Eternal Sin

Eternal Sin Mark of the Vampire - 6 by Laura Wright

To my family, who I love so much.

GLOSSARY

Balas—Vampire child.

Beast—Another, and far less derogatory, name for mutore.

Bloodletter—A Pureblood vampire with the ability to remove memory, emotion, and sickness from the mind of a Pureblood. According to their laws and beliefs, they will not touch an Impure for fear of tainting their gift.

The Breeding Male—A paven of purest blood whose genetic code and structure has been altered by the Eternal Order. He has the ability to impregnate at will and to decide the sex of the balas. He is brought in by Pureblood families to repopulate one sex or the other in times of dire necessity. He is uncontrollable, near to an animal, and must be caged.

Credenti—A vampire community, ruled and protected by the Eternal Order. Both Purebloods and Impures live here. There are many such communities all over the world, masked by the Order so that humans barely notice their existence.

Duro—Tender word for “brother.”

Eternal Order—The ten Pureblood vampires who have passed on to the middle world, yet make the laws, punish the lawbreakers, and govern every vampire credenti on Earth.

Eyes—The New York City street rats who run the sales of drugs, blood, and bodies to both human and vampire.

Factions—Areas within the Rain Forest community that shelter different types of shifters. The Rain Forest Factions are Avians, Mountain Beasts, Land Dwellers, and Water Lords.

Gemino—Twin.

Gravo—Poisoned vampire blood.

Imiti—An imitation vampire, one who can take on the characteristics of a vampire if he or she drinks blood regularly.

Impurebloods—Any combination of human and vampire. They have no powers, no heartbeat, and can live in the sun. They have fangs only when blood is consumed. Males are blood castrated, their sex drive removed through the blood by the Order. Females are blood sterilized and branded with an I on the inside of their thighs.

Impure Resistance—The rise of the Impures who wish for equality within the Eternal Breed.

Meta—The transition every Pureblood female makes into adulthood. Happens at fifty years of age. Though the female can still remain in sunlight, she needs and craves the blood and body of her true mate.

Mondrar—Vampire prison.

Morpho—The transition every Pureblood paven makes into adulthood. Happens at three hundred years of age. This state of being is as powerful as a paven can get. He is sunlight intolerant, and the need to find his true mate becomes impossible to deny.

Mutore—A Pureblood vampire shape- shifter. A Beast. A child of the Breeding Male gone wrong. Is considered less than trash, and a bad omen for the breed. Is usually killed right after birth when he or she shifts for the first time.

Paleo—The Order’s secret location where Impures are blood castrated.

Paven—A vampire male of pure blood.

Pureblood—Pure vampire. Powerful, no heartbeat. Will go through Morpho and Meta and find a Pureblood true mate.

Puritita—One who is chaste.

Rain Forest—Secret, magically protected home of the shifter community.

Sacro—Dirty.

Shifters—Humans with animal DNA, who can take the form of their animal counterpart at will.

Similis—The Impure guards of Mondrar.

Swell—Vampire pregnancy.

Tegga—Nursemaid/nanny/governess.

True Mate—The one each Pureblood veana and paven is destined for. True mates share an identical or complementary mark somewhere on their skin.

Veana—A vampire female of pure blood.

Veracou—The mating ceremony between two Pureblood vampires.

Virgini—Virgin.

Witte—Animal.

1

The hawk shifter flew overhead, circling Petra in the cloudless sky as she stumbled back and forth in front of the mouth of the cave—the same Rain Forest cave she’d pulled a burning, fiercely stubborn Synjon Wise into after he’d tried to follow his lover into the sun seven months ago.

Now it was Petra’s turn.

Not to burn, but to feel the constant aftershocks of a misery she couldn’t shake.

Tears ran down her cheeks, another great sob exiting her tight throat. She was in so much pain. Unimaginable and inescapable. Her body, her swollen belly, her mind, her heart . . .

No. She had no heart. It was silent. An empty, useless organ.

It was a realization that had once filled her with curiosity. She was a vampire. A veana. Not a shifter, like her adopted family. Gone were the perpetual feelings of being an outcast among a society who wanted nothing more than to embrace her. Now she had living proof of her own existence. Now her questions could truly be answered.

Whom did she belong to? Where were others like her? What could she expect from her life? How long would that life be?

He had gifted her with those answers. That male. The dark-haired, dark-eyed paven who’d come to the Rain Forest to bury his beloved, and himself if Petra hadn’t been there to stop him. Inside the shelter of her tree house so many months ago, Synjon Wise had told her