopped tormenting his hair. I let him lecture me without protest, asking only, “Father, I want a different blood servant.”

Something dark flashed through Vandro’s eyes. It vanished beneath a flawless, false smile.

“Of course. What sort would Sian like?”

“A good-looking one.”

He nodded, his voice abruptly cool. “Understood. Is there anything else?”

I was a little bewildered when he lifted me off his lap and set me down. Why was he moody again?

I had never liked thinking about things that made my head hurt. Vandro had agreed, so I had gotten what I came for.

“Nothing else. Goodbye, Father.”

I rose, waved, and left without the slightest reluctance.

The instant the door closed behind me, something crashed violently inside the room.

I blinked. The butler appeared beside me like a ghost and said with long-suffering earnestness, “Young Master Sian, the clan head had his reasons for what he did back then.”

I paid him no mind and walked on.