Chapter 51 Ten Minutes Are Up
Brea's POV
When we finally broke apart, both of us breathing hard, Rayne rested his forehead against mine. Rain streamed down his face.
“We can’t stay here,” he murmured.
He guided me back into the SUV. The driver didn’t say a word as we pulled away, the city lights blurring past the rain-streaked windows.
My senses were still returning in painful fragments. We arrived at the Nikolai Estate in tense silence. Rayne led me straight to the East Wing Sanctum. The moment we stepped inside, he engaged the Biometric Lockdown.
A frequency-disruptors activated, sealing the wing into a true Dead Zone.
The luxury of the room felt suffocating after everything. I stood there, still dripping wet, while Rayne walked over to a glowing terminal on the desk. It had been left open deliberately.
On the screen was the human military blueprint for the “Blood-Frequency Jammer.”
Rayne stared at it for a long moment, then checked the access logs. The signature was unmistakable. Seraphine.
He didn’t look surprised. He looked grim.
“She left it for me to find,” he said quietly. “Isadora isn’t trying to hide anymore. She wants me to know she’s been working with the Enclave from inside my own house, using my Guardian’s clearance. It’s not a mistake. It’s a message.”
He turned to me. I swallowed hard. My hands were shaking. I couldn’t hold this in anymore.
“Rayne…” My voice came out small. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
He waited, watching me carefully. I took a shaky breath and looked down at my hands.
“The academy… it wasn’t for diplomacy or training. It was conditioning. The Enclave made me into their spy. Adrian Calista has my mom and my little brother. He’s holding them somewhere. He told me if I don’t feed him information about you… they’ll kill them.”
My throat tightened. “My own father sold me to them. To clear his debts. I’ve been watched this whole time. Every move I made after I met you… they were monitoring it.”
I forced myself to look up at him.
“I stole an encrypted drive from them before I left. It has the plans for that Jammer on the screen. They’re building something that can mess with vampire blood... scramble your nervous system, turn your own power against you. It would make you… helpless.”
Rayne listened in silence as I spoke. When I finally finished, he glanced back at the terminal, then turned to me. His expression was hard to read.
“You thought I’d be angry?” he said quietly, voice low but steady. “Brea, I’m not some human judge. I’m a Nikolai. You did what you had to do to survive. That’s all.”
He took a slow step closer. “But right now, we have a bigger problem.”
The monitors in the room suddenly flickered. Even inside the Dead Zone, a video feed forced its way through.
It was a live feed from the Enclave’s holding cells. My mother was being moved to another room.
Adrian Calista’s calm, cold voice filled the sanctum:
“Lady Brea, the Prince’s wards are strong, but my patience is thin. You have ten minutes to exit the Estate… or we test the first Jammer on your brother’s heart.”
The screen went black. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. My hands started shaking uncontrollably. I reached out and grabbed Rayne’s arm tightly, holding onto him like he was the only solid thing left in the world.
My eyes filled with tears as I looked up at him with pure desperation and sadness.
“Rayne…” My voice broke. “That’s my mom… my little brother. They’re going to kill them. I can’t... I can’t let that happen.”
Rayne looked down at me, his silver blue eyes shadowed with quiet, dangerous certainty.
He didn’t pull away. Instead, his hand settled over mine on his arm, steady and warm.
“Look into my eyes,” he said softly. “Tell me… has there ever been a time I allowed harm to befall you when I was present?”
I searched his face, thinking it through.“…No.”
A faint, knowing smile touched his lips.
“Then trust me,” he murmured. “Letting betrayal slip past me?” His gaze hardened. “That’s child’s play.”
He released me, already pulling out his phone as he turned away.
The line rang once. “Prepare the elite squad,” he said the moment it connected, “We’re rooting out every betrayal...tonight.”
Rayne stared at the blueprint on the screen for a long time.
“If the Vampire Court finds out the humans have figured out how to mess with our blood like this,” he said quietly, “they won’t just fight back. They’ll try to wipe out every human who knows about it. A full Scorched Earth campaign.”
He turned to me, his expression serious.
“To protect your family and stop that from happening, we have to keep this mission completely secret. My mother and the Council can’t know anything about it.”
I nodded, my throat tight. Rayne didn’t respond immediately.
Rayne’s gaze drifted past me toward the window. His expression changed. He slowly stepped closer to the glass.
I followed his eyes, then I saw Seraphine was standing on the roof above the driveway, completely still...Just… watching.
Her eyes were pitch black. A chill ran down my spine.
Rayne exhaled softly, almost bored. “What are you playing at… showing up here like this?”
No answer. His eyes sharpened slightly.
“Or should I ask...what cards are you hiding up your sleeve?” A faint pause. Then his tone dropped, colder.
“Using her face won’t buy you time.” He lifted his hand, shadows gathering at his fingers.
“She’s not dying for your message.” The shadow snapped outward binding her in place against the roof tiles.
“She’ll stay like that for exactly sixty minutes,” Rayne said. “After that, she’ll be able to move again.”
Even though Seraphine was still up on the roof she spoke..
“Oh, Rayne… still so sentimental.” It was Isadora speaking through her.
“I already used her clearance to leak your Elite Squad’s route to the Enclave. The First Harvest is coming. The old powers will be culled, one by one.”
Rayne didn’t flinch. He simply tilted his head slightly, listening with that sharp vampire hearing that could pick up her statement.
Instead, he pulled me close and held me tight for a few seconds.
He stepped back, reached into his coat, and placed a black dagger in my hand.
“If anything breaks through the protection here,” he said quietly, “don’t aim for the heart. Aim for the shadow. It hurts more.”
He gave my hand one last firm squeeze. In the next instant, he flashed out with vampire speed... one moment he was standing in front of me, the next he was gone in a blur.
I heard the sharp crackle of the teleportation array activating somewhere deeper in the estate. The sound was immediate and powerful. Rayne wasn’t wasting time with cars. With only ten minutes on the clock, he was using the fastest way possible to move his team.
I began launching a counter-virus against the Enclave, the system unfolding in threads of light under my hands.
Then a file caught my attention labelled 'Project: Orphan.'
Something about the name tightened my chest. I opened it, scanning fast, until the words burned into me. Human Vampire-Killers. My breath hitched as I kept reading.
"Brandon." My brother was the top subject. “No…” The word slipped out before I could stop it.
A massive explosion ripped through the Estate. The floor bucked under me. Screens flared white, then died.
I caught the edge of the terminal before I went down. The lights cut out completely...darkness swallowing the room in an instant. A sharp hiss burst somewhere overhead.
“W-what’s going on…?” I muttered. Then the locks disengaged. A heavy clunk rolled through the doors as they slid open.
My heartbeat slammed against my ribs as footsteps echoed in the hallway, getting closer.
I turned, but my vision was blurry as I saw. Just a shape in the doorway at first. A faint glint traced along the figure’s frame.
He stepped forward. My eyes strained, trying to focus. The outline sharpened. My breath caught.
“…Adrian?”
He smiled. “Ten minutes are up, Brea.”
My grip tightened around the dagger Rayne gave me. My stance shifted, just enough.
He took another step inside. “Since the Prince went to my house,” he said, almost casually, “I thought I’d come to yours.”