Page 3

The monster’s eyes burned a deeper crimson.

With heat pummeling through me, I twirled and ran toward the red-haired guard standing on the precipice of the room. His eyes widened when he saw the threat behind me and realized what he was really dealing with—a vampire who had lost all sense of logic and law. One that wouldn’t be scared off by a poorly aimed wooden bullet.

“Give me that.” I ripped the weapon out of his hands. The device had been fashioned after a weapon in the human world. Its official use was to dissuade vampires of lower status from harming a lord’s property.

“Bleeding skies!” the guard snarled. “Give it back.”

Instead, I took aim at the vampire blurring my way and released a bullet.

The monster shrieked as the bullet buried itself deep in his heart, stopping him in his tracks and dropping him to the ground. He didn’t move a muscle.

I sucked in a breath as the weapon fell from my fingers. Wooden bullets were essentially small stakes. Hit a vampire in the arm or leg with one and it caused great pain.

Hit their heart and they’d die.

“Get out,” the guard spat, coming up around me and scooping up his weapon.

“What?”

“Leave.”

“There’s a person in the pool. I need to check on her.”

The guard opened his mouth to argue, but now that no one would rip my throat out, nothing could keep me from the woman. I ran back to her, slipping on the slick floor as I went.

Her torso lay on the stones, arms splayed against the ground, keeping her nose and mouth out of the pink-stained pool. Blood seeped from her head from when the vampire had dropped her, but it wasn’t too much. Maybe she was actually fine, maybe she was just passed out.

My hope dissolved as I knelt and gripped the female’s shoulder. No magical imprint that I’d expect from a witch or other magical order leapt out at me. Nor any warmth. My throat tightened, and with a shaking hand, I searched for her pulse.

I found nothing.

“Are your ears broken, fae?” The guard shouted and stomped a foot. “I said, get out!”

“Did you even want to hit him?” I pivoted to the guard and gestured to the vampire on the ground. “Or is your aim really that atrocious?”

“Killing one is against the law.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t hit their arm or leg!” Had I been thinking more clearly, that’s what I would have tried to do, but I hadn’t thought at all when I pulled the trigger. And I didn’t regret it. Not one bit.

The guard’s chin jutted out. “I scared him off. He didn’t deserve to die.”

What a lying piece of dragon dung. A poorly flung bullet had no chance of scaring off an enraged newblood. It would only piss them off more.

“You’re weak,” I spat as I pulled the woman away from the pool so that she lay on the rocks. “And a traitor to your own kind. How could you side with that monster? How could you say that he didn’t deserve what he got after this?” I thrust a finger at the woman.

“I’m sending a messenger to your master,” the guard retorted, his face turning as red as his hair. “And the vampire’s sire too. They’ll know what happened, and that I had nothing to do with this. That I—”

“Do what you must. And if you can find it in your shriveled heart, take care of her body, too.” I marched by him to prepare for the punishment sure to come my way.

Chapter 2

I passed the long night wondering if Master Aldéric had received the bathhouse guard’s message, and when the sunlight finally broke through my window, I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. Dressing and eating breakfast passed in a blur. There was no telling what my master would say, but one thing was certain.

I’d soon find out.

I swallowed as I crossed the threshold into my master’s workshop. Blood slaves in uniform—drab gray dresses, tunics, and trousers—worked tirelessly at their tables. They sewed, beaded, and cut luxury materials into gowns and suits fit for royalty, each one a beautiful work of art. As I passed by, my fingers itched to touch one particularly lovely chiffon gown.

Even though I didn’t get paid for the work, I had to admit that I loved creating elaborate gowns. Often, I’d spend the hours dreaming that one day I’d get to make something beautiful for myself and attend a ball or some other glorious function. There, I’d meet my soulmate and we’d live happily ever after.