The music thumping inside Deviant House Seven can be heard before I exit the limo courtesy Shadow Enterprise. The glowing, red-neon sign for the first time feels ominous to me. The club has been shut down for this party. Bouncers, demon and vampire hired muscle, are turning away those who weren't invited, human and vampire alike.

"Oh my gosh, Kinley, we are about to go to our first LA nightclub!" Maya gushes as she and Kinley exit the car.

Kinley forces a grim smile to her face. She doesn't want to dampen Maya's spirits, but she also doesn't know if Maya's spirit is genuine or a side effect of my compulsion.

I made sure Kinley wore black. She will blend in more if she does. Her dress is a formfitting long-sleeved dress that stops mid thigh. It's reserved, but the large cut out in the back with lace trimmings turns this innocent dress into one that burns too low in me.

Gritting my teeth, I push down the ball of fire that is starting to send burning smoke throughout me.

"Shall we?" Kalista hooks her arm around mine, her pale lavender dress elegant and befitting her station.

I glance over at Kinley. Maya is touching up her lips with a shimmering pink lip gloss.

"Hold still, you need more color on these babies." Maya puts the brush back in the lip gloss tube. "There, much better. Now, we can go party like the young wild hellions we are!"

Kinley drops her gaze to the ground when she sees me staring at her. I can almost hear her mentally repeating my words to her: no eye contact, head down, don't talk to anyone. It is hard for her to honor the part where I said for her to stay plastered to my side as Kalista has seen to it to adhere herself to my side instead.

"You humans ready to come to the dark side?" Dorian flashes a devilish grin as he puts his arms around Maya and Kinley, ushering them closer to the door with a vampire holding the guest list.

"If the dark side is as hot as you and Tristan than I am most certainly ready. Bring on the drinks and hotties!" Maya shouts, drawing attention from a few vampires lingering near by.

Kinley's shoulders tense, her gaze flicking to me in a pleading look that says, don't let anything happen to Maya.

My jaw bows out and that heat inside me turns to ice. She's about to walk into a room full of vampires and demons, yet the only thing she worries about is Maya. She should be more concerned about a nosebleed happening or the fact Dorian's hand on the small of her back is an inch away from touching her rear.

"Ah, the Darkos and Vondarrie. Welcome. The Norvak will be very pleased you came." I tip my head to the bouncer, ignoring the unsettling feeling that is welling inside me.

Two hours. I can keep the peace for two hours.

"Look what Haysha dragged in." Kerrien Norvak spots us like he has been waiting for the moment we arrive. "This must be the hush-hush princess I have heard so much about." Kerrien circles us, his gaze raking Kalista from head to toe in a fashion that makes me think he's trying to assess the easiest way to rip it from her body.

"I'd say it is nice to see you, but fake pleasantries have never been my strong suit." I step in front of Kalista, shielding her from Kerrien's licentious and wicked gaze.

Kerrien chuckles. "You know, I had hope you would have stayed home. Your sisters have always been much better company than you. Looks like you brought gifts." Kerrien's attention falls onto Maya and Kinley.

"Sorry, Kerrien. These two here are meirrus, and this one"-Dorian squeezes Kinley into his side-"is the future chalice to the future queen of the Vampirie. Appetizing smelling, isn't she?" Dorian winks, his charm in full swing.

I catch Kerrien by his shoulder before he can get a foot away from me and sample what isn't his. "If you wish to feed from the one on the left, all you have to do is ask. The one on the right, her flesh isn't for the taking." I release his shoulder after I hear a satisfying crunch.

Kerrien's eyes narrow at me as he rolls his crushed shoulder, the healing process quick as he is as well fed as I am. "I see you got the princess her own pure blood source. It has to be one of the finest I have ever come across. However, if you are offering up a glass of the other, who am I to refuse."

"Dorian, please take Maya to the Scarlet Lounge and prepare a taste for Kerrien. And while you are at it, make one for Damian and their cousin."

Kinley steps forward for a moment, her mouth opening and shutting before the first word comes out. She smashes her teeth together and looks down at the ground.

"My pleasure," Dorian purrs, his thirst coming to the surface as he will be the one to lick Maya's wounds.

"Okay, but just a taste. I still haven't recovered from this morning as I had to feed two of you." Maya walks off with Dorian like they are about to go share a milkshake together.

The ease and willingness as Maya heads off with Dorian causes Kinley to ball her hands into fists at her sides and bite her lip. She feels helpless just as all of her species should around our kind.

"Tell me, Princess. How is your father fairing? He seemed rather pale the last time my father saw him at the council meeting," Kerrien says, his eyes on me and not Kalista's. He's trying to gauge my reaction to see how much I know about what is going on.

"He's doing well." Kalista keeps her reply short, which causes Kerrien to chuckle. It isn't a chuckle of delight either. It's a dark laugh that lets me know things are about to take a turn from pleasant to potentially blood soaking.

