The Bride Who Couldn't Die

My first nineteen husbands all died on our wedding night. So when fiancé number twenty told me he was a vampire, my only thought was that this marriage finally stood a chance.

But he said any bride marrying into his vampire family had to pass a death trial. Slit a vein, get a tracker implanted, go into a castle alone.

Then survive until dawn with the entire family hunting her. He looked at me with pity and said there was nothing he could do. I couldn't help laughing. An evil god had cursed me.

I couldn't die. Anyone who came at me meaning to kill me would be cursed. All nineteen of my previous marriages had gone exactly that way.

If you want to kill me, first you have to survive my wedding night. Chapter 1 I'd already tried on my wedding dress for tomorrow. My fiancé sat beside me, frowning.

I asked if he had cold feet. He was smoking, and with a conflicted look on his face, he told me: "Margot, I owe you an apology.

There's a secret I've been keeping from you." "But now I have to come clean." My heart clenched. A prewedding confession. Oh, I was so screwed.

One wrong move and I'd lose everything—the wedding would be off. To be fair, my fiancé, Oliver, was dropdead handsome and the sole heir to his family's business.

Tall, with just the right amount of muscle, the kind that was nice to look at. He was also unbelievably good to me. When we were dating, he paid for everything.

He was attentive to my every need. Even when I had a little cold, he'd come over in the middle of the night to take care of me.

Nervous, I clapped a hand over his mouth. "You don't have to. Cheating is the one thing I can't forgive. Anything else doesn't matter.

I'll understand." "Actually, I have a secret I haven't told you either." Oliver was so moved by my little speech that he practically melted.

There was even a glint of tears in his eyes. He took my hand. He didn't care about my secret at all. Instead he said, "My heart is yours and it'll never change.

I would never betray you." "The truth is, I'm a vampire." That was not the confession I'd expected. I was stunned for a moment, then a little thrilled. "That's fine.

Vampires are great—goodlooking, longlived, and I hear you guys don't even need to sleep at night. I'm totally on board." I'd heard vampires couldn't be killed.

Only sunlight could turn them to ash. No wonder Oliver always came to see me in the middle of the night. He gripped my hand even tighter. "You take things so well, it's amazing.

Actually, the reason I'm telling you I'm a vampire is that my family has a quirk." I nodded like crazy. "Tell me.

A big family that's been around for over a thousand years—having a quirk is totally normal.

So what do you guys usually like to drink, type O or type B?" Oliver looked awkward for a second. "That's not important. Our family has a tradition.

Every new member has to go through a death trial, and only the ones who survive are accepted and granted vampire status." His expression was sorrowful as he looked me up and down. "They put a tracker inside the bride's body and drop her alone in a castle to play hideandseek.

If you can make it to dawn alive, you become one of the family." Chapter 2 "You're so fragile, and you're always sick.

I'm worried you won't make it through the night." "But if we want to be together for the long haul, you have to pass this trial." As Oliver talked, I could feel my blood heating up with excitement.

My heart was pounding. I frowned. "What about you? What's your role in this hunt?" "I can't do anything, and I can't help you.

But I love you so much that I got you a chance." "What chance?" "You can pick a bodyguard to go in with you. If you have to, you can use him as a human shield. It's fine.

I'll handpick ten top hitmen for you to choose from." Oliver swore it with total conviction. He looked like he had nothing but my best interests at heart.

But my mind had drifted. "The people taking part in this hunt—are they all vampires? Do they have any other superpowers?" "Yes, yes. There are 31 of them.

I put all their abilities and faces in a PowerPoint. I'll send it to you right now.

Memorize their abilities—it'll help you hide." With that, Oliver eagerly sent the list to my phone. I only glanced at it. A reliable human shield had already come to mind.

So I quickly sent him a message. Then I looked up and fixed Oliver with bright eyes. "Oliver, you're too good to me. Don't worry, I'll definitely make it through the night.

When does the hunt start?" Oliver said, "Midnight tonight. They'll send someone to take you soon." "Okay, let me get ready.

Give me an address." I sent the address to my humanshield teammate. It was a good while before I got a reply. [?] [Big bro, come save me! There are vampires everywhere.

I might not make it this time!] It was a long time before he replied. [The person who can kill you hasn't been born yet. Vampire or zombie.] [This time's different!

They've all got superpowers—the superrich kind!] He went silent. [There in ten.] I put my phone away and gave Oliver a perfect smile.

I made a point of changing into fitted athletic wear. Because I was keeping a secret from Oliver too. I was one of the Undying, cursed with a life that couldn't be ended.

If vampires had to fear burning to ash in the sunlight, then we Undying were even more absurd. Because I couldn't be killed.

As long as the person trying to kill me had evil in their heart, I could take their lifespan and come back to life. I could only be killed by someone who meant me well.

But there was a paradox: how could someone out to kill another person have good in their heart? So, for all practical purposes, I was an Undying who couldn't be killed.

I'd been dragging out my existence for three hundred years. I'd already been through nineteen marriages.

All along, I'd been looking for someone who meant me well to put an end to my endless life. Unfortunately, none of them survived the wedding night.

I'd thought Oliver would be the last. Now it looked like that was up in the air. A group of bodyguards in black burst in through the door.

