Simone's POV I am right back where I started. Locked in a room all by myself. I stare out at the dying city below, my heart heavy and soul screaming out to be with Aldric. Every part of me, every cell of my being, misses him. Asmodeus took up residence in a hotel that belonged to a human. He killed the owner and enslaved the staff. The human guests fled in horror only to be met by hundreds of neophytes Asmodeus rallied to his side. It was a bloodbath. Darrick and I landed among the stinking corpses, which no one bothered to incinerate - they just left them there to rot, and for the life of me I couldn't understand why the vampires would choose to do that. “Deep breaths, Daughter,” Darrick said when he saw the expression on my face. “Remember what I told you on the way here. Don’t let Aldric feel your sorrow.” Darrick called a group of neophytes over. To my surprise, they obeyed his order when he commanded them to start a pyre and burn to corpses. “Why do they listen to you?” I ask

Aldric's POVI grit my teeth as I shift into my mist form, knowing that I’ll have to stay in this shape much longer than I’m used to or are comfortable with, but it’s the only way I can move through Asmodeus’s hotel undetected by his guards.Rather stupidly, Asmodeus didn’t enchant the whole hotel, just the part where he kept Simone, so it was easy enough to get in. It’s finding my bride that’s proving difficult. The whole place smells like her, yet nothing smells like her. I felt Simone’s fear, and knew it for what it was. She was afraid of herself, of something she might do, and still the only thing that stopped me from barging into the hotel like a raging lunatic was Luban. “Remember what Father said,” he reminded me. “She has to get Asmodeus to trust her.”It's just the two of us, sitting right in the lion's mouth. My humans and our siblings are off, criss-crossing the country, killing Ruth’s offspring as far as they go. Rumours about my whereabouts are already starting to spread

Simone's POV I don’t wake slowly as I usually do, but with a jolt and a screaming headache. I didn’t even know vampires could get headaches. Tonight, unlike other nights, there's a blood bag waiting for me on the bedside table. I'm not thirsty, but hoping it will ease the headache, I tear the bag open and drink half of it before I discard it. I feel sick. Almost hungover, and the blood is only making it worse. I killed people last night. So many that I lost count. Every kill comes crashing in on me at once, each in startling clarity, each ghost fighting inside my head to be seen first. The vampire guard outside my room. I just ripped his head off. The human slave that was in the process of washing the floors. I drank from her until her heart stopped beating and simply dropped her where we stood. The young man that came running from his room to see what was going on. I was so violent with him that I broke his neck. One by one, the murders come to me. I showed no mercy. Vampires a

Simone's POVI wake to Asmodeus screaming at someone in the hallway. "How the fuck did you let this happen?"I'm getting used to the ancient vampire's unhinged rants. He's coming undone. Every day, he is just a little worse, goes a little more insane.There’s no blood waiting for me tonight. There hasn’t been any food for a few nights now. Asmodeus killed most of the humans in the hotel, then moved on to the surrounding towns, murdering every living thing in his way. Aldric and his allies rescued those they could, the rest died or crawled into the deepest, darkest holes they could find.Our donors are wearing thin and our lord and master decided to start rationing our blood supply. This is the longest I've gone without feeding. We went from one blood bag a night to one every other night and now we’re on one a week. We’d have even less blood available if Asmodeus didn’t start to cull the vampires while he was at it.I stretch and try to work up enough saliva to swallow past the dry bur

Aldric's POVI can’t do this anymore. I can't keep having battle after battle. No one winning and no one losing. Just vampire against vampire spilling each other's blood and for what? One megalomaniac who refuses to admit he was wrong and move on with his life? I’ve been separated from my bride for nearly three months because of him, and the hole in my heart keeps growing bigger as this stupid war keeps dragging on. We’re running out of supplies – humans, blood, and soldiers alike – and Asmodeus went into hiding. Even his sons can’t find him. I haven’t spoken to Simone since the night Knut busted her out of the hotel. Athenia is close by, keeping an eye on her as she had done since Simone was a child, but the only information my sister will give me is that she is alive and well. Herod fetched Imogen from the Tyrs as I ordered. From what I understand, she was pissed as all hell, but while her bond with Baron never formed properly, she still shared a bond with their bloodline sire, an