"With that tone, I'd say we have gotten off on the wrong foot. I'm sure you are aware of the bad blood between the Darkos and my family, but I bet no one has bothered to tell you how it all started." Kerrien grabs a drink from the tray from the waiter walking by, downs it, and sets it back on the tray.

"This isn't the place to rehash the past," I growl, trying my best to keep the worst mistake I ever made from surfacing.

"On the contrary, I think this is the perfect time and place to let your future mate know what kind of vampire she has been paired with. I don't know why the council acts like you are some second coming of the Dark Prince, but hey, their call. I just want the princess to know the truth because we both know I would make a much better pairing to her than you, Darkos. The only thing you care about is spilling blood."

Black temporarily suspends my vision. The only thing that keeps me in place is Kalista's death grip on my arm and knowing that this is what Kerrien wants. He wants me to lose my temper.

"Perhaps, it is his lack of thirst for power that is the reason the council chose him," Kalista says, accepting the drink Sabrina hands her.

"That depends, Princess, on which you think is a more worthy cause-the unquenchable lust for blood or the lust to restore the name of the Dark Prince and the Vampirie who are his subjects. You seem as smitten with Tristan as my sister Isabella was."

All the muscles in me tense at the sound of that name. It's been five centuries and still, her name haunts me.

"Sister? I thought all your father has ever had were sons?" Kalista's hand slips from my arm as she turns to face me, confusion written in the crease of her brow.

"You would be mistaken. We had a sister once, didn't we Tristan?"

"You can blame me all you want, Kerrien. I didn't force Izzy to drive a stake through her heart. She did that on her own." I push the memories trying to overcome me back.

Kerrien's scoffs so loud it nearly burst my eardrums as the darkness in it causes Kalista's skin to rise in little bumps.

"Is that how you make yourself feel better? Izzy took her life because of you. You laid with her then acted as if it meant nothing because it didn't mean anything to you. Nothing but bloodshed means anything to a vampire like you. Izzy killed herself because you broke her heart when you denied her feelings by leaving. Izzy was different, Tristan. You know that. She was wrapped in too much light to be surrounded by the darkness we live in. We kept her safe, and then you came along and destroyed her."

My blood feels like it has been taken over by ice. Kerrien is right. His sister was one of the rare anomalies that happen. No one knows what causes it, if it's something to do with the chalice chosen, yet occasionally one of our kind is born without any thirst for blood. They are meek and often behave very similar to humans in manner.

Izzy was one of those vampires. It is customary to let such an infant starve. Isabella was the first-born female in five generations of Norvak. They couldn't let her pass. They had hoped she would find her way. It's why I was there, to help encourage her in the ways of our kind.

I was so high off of blood that night I don't remember any of it. I just know I woke up to Izzy next to me. There were dead bodies all around us. I left her there, sleeping in sheets stained red. Three years later, I got word Izzy staked herself. Two weeks passed after her death when a letter arrived in the mail:

My dearest Tristan,

I can bear life no more. Without you, this place is just a dead rock steeped in the blood you so crave. I wish you could thirst for me as you do the crimson that flows through the humans, but you can't, and you never will. I have waited for you to return to me. That day has never come because to you our night together meant nothing whereas it meant everything to me. I cannot compete with the lust you house for death, but I can part this world knowing the only vampire who ever touched me was the one I loved.

Yours forever and even in the afterlife,

Izzy.

"Do you all feel that?" Sabrina asks, interrupting my unwanted trip to the past and whatever heated words lie on the tip of Kerrien's tongue.

"Feel what?" Kalista slants are body toward my sister.

"I don't know. Something...something that has a power I've never felt before is heading this way. I can feel it in the air."

Sabrina has always been sensitive to the atmosphere that surrounds us. It takes a great deal of effort to suppress my energy low enough to where she can't find me when I don't want to be found.

"You're probably sensing Wroth. He's known as the Reaper of Demons. He's most powerful when he's tied to a human vessel. I'd introduce everyone, but it is best to stay off his radar. Those who usually fall on it end up dead. Vampires too."

The rest of the conversation is lost on me as I notice Kinley isn't standing by Sabrina anymore. My gaze flits around the crowded room and packed dance floor as I search for where she could have gone. Clearly, my order to stay by my side meant nothing to her. She saw I was distracted and ran the first chance she got.

A pang of instant dread turns my blood into frostbitten glass. She wouldn't?

I turn toward the darkened hallway that Dorian escorted Maya through. The bold, glowing neon letters above the doorway read The Scarlet Lounge. The Scarlet Lounge is a series of private rooms where anything goes: pain, pleasure, or a place to quench a vampire's thirst. Many humans who enter the Scarlet Lounge never come back out. Kinley would be one of those humans.

Ire I have never felt before breaches every cell in my body and electrocutes them. I'm angry at Kinley for being so stupid, and I'm furious I didn't notice her slip away. I let Kerrien Norvak get to me and it may cost me Kinley.

Maya has become too great of a liability. If Kinley's savoir complex hasn't already gotten her cinnamon-spiced-self killed, I'm going to have to get rid of her troublesome friend.

