Page 1

PROLOGUE

DONTÉ

Ipulled away from the Castle and thought of the day I died. It was on a Tuesday. Four bullets tore through my body in the Englewood streets, where I’d spent my whole life. I remembered the cold concrete of the gangway where I collapsed, the taste of copper flooding my mouth, and the distant wail of sirens that came too late. But death wasn’t the end for me. It was just the beginning.

The moment Alexander Valentine decided I was worth saving. I was reborn as something more than human. I had the same face, same eyes, but I was different. Sharper. More alive, which is funny considering I’m dead as dead can be.

I had a real life now. But sometimes my mind circled back to Englewood. I missed so many things about my old life in the hood. I missed my mama’s fried bologna sandwiches. I missed having rap battles with my fo and ‘nem. I missed rough housing with my lil brother. I miss going over to my granny’s place to play spades.

Even with the good times, my old life was a dead end. If the G.D.’s hadn’t got me that day, it would’ve been another day theycaught me slipping. Or I woulda ended up in prison like the sperm donor that I didn’t remember. He was serving thirty years in federal for some RICO shit. The Black Disciples Nation gave me family when I needed it, protection when I craved it, but that life only had two exits: a cell or a casket. I got the casket and somehow walked out of it.

I lost some things only to gain so much more. I had a vampire father that cared about me. Zand claimed me as his son and welcomed me into his strange vampire family. He was teaching me everything I needed to know to be a vampire man, how to blend in with humans, how to use my abilities without drawing attention.

He promised to take me to Paris next year. I had to learn to speak French first. I remembered wanting to be an N-word in Paris because of the rap song. My father gave me a new armored Escalade and a job at the club where I made more money than I’d ever seen in my life. I was happy with my new life, but I was driving back to my old hood early this morning.

The streets of Englewood look different through vampire eyes. I eased the bulletproof Escalade down 63rd Street. My windows were tinted so dark they were practically mirrors from the outside. Now I was back, a ghost in an expensive truck, watching the neighborhood that raised me through a predator’s eyes.

On a mission, I made a left onto Aberdeen and parked. I turned off the ignition, unafraid of anything now that my body was my protection. I didn’t need a gun. It felt strange living life without a blickey attached to your body at all times. I looked over at the faded gang tags that marked our territory. BD Nation used to be my whole identity back then. Now it felt like a story I read about someone else.

I parked two blocks from Carlanda’s house. She was my girl before I died, the one who used to wait for me after schoolwith her backpack slung over one shoulder, wearing those big gold hoop earrings I bought her for her sixteenth birthday. I wondered if she still wore them.

It was 6:21 AM. She walked to school early. According to the pattern I observed over the past week. She should be walking down this street any minute now, going to Englewood High, where she is a senior. She was one of those smart girls that was going away to college on scholarships. I couldn’t figure out why she was ever talking to me. I was supposed to take her to prom. But I didn’t, I died. It was stupid, but I had to see her up close. Instead of being at my apartment, I was stalking my ex-boo thang in a $120,000 truck with an envelope full of cash in my lap.

No one would recognize me in this luxury vehicle. My old crew didn’t get up this early in the morning. Most of them were passed out drunk or high off something. The rest of them had dropped out-of-school years ago. The drug dealers didn’t hit the street until the afternoon. Only people out this early were the people going to real jobs or the smart kids that got to school early.

I checked the rearview mirror, adjusting it to catch the intersection at the end of the block. My reflection still surprised me sometimes—same face but different eyes. They were sharper now, more intense. Zand says that’s normal for new vampires. We still look like ourselves, just more.

The thick envelope in my hands contained $10,000 in cash. Zand paid me well for my work at The Castle, and I barely spent any of it. What would I buy? I didn’t eat food anymore. I didn’t need new clothes to impress anyone. The apartment he set me up in was already furnished with everything I could ever want. I didn’t pay rent. Being a vampire matured me. I didn’t have the same interest as I did when I was a YN. I’d been saving a few dollars, planning for this moment. I wasn’t sure if she hada full ride scholarship. She would probably need this money for college expenses.

I looked up and there she was. Carlanda Kyle turned the corner, and my dead heart did something strange in my chest. She was wearing her hair in long goddess locs that reached her butt. A style she used to wear just for me because I told her once that it made her look like a princess.

Her backpack was the same one from last year. She was wearing a purple hoodie that was too big for her—wait. That’s my hoodie. The one I left at her place the weekend before I died. She was wearing my clothes, still.

I gripped the steering wheel. Through the tinted window, I watched her walk. She looked tired. Her grandma’s got cancer. I wondered if chemo was working for Ms. Pearl.

I wait until she was almost parallel with my truck, then I press the button to lower the passenger window just three inches—not enough for her to see in, but enough for what I needed to do. In one smooth motion, I tossed the envelope out. It landed on the sidewalk, just a few feet ahead of her.

She jumped and stopped to look down at the unexpected object in her path. She glanced around, suspicious, then bent to pick up the envelope. I rolled the window back up silently.

Through the tinted glass, I watched her open it. Her eyes widened as she saw the stacks of bills inside. Her mouth formed a perfect ‘O’ of shock. She looked up, scanning the street, trying to find who dropped this fortune at her feet.

There was a typed note inside: Chanel helped me write it. Carlanda fished the note out to read it.

To Carlanda,

For your college fees, or whatever you need it for. It’s yours. Don’t tell nobody you got it. People steal around here. It’s not a loan. It’s a gift for only you. You don’t have to do nothing for it. Hurry up and put it away before one of these crackheads sees you with it.

Signed, your Fairy Godmother.

Her eyes found my out-of-place vehicle right away. I went to roll up my window and realized I had already done that. Even though she couldn’t see inside, she was looking right at me. She was too afraid to move. I started my engine and put my truck in drive. I sped off down the block. Her body turned to follow me. I pushed a button and hid my back license plate. In the rearview mirror, I caught one last glimpse of her standing on the sidewalk in my purple hoodie. Her eyes were following my truck, and she was clutching the envelope in her hands. After a second, she quickly pushed it into her backpack.

The best thing I could do for her was stay dead.

CHAPTER ONE

ZAND

My phone vibrated against the coffee table, a harsh intrusion into my quiet evening at home. I ignored it. This was my time with my girl. Chanel was beside me on the sofa. Her head was nestled against my shoulder as we watched some action movie she picked. It was something with explosions and car chases. We took a break from the vampire movies we usually watched together. Chanel said, now that she knew vampires were real, the movies weren’t as exciting as the real thing.