The Vampire's Luna-Chapter 214: I’m Sure Talon Is Inside

She was counting on the power of the mate bond, hoping that Damien would be weak enough to bend under its will. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

A knot tightened in her stomach. She hated this. But her only hope to save him right now was Isolde.

Her heart ached at the thought that her husband was with another woman at her own insistence, in their own home. The ache was grief. Grief for a man she loved more than reason. She had ordered it. She had sealed it. She would live with the consequences.

But she couldn’t afford losing him to death.

She was going to sleep in her old bedroom and maybe cry herself to sleep, then wake up to face the world once more. To fight.

"Do you want me to come in with you?" Thessa asked as she parked in front of the house.

"No. I’m sure Talon is inside. I’ll be fine. Get some rest. Tomorrow we continue our fight."

Luna exited the vehicle and waved Thessa goodnight.

The guards at the entrance bowed as she entered and walked into the house.

Just as she stepped in, the table lamp in the corner of the living room instantly came on.

She turned and found Damien sitting there.

He said nothing at first, just stared at her.

Was it done? Had the bond taken hold?

Had he chosen survival... over her?

Or had he come here to tell her he couldn’t do it?

"Hi." She said.

The word came out more fragile than Luna intended.

"You sent a woman to our house, a stranger to seduce me in our home, our matrimonial bed. Do you really have such minuscule regard for me?" his voice was quiet but thunderous at the same time.

"I’m guessing she failed." Luna shrugged, pretending his accusations didn’t affect her.

She refused to fold into his judgment. It was easier to be cold than to be honest about the hours she had spent wondering what might be happening.

A part of her—small but selfish—was glad. Glad that he had resisted. That he had chosen her, even if just for one more night.

But the bigger part, the wiser part, mourned his refusal. Because his pride might very well kill him.

Part of her was glad he was able to fight the mate bond for her; the other part—the bigger part—was sad that he was still being stubborn about saving his own life.

She looked away. What kind of love had they built that she now had to weaponize another woman to save him? And what kind of man would he be if he yielded to it?

She hated the answers. Hated this moment. But she didn’t take the decision back.

"Do you know how badly I want to strangle you right now?"

"I have a general idea." She smiled. "You gave me no choice, Damien."

She didn’t regret the decision. She regretted the necessity of it.

He got to his feet and approached her.

The way he moved made her heartbeat spike. There was grace in his fury, in the power that hummed beneath his skin, barely held together by devotion. The closeness of him stirred the bond between them.

"I appreciate how badly you want me to live, Luna."

He stood inches from her, his eyes boring into hers. He was angry, yes—but also terrified. He wanted to live. He just didn’t want to live at the cost of their love.

"I’m going to say this one last time. Till the moment I die, my mark is only going to be on your neck, no one else’s."

His fingers brushed her throat. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting herself feel it—the power of that connection, unbroken, defiant against fate.

"And if you pull such a stunt one more time, I will show you how we punish unruly queens in Blood City."

Luna smiled. "Maybe I will be naughty again."

Her words were flippant, teasing, but beneath the playful mask was a thick vein of exhaustion. She was clinging to levity, using humor to hide the unraveling threads inside her. Being Queen meant constantly wearing a face. But behind the smirk was a woman drowning in consequences, making impossible choices, one after the other, until she no longer recognized where the sacrifice ended and where she began.

Damien gave her a scathing look. "Did you really threaten to kill her?"

His glare cut through her calm façade, searching for remorse, for some sign of the woman he had fallen in love with. He was furious, yes—but more than that, he was unsettled. He had always known Luna could be dangerous, but this? This bloodless ease with which she spoke of death—it frightened him more than he cared to admit.

She shrugged in response. "She did what I needed her to do, didn’t she? But she failed. Now I have to kill her."

She wasn’t proud of it. In fact, it sickened her. But they were at war. She needed to show she was brutal even to her own husband. She wasn’t going to kill the girl but at least, the girl thought so. She had made peace with being the villain if it meant securing her child’s future and protecting the man she loved.

Damien rolled his eyes. "Get your silly ass back to the castle, you crazy woman." He finished and walked out of the building.

The words were curt, but layered beneath the sarcasm was love. He was furious with her, yes, but he still couldn’t bear to stay away.

Luna stared after him, her smile fading into the silence that followed his departure.

She gave a heavy sigh. It seemed like she was fighting a battle on all fronts.

She pressed her palms into her eyes for a moment, trying to chase away the ache building behind them.

*****

Talon arrived at the Waldorf as Luna had instructed, reached beneath the table 7, and found a note.

He kept his movements fluid and discreet, just another well-dressed man in a high-end restaurant. No one paid him any mind as he subtly retrieved the folded piece of paper from under the lip of the table.