11 The Vampiric Devil

Hey, so… I prefer to not do trigger warnings if I can help it. I find they often can spoil events in a chapter so I'm hoping to not use them unless I find it really important in the future. But I also recognize their importance and considering no violence has really happened in the novel so far, this is the warning. It isn't bad in this chapter at all, but there are some slight visceral descriptions.

More importantly though, it will certainly be worse in the future. Although I like writing funny and cute moments, this story has always had the intent of having darker aspects as well. So consider this a general trigger warning for future chapters, for violence and gore, but also things like abuse (as we've already alluded to), sexual harrassment, and more. I likely won't put one again unless I find it truly necessary for a more extreme/stand out case. I apologise if this seems unreasonable though, that isn't the intent. I hope you can understand my purpose for this general warning as opposed to frequent smaller ones.

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The power and prestige of the Lukresh family would be difficult to overstate. The noble lineage traced back to be one of the earliest on the entire continent, spanning quite literally tens of thousands of years. Kingdoms formed and fell all within the span of their own noble house's existence.

Starting from relatively humble roots, the first Lukresh was the progeny of a vampiric monarch who at the time ruled their own empire. The Lukresh girl was a bastard and was exiled from her father's empire, but she survived and managed to scrape by.

It was a literal rags to riches story. And that story is what solidified values long since held by the family. The strong will overcome all odds. Only the weak complain about misfortune. Pain grants one strength. So on and so forth. This one girl solidified the meaning behind the name Lukresh to the extent that trying to be like her wasn't just common, but expected in the noble house.

As ages passed and the family continued to solidify their foothold in history, so too did their tradition grow, ensconcing the family in ancient values and standards. While the progenitor may have been an admirable figure who carved her own destiny, the same couldn't be said for her descendants.

Were they successful? Absolutely. But they sacrificed so much of the first matriarch's spirit in order to try to recreate her actions. Where she had led her life, fighting against unspeakable odds, the Lukreshes had become complacent, comfortable, and born with a stacked deck.

Where the progenitor disregarded what was expected of her and acted as she desired, the family grew to hold onto tradition like a precious gem. By emulating her, they had strayed so far from who they wished to recreate.

As tradition devoured the family and corrupted their ideal, the Lukreshes didn't actually stagnate as one might expect. For such a long lasting lineage, decline is almost inevitable, but even after their kingdom was conquered by the Kallisto Empire, it seemed as though they almost grew in power. Their grand duchy may as well have been a kingdom still, and in addition to ruling that, they gained massive influence across the whole empire.

It was as if they could do no wrong. That nothing bad could happen to them.

27 years ago, Valentina Orolova Lukresh was born. She was the first born of the current Archduchess, and so it would fall on her to one day shoulder the same burden. Thanks to their high purity vampiric bloodlines, the family typically inherited late. Well past the time that could be considered youth, the youngest heir to ever inherit the family head position was a woman named Fara Lukresh, and she only inherited at 86 years old due to her mother dying in a brutal war.

The typical age of inheritance was closer to 200, and during their 'development phase', heirs would typically undergo rigorous training to ensure all family traditions were maintained. Somehow, this system had worked quite well. Maybe failures were killed off, replaced, and then erased from history. Maybe the family had secret and efficient methods of brainwashing, but either way, the family didn't deviate.

That is until Valentina came along. She was unruly, untrainable, and at times closer to a wild animal more than a civilised noble. As a youth, she brought about chaos wherever she went and often left destruction in her wake. She was born naturally gifted (though lacked the sheer academic prowess of Dahlia) and had enough wits about her to tread the line where she always managed to avoid the most extreme punishments.

As she grew older, she became even more defiant. To the entire family's horror, she started to smoke, drink, and sleep around as a teenager. Acts that were either sacred or forbidden were casually performed time and time again by the girl.

While her family had come to refer to her as 'the failure', those outside the family who knew her began calling her something else: 'The Vampiric Devil'. Not only were her teenage years filled with debauchery, but she had a wicked violent streak that left half the people she interacted with fearing for their lives. All of this compounded to make Valentina's name more and more recognized in the noble circles. Everyone knew that she was a catastrophe that must be avoided at all costs.

