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Chapter One

“SUNRISE IS COMING,” BALTHAZAR SAID

Those were the first words anyone had spoken aloud in hours Although I didn’t want to hear anything Balthazar had to say — about this or anything else — I kneas right Va dawn deep in their bones

Could Lucas feel it, too?

We sat in the projection room of an abandoned theater, where the poster-covered walls still bore ht’s battle Vic, the only human in the room, dozed on Ranulf’s shoulder, his sandy hair mussed from sleep; Ranulf sat quietly, bloodstained ax across his lap as though he expected , thin face and bowl haircut had never made him look more like a medieval saint Balthazar stood in the far corner of the roorief Yet his height and his broad shoulders meant he took up more than his share of room

I cradled Lucas’s head in my lap Had I been alive, or a va would have h, freed of the deh the whole long night of his death I brushed backnot to notice that the ends had trailed in Lucas’s blood

Charity had e of Lucas’s desire to protect me rather than himself It was her latest and most horrible attempt to hurt me, driven by her hatred for anybody who mattered to Balthazar, her brother and sire She’d violated a va someone another vampire had bitten first — who had, in effect, been prepared for the transfor to undead Lucas was supposedly mine to turn, or no one’s But Charity hadn’t cared about any taboos in a long ti except her twisted relationship with Balthazar

Wherever she was now, she was no doubt reveling in the fact that she’d broken my heart, and that she’d thrust Lucas into the very last place he would ever want to be

I’d rather be dead, Lucas had always said When I was alive and soa vampire with me But he had been raised by the hunters of Black Cross, who loathed the undead and pursued the into a vahtmare

Now that night?” I said

“Minutes” Balthazar took one step forward, saw the expression on o”

“What’s happening?” Vic’s voice was scratchy with sleep He pushed hiht, and his expression shifted from confusion to horror as he looked at Lucas’s body, bloody and pale on the floor “Oh! — for a sec, I thought I’d just had a night But this — it’s real”

Balthazar shook his head “I’m sorry, Vic, but you need to leave”

I realized what Balthazar meant My parents, who had alanted me to follow in their footsteps, had told me about the first hours of the transition When Lucas rose as a vampire, he would want fresh blood — want it desperately, as , his hunger could push every other thought out of his mind

He’d be hungry enough to kill