The Bride He Hates-Chapter 38: You Were A Human?
The next three days faded into exhaustion. Lyanna hardly slept, and ate, caught in the impossible task of caring for fifty three traumatized humans in a castle full of vampires.
The castle vampires also didn’t make it easier. Though some showed compassion, like Victor who quietly provided funds for supplies, Adrian who organized guards to make humans feel safe, and Helena who offered medical treatment to survivors who fell ill from shock and exhaustion.
But other vampires resented the presence of humans. Lyanna was fighting two battles simultaneously. She needed to reassure the traumatized humans that vampires wouldn’t hurt them while managing vampires who saw humans beneath them.
Emma refused to eat for two days, convinced the food was poisoned. Lyanna sat with her for hours, taking bites from every dish, explaining over and over that vampires wanted them healthy, not dead.
"Why?" Emma whispered. "Why do they care if we live or die?"
"Because not all vampires are monsters." Lyanna replied.
An elderly woman named Martha kept trying to escape. They found her three times trying to climb out of windows or sneak past guards. When Lyanna caught her for the third time, she broke down in tears.
"They’re keeping us for feeding." She sobbed. "Fattening us up. Making us healthy so our blood tastes better. I’ve heard the stories..."
"The stories are wrong." Lyanna said.
Lyanna spent hours building trust through small actions like bringing blankets, bandaging wounds, and teaching the children simple games to distract them from their nightmares.
Slowly, some survivors began to relax. Azrael watched her work with his typical inscrutability. Lyanna spotted him observing from the doors, and balconies that overlooked the refugee wing. He never helped or intervened. Just watched.
On the afternoon of the third day, she was in the children’s room, teaching basic letters to the younger survivors.
"That’s excellent, Lukas." Lyanna said to one of the boys, as he wrote his name. "Your handwriting is very beautiful."
"My father taught me before..." Lukas trailed off.
"Your father would be proud."
"Is he watching from heaven?" Another child asked.
Before Lyanna could answer that impossible question, Azrael’s voice echoed in the room.
"Queen Lyanna. A word."
The children fell silent. Emma immediately held her sleeve.
"It’s okay." She told them. "I’ll be right back. Keep practicing."
She followed Azrael into the corridor.
"You’re spending too much time on this." Azrael said. "You have queenly duties beyond nursing. The court gathering is resuming in four days. You need to prepare, stop wasting so much energy on humans who will be relocated anyway."
Her exhaustion and frustration boiled over.
"These people are my queenly duty. You told me to make them trust us, to prove vampire-human cooperation can work. That’s what I’m doing or did you only want me to do it when it was convenient for you? When it didn’t interfere with whatever performance you need me to give for Elise and the others?"
Her response surprised them both. She braced herself for punishment.
"You’re right." He said.
She blinked in surprise.
"What?"
"You’re right. I assigned you this task, and you’re doing well despite difficult circumstances. I shouldn’t criticize the method when the results are satisfying."
His voice was still cold, but there was an acknowledgement under it.
"Continue your work. But accept help, you can’t do everything alone. You’ll collapse from exhaustion and then you’ll be useless."
"I’m fine..."
"You’re not. You haven’t even slept properly in three days. I’m assigning additional staff to assist you. Use them."
He turned to leave, but then paused.
"Your work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Several vampires who initially opposed housing the humans have commented on your competence."
Then he left. The help arrived within hours. Lady Morgana came with staff who actually seemed to care about the humans’ well-being.
Together, they transformed the temporary quarters. They replaced the pallets on the floor with proper beds and added curtains. They also made a small school for the children, a healing room for the injured, and a quiet space for those who wanted to grieve.
During a break, Lyanna saw Morgana in the supply room, organizing donated clothes.
"Thank you, for all of this. You didn’t have to help."
Morgana looked up with her kind eyes.
"I was human once. Although, it was five centuries ago, I remember. I remember the fear."
"You were turned?" Lyanna asked in surprise.
"Most of us were. Born vampires are rare. The rest of us either chose this life, or had it forced on us, or made desperate bargains we couldn’t take back." Morgana said as she folded a child’s tunic.
"How many Thornfield vampires were turned?" Lyanna asked with curiosity.
"About half. Lord Victor was born a vampire, his bloodline is pure. Same with Lady Helena. But Lord Adrian was turned during a war three centuries ago. And His Majesty..."
Morgana trailed off, unsure whether to continue or not.
"Azrael was human?"
"Yes, about four hundred years ago. He never talks about it. But those of us who’ve been here long enough know the story or parts of it. He was turned during some war. He chose immortality over death on a battlefield."
The revelation changed how she saw Azrael. The fact that he had been a human once and had decided to become a vampire when he most probably was frightened, softened her view of him, at least a little.
Lyanna couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Azrael who was cold, cruel, and powerful had once been a human?
When he entered their chambers at midnight, she was still awake, sitting by the window.
"You should be asleep." He said without looking at her.
"You were human once."
The words stopped him. He went still.
"Morgana told me that you were turned, that you chose it. You understand what it’s like to be a mortal, and vulnerable. So why are you so cruel to me?"
"Because I chose to become a vampire. I embraced it, transcended human weakness instead of clinging to it. You treat your mortality like it’s a blessing. When in reality, it’s a limitation."
Lyanna stood up and walked towards him.
"Or maybe you’re angry because I remind you of what you were before you became powerful."
Azrael turned to face her, his expression was dark and dangerous. He crossed the distance between them in two strides and grabbed her wrist hard enough to hurt.
"Don’t psychoanalyze me, wife. You know nothing about my turning or my past. You know nothing about the choices I made or why I made them."
"Then tell me. How did you become a vampire? Who turned you? What were you before?"
For a moment, she thought he’d either lash out violently or walk away. His grip on her wrist tightened until she gasped. Then, suddenly, he released her and turned away. He walked to pour himself wine.
"I was a soldier. A human soldier in a war that doesn’t even have a name anymore, it was so long ago. I was dying." He stared at the wine in his glass.
"She found me on the battlefield and offered me a choice: death as a human or immortality as a vampire." His hand tightened on the glass, Lyanna was sure it would shatter.
"And I chose survival. I always choose survival."
