CHAPTER 196: CHAPTER 196

As Raymond held Valentina close, memories he hadn’t allowed himself to revisit in centuries began to surface like rising mist over a forgotten field. His heart grew heavy with thoughts of a time long buried of the people who had endured with him, and those he had lost along the way.

Among them was Rebecca, he hadn’t seen her in what felt like ages, not just years — but lifetimes.

She had disappeared a long time ago, quietly, without a word. And though he had searched...

He hadn’t found her.

Raymond knew, deep in his immortal core, that Rebecca was still out there — alive.

He could feel it,

He often wondered why she never returned, never reached out to any of them, but whatever her reasons were, he respected them.

Still, the absence stung.

Rebecca had been one of the four survivors.

The last of a clan that had once danced beneath the stars and told stories by firelight.

They had survived the illness that wiped out their entire people, a plague that turned thriving villages into ghost towns, that left fields empty and rivers silent.

Four of them. That was all who remained, and among those four, Raymond had risen.

Not because he sought power, not because he was the oldest, but because he was the strongest, the one who had endured the longest without breaking.

He had taken the pain and carved resolve out of it.

And so, he became their pillar the head of the family, Even though they weren’t bound by blood, they had sworn loyalty to one another.

Their bond was forged through suffering, through survival, through the knowledge that no one else in the world would ever understand them the way they understood each other.

Benjamin and Cecilia, though not related, had formed their own bond too.

They could have loved each other by all tradition, it would not have been forbidden but instead, they chose to be family, they chose to grow together, not as lovers, but as kin.

And that decision had made them unshakable.

It gave them the discipline, the clarity, to grow into the extraordinary beings they were today, together, the three of them had built empires.

However he know Benjamin has something for Cecilia, but still he doesn’t know what is separating both of them.

Things that seemed impossible to ordinary humans, they accomplished with precision.

Influence, wealth, power.

There wasn’t a major decision made in this country that didn’t somehow, quietly, trace back to them.

But through all that through all the darkness and recovery, through the centuries of rising to power one moment remained fixed in Raymond’s memory.

One moment that had shifted everything, the moment he met her.

Valentina.

Their story, the first one, wasn’t built on power or destiny it was built on something purer.

Friendship.

Raymond and Valentina had been nothing more than friends at first, meeting in the strangest of ways, during a time when the world was slow and quiet. When nights were darker, and hearts held closer to their pain. They found laughter in silence, warmth in shared glances, and slowly without either of them realizing it grew into something deeper. Something impossible to stop.

They fell in love, madly, wildly, it was the kind of love that consumed, that made the world seem less cruel, that made even monsters believe they could be human again.

Then Raymond had never known what he was, not truly. He was just beginning to notice the strange signs his strength, his senses, the quiet hunger that kept scratching at the back of his mind. But back then, he didn’t question it too much. All that mattered was her. Valentina.

She made everything else feel distant.

But then, it happened, One night, everything changed.

He had been injured badly. He still remembered the searing pain, the blood pooling beneath him, the panic in her voice as she tried to keep him conscious, to stop the bleeding.

And in that haze, that pain, he lost control, he couldn’t fight the hunger anymore, and in a moment of weakness... of desperation...

He bit her, her hand small, trembling, trying to hold him together.

And he bit her, It wasn’t meant to happen. It wasn’t a choice.

But it did, and the consequences were irreversible.

He remembered her eyes, wide with fear and confusion, he remembered her collapsing in his arms, he remembered the way her heartbeat slowed... and then stopped.

He had turned her, but she never woke up.

She died, that was how he lost Valentina the first time.

Before he even understood what he was, before he had learned control.

Before he had the power to protect.

He had taken the person he loved most... and destroyed her.

From that moment on, the guilt became a part of him. A shadow that followed him through every century, every rise to power, every lonely night.

He never knew if he’d see her again.

But deep down, some part of him always hoped.

Always prayed that maybe... maybe fate wasn’t done with them yet.

However, to Raymond’s surprise, fifty long years after he had lost her fifty years of silence, loneliness, and learning to live with what he had become something extraordinary happened.

He saw her again, at first, he didn’t believe it. He thought maybe his mind had finally given in to grief and guilt.

But it was real, there she was... Valentina.

But this time, she was no longer the woman he had once held in his arms, she was a child. A little girl. Innocent. Bright-eyed. Full of laughter and life.

Raymond had watched her from afar, frozen in disbelief as time turned back on itself, It was her soul he felt it. That same light, that same spark that had once quieted the darkest parts of him.

Valentina had returned, but not for him.

Not yet, he knew the world would never understand him standing near a child, watching over her like a silent shadow.

So, he distanced himself.

He waited, Eighteen years.

Eighteen long years of patience, of watching her grow from a girl to a woman, waiting for the right moment waiting until she could make choices of her own.

He trained himself even more.

Mastered his thirst.

Tamed the beast within, he vowed that this time, he would not ruin it.

This time, he would do things right.

And when that moment finally came... when she looked at him, really looked at him, and smiled

It all began again, they fell in love, madly and completely, like a flame reignited after decades of being snuffed out.

It was as if the universe gave them another chance,For one year, they lived beautifully, Laughed deeply,

Loved endlessly.

It was bliss, until the tragedy struck again.

This time, he didn’t bite her.

He never even touched her when she was vulnerable.

Valentina simply... fell ill, It began slowly, a cough here, a weakness there. But it worsened, and no healer, no medicine he knew could explain it.

Raymond felt it happening all over again, she was dying, and he was helpless.

Then desperation overtook him. The thought of losing her again was unbearable.

So, he broke his promise to himself and did the only thing he could think of—he bit her again, hoping the blood that cursed him could save her.

But it didn’t, she died in his arms, Just like before.

Ever since that second loss the one that shattered him even deeper than the first Raymond had come to realize something terrifying:

Valentina kept coming back, she wasn’t just a lost love or a passing soul.

She was reincarnating over and over again.

Returning in different forms, different times, same faces.

And each time, he found her.

Each time, his heart recognized her.

Each time, that same warmth returned to his chest only to be ripped away, over and over again.

It was like a curse, a cruel punishment placed on him by the universe itself.

She would return...He would love her...And then he would lose her.

Sometimes to illness, sometimes to accidents, sometimes to circumstances so cruel, so random, that he couldn’t even find someone to blame.

Raymond had buried her more times than he could count.

Watched the light in her eyes flicker and die, no matter how tightly he held onto her.

And no matter how much power he gained, no matter what he learned immortality, strength, influence none of it ever saved her.

He never got there in time, the pain hardened him, It changed him.

It taught him that love wasn’t always enough not when the world kept tearing her away from him.

And so, when she didn’t come back after the last time when the world stayed silent for one hundred years Raymond thought maybe... maybe she was gone for good.

Maybe her soul had finally decided to rest, Maybe she was tired of coming back to pain.

But then...She returned, and when he saw her again standing in her father’s house, her eyes filled with the same spark he’d fallen in love with lifetimes ago something in Raymond shifted.

He couldn’t do this again, Not the pain, not the loss.

Not the helplessness.

So this time... he made a promise, he wasn’t going to lose her.

he would protect her at all costs.

he would hold onto her, no matter how many enemies stood in the way, and if anyone dared try to harm her to even think of taking her from him again

He would destroy them, every last one.

Even if it meant staining his hands with blood.

Even if it meant crossing every line he once vowed never to cross.

Because this was it, this was their last chance, and Raymond was ready to burn the world down to keep her alive.

That’s why he decided to take this action.