Bite Me!
Copyright© 2026 by Megumi Kashuahara
Chapter 5: The Fight
Luna stood there in the garden, Lucian approaching, the château door clicking shut behind her like a prison gate.
She could run. Buy a ticket back to Seoul tonight. Text him some excuse from the airport. Celeste would win, but Luna would live.
Eleanor ran, Luna thought. Eleanor tried to leave and Celeste killed her anyway.
The realization hit like ice water.
It didn’t matter if she left. Celeste would come for her. In Seoul, in a hotel room, on a dark street. Maybe not tonight. Maybe not next week. But eventually. Because as long as Luna existed, as long as Lucian loved her, Celeste would see her as an obstacle.
There was no running from this.
Lucian reached her, his face ashen. “Luna, I’m so sorry. I should have told you before we came back. I knew she was here. I could feel her the moment we arrived—”
“She threatened me,” Luna said quietly. “In Eleanor’s room. She told me to leave or she’d kill me.”
Lucian’s expression went from guilt to pure rage in an instant. His eyes flashed that predator-light. “Where is she?”
“Gone. For now.” Luna’s hand went to her throat, which still ached from Celeste’s grip. “She’s playing with us. She wants me to run so she can hunt me. Or she wants me to stay so she can kill me in front of you.”
“Then you have to leave. Tonight. I’ll distract her, give you time to—”
“No.”
“Luna—”
“I said no.” She met his eyes. “Eleanor ran. Or tried to. It didn’t save her. And even if I made it to Seoul, what then? She’s immortal. She can wait. She can follow. She’ll come for me eventually.”
“I won’t let her touch you.”
“You can’t promise that.” Luna’s voice was steady despite the fear coursing through her. “But we can fight her. Together.”
Lucian stared at her. “You’re proposing we kill a 280-year-old vampire who’s spent centuries perfecting murder.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
Silence. The sun was setting, painting the château in shades of blood and gold.
“She’ll come tonight,” Lucian said finally. “She won’t wait. Not now that she’s revealed herself.” He turned toward the house. “We need to prepare.”
The library became their war room.
Lucian pulled down ancient texts, speaking in rapid French as he searched for something Luna couldn’t see. She watched him, this man who’d seemed so composed, now moving with barely contained violence.
“Tell me everything,” he said without looking up. “Everything she said. Everything she did.”
Luna recounted it—the cold, the materialization, the threats. The way Celeste had known her real name, had tasted her love for Lucian like it was a scent in the air.
“She can sense emotions,” Lucian confirmed, still searching. “Especially strong ones. Love. Fear. It’s how she hunts.” He pulled out a wooden box, ancient and locked. “She’s powerful, Luna. More powerful than I am. She’s spent centuries learning to kill, while I’ve spent them trying not to.”
“Then how do we win?”
“We don’t fight fair.” He opened the box. Inside were tools that looked medieval—wooden stakes, a silver blade, vials of something dark. “She’ll expect me to protect you. To put myself between you and her. We use that against her.”
“How?”
Lucian looked at her then, really looked at her. “I need to teach you to kill a vampire. And we have maybe three hours before sunset.”
The training was brutal and fast.
“The heart,” Lucian said, holding up a stake. “It has to pierce the heart completely. Anything less and we just heal.” He demonstrated on a practice dummy they’d dragged from the cellar. “Hard. Fast. No hesitation.”
Luna’s hands shook as she gripped the stake. It was heavier than she expected, the wood rough against her palms.
“Again,” Lucian commanded after her first attempt barely penetrated the dummy’s chest. “You’re not performing for cameras. You’re trying to end something that wants you dead. Again!”
She struck harder. And harder. Until her arms burned and sweat soaked through her shirt.
“Good.” Lucian handed her the silver blade. “This won’t kill her, but it will slow her down. Silver burns us, weakens us temporarily. If you get a chance, go for the throat or the eyes. Anywhere that will hurt enough to give you an opening for the stake.”
“And if I miss?”
“You don’t miss.” His voice was hard. “Because if you miss, she kills you. And then she kills me for caring about you. And she wins.”
Luna gripped the blade tighter. “Show me again.”
By the time the sun touched the horizon, Luna’s hands were blistered and her body ached. But she could drive a stake through the dummy’s heart in one strike. Could wield the silver blade with something approaching competence.
It wouldn’t be enough. They both knew it.
But it was all they had.
Lucian prepared the house like a battlefield.
Salt lines at every threshold—”It won’t stop her, but it will slow her down.” Holy water in vials—”She’s old enough that this might actually hurt.” Mirrors positioned to eliminate blind spots—”She can move through shadows. We need to see her coming.”
“The plan,” Lucian said as full dark fell outside, “is simple. She’ll come for you first. She always does—she likes to make me watch. When she attacks, you defend yourself long enough for me to get behind her. We pin her, stake her, and then—” he gestured to the cellar where he’d positioned a large drum of industrial acid he’d somehow acquired, “—we make sure she never comes back.”
“And if the plan falls apart?”
“Then we improvise.” He cupped her face, thumb brushing her cheek. “But Luna, if it comes down to you or me, you run. You get out of this house and you don’t look back. Promise me.”
“I’m not promising that.”
“Luna—”
“You don’t get to play the noble sacrifice. We both get out or neither of us does.”
Before he could argue, the temperature dropped.
The candles they’d lit—no electric lights, they needed to see shadow movement—flickered and dimmed. Luna’s breath misted in the air.
Lucian’s hand went to the stake at his belt. “She’s here.”
The attack came from everywhere and nowhere.
One moment the library was empty except for them. The next, Celeste materialized in the center of the room, her elaborate 18th-century gown spreading around her like a poisonous flower.
“Mon amour,” she purred, ignoring Luna entirely. “Did you really think you could hide from me in our home? Did you think I wouldn’t find you?”
“This was never our home, Celeste.” Lucian moved, putting himself between her and Luna. Exactly what she’d expect. “And you need to leave. Now.”
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