Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride - Chapter 390

Chapter 390: A Maid’s Warmth

The darkness faded with each step towards Leona’s voice, and the echoes filled with her worry, concern, and sincere feelings reached Nikolai. He didn’t know how to treat her because Leona could never become his Luna, and that was final.

In his mind, he wanted to treat all his women equally; that was something he promised himself from the moment he accepted Selene and Nikita.

Nikolai kept this oath in his heart and tried to keep it.

‘I know I am scum, but that is just what I am and I don’t regret anything.’

There was another form of bonding, but unlike the ethereal style of the Werewolves, becoming a Luna was something symbolic.

However, becoming a Vampire Bride was much more physical and tangible.

A bond forged in pure blood, something raw, brutal and intense compared to the spiritual and sensual ritual.

“Leona!”

‘Maybe there was never a doubt, or I just wanted to whine and avoid the truth.’

Leona’s relationship wasn’t the same as the other women’s.

To Nikolai, she felt like a familiar older sister who helped him out. If it had not been for that mistake he made and Seraphina pushing her to deal with his filthy desire at the moment, maybe nothing would have happened.

‘It was that moment I saw her as a woman…’

“Nikolai!! I’m here!”

A shimmering light appeared at the end of the path, not white like a holy light but golden brown… like her strawberry blonde hair. Instead of leaving, she waited in the darkness of that foul cave and continued searching for him.

That was enough for Nikolai.

Maybe it was a slight effect of the black ichor that he swallowed, but the doubts and feelings that usually held him back or made him second-guess something vanished.

‘If I want her, I’ll take her.’

Nikolai’s steps halted as he noticed his thoughts.

‘…strange.’

His mind always felt so conflicted in the past, but everything changed from the moment his blood turned black and the small orb between his two hearts grew larger.

‘My doubts and worries… feel so distant.’

The voices increased gradually, and several maids started calling, but unlike Leona’s unmistakable voice, they were vague and distorted.

He could only hear Leona clearly, like a church bell.

Step!

Nikolai’s legs started moving, faster, faster! He didn’t know what came over him; black blood pumped into his muscles. They swelled with each step, bulged after each stride as he thundered down the passage like a wild beast chasing prey.

The darkness no longer mattered.

“I’m coming back!”

***

“Nikolai!”

Leona’s throat stung after she called his name for the nth time.

However, she refused to stop, her feet half-submerged in sticky, disgusting goop and mud. When Nikolai entered the door, it vanished. The tunnels slowly started to fill with water, which loosened the foul-smelling mud beneath.

Slosh!

“Head Maid… we cannot find him, should we retreat to higher ground?”

A brunette maid asked, her dress covered in filth and her face pale from the intense stench. She grimaced while looking at Leona with awe.

‘How can Leona endure this horrible smell?’ She thought.

“Stacy? Tell the other girls to head above and find someone to help with the water. I am sure some city officials will start appearing soon. If not, just tell them what’s happening down here. Don’t mention our master, or worry about me. Once the mud rises higher, I will join you.”

A lie.

Even the lower maid Stacy could tell that something strange had happened to the usual strict Head Maid, who had never broken an order or acted like this.

“A-Are you sure?”

Drip

Drop~

The water leaked slowly, but it was visibly rising.

Leona’s eyes narrowed while guessing she might have half an hour before this chamber fully submerged.

“I am. Tell Yena to take command temporarily. Go oh, Go!”

Stacy hesitated for a moment; there wasn’t a maid in Leona’s unit who didn’t adore her like a sister, and she cared for them even when they were the weakest maid group of the Volkov estate.

“Sister Leo, please hurry!”

She knew staying would be pointless, so the younger maid turned away, throwing a final message with her wet eyes closed tightly as she rushed back to the upper levels.

‘I hope the master is alright.’ The maid prayed as she left the chamber.

Once again, Leona stood alone.

*Scritch*

Her dress felt heavy and soaked from the knee down as she stepped forward. The messy sludge formed a dense terrain that she struggled to move through. “N…Nikolai…” A hoarse cry left her lips as she covered her throat, coughing and hacking as the disgusting smell made her dizzy and lightheaded.

Drip

Drop~

The darkness surrounded her because the other maids had taken most of the lights.

She stood with drooping ears, still half transformed, without feeling inferior thanks to him. Nikolai made her and the maids in her group feel accepted, even when others shunned their half, or quarter transformation… He accepted them.

That’s why she couldn’t give up.

The man she’d grown to love and adore was too important.

She couldn’t lose him.

“M-Master…” Another cry echoed into the tunnel as her eyes closed and she tried to hold back tears.

In a dark, dirty and lonely place, she almost gave up hope… as the bubbling mess reached her chest, the pressure made it hard to breathe.

Leona felt herself slipping away from the stop and being pulled towards the depths… as the tunnel went deeper, it became smaller and smaller as it continued.

If she entered, then Leona would die, suffocated and drowned in this filthy muck.

“Ngh…!?” But she slipped, her body suddenly yanked into the depths!

‘No… No!!’

“LEONA!” A roar echoed in the dark, echoing through the tunnels and shaking loose the filth as the walls trembled.

No, it moved… vanished… as if scared.

The dirt spread apart, and a vast, bulging arm filled with muscles that throbbed beneath the pale skin grabbed her back and pulled her.

Leona’s eyes felt heavy; her eyelids struggled to lift, but somehow she saw a blurry image of what caught her.

“..Niko….Nnnnmm!?”

Nikolai didn’t care about their situation; his lips filled her cold, lonely body with warmth, and a sweet taste filled her mouth, washing down the filth that entered. She didn’t care about the sudden kiss. Instead, a fire lit in Leona’s belly, and her body pushed against him.

“Haa… wait… Master… you’re okay?… did anything happen, why do you feel different?”

Leona’s instinct screamed, not of danger but something… her spine tingled, the hairs on her arms stood up, and her heart raced when Nikolai appeared; she wanted to surrender to bow to him.

Her head wanted to press against the ground and welcome the man who could make her feel this way. It felt primal and animalistic; it scared but also excited Leona.

She’d been so confident that nothing could ever frighten her or make her feel this way, even the top patriarchs of opposing families, enemies and allies, all strong yet… it was him.

Nikolai, that made her submit in both body, soul and mind.

‘Ah… I want him to accept me.’

The moment she felt his presence and how his words sounded, everything terrified her and aroused her body to seek him more. His lips sucked on hers as he pulled her to safety, their bodies reaching the upper layer, safe from the sludge that started pooling again once Nikolai left the chamber.

‘He’s taller… stronger… and smells different.’

Leona’s chest thumped faster the more their tongues pressed together; a sweet yet metallic taste entered her mouth, but it wasn’t unpleasant; it felt comforting as it slid down her throat and filled her stomach.

“Master… what happened in there?”

Nikolai didn’t give Leona a verbal answer; he just held her tight. His arms almost crushed her back as he lifted her into the air and looked up at her.

“Leona, thank you for being my woman.”

“Eh?”

Although they had sex, she didn’t think she would ever be more than a mistress or hidden woman, like many of the previous heads. She learned from the older head maids how some maids would become the lovers of the clan heads.

Yet… his words carried a different meaning; she could sense it.

This wasn’t him just treating her like a mistress as she gazed down at his handsome face… the jagged and sharp jawline, his fox-like eyes that shone with a silver light.

Ba-Dump…

‘I’m so much older, yet looking at him drives me crazy!?’

Thier eyes remained interlocked for several moments, before he said something… at first Leona didn’t understand, he spoke several times… and then… then she realised what he asked.

“Leona, will you be my bride?”

She stood frozen, unable to even breathe.

“Please, I know I have not been fair to you… And you deserve better, but I don’t want anyone else and cannot make you my Luna. As a hybrid, the least I can do is this. No, it’s what I want!. Will you do me the honour of becoming my Vampire Bride?”

“I-I… I don’t know what…” her voice hesitated momentarily, before colour returned to her eyes and she bit down and shook her head. “No, do you know what? I do want that!”

Leona didn’t think or consider the implications or anything else.

Her heart was faithful to him; she knew that now, just thinking of a world without him… this cheeky young werewolf, her master and lord, the man who took her virginity.

Even if the other women hated her or blamed her.

Leona gripped him tightly.

“Yes.”