Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
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Prologue
My name is Taylor Hendricks and Iam a vampire.
Oh God, that sounds like anintroduction at a twelve step program to get over some kind ofawful addiction, doesn’t it? But the only addiction I have is toblood—I can’t live without it. And vampirism isn’t something youcan get over by going to weekly meetings—or at all, for thatmatter. The only thing that could cure me of being undead would bea swift stake to the heart or prolonged exposure to sunlight.
To be honest, I have consideredboth options.
Back in my human life, I alwaysthought of myself as a strong, smart person. I was at the top of myclass in school and I never needed any help to get by. I lived withmy best friend Addison, and I was in my last year of veterinarycollege with my whole future ahead of me—it was a great life.
Then Celeste came along. Celesteis a three-star vampire—meaning she has been undead for threecenturies, making her incredibly old and powerful. She also happensto be incredibly cruel. For some reason, Celeste took a liking tome and turned me into a vampire against my will.
I don’t know what she thought shesaw in me but I don’t make a very good vampire. I just don’t seemto be suited for the whole undead business. I can’t glamour humansand even if I could, I can’t bear to do glam-sex—a kind of mentalporno most vamps are capable of projecting into a willing human’smind—in exchange for blood. In fact, I’m embarrassed to say that ifit wasn’t for Addison’s willingness to be my donor, I probablywould have wasted away entirely by now.
My vampire mistress, Celeste,hated me for being a failure and treated me accordingly. She usedme as a slave for the first six years of my new undead life. Shebeat me, berated me, and broke every bone in my body multipletimes. And then it got worse.
When the vampire Area Inquisitorcame to town, Celeste gave me to him as his personal sex slave.Roderick did things to me that…well, I’m trying to forget them. Idon’t want to say any more than that.
Anyway, the whole miserablesituation forced my friend Addison into an alliance with Corbin,the only vampire strong enough to take Celeste on and win.Unfortunately, though Corbin rescued me, Celeste and Roderickdidn’t want to let me go. From what I heard, Roderick was talkingabout taking me back to meet the Undead Empress—also called TheLady of Shadows—at the vampire court.
I’d rather meet the blazing sun atnoon.
In order to putme out of Roderick’s reach, my new master Corbin had me blood-boundto a werewolf named Victor. Now you have to understand thatvampires and werewolves really don’t like eachother. In fact, we’re pretty much mortal enemies and Victor made itplain he had no interest in marrying a “fanger” like me. I wasn’ttoo wild about having a hubby that got furry every full moon,either. But Victor owed Corbin fifty thousand dollars and I wouldliterally rather have died than go back to Roderick. Victor was abetter option.
Corbin promised us both we needonly stay together for three months—just enough time to satisfy theLaws of Ownership. But he did warn us that breaking the blood-bondbetween us early would have serious consequences—I don’t know whatthose might be and I don’t intend to find out. I’m just going to domy time like a good little vamp and when this whole thing is overmaybe I can go back to veterinary school and get my life back ontrack.
There’s only one problem—eversince I had Victor’s blood from the Chalice of Union during our“wedding,” I’ve been having the strangest…feelings. Feelings Ithought I’d never have again for any male after what Roderick andsome of Celeste’s other “friends” did to me. And now Victor hascome to claim me.
Oh God, what am I going to do?
ChapterOne—Taylor
Sitting beside my new husband inhis rugged black pickup truck, bouncing along down a bumpy unpavedroad toward the huge werewolf’s land, I couldn’t help noticing howangry he seemed. His eyes glowed a steady animalistic gold in thedeepening twilight and his scent, wild and musky and somehowentirely masculine, filled the cab of the truck.
I was frightened of him—scared todeath to be honest. I didn’t want to be this close to anymale—especially not one who was angry at having me thrust onto himlike a bloodsucking burden he couldn’t get rid of for the nextthree months. The way he’d looked at me when Corbin had informedhim that he was expected to let me drink his blood was nothing lessthan completely disgusted.
He hatesme, I thought miserably.We don’t even know each other and healready hates me. God, I wish I didn’t need him. I wish I wasn’t sothirsty. His warm, animal scentwas doing things to me, making my already dry throat feel likesandpaper. Giving me those strange feelings I’d been fightingalmost from the moment I’d first drunk his blood from the Chaliceof Union during our brief and perfunctory weddingceremony.
I squeezed my thighs togethertightly and tried to ignore both my growing thirst and thefrightening needs stirring inside me.
Overhead, the full moon wasrising, shedding pure silver light over my pale, white hands. Inoticed they were trembling and folded them quickly in my lap. Mystomach felt like it was gnawing a hole in itself and I was faintand dizzy. It had been well over a week since I’d last had anyblood but so far Victor hadn’t offered me any. In fact, he’d donenothing but growl at me to get in the truck and those were the lastwords he had spoken. We had been riding for forty-five minutes incomplete silence.
Maybe if I gethim to talk, I thought.Maybe it won’t be so bad…we could evenbe friends. Or at least not enemies. After all, he went to Corbinto borrow money instead of to another were so maybe he doesn’thate all vampires.
I cleared mythroat nervously and
