The scraping of drapes along the metal rod above one of the windows in my room wakes me. Serena's form takes shape against the brightness of high noon.

"You do remember we have guests, don't you? You have been in bed all morning, brother. Your manners have been truly lacking since the Vondarrie's arrival. You rushed off to bed last night without so much as a good night."

Groaning, I roll over and pull a pillow over my head. I wish to go nowhere until the last of these black veins vanish from sight. I don't even have to look in a mirror to know they still mar my face. I can feel the residual heat in them simmering underneath my cool flesh.

Besides, it is best if I do not go anywhere for these veins make me want to slaughter every human within sight except for one. And the one these veins wish to spare want me to do unspeakable things.

No, I will go nowhere until I am thoroughly detoxed from whatever witchery dwells in those talisman Kinley purchased to arm herself against my kind.

"Up." Serena rips the covers off me only to instantly regret it.

"Do you mind?" I yank the covers back over me to cover my nakedness.

Since I got back, I am having a hard time regulating my body temperature. I alternate between freezing from the oversaturation of venom in my bloodstream to running a mild fever.

No matter what I try, I can't get comfortable in my own skin.

"Tristan?" Sabrina's voice chimes from my doorway. Before she can step foot into my room, Kalista comes bounding in here in cut-off jean shorts and a mid-drift tank top.

"Do you like it?" The princess twirls around proudly, showcasing her very human-esque outfit. "Sabrina and Serena took me shopping. They said my outdated fashion would draw too much attention." She stops her swirling and plops on the bed right next to me, her legs folded underneath her as she eagerly awaits approval.

"It's...revealing." I clench the one sheet I have tighter to me, sending a warning glare to Serena before the snide comment about me being in my own kind of revealing state can come out of her mouth.

"Sorry for the intrusion, brother, but the princess wished to show you part of her new wardrobe," Sabrina says, her fiery red hair more suited for the spirited personality of Serena than the docile temper she houses.

Serena and I take after our father with hair so black it rivals the dark on that of a moonless and starless night.

"It's so intricate and pretty." Kalista grabs the cross necklace around my neck. "Can I have it?" She flicks her purple-eyed gaze to me. The way she is looking at me makes me feel like the question she wants to be asking is, can she have me?

The devil in heaven, how can she want to be my mate when we have never met before? It makes me wonder what kind of things my mother and father filled her head with?

With one yank, the chain yields to my strength. "Take it. I have no use for it anymore." I let the necklace drop in the princess's hand.

"You broke it." She pouts as she regards the snapped chain.

"I'm sure it can be fixed." I get up from bed, keeping the sheet wrapped around me and saunter over to my closet.

Don't these females have something better to do than pester me with their nonsense?

As I pull on my usual black V-neck cotton tee and dark wash jeans, the image of the six scars that deface the left side of the human's neck comes to mind. The bite mark makes no sense. If a vampire killed Kinley's parents, why didn't he finish her off too?

Maybe he tried, yet failed and that is how she got the bite mark. But can a human really be immune to our venom?

I'm almost 900 years old and have never heard of such an occurrence happening. There is no reference in any of our kinds' literature of immunity being possible. It shouldn't be possible. Our venom paralyzes and shuts down our prey's body. This human's heart should have stopped the night one of my kind sank their fangs into her neck.

I curse myself for not compelling the human to tell me what happened that night she lost her parents. That is what I should have done instead of messing with her. There is one person besides the human that would know what happened that night—Angela, the human's therapist.

If I hurry, I can make it there before Kinley's appointment. I can ask all the questions I need and the questions Angela can't give me the answers to, I can compel her to ask Kinley for me.

I would do it myself. However, I don't want to be anywhere near the human until I can get rid of the talisman she has that is threatening to make me commit abominable acts that defy the very nature of predator and prey.

When I emerge from my closet after getting ready, I find my sisters have left yet there is still an unwelcome body in my room. The princess is right where I left her, her uninvited, barely covered butt still sitting on my bed.

"Why did you refuse my father's offer?" The princess asks. "Do you not want to rule one day?" She gets off my bed and makes her way over to me.

"I cannot think of a worse fate than to be tied to the throne." My statement shocks the princess, her eyes widening momentarily as if I just spoke something blasphemous.

Her widen-gaze narrows, transforming her childlike expression into one that vaguely resembles anger. "You will do so if I command it."

A scoffing chuckle rattles in my chest. "If your father can not command me, neither can you, Princess."

"He can command you. He chooses not to. I, on the other hand, am the future queen of the Vampirie. As such, I have full authority to command my subjects to obey."

I turn around sharply and press into that personal space Kalista seems so fond of breaking since her arrival here. I keep breaking it until her back hits the wall and there is no more space for me to invade.

"Your father has done you a disservice by pandering to your childish whims. As a ruler, your job is to keep the bloodline going and keep our existence from the knowledge of the humans we prey upon. The only time you may command your subjects to do anything is in a time of war. Vampirie are not slaves or pawns of their ruler. We are allowed to live freely as long as we abide by the one rule of our kind." Anger wicks into my gut at the gull of this spoiled little brat.

"There was a time when the Vampirie did as they were commanded. If my father hadn't been so careless, we wouldn't be facing the potential uprising we are today."

"Those days are long gone and you, Princess, are certainly not the Prince of Darkness for only he possesses the power to command the Vampirie as we were fashioned solely to do his bidding, not yours."

"You will become my mate, Tristan Darkos." Kalista places herself in front of the doorway to stop me from leaving. "You will rule by my side for it is your duty to safeguard the future of the Vampirie and the royal bloodline from which I hail," Kalista states firmly.

I can hear the princess's mother Arianna's strength in her words, yet it does nothing to sway me.

"Or perhaps"—I rip the cross necklace from Kalista's hand, no longer feeling charitable—"I will lead the uprising that will dethrone your family as I am certain the Dark Prince would be disgusted if he knew that the descendants of his bloodline are the ones who have forced us into the shadows. Instead of being revered as a god that once lived, his own bloodline let his legacy be reduced to a myth that grows more imperceptible with each smut-filled book being pedaled in every human bookstore."

The hard slap the princess delivers to my cheek echoes within the confines of my room. It is a justly deserved slap, yet I have no time to deal with her intensified fledgling emotions.

"The only one of us who will be commanding anyone in this house is me. Your father charged me with your care. As someone who could easily remove your head from your shoulders or heart from your chest in the matter of time it takes for you to say my name, I suggest you learn some respect for your elders."

It is time for me to set some ground rules for the princess.

"You may be a princess but, without someone like my father or me there to protect you, there wouldn't be a you. If things are as bad as Alekos says they are, then there is a reason he has kept your birth from being announced. And that reason is he knows you are nothing but an obstacle to overcome for those who seek to return to the days when the Vampirie didn't have to hide. So, instead of commanding me to become your mate, perhaps you should be thanking me for ensuring your head stays attached to your shoulders."

I leave a stunned and lip quivering, crimson-welling-in-the-eyes Kalista behind in my wake. I'm sure my sisters will have something to say about my harsh treatment of her when I return. I'll deal with all that later, right now I have less than an hour to make it to San Diego and compel Dr. Angela Wakelin to tell me everything she knows about the night of the attack that has led to a human's knowledge of our kind.

I shove the visual of the way Kinley fell back onto her bed out of my mind. The last thing I need to be thinking about is the way her silk top did little to hide her body's reaction to my cold flesh. What I need to be worried about is how she came by that scar on her neck and is still alive.

The corners of my mouth pull downward.

I'll give you two guesses which thought my mind chooses to favor.

Yeah...

Damn this insufferable sickness I have been dealt.