A shrill scream right in my eardrum pulls me from the best sleep of my life. I open my eyes to see Kinley scrambling away from me so fast she falls off the bed, taking the bloodstained top sheet with her.

Bloodstained?

Looking around, I see the gray sheet I am laying