"Come with me." I grab Kalista by the wrist and head in the direction of what I wish was an antherest-induced dream.

My sisters aren't strong enough to protect Kalista should Kerrien try to claim our future queen in my absence. Plus, I don't know where Serena went even if she could help. She must be off mingling or out on the dance floor. It doesn't matter at this moment. All I care about is finding the human who defied me the way she defies everything else about my kind and keeping my promise to Alekos to safeguard the Princess.

Fifteen steps from reaching the Scarlet Lounge hallway, Dorian emerges with a woozy Maya and Kerrien and Damian's cousin that's to be paired. They must have run into him on the way and Dorian offered a direct tasting. What's most important is there is no Kinley.

I spin Kalista around and pin her with a hardened gaze that is as scary as it is manically wild. "Go to Dorian and do not leave his side. Find Serena. Keep Kerrien feeling like there may be a chance with you." I leave before Kalista can get her mouth opened wide enough to reply.

I leave before Kalista can get her mouth opened wide enough to reply.

Quickly, I begin searching in the private rooms of the Scarlet Lounge, witnessing all kinds of debauchery and feedings. All I can think about is Kinley in one of these rooms. If Dorian felt the persuasion of her blood that means others will too.

My stomach twist and I feel ill among the out-of-control rage inside me.

Why doesn't the human ever listen to me? Damn you, Kinley!

It's useless for me to try and focus on her scent. There is too much other free-flowing blood. My mind is moving too fast to take the time to filter hers out from the other scents that comprise these dark, often one-way halls of Deviant House Seven's Scarlet lounge.

"You looking for something?" a gruff voice asks, a pair of red eyes glowing from the shadow the demon is cloaking his self with.

"A human, short, dark curled hair wearing a black dress. Incredibly sweet smelling blood."

The demon burst out in hissing laughter, stepping out from the dark corner he seems to prefer. "I see some things never change." The demon crosses his arms over his chest.

"Did you see her? Yes or no?" The tenor of my voice drops into one that reflects the darkness in me as one of Haysha's offspring.

The demon leans against the wall, a smirk I very much one to rip off his face tugging at his lips. I can tell by the energy output of this fellow dark being the demon I am talking to is Wroth.

I swear to the Dark Prince I will end him if he thinks he is going to tether himself to Kinley to use her as his vessel. I know demons like to use virgin humans when they do things like that. There is more power to be had from corrupting a pure child of the humans' god.

"She went that way. Out the exit door." Wroth tilts his head toward the back door that leads into the alleyway. "You may want to hurry. She had a sexy, vampy vixen on her heels and Damian Norvak. They looked rather thirsty."

I don't waste time, and it is a good thing the demon told me when he did. That vampy vixen Wroth mentioned spurts blood all over Kinley as I rip her jaw clean off her before she has a chance to sink her fangs into Kinley's juicy carotid artery.

Kinley's paralyzed form unlocks. She screams at the sight of the female vampire who is gushing blood and struggling to hold her tongue in her mouth now that her lower mandible is missing.

Just as I am about to pull her away from Kinley, I find myself being smashed into the brick walls of House Seven so hard bricks cave to the force that tackled me. The angry talons of another female vampire gouge my face as she bites into my neck with every intention of ripping my throat out.

By the fierceness of the feral attack, I know that the vampire whose jaw I ripped off is her mate. There is no reasoning with a female vampire who is out for blood. I grab hold of the female's face to crush it. She counters by pulling back and tearing a sizable hole in my neck. I ignore the blood escaping, already feeling the wound regenerating.

My attempt to make it to Kinley before Damian Norvak can take his turn with her gets hindered when the female who tore into my throat jumps on my back and bites into my neck again.

Latching onto the female, I rip her forward, sending her tumbling over me and smashing into the pavement. I have said I can do a lot in a second and, it's true, I can.

Damian Norvak's heart falls from my blood-soaked hand onto the dirty alleyway behind the most popular vamp club in all of LA.

Kinley's irises mirror a green sea in the midst of a tropical storm that has yet to reach landfall. She was less than a second away from losing her heart.

Damian couldn't deal with the marriage of her potent scent and the thundering of her racing heart. He succumbed to his instinct like most of my kind would if they were to ever get their hands on Kinley.

I catch Kinley before her knees can give out. She buries her face into my chest to muffle her scream of horror. Her human mind is fracturing into a million pieces, unable to cope with the bloody events that just took place. I know her soul is also probably crying out for the loss of her parents as her tears soak into my crimson-stained shirt.

She's witnessed up close and personal how easy it must have been for the vampire who killed her parents to rip them apart. Her mind can now fill in the unknown moments of that night, and it can do so in a raging, gore-filled way.

"We have to go." I keep my voice stern yet calm.

It's always difficult being this close to Kinley as I can always feel her beating heart as if it harbors a place inside my chest as well.

Damian Norvak's death at the hands of a Darkos will divide the five bloodlines.

Kalista was right for a second time. War is coming, and it only took me a second to start it.