I Give You My Heart

Mo Fan was a Shadow Element mage himself — the moment any particularly dense shadow aura appeared nearby, he would sense it almost immediately.

Shadow was, at its core, darkness. Ordinary darkness could be scattered by light, but true shadow was something else entirely: it swallowed light whole, like a black hole that would never see a single ray of brilliance.

The school grounds were dim enough, yet some light still filtered into the trees. But right now the entire grove had become so impenetrably dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. A little more density and it would solidify into what mages called the Wall of Darkness.

The Wall of Darkness didn't mean you couldn't walk through it — it meant you would lose all sense of direction the instant you stepped inside, take a few stumbling steps, and find yourself right back where you started.

*A Shadow Element expert... and no amateur.* Mo Fan tucked himself neatly into the shadow area his quarry had created and settled in to wait.

He'd originally expected to catch some shameless scoundrel trying to break into the girls' dormitory. What surprised him was that the enemy had no intention of going inside at all — just maintaining this curtain of shadow that perfectly concealed his presence.

Mo Fan was patient.

Not that impatience would have done him any good. The opponent's Shadow Element ability was clearly far above his own; charging out recklessly would only give the enemy the chance to run.

*Those two fangs are worth twenty million yuan.*

Time passed. He couldn't say how long had gone by when he heard movement from the dorm room at the far end of the corridor.

He snapped his gaze toward the balcony — and froze. A slight, frail-looking girl was slowly climbing down a drainpipe along the building's outer wall.

*That's Liu Ru!!*

It was indeed Liu Ru. She looked terribly weak; the whole way down, Mo Fan had the feeling she might lose her grip at any moment.

Somehow she made it. She reached the ground, slipped through a gap in the chain-link fence, and stepped into the grove beyond the school wall.

The forest was wrapped in total darkness. Her slender figure was swallowed by it the instant she stepped in, as though she might vanish without a trace at any second.

*She's walking straight into danger.* Mo Fan's heart dropped.

*Damn it — that vampire planted an enchantment on Liu Ru long before tonight. That must be why she's been so weak lately. It's been drinking her blood little by little.*

As the self-appointed guardian of these girls, Mo Fan could not stomach this. A vampire, daring to use tricks this vile on girls under his protection.

Liu Ru had walked right into the trap herself. Thank god he'd chosen to lurk here tonight — he didn't want to imagine what might have happened otherwise.

The vampire had no conscience whatsoever. Liu Xian had been drained almost to death not long ago, and instead of keeping a low profile, this creature had immediately set its sights on the younger sister.

Mo Fan held back. He still hadn't laid eyes on the vampire.

He kept his gaze locked on Liu Ru. As a Shadow Element mage, he could see clearly in the dark.

Liu Ru walked deeper into the grove like a sleepwalker, her expression blank and glassy.

When she reached a slightly more open patch between the trees, a tall silhouette in a trench coat finally materialized from the darkness.

The coat appeared to be a deep crimson. Its collar was turned up high, concealing a sharp, handsome jaw and profile — only a proud nose bridge and a pair of eyes gleaming with an uncanny, predatory light showed above the lapels.

Mo Fan couldn't make out the face. A strange haze seemed to cling to the man's features, obscuring them entirely. Probably the vampire's most common precaution — they couldn't afford to be recognized. They lived among humans, after all.

Liu Ru walked slowly toward the trench-coated figure, her hands clasped behind her back. The darkness around them was threaded with a peculiar mist carrying a strange, intoxicating fragrance.

She reached the man and tilted her head up slowly — like a lowly handmaiden bidden by her king to bare her face.

The crimson-coated man spread his arms wide. It was an unhurried, intimate gesture: the welcome of a secret lover.

Still deep in her enchantment, Liu Ru took a step forward, about to let herself be drawn into his embrace. At that same moment, the blood-red lips hidden behind his raised collar parted — two pale, razor-sharp Blood Fangs slid into view, long enough to extend past his chin.

*Twenty million yuan.*

*This is bad —* Mo Fan was just about to move when something cold flashed from behind Liu Ru's clasped hands.

**Hisss!!!!**

A silver dagger flew out from behind her back. The glazed vacancy in Liu Ru's eyes vanished, replaced by pure, blazing hatred. She swung her arm and drove the blade straight at the figure before her — not a moment of hesitation in her.

The dagger plunged into the man's chest, directly over his heart, burying itself deep.

But no blood welled up from the wound. It was as if she had stabbed into a corpse.

Mo Fan stood frozen. He would never have predicted Liu Ru would pull something like this.

She had kept her hands behind her back the entire time — he hadn't noticed for even a second that she was hiding a silver dagger there.

"Tsk, tsk..." The man's voice was cold and hollow. "What a surprise. For an ordinary person to resist my Mooncharm — that's not something I see often."

He hadn't moved. The dagger buried in his chest hadn't wrung a single sound from him. If anything, he seemed amused, almost conversational, as he spoke to Liu Ru.

Liu Ru stumbled back several steps, her eyes burning with nothing but rage and hatred.

"It's a shame," the voice drifted out, silken and sinister, "that every legend your kind has about us vampires is wrong. A silver dagger through the heart does us absolutely no harm." A pause. "Oh — but if you like my heart that much, I'll give it to you. Whatever you want, you shall have. That's simply how much I like you. Can't you see?"

The moment the words left his mouth, the man in the crimson coat raised one hand and drove it directly into his own chest.

He *tore* it open. A wet, gaping cavity appeared where his heart should have been. Then, slowly, methodically, he reached inside and pulled his own heart free.

**Ba-thump~!**

**Ba-thump~~!**

It was still alive — still beating fast and steady, cradled in his palm.

The silver dagger jutted from its surface. Not a single drop of blood was visible anywhere.

"I've given you my heart," the man said, his voice shifting into something utterly, deeply wrong. "There is no man in this world more devoted to you than I am."

Liu Ru was, when it came down to it, an ordinary girl. She had come here with fury enough to level mountains, burning to avenge her sister. But faced with this — this monstrous, obscene display — the fury cracked. She stumbled backward, unable to stop herself, horror overtaking everything else.