They injected me with an anesthetic and tied a black blindfold over my eyes. I didn't struggle once. I was perfectly cooperative.

Oliver held my hand, deeply dejected. "Margot, promise me you'll make it through tonight, okay?" Chapter 3 I put on my signature smile. "You too.

Make it through tonight." "I put a lot of care into planning that wedding ceremony, you know." After that, I lost most of my awareness. But I could still feel things.

I was a little immune to anesthesia, after all. When the jolting around me stopped, I found my hands and feet tied and a sharp pain in my wrist. It was wet.

Obviously still bleeding. Obviously this was the spot Oliver had meant, where they'd put the tracker. They hadn't even bothered to bandage it.

At this rate, even if nobody found me, wouldn't I just bleed out? I struggled a little and pulled off the black blindfold. I was in the great hall of a castle.

It looked something like a church. High above hung a big, oldfashioned clock. It already read 12:10. So my wrist had been cut for a while now.

And there was a strange ointment smell on it that kept the wound from healing. If I didn't stop the bleeding, in a few hours I'd bleed to death even if nobody caught me.

I sighed and tapped the back of my hand. Only then did I look up and see a crowd of people staring at me. Every face was grim. They were all holding up really primitive weapons.

Lucky for me, I'd seen my share of movies. To me, they looked like cheap imitations of movie villains.

Through them, I could almost see a great many people watching this death game that no one was supposed to survive. "Bro, looks like you're late." "That's coming out of your pay," I muttered.

Oliver stood at the very back of the crowd in a white suit. He didn't seem to dare look at me.

A man who looked to be in his fifties, wellpreserved and wearing a black robe, raised a scepter he'd picked up who knows where. "The death hunt officially begins.

You have thirty minutes to hide. All the windows, the doors, and the basement are locked. You can only hide inside this castle." "'Kay, cut the chatter. Let's go," I said.

Someone unlocked the chains binding me. I loosened up my wrists and blew Oliver a kiss in the crowd. "Hubby, wait for me to make it to dawn, okay?

Take good care of yourself." Oliver looked torn. He turned his head away and wouldn't meet my eyes. I strolled out of the great hall. No one stopped me.

Every one of their faces wore a cold smile. As if they were laughing at me for being an ant who could never escape their grasp, no matter how I ran.

But just as I made it through the pitchblack corridor, a figure hidden in the dark was already closing in on me fast.

The wind from a clean knifehand strike stirred the loose hair by my ear. I spun around, tackled him, and straddled his waist. I locked an arm around his neck. "Bro!

You're late!" The shadow went stiff for a moment before he bit out: "Too slow. If I were really a hunter, your head would've come off just now." "Hee hee, so what if it comes off?

I can't be killed anyway." With my arm still around his neck, I spoke quickly into his ear. "Did you bring everything? See the camera in the upperright corner?

Take it out." Only then did the man lift his head slightly. His eyes narrowed at the dark corner.

He raised his hand, aimed, and in an instant the camera was knocked askew by something I couldn't make out. He put a hand on my waist and frowned. "There are a lot of cameras.

You sure that fiancé of yours is really a vampire?" Chapter 4 "Who knows?

Either way, killing me isn't that easy." Duncan shot me a cold look. "You always make me clean up your messes. Some Undying you are." Duncan wasn't my real brother.

Strictly speaking, he was more of a business partner. I'd only known him tenodd years. But we worked together exceptionally well.

I sent Duncan the files Oliver had given me. "On this list, focus on the middleaged man with glasses in the oldfashioned standcollar suit.

He's the CEO of some big conglomerate, worth a fortune. He's the one the client paid to have killed." "Got it." Duncan kept it short: "Same plan as always. We split up.

I just scouted the castle. There's a camera about every ten feet.

I stashed weapons in the crates in the corners." He clipped a button camera onto my collar and tucked an earpiece into my ear. And spotted a red mark on my neck.

He couldn't resist rubbing it hard with his thumb, and his tone turned sharp and sour. "Guess you never learn.

You're really going to marry a guy like this?" I laughed awkwardly. "It's a mosquito bite." He scoffed. "It better be." After that, he pulled out a phone and smoothly logged into a livestream while I lit a cigarette.

Right then, the stream was cycling through the castle's security feeds. A group of rich people were picking out weapons in a storeroom.

On the small screens were at least seven girls, running around the castle in a panic. The chat was going wild. [LMAO what a rush, totally worth the premium ticket.

It's a reallife castle death game this time!] [Hehe, last time I think it was the haunted bride in some ghost town. The show's gone European this time.

Wonder if any of these women will last 60 minutes.] [My money's on No. 6. She's the calmest so far—look, she's leaning against the wall in the hallway, smoking.

Wait, producers, are they allowed to bring cigarettes? Makes me want to light one up with her.] [No. 3's almost made it to the door, LOL. These rich guys sure know how to have fun.

She has no idea there's a bomb buried at the door. Get anywhere near it and you're blown to pieces.] The hand holding my cigarette froze when I saw the chat. I frowned.

The next second, there was a huge roar. A flash of fire lit up in the distance. Duncan said, "You're not the only woman they dropped in here.

That fiancé of yours didn't tell you the truth." "We need to move fast." My face darkened. I turned around and had Duncan check whether there was a number on my back