After debuting at seventeen and officially being considered an adult, her rebellion only grew. She indulged in vice and seduced whatever noblewomen she could find. Mothers or daughters were never safe and she took great joy in seeing the dread fall on their husband's faces as she walked through the door.

Of course it was all a game for her. A way to manifest her hatred of her family's traditions while making the most of a bad situation. Her family may have loathed her, but at least she was having a good time.

This all continued until she was 24. After having a very enthusiastic evening and stumbling back home at five in the morning, she knew there was something wrong instantly. The blood could be smelt from a mile away. Rushing to the scene, she found her family slaughtered. Her parents, aunts, and uncles were all massacred along with every single guard and servant in the building.

The smell was overwhelming, as were the implications. Due to, you guessed it, tradition, the Lukresh family, extended or otherwise, all lived within the same massive castle. It was short work for Valentina to rush about and confirm the deaths of each and every one of them. No one survived. No one except her.

For whatever reason, be it a mistake on the assassin's part or perhaps some part of a giant plan, Valentina was still alive and left totally alone. She could guess why it had happened. Despite their power, everyone had come to loathe their family and the disgusting amount of preferential treatment they received. What was a surprise is that someone actually had the guts to carry it through. What shocked her even more was the obvious lack of struggle.

Whoever was hired were the elite of the elite. After all, a millenia old near-pureblood vampire would hardly be easy to take down, and yet the bodies were littered here and there as if they were confetti from party poppers. Some remained intact, but plenty of limbs and viscera were spread about everywhere making the entire building reek of death and decay.

Authorities were eventually called after the initial shock wore away but it was no surprise that nothing was found. At this point, one wouldn't be surprised if Valentina abandoned it all by that point, but there were a couple factors that stopped her from doing so.

The first reason was purely pragmatic. Even if she gave up the title, the grand duchy was just too large and powerful of an entity. So long as she legally was set to inherit it, she either needed to follow through or go on the run. The next reason was a bit more emotionally driven. She felt somewhere deep down that she owed it to her dead parents to continue their legacy.

But of all reasons, what probably drove her the most to take the title of Archduchess was to rule and govern in the way she desired and prove to all those stuck up nobles that tradition, rules, and common values were all just restraints. She could, and would, make the grand duchy flourish, all while remaining true to her deviant nature.

Three years have now passed since then. The vampire was still very young considering her bloodline, but she stood tall and proud, just like any other young adult. She was 27 now, and although beautiful since a child, she had a handsome and deadly aura to her that, much to her delight, had women swooning and men nearly pissing themselves in fright.

Although she took her work seriously, she still treated life more or less as a game for her to enjoy. Even coming to the debutante was something that she would have avoided if not for a much overdue favour to Duke Alcaster. Apparently his brat was celebrating today as well as meeting his prospective fiance, and the Duke wanted big named guests to be there to witness 'his son's greatness.'

So much to her dismay, Valentina bit the bullet, relented, and attended the dreaded party. She was well known and a group of noblewomen flocked to her as she arrived, so things weren't too bad, but she was beginning to notice something. Chasing women and having these shallow fleeting relationships was beginning to feel dull.

She needed something fresh. Something that grabbed all of her attention. She wanted an obsession.

She was ruminating on that very topic when the girl had walked in. Absolute beauty, a charming personality, an addictive scent, and seemingly a quite naive thing. It only took a couple minutes of further observation before she was hooked.

'Maybe I can test the waters. I wonder how long a cute thing like her would last before going off the wall. Usually sheltered girls like her are fun to break, but don't last.'

Something in her head whispered to her though. "But what if she did last?"

'Well, if that's the case, then… Well if a sweet and innocent thing like her can last, then maybe I've found just what I needed.'

An excited and devious smile formed as she bit her lower lip, even drawing a trickle of blood from her sharp canines.

'Oh, I really want to see what she's like once she's broken~'

With that thought, the Archduchess pushed away the clingy noblewomen around her and began to head to the lower floor. Introductions were in order, and waiting was a waste of time for everyone.

On the lower floor, Dahlia was beginning to get frustrated. There was no sign of her grandma yet! She was getting ready to gather her courage and ask someone about the archduchess when someone's voice came out from behind.

She noticed two things. First, she didn't recognize it. Second, it was a boy's voice soaked in unfiltered lust.

"Why hello there, pretty lady. I'm so happy to see you made it. I heard you were a bit of a dunce and the way you act proves it, but don't worry, I'm sure a stupid thing like you is more than enough to keep me pleased."

'Ew! Gross! Gross gross gross! Seriously dude, you need to fuck off-'

Turning around, her face paled instantly.

'Shit. Dear god, no. Not like this.'

She thanked everything that was holy that she didn't say her thoughts out loud. Standing there beside her was Lord Stavian Alcaster, and the little shit was looking at her with the blatant lecherous perversion that only a pubescent boy would manage.

Seeming not to notice the absolute dread on her face, likely because he was too busy blatantly ogling her body, Lord Alcaster continued with his 'flirtations'.

"Haha, I understand how you'd be speechless. My father always told me I have too much charm. But don't worry, you'll eventually get used to my superiority since I'll be spending plenty of time with you from now on. Isn't that right, by dear fiance?"

She looked nervously from side to side, hoping as few people heard that as possible. She did *not* want to be associated with this spoiled brat. Nonetheless, she remained amiable to the best of her ability.

"Well, haha, um, saying fiance is getting a little ahead of ourselves, don't you think. After all, there's a lot of planning and considerations that go into something like this…"

Despite the mediating words, her thoughts were about to boil over and come from her mouth if she wasn't careful.

'I want to hurl! Please someone make him shut up before I throw up directly onto him. Please, just, return to grade school and stop trying to seduce someone one and half times your age!'

Dahlia had been aware that something like this would happen, and she had planned to mostly play into her parent's wishes, only going against them once she knew she had a safety net with the Lukreshes, but now that she was experiencing it… yeah, no. If her parent's ask she'll say she's playing 'hard to get.'

While Dahlia was mentally prepping her plans and excuses, Stavian was rummaging around in his pockets, finally pulling out a small box. With the crowd around gasping at the sudden turn of events, the boy did a shockingly humbling gesture of getting down on one knee.

"Dahlia, you might not know, but both our fathers solidified the engagement. From this point on, you'll be mine."

Despite the gesture of being on one knee, there was no sign of deference or compromise. The kid just wanted to put on a show and draw attention. The entire building seemed to be watching at them and waiting for Dahlia to take the ring or seem excited in the slightest, but she had totally frozen up. Stavian felt he needed to repeat himself and so he said again, in a rougher tone this time.

"It's already settled, so don't you dare hesitate. Take the ring and become my *BANG*"

A well polished black shoe kicked him directly in the face. The obnoxious child went flying back and screams broke out, first from the violence and then moments later after they saw how mangled his face was. The kid screamed and cried through tears, a mouth of bleeding broken teeth, and a completely broken bloody nose and soon a whole collection of nobles moved to see if the Duke's son was alright.

But Dahlia didn't look at all that chaos. She looked right ahead and into the eyes of crimson speckled with silver. They were like pools of blood reflecting moonlight. Just one look and they captivated her. She felt a shiver run through her and a sensation she never felt before. All the while, she couldn't focus on anything other than those piercing eyes. Until she heard a low voice, approaching a growl.

"How dare that waste of space talk to you! You… are you alright?"

Her voice was harsh and suppressed an unbridalled possessive anger. It was like someone assaulted a cub in front of the mother bear. Only in this case, the bear was 'The Vampiric Devil' and that only meant fury and hellfire were to follow. Despite that, when she spoke the last words, they were soft and genuine. Kindness was mixed with her suppressed rage.

Seeing her not respond and seemingly still stunned, Valentina looked a little worried.

'Maybe I overdid it?'

"Hey… are you ok? Did he touch you anywhere? How are you feeling?"

Getting worried like this was unlike her, but she couldn't help herself. She felt a strong draw to this girl and emotions she didn't know she had were taking over.

For her part, Dahlia finally snapped out of her trance of looking into those stunning eyes and finally took in the rest of her saviour. Her breath caught in her throat as she let out a slight shiver with a release of breath. It took a moment to take in just what she was asked, but finally she did a small nod, never averting her eyes.

"Y-yes. I'm ok. Good even. I… honestly, I think I might be better than ever."