Chapter One
Just like the night Nina and I came across the thieves, I’m frozen. Helpless against the tide of anxiety that crashes over me. My heart is thick in my throat, and the pounding of it fills my ears. The cliché isn’t true, though. As I wait for the Vampire King to kill me, my life doesn’t flash before my eyes. Instead, there’s only fear. Breathless, paralyzing fear. My shoes are filled with concrete, holding me in place with my hand still wrapped around the door handle, clammy with nerves. The television is on in the background, but it’s just unfocused fuzz as panic grips me so tight my senses falter.
The creature I once believed to be my father stands there staring at me with unblinking, golden eyes. It’s strange, looking at him without the mindset of an adoring daughter. He seems... younger than I remember.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” the king asks after another moment. “It is my hotel, after all.”
“You… your hotel?” The first words I utter to the man I thought was my father for twenty-three years are uneven and filled with uncertainty. I’m shaken by the sound of his voice and all the memories that come with it. I hold them at bay and mentally kick myself for assuming the name Alexander’s was simply a tribute or a marketing tactic. Doubtless the blond at the front desk had informed someone of my arrival, and that someone told wretched old Uncle Edward, who went on to tell the ancient creature standing in front of me… who’s still waiting for an invitation to step inside.
The king’s mouth purses—an early warning that he’s losing his patience—and raises a brow. “I have no time for stupidity, child.”
At these words, something grows from my terror, like a small, white flower through concrete. My grip on the door handle tightens as I say, “I’m not stupid.”
I expect the small defiance to cost me, but instead, the king lets out the smallest of sighs and blurs past. Air whispers over my skin as he enters the room. Knowing I don’t have a choice, I close the door and turn. I don’t look at him, but I feel the Vampire King’s presence as strongly as I know my own. He moves about the space leisurely. He’s been alive for five hundred years—there’s never any rush.
“I’ve come with a proposition,” he says at last, facing me, hands folded behind his back. His golden eyes look nearly black in the dim light. “However, if you speak of our conversation beyond this room, I’ll drop your bloodied body in Calyape Park and let the shapeshifters spread your entrails across the soil.”
The threat feels like a breath upon the embers inside me. They flicker and brighten. “What kind of proposition?” I ask stiffly, dropping my gaze back to the floor. I remind myself that he is ancient and stronger than me in every way—it would only take a single strike for him to remove my head or rip out my heart.
“In the last six months, there has been a drastic increase in venom usage amongst the human citizens,” Alexander says abruptly. He stops beside the desk and picks up a brochure. Dracula stayed here! it declares on the back. With a faintly amused sound, the king tosses it down. Dracula is to vampires what Santa Claus is to humans. “I’ve made inquiries, of course, but it is vital the investigation be done quietly, as I have no wish to make the availability of this new product public knowledge. Which makes it difficult, to say the least, for any strides to be made. What I do know is someone under my roof is distributing it. Here is where you come in—if you can provide irrevocable proof of this traitor’s guilt, I will allow you to live here indefinitely.”
The Vampire King pauses, finally allowing me a chance to speak. He must know how tempting his offer is, seeing as my Lavender status will make it nearly impossible to find somewhere to live, once my money runs out for this hotel room. But I’m no fool, either—there are others better suited for this task. I may carry a sword at night, and I may know hunger now, but there’s still too much princess left in me to truly be of any use.
As the seconds tick past, I find myself asking Alexander the same question I asked that cruel, bald-headed human in the glass box. “Why me?”
“The reason is quite simple, really,” Alexander says, every inch of him a vampire, from how unnaturally still he stands to the predatory gleam in his eyes. “I don’t want anyone in my household associated with such undignified dealings. Still, I need someone loyal and motivated, which are qualities that can be difficult to come by.”
I almost hate him, then. Not for the thinly-veiled insult or how obvious he makes his disregard for my life. No, I hate Alexander Travesty for being so certain, even now, that I love him. Because it’s true, despite all that he’s done. How pathetic is that? This creature has separated me from my family, cast me into squalor, put my life at risk in the sewers, and yet my heart quickens at the chance to please him.
“Do I still have to work in the sewer sector?” is all I say, my voice quiet and toneless. I lower my gaze back to the carpet so he won’t mistake the question for insolence.
The king had begun moving toward the doorway, but at this question, he turns back to me. “Are you still a filthy halfbreed?” he counters.
The embers in my heart burst into a small flame, and hurt gives way to fury. Moving in a blur, I retrieve the parchment from Alexei’s box and throw it at the king’s feet, who doesn’t so much as flinch. “It’s written there, by your own hand,” I snarl. “‘I will always love you’. You taught me to tell the truth. Where was your truth, Father?”
“Careful,” Alexander says. His voice is soft, and my heart pounds even harder as adrenaline pumps through me. I quickly lower my gaze again, hardly daring to breathe. The air around us is as still as I imagine space to be.
Slowly, Alexander bends to retrieve the parchment, and for a moment, his brilliant eyes reread the words from another lifetime. With a graceful movement, he places it on the minibar. Our gazes meet again, and as I stare at the Vampire King’s smooth, youthful face, I realize he’s still waiting for an answer.
We both know I don’t have much of a choice—if I don’t find the traitor, I’ll probably end up sleeping in a cold alley somewhere. My throat works, clogged with fear and frustration. After another moment, I manage to say, “I agree to your terms… but I’ll need help. I request permission to confide in the bounty hunter Noah Forrest.” I’m still not thrilled about working with Noah, but he has a reputation for being good at what he does. As much as it pains me to even consider, he would be a valuable asset to the investigation.
His head tilts as he considers this. “No,” he says. My stomach sinks. “Not until I’ve seen his file. I’ll arrange for your cell phone service to be restored, and someone will send word when I’ve reached a decision. Until then, as I said before, you are not to tell anyone of this conversation.”
The king turns his back again and doesn’t see my stiff curtsey. “By the way,” he adds, pausing near the doorway, his long fingers wrapped around the handle. “If you continue your... association with that human from the boardinghouse, I will have his body mounted on the wall beside your mother’s. This city doesn’t need any more mutts running through the streets.”