Aldric's POV “Where are you going?” Lazarus asks as he watches me pack my things. “I have to go get Imogen.” “The fuck you say.” “Uh-huh.” “Oh Christ Lazarus,” I moan and grab some clean shirts from my dresser. “How am I going to explain this to Simone? She thinks her mother is dead.” “Have you just, I don’t know, tried talking to her?” I shake my head and throw a t-shirt into my backpack. “I want to protect her so badly.” “You can’t protect her against everything.” “I can damn-well try. She didn’t have the easiest life, you know?” Lazarus nods. “Neither did you, Brother, and Darrick didn’t hide things from you, did he?” “I hated his guts though.” “And if you’re not careful, Simone will start to hate yours. What happened? How did Imogen end up in a cage in the Tyr family’s crypt?” I sigh and sag to the bed. “Imogen washed up the next night, still alive.” “Naturally.” “Darma found her.” “Oh sweet Jesus.” “Uh-huh. She bound Imogen with some kind of magic and took her to

Simone's POV Lazarus and Sebastian take it upon themselves to keep me occupied while Aldric is gone. I don’t have much time to think about him, but during the day, I find myself unable to sleep, and when I do manage to fall asleep, I always go back to that beach where Aldric found me on the night of my rebirth. I miss him with everything inside me, and every morning when I go to bed, I hope that I’ll find him in my dreams as I did on the day before he left, but either he doesn’t go to sleep, or we are too far apart to find each other. I didn't know vampires could get tired, but I am. I am exhausted. Every night,I go to the office where Sebastian teaches me how to work the computer and sort through the files, and when I’m done there, Lazarus takes me to the mansion gardens where he'll either give me lessons in sword fighting or flying. I'm not too bad with the sword, but my flying lessons aren't going too well. Lazarus's efforts are about as successful as Aldric was. “Why I can’t

Simone's POV “How’s your bloodlust?” Lazarus asks. I shrug. I haven’t felt anything close to it since those first two nights. Even my emotions seem to be doing okay. If I didn't know better, I'd say I'd been a vampire all my life. “Under control.” “You are a very different kind of neophyte,” he says. “My youngest daughter, she’s ten now, still battles with it.” Before I can answer him, Lazarus disappears, but within seconds he's back with the potion Vesper brewed for me. “I don’t know if this will work against Asmodeus, but you’d better drink a double dose of this.” I stare at the potion in disgust. “Is it really necessary?” He nods and takes a step back from me. I notice the grimace on his face and the tight muscles in his neck. “I can smell your blood, and if I can smell it-” “Every powerful vampire can. Okay.” I accept the cup from Lazarus and quickly empty it while I watch the group of vampires come ever closer. My new brother takes up position next to me and narrows his e

Simone’s POVI step out onto the porch and inhale the cold mountain air. I love it here. If I had my way, we’d move in permanently and spend the rest of our lives in the mountains.We’ve been here for two peaceful weeks. No one knows we’re here. Vesper’s magical abilities are impressive, and he somehow hid the entire compound from outside view. When we came here, I didn’t even see the sprawling mansion until we were nearly on top of it.Still afraid of my bloodlust, Aldric decided to keep me well away from the humans. We live in the groundskeeper’s cottage at the back of the property, and he won’t even allow the handful of donors in the mansion near me.Every night, I find Aldric out here waiting for me with a blood bag. I still need to drink blood three or four times a night, but the thirst isn’t as powerful as it was a few weeks ago. “Good evening,” he says and hands me a bag.I sit next to him at the little table and stare out over the landscape. We are tucked away in a deep valley

Aldric's POV“Are you high?” I ask Darrick. “How the fuck is she supposed to kill Asmodeus?”Darrick reaches inside his coat and pulls out the Ash stake. I hadn’t seen it for close to a hundred years, but what strikes me is how ordinary it is. It’s just a piece of wood. I take it from him, shuddering as my skin touches the rough wood, and put it on the table.“How did you get it?”“From Baron’s vaults. It really wasn’t that hard. I don’t know why you didn't just go in and get it yourself.”“Did he see you?” I ask, ignoring his statement completely.“No.”“Baron has a lot of powerful allies. He garnered more support over the years, made more children.”“That is not the impression I got.”“Of course not. You’ve been asleep for a hundred years. Baron just recently started to…lose his grip on reality. The vaults weren’t guarded?”Darrick shakes his head. "His mansion was practically abandoned. One of his sons were there and a few neophytes. To me it looked like they abandoned him"“That’s