-Gabriel-It’s been a week since we returned from Las Vegas. Katherine is settling back in again but she’s been busy with her secret project while I’ve had to deal with starting up something similar to the council. The twins and Gustav are helping me back in Europe, while I oversee the States for now. There will be a meeting in about a month’s time to see where we sit with everything after the demise of the original council.After getting back to DC, we haven’t been able to schedule a checkup with Autumn for Katherine since the doctor has been busy. But right now we’re on our way to her first checkup and to say she’s nervous is putting it lightly.“Don’t worry, little lamb, I am sure everything is fine with the little one,” I say for the fifth time as I pull into the parking lot of her clinic. It’s 9 PM, so there’s no one around right now.“I know! But I can’t help worrying about the baby after everything that has happened. The baobab stakes, the baobab in the blood Matthew gave me, n
-Gabriel-“GABE!” My heart literally drops when Katherine’s scream echoes throughout the mansion. I run from my office and fly up the stairs to our bedroom, only to see Katherine standing there looking down at her feet. Her head whips up towards me and she points down. “My water broke!” And that is how I felt fear chill me to my bones. I move on autopilot and grab a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt from her walk-in, then slowly walk with her to the bathroom. Her panicked heartbeat keeps me calm for some reason, even as she trembles while I help her clean up and get into dry clothing.Afterward, I grab the overnight hospital bag by the bedroom door and pull out my cell phone. “It’s time, let Autumn know,” I tell Valentine, then kill the call and lead my woman downstairs with the SUV keys in hand. Luckily it’s just after 1 AM, so we’re able to get to Autumn’s without a problem. However, just as I put her into the passenger seat, I feel a sharp sting on my shoulder - a familiar fuckin
-Katherine- It's been six months, and I knew this day would come. Gabriel and I are sitting in Autumn’s office and I have Elijah in my lap. He’s cooing and making cute as fuck baby noises; this shouldn’t be a problem at all since it signifies a happy, healthy baby. But for Pureblood vampires it is because the infancy stage usually lasts for five years whereas Elijah is growing like an average human baby. “Okay, there’s no bad news,” Autumn says as she opens the folder in front of her. “But there is something.” I can tell Gabriel’s getting antsy, and so am I but there’s no point in getting impatient with the messenger who’s trying to help us. “We’re listening,” I say, taking Gabriel’s hand in mine under the table and giving it a squeeze. Autumn sighs. “Elijah is growing like a human baby because of what happened to him in utero; the stakes, the baobab mixed with blood that you ingested. This seems to have interfered with the slow growth spurt of an average Pureblood baby,” she sa
The filth of Las Vegas never fails to disgust me. I don’t know why my father insists that I come here and take over what he’s left behind when I would gladly have stayed at his side as his second. But I suppose that my best friend is here, and he owns Vegas, so there’s an upside to it. I walk into the upmarket club I’m supposed to meet him in and take a seat in the reserved VIP section. We’re meeting up for a few drinks to formally welcome me to Vegas. However, he also has some news regarding his ascension after his father’s retirement and wanted to get pissed while he’s at it. Not that it will help, since he’s a hybrid Lycan. After ordering a bourbon from the server, I sit down and observe the cattle rolling in. Every woman looks the same and they all want the same thing; it’s even more evident when you’re a vampire. You can smell the lust coming off them in waves and if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a needy, easy woman. The blatant stares coming my way makes me roll my ey
-Katherine-He stood on his knees before me, smoke billowing off his body like steam as the early signs of dawn peek over the Nevada skyline. Covered in tattoos, he looks up at me with a sexy grin spreading across his face; as if his current predicament isn’t dire. His body is a beautiful weapon; usually, I would find him alluring since it is exactly the type of muscular body I love being underneath.But this is no ordinary man on his knees; he’s a vampire bound with chains behind his back.“Times almost up; I can make this a quick death or a prolonged one, Hyde,” I say to the man in leather. I burned his jacket and patch just to fuck with him earlier, but he showed no emotion even though I know it’s the highest disrespect for a biker club member. He looks up at me with blood-red eyes, and a chill shoots up my spine. The eyes of a vampire aren’t that different from an Alpha werewolf or Lycan, except where only the irises of those beasts turn red, a vampire’s entire eye, even the whit
-Katherine-“I hate this,” I mutter as I stare at myself in the floor-length mirror. “I fucking hate this.”I’m used to black jeans, a t-shirt, and combat boots with my hair in a ponytail, but now Xenia has me dressed up in a tight-fitting black dress, mile-high heels, and red lipstick. This isn’t me at all, but it’s the me I need to be to lure Priest out.“I know, but you’ve gotta suck it up, babe; this is the type of meat Devil’s Void vamps love. Gotta put it out there to get their attention,” she says while doing my hair. She’s also dressed up, but we won’t be entering the club together. No one can know that I’ll be coming with backup, especially not with her. She’s more ruthless than I am when it comes to taking these fuckers out, but that’s because her entire family was killed by a vamp horde back in DC. They left her for dead after nearly draining her dry, but that’s when my mother found her.She’s more than my best friend; she’s my sister.After finishing up with me, we head t
-Gabriel-I knew Katherine was in town before Fenriz even called me in to take care of the problem, and as I walked out of his hotel, I set up a meeting without her even knowing I was behind it.The Death’s Temple guild has always been a thorn in my side ever since their first generation took out half of my family back in Romania. My siblings, my cousins, and nearly all of the Purebloods were taken out because they assumed we were to blame for the spate of recent killings in the small towns below our castle.Well, they weren’t wrong; my 50-year-old cousin decided to turn one of her human servant friends into a vampire, and the boy went on a rampage. 50-year-old vampires would be about ten years old in human years, so she didn’t know any better.But that little act of naivety cost half of our family, and we were forced to either fight back or flee. My father, the oldest vampire at the time, decided that we should lay low in Bulgaria for a few years before we returned home. By the time
-Katherine-I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus; my head hurts, my body feels bruised, and my mouth feels dry as shit.“Fuck,” I grumbled, sitting up in my bed and not daring to open my eyes because the sunlight would assault me further. But as I sit up, I realize that the apartment I’m renting does not have silk sheets… nor do I sleep naked.Wrenching my eyes open, I look down and find myself completely naked in a room I do not recognize. Not only that, but I can feel someone behind me… someone in the bed with me. My heart slams against my ribcage, and dread sets into my bones when I feel cold sweat dripping down the middle of my back - because I have a feeling that I know who it is.How did I get here? What happened last night after I left for the bathroom to get away from him? Standing so close to him, inhaling his sexy cologne, made my head spin, and I needed some space before I did something I would regret. And now it seems that I have.I spot my clothes lying on the floor and th