Chapter One
Water drips down my arms as I stand beneath the rain-soaked tree, the branches creaking softly against the chilly air. There’s no movement in sight except for a small group of kids creeping steadily up the hill, as far as they dare wander for fear of being seen. The girl leans in close to one of the boys, softly whispering in his ear. He snickers giddily, nodding in approval. The girl then turns to the other, looking ahead.
“You should touch it,” the girl says, cupping a hand over her mouth in a silent giggle. They can’t be more than twelve—maybe thirteen.
The second boy turns, glancing between his friends hesitantly and then shakes his head. “You mean the gate?”
A sly grin stretches across the girl’s face as her gaze travels up the iron posts glimmering in the moonlight. “Better yet… ring the doorbell.”
“Maria…” he drags out her name, fumbling with the hem of his t-shirt and glancing over his shoulder at the tall mansion ahead. The three of them are hidden in the night’s cover for now, but a few more feet and the spotlights shining on the length of the manor will bathe them in light. “You can’t be serious.”
She rests an elbow on the shoulder of the boy next to her. “I mean, if you’re too scared…”
“I’m not,” he says immediately, clearing his throat.
“Then do it,” she coaxes, and the first boy lets out a strangled noise.
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. The gate is one thing… but what if they’re awake?”
“Then we’d better run like hell,” Maria responds, egging him on. “I dare you.”
The second boy looks behind him once again, assessing the height he must climb in order to fulfill his dare. “I’ll need a leg up.”
The three stumble to the gate, crouching down to avoid being seen. Just as they begin to hoist him up, a fourth shadow appears behind them, towering over their thin bodies.
The kids turn slowly, eyes wide and fearful. The girl shoves the two boys in front of her, then dashes back down the hill faster than her feet can carry her. She trips, stumbling and rolling the rest of the way. The boys stand, shaking in fear as the figure closes in on them. Cracking his neck, the figure moves closer and his deep voice cuts through the silence like a knife.
“Leave.”
“Y-yes, sir,” one of the boys stutters, latching on to the arm of the other, pulling him in the same direction as Maria.
My eyes slice through the dark, taking in the figure as he smirks darkly, watching them retreat, tripping and shoving, stumbling over each other and their own limbs. Then he turns, and in an instant, he’s in front of me. His sinister smile stays cemented in place until his eyes travel to my bare toes, submerged in a shallow pool of muddy leaves and rainwater.
“What are you doing out here?” Miles asks finally. Leaning against the tree, he crosses his arms, eyes roaming over me.
“Watching,” I say simply, looking back to the path the kids used to run away. Now they have their own stories to tell. Their own contribution to the town’s plethora of tall tales about the Draven family and the horrors that lie beyond the safety of town. I scoff at that thought. Safety. Whoever believes such a lie must know better than to go into town after dark, because I know firsthand the true horrors that lurk in the shadows of this damning place.
Miles breathes in, tracing a warm finger down my cheek and across my jawline where he pauses on my bottom lip, triggering a wave of goose bumps that travel across my damp skin.
“You’ll get pneumonia,” he whispers, entranced by something about me that I can’t see.
I roll my eyes, even as I rub my hands over my arms. “No, I won’t.”
I thought becoming a vampire would make me numb, cold, heartless, and immune to all of the weaknesses humans are programmed with. But I can still feel the cold, and the warmth of another’s skin. I can feel pain, although it dissipates rather quickly. And I feel hunger so intense it burns in my gut and claws at me from the inside out until I satisfy it with the blood it craves. Most people are ruled by love, envy, or hate. The lucky few have minds so strong they can keep themselves from becoming overwhelmed by all of those emotions—they can compartmentalize and decipher them rationally, logically. But me? I’m ruled by the utmost desire to devour anything that stands between me and my next meal.
I don’t get sick, though. I’ll never age, nor will I ever die so long as my life isn’t stolen from me first. Eternity sits before me on a pedestal, and I don’t have the first clue of what to do with it.
“I’ll never have kids,” I say abruptly. “I mean, I never knew if I wanted them—I’d never really given it much thought to be honest—but now I know I’ll never have kids.”
The choice was made for me, like so many others.
I meet his eyes then, bright as the stars above us, their color resembling that of the moon’s. Yet, there’s an abyss of darkness there as well, an inhuman part that stays hidden behind the light. He closes them, momentarily snuffing out their glow. “I never wanted this for you.”
“I’ll never make new friends, either,” I continue absentmindedly, turning into the breeze to remove the hair from my face. “I can’t. After so long, they’ll realize I’m not aging. And the friends I have now, and my family—I’ll be forced to watch them grow old and die. Leaving me here. Alone. I potentially have more life ahead of me than every human in this world combined, and I feel like it’s already over.”
Well, either that, or I’ll die before my life has even begun. Because in this twisted world, there are no assurances.
Miles dips his chin, lowering his gaze to find mine in the dark, and takes my face gently in his warm hands. “So long as I’m alive, you will never be alone, beautiful.”
“You don’t know that,” I whisper, feeling a burn in my nose. Before I turned, one of my biggest fears was losing myself to the monster within. But now I am the monster.
“I do.” He presses a kiss to my temple, pulling me in until I’m wrapped in his arms and my entire body is pressed so tight to him that it suppresses my trembling. All of my apprehensions melt away in his embrace as I focus on the sound of our hearts beating as one. “I promise you, Aspen Troy, no matter what happens in this lifetime, or the next, loneliness will never find you.”
“Unless Vanesa locks me in a cage and siphons venom from my veins,” I say without humor.
Vanesa is still angry with me for refusing to build her family an army to fight the other clans, and once the Twelve discover I’ve broken the curse that was placed on the Dravens, they’ll attack with the sole purpose of wiping us out.
Miles’ shoulders shake with laughter, and he pulls back to look at my face, placing a kiss on the bridge of my nose, then each cheek and my chin, before his cold lips find mine. He brushes them temptingly, allowing his bottom lip to scrape across mine before molding them together and sliding his hands down my stomach and around my back, pressing me into him.
He breaks away, sucking in a sharp breath, and lifts me onto a low-hanging tree branch so I’m slightly above him in height. His fingers play with the holes in my jeans, worn from long and tiring days and nights of fighting, training, pushing myself to the brink of death, sleeping, then starting all over again. I’m luckier than most newborns since I had a little bit of self-defense training before I turned. If only it had been enough to keep me alive.
Miles slips his hand beneath the ripped fabric on my knee, tracing around the hole with his thumb. “You know, just because you can’t have kids doesn’t mean we can’t help young vampires find their way.”
I nod solemnly, unable to let go of all the things this life was supposed to bring me before death. Instead, it brought me death before I’d hardly lived.
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