When Love Bleeds in the Dark PART four

The Coven Saw Me as a Threat, She Saw Me as a Sin

She didn’t come back for three nights.

Three nights of silence that felt heavier than death.

I felt her absence like a missing organ—something vital torn from my chest yet still aching as if it remained. The bond between us hummed painfully, stretched thin but unbroken. I knew she was alive. I knew she was watching.

And I knew something had gone terribly wrong.


---

On the fourth night, the sky burned red at sunset.

That should have been my warning.


---

I sensed them before I saw them.

A pressure in the air.
A stillness too deliberate to be natural.

When I stepped into the alley behind my apartment, they were already there—four figures emerging from the shadows like thoughts that refused to stay buried.

They moved without sound.

Without hesitation.


---

The first one spoke.

“You are early in your decay,” he said, his voice smooth and ancient. “But the mark is unmistakable.”

“What mark?” I asked, though I already knew.

“The bond,” a woman beside him replied. Her eyes glowed faintly amber. “Her mistake.”

My heart hammered.

“Where is she?”

A smile—cruel, amused—curved her lips.

“Answering for her sins.”


---

They surrounded me effortlessly.

I felt exposed.
Judged.

Like prey that didn’t yet understand the rules of the hunt.

“You don’t belong to us,” the first one said. “But you are no longer fully human.”

“So what does that make me?” I demanded.

“A liability,” he answered simply.


---

Pain struck without warning.

Not physical—
psychological.

Images flooded my mind: blood-soaked halls, burning cities, lovers screaming as time devoured them. I collapsed to my knees, gasping, my thoughts unraveling under the weight of centuries that weren’t mine.

“You see?” the woman said calmly. “Your mind cannot hold what we are.”

“Stop!” a familiar voice commanded.

The world snapped back into focus.

She stood at the edge of the alley.

Unarmed.
Unbowed.

Furious.


---

“Touch him again,” she said, her voice shaking with restrained violence, “and I will tear out your throats.”

The coven turned to face her.

“You’ve already done enough,” the first one replied. “You broke the law.”

“I bent it,” she said. “I did not turn him.”

“You fed,” the woman snapped. “You bonded.”

Silence fell.

Heavy. Judgmental.


---

I struggled to my feet.

“Is this what I am to you?” I asked her quietly. “A crime?”

Her eyes met mine—raw, conflicted.

“You are the reason I forgot who I am,” she said. “And that terrifies them.”


---

They took us to their sanctuary.

A cathedral beneath the city—stone and shadow intertwined, candles lining walls carved with symbols older than language. Vampires stood watching as we entered, their gazes sharp, curious, calculating.

I had never felt smaller.

Or more defiant.


---

“The human must be destroyed,” one voice called.

“No,” another countered. “He may be useful.”

She stepped in front of me instinctively.

“He is not yours.”

“He is hers,” someone laughed. “That is the problem.”


---

The trial was brief.

Cruel.

Unforgiving.

“She violated the first law,” the leader declared. “No bonds with mortals. They decay. They weaken us.”

“I was already weak,” she replied coldly. “I remembered love.”

Murmurs rippled through the chamber.

Dangerous words.


---

They turned their attention to me.

“Do you understand what she’s done to you?” the leader asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“And you accept the consequences?”

I didn’t hesitate.

“I accept her.”


---

That was when everything changed.

Her breath caught.

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” she whispered.

“I do,” I replied. “And I choose it.”

The word choose echoed like blasphemy.


---

The sentence was clear.

If I remained human, the bond would drive me mad within years.

If I was turned without approval, she would be executed.

If she released me… the pain would destroy us both.

There was only one path they would tolerate.

Exile.


---

“They will hunt you,” she said as we fled the city before dawn. “Both of us.”

“Let them,” I replied. “I’d rather be hunted than hollow.”

She stopped walking.

Turned to face me.

“This will cost you everything.”

I smiled sadly.

“It already has.”


---

As the sun rose behind us, I felt something settle inside my chest—not fear, not regret.

Resolve.

The coven had named me a threat.

She had named me a sin.

But together…

We were something far more dangerous.


Can love survive when the entire immortal world demands its destruction?


👉 Continue to Part Five, where exile turns into pursuit—and blood becomes the only language of survival.

#ForbiddenLove
#VampireCoven
#DarkRomance