With Fei's permission, Luna had accessed a piece of the High Priest's memory on where to locate his secret emergency shelter.

She didn't know why Fei had this secret shelter for his own and for what purpose.

Maybe, this was supposed to be his hideout when things in the Vampire Castle goes horribly wrong.

Fei told her that the shelter was located thirty feet under the ground covered in snow.

Now, all she needed to know was how to find the landmark surrounding it when everything she saw was this damned flat landscape. She was back again at the Vampyr Realm's borders, far away from the Castles, far away from other royal vampire's territory, far away from civilization.

Luna found it tempting to cross the barriers but she was afraid something unexpected might happen if she did.

She was bound to this land as she was bound to the Vampire King's and Ravin's blood as his mate, and as his primary source of food.

She would be an idiot if she risked it when she never knew the consequences.

It was better to hide at the moment.

As the snow crunched beneath her boot, Luna dug into the place Fei had instructed, until hardy tufts of grass peeked out the snow. She dug until she could see the frozen, barren patches of dirt.

It wasn't too difficult, she realized, when she found the rectangular hole that could barely fit a person with a hinged wooden door.

She tried to pull it upward but there was a locking mechanism inside, halting her.

She was an expert at unlocking things now because of Hecate's grimoire. "Resero."

The clouds hung low as the snow blew hard on her, wearing the pine trees down into sleek curves and peeks. Luna breathed as she tried to savor her surroundings before going inside her sanctuary.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, her breaths coming out in fogs.

Her vampire abilities had made her sense these foxes catching hares, polar bears, migratory birds, geese and wolves howling as they traveled in packs from the far-off snow-capped mountain ranges.

She smiled and took a deep breath on that clean ozone-like smell of fresh snow, surrounded with scattered and sparse trees

Luna descended on the narrow steps of a ladder leading underground. As she leaned a hand on the wall to keep her balance, she realized that it was made with reinforced steel.

Blocking the exit with complicated magic spells and more tricky barriers consisting of nullification spells, she didn't forget to cover her tracks and slide the door shut with the finality of a coffin lid closing.

She had blocked the exit for good.

No one can get in and no one can get out.

The air was stale and humid as she expected. When she reached the end, she felt a crinkle of cold fabric. She illuminated the entire shelter with her floating glow lights and she realized it was just bedding.

It will be months or years perhaps even a decade before she could allow herself to come out in this hibernation she had planned.

Or maybe it would depend if how quickly the Vampire King and his search party can discover where she was and stop what she was attempting to do.

Would the Vampire King even tread the ice-sheets and snow blizzards himself or would he let Cederic do the dirty work of capturing her once again?

Luna wondered how pissed must Cederic be when he caught her again.

She had been missing a lot of times and Cederic had been bringing her back to the castle for the third time around.

With a snap of a finger, Luna set the old fire pit at the corner aflame.

Wait a minute, she didn't even need it since she was a vampire now.

She can feel cold but it didn't bother her that much.

It was a habit she needed to quit.

She must think of herself as a vampire. The Blood Beast's mate.

The fire crackled and hissed as she settled on rattling snow crystals off her dress and frozen boot laces. She had no blood supply because she can only drink her mate's blood.

The Blood Beast would not be able to access her anymore if he can't find her by her scent or her life force.

Luna found no other way to avoid marriage with a man who owned the Consortium, who owned women, consorts, blood slaves, concubines, whatever the hierarchy was. when the Blood Beast can only feed off her and it would be enough.

If she marry the Vampire King, she would renounce her status as the Vampyr Realm's High Priestess. The Goddess Hecate will take her grimoire back including her magic abilities.

Luna can't afford losing her power in this dangerous world, hopeless, and at the whims of the powerful vampires.

Especially the Vampire King and his cronies.

The Vampire court. Royalties.

She needed to have the magic abilities to save these poor young women taken out of their will to be part of this Consortium.

Luna heard a steady whisper of runners above the snow.

Who else might they be if they weren't the Vampire King's search party?

'They were here already?' That was quick.

The birds cawed in the eerie silence and it sounded like an omen.

Luna shifted on the bed as she tried to get comfortable, covering herself with a scratchy blanket.

For a vampire, how would it feel like to be dead?

Luna slowed her panicked breathing.

Where would she go? Well, she will find out later.

Whispering comfort as she tried to quell her terror, Luna tried not to claw her skirts in panic as she whispered, "Requiem Aeternam"

Laying in the dark alone, Luna started to feel lethargic as her sleeping death spell worked. She could sense her heartbeat starting to pump real slowly until it stopped.

She was now dead.

By choice.

She will be trapped in this shelter in a long period of time unless the Vampire King found her and bring her back alive.