I pull the lid off the box and look inside. Motherfuc—“Those are real vampire ashes.” I look at Freddy, who seems to already know that because he does not blink.
How is this possible? Perhaps she obtained the ashes from her parents’ vault, where they have all sorts of Keeper paraphernalia—books, family trees, training manuals.
“Oh. I almost forgot.” Freddy sets down the box at his feet and reaches into his pocket. He produces his phone and taps the screen before turning it in my direction.
I squint, focusing on the video. “Is that…?” I point at the phone.
“She recorded their executions, sir.”
I can’t see Miriam, because clearly she’s holding the phone to make the video, but the sword removing my men’s heads is clear enough, as is the library in the background.
If I had emotions, my blood would be boiling right now. Or I would be getting a boner over such a ruthless act. I am unsure. But as it stands, Miriam has broken our laws, and she must be made an example of.
I lift my chin and straighten my tie. “Book me a flight to Phoenix. I shall deal with the librarian myself.”
CHAPTER THREE
Miriam
“Stella! Hurry up! We have to be there in ten minutes.” It’s her first day of preschool, and she made me promise to let her get ready all by herself, like a big girl. I am fully committed to giving her a normal childhood, but there’s no manual for raising a child like this. So many things could go wrong. What if they find out what she is?
My hands won’t stop shaking. Thinking about it is making me a nervous wreck! Doesn’t help that her father, who’s no longer in the picture, is now the poster boy for tough, ruthless vampires everywhere. The Executioner King, they call him.
God, Michael. What happened to you?
Stupid question. I know what happened. I just don’t know how. And if I did, would I be able to change him back to the man he once was? Caring, funny, sexy, and fierce? There’s no manual for that either: Vampires who’ve lost their souls. I’m terrified that Michael will show up one day and take our daughter because he wants her to be cold and ruthless like himself.
A script of dark thoughts starts replaying in the back of my mind. Part of me knows that raising Stella to be a skilled fighter isn’t such a terrible idea, especially when Mr. Nice is still out there. Nice, short for Nicephorus, is a very old, very evil vampire. He eventually let Stella and me go after five long years of captivity, but our freedom came with a price. Lula, Michael’s longtime sidekick, took our place, agreeing to be Nice’s companion. Lula had her reasons, but I know the solution is only temporary.
I press my hand to my stomach as it rolls in nauseating waves. I need to stop rehashing the past. I need to focus on taking measures to ensure Stella is safe. Now and forever. The thing is, I don’t believe for one second that Nice is done with me. He’ll eventually get tired of Lula, and when he does, it’s my door he’ll be knocking on. He thinks we’re soul mates. He thinks I’m the only one who’s ever understood him. He thinks what we had was love.
No. Never.
All I can say is thank goodness I’m a great actress. I believe it’s the only reason Stella and I are alive. Well, that and the fact that my parents were excellent teachers when it came to dealing with vampires. “Rule one: Never, ever trust a vampire, Miriam. It doesn’t matter how much your heart wants to believe they are human. They are not.”
I think that’s why I couldn’t tell Michael the entire truth about my past. Even when I was falling madly in love with him, a part of me held back. It wasn’t easy, though. His looks—dark seductive eyes, sensual lips—are the stuff vampire romance novels are made of. But his personality was what reeled me in. He was kind and fiercely protective from day one. And boy is he smart.
Not smart enough to figure out that while he was pretending to be human, I was hiding my own true self, but smart nonetheless.
So despite all the training and warnings from my parents, I found myself spellbound by this sinfully hot man who contradicted everything I knew about vampires. Eventually, I gave in. I fell hard. Then he knocked me up, which was completely unheard of between a human and vampire, and I was kidnapped by Nice.
Five years later, Michael found us and brought formal charges against Nice. He wasn’t happy about it and, as a punishment, Nice turned me. He did it in such a way to make Michael believe I was dead.
That was when Michael’s soul left him. He changed. So did I.
And while I never saw this future for myself, it doesn’t matter now. I can’t change the past. I can only use every asset and weapon at my disposal to make a safe life for Stella and me. Michael made it clear that he wants nothing to do with us. And now that he’s changed, he’s only good for one thing: killing. And he’s not even willing to do that for me?
How the hell is Nice still out there? Alive! Free! The thought boils my cold blood.
I glance at the clock on the wall. “Stella! Sweetie! Come on, sugarplum. We have to get moving.” I tap my foot and grab her pink backpack sitting on the blue storage bench in the foyer.
I wonder if she can even hear me. Our home isn’t what you’d call cozy or modest. It’s more like a shrine to books, your basic Southwestern-style mansion located in a prestigious neighborhood of the Phoenix hills. I inherited the home from my parents—my mother a librarian, my father a book collector. At least, that was what we told people. In truth, they were so much more.
God, I miss them. But maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that they’re not here today. What would they say about Stella, my half-vampire daughter? What words of wisdom would they have for me?
Vampire. I’m a vampire, I mouth to myself in the mirror hanging above the blue bench. Even though I’m thirty-five now, I can practically hear my parents scolding me like a child for making the choices that led me down this path. They would probably say, You turned your back on us, on the Keepers, for this? To end up a dirty, vile vampire? They would say I was trained to kill vampires, and it wasn’t too late to fulfill my destiny. My parents, their parents, and several generations before them were Keepers who hunted creatures of the night.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Michael was the notorious “Executioner” and at the top of their kill list—not for anything he’d done in particular, but because he was so dangerous. I learned the truth after falling for him, when I was looking for information to help Michael stop the Uprising.
No one ever said the Executioner looks like a hot-as-hell, twenty-year-old college student, with a face that breaks hearts and a body that could set your books on fire. No one told me he was the ultimate gentleman who’d do anything to help a stranger, including killing a few unsavory men who’d attacked me one day outside my library. No one told me that it would take everything I had to not fall in love with him. Even after I knew what he was.
Suddenly, a crash echoes through the house, and goose bumps erupt down my arms. Crap.
I drop Stella’s backpack and go for the umbrella stand, where several weapons are stashed, including my compact crossbow. Devil Juicer, I call it, because it punches a hole right through a vampire.
I grab DJ, secure the arms, and pull an arrow from inside the bench. Locked and loaded.