Dubai

9:38 p.m.

Lyn ran up the stairs to her hotel room barefoot, gripping a pair of black heels in her hand. Alcohol and drugs left her inebriated. Drake’s face soon returned to her mind. The sumptuous man with copper-colored skin with dark hair and blue eyes. Even after a week, perhaps a month, it didn’t relent. Guilt and rage diluted her conscience. She failed in every way possible. Nothing she did could ever atone or repay Drake’s kindness.

An oil tycoon offered her a hefty sum for the black pearls strung around her neck. After a five-minute exchange, Lynda Valeska became the richest woman in Dubai. Not that it mattered. She thought selling the pearls would rid her of the pain, but only made it worse. The next thing she knew she was wishing Drake never existed.

Here she stood in front of a golden door to her hotel room, lined with diamonds and rubies. The door only accepted a certain keycard, a keycard coated in gold and silver. Lyn opened the door to her suite. Clothes littered the floor, along with empty bottles of liquor. Empty pizza boxes accompanied them.

She entered her bathroom and stared into the mirror. Lyn hardly recognized herself. Drake’s handsome face and smile formed in the mirror. Her body swelled with rage and with one strike she smashed the mirror into pieces. Lyn stumbled backward and slammed the door.

A crisp breeze ran in the room through the balcony. She hugged herself and walked outside. Outside, she heard blaring streets and ear-piercing music. Arrays of lights scattered across the distance, and towering skyscrapers loomed over the streets like a steel Olympus. The smell of fire lingered in the air. To her, Dubai resembled an alien world from the Sci-Fi flicks she enjoyed watching so much.

Lyn closed her eyes before stepping up on the balcony’s concrete wall. She knocked off a potted plant that plunged into the pool some seventy feet below. A foot hovered over the edge of the abyss. Powerful gusts shook her body and the seductive dress she wore. She balanced herself and took another step to the edge.

Her gaze strayed to the crescent-shaped pools beneath that resembled a moon. Its emerald waters beckoned her to dive and bask within them. Another foot stepped closer to the edge, her toes looming over nothingness. She saw Drake’s face again, and it brought back a precious memory. She closed her eyes and dwelled on the past.

“Lyn, once you jump into that pool. There’s no going back.”

They stood on a catwalk seated high above a marvelous fountain flowing with a crimson liquid. Amid the fountain was an unprecedented sculpture carved with a certain sagacity not of this era. Lyn gulped as she looked down, the conflict in her head was obvious. The pool of blood beneath looked closer with every glance. She turned to Drake, who awaited her answer.

“I would do anything for you,” she replied.

“Then as you jump into that fountain you die. But as you emerge from its depth you become something new. Something better…” His blue eyes blazed, and he smiled. “Come Lyn, see the world through my eyes. It can be ours for the taking. Yours and mine. Will you come?”

The inscrutable countenance on his face. A kind of genuine and understanding smile that one saw maybe once in a lifetime. A rare smile of quality and eternal reassurance. The smile that recognized the best qualities in her that even she didn’t see. It decided for her.

She slipped off her dress, letting it slide to her ankles revealing pale, glowing skin. Drake stood in awe at the presence of such a goddess. Her flowing green hair and emerald eyes. The creator himself took extra time to sculpt her from clay into the perfect figure and breathe life into it. Bruises covered her back and neck, making her black and blue. The bruises she received for him. A symbol of her unconditional love and loyalty.

Lyn vanquished Drake’s enemies on his behalf and endured their fury. And now, after several years apart, they reunited. He looked at her to see a different woman. She wasn’t that same scared girl he had found in the French countryside. She was one worthy to bear the title as his new bride. A sacred union sealed in blood.

And as she plunged into the depths of the crimson pool she changed, anointed into something new. Drake unbuttoned his shirt and removed his shoes before jumping in behind her. His bride gasped for air as he retrieved her from the depths. Drake’s unfamiliar scent left her aloof, and the blood cleared from her eyes.

Lyn greeted him with a kiss. From this moment onward, their lives would be intertwined. Then Drake feasted on the blood of his bride, his rows of fangs resembling that of a shark. His grip was like iron as he held in her place and marked her neck. It would create a bond so strong that it would transcend through time itself. Lyn moaned as he held her close and orgasmed. No moment of her entire life felt more carnal than now.

He let out a fierce roar like that of a lion. His massive fangs dripped with her blood. Lyn’s eyes formed a golden, petal-like pattern around her pupil that mimicked a sunflower. Her iris the color of the freshest drop of rain. Once again, he gave her a new purpose. To bleed for him, die for him, or live for him and in no particular order.

Her eyes opened again, and she hovered over the precipice of oblivion. A single foot anchored her to the balcony. But a slight gale disrupted her footing, and she fell forward. Her heart jolted, but something stopped her fall. She looked back to see half her body over the edge and a powerful force pulling her back to safety.

“I’ve got you my dear Lyn…”

There was no mistake in her mind. Those cinnamon-colored eyes and curls like the sun. Sullivan Grundy, second in line to the Grundy fortune and also one of the wealthiest men in the world. Everyone knew his name. In his white tuxedo, he rivaled Drake himself. And for a moment, she didn’t see or picture Drake’s face. She didn’t resist as Sullivan carried her to the bed. Her body melted in his arms. He sat her down against the soft sheets.

Sullivan pulled covers over her. He stroked her soft green hair, letting it flow between his fingers like silk. “You’re safe now,” he breathed. “My God, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Lynda Valeska...”

She found great comfort in his words that left herself vulnerable. Lyn leaned in for a kiss, which Sullivan accepted without question. He wrapped his arms around her as she did him. Sullivan’s cologne was that of cinnamon and roses. Her body resonated with warmth as he slowly peeled away her clothes, one piece at a time. She adored the way he kissed her neck and teased her with light nibbles. For the rest of the night, she and Sullivan embraced each other and made endless love. As Drake’s moon disappeared, Sullivan rose with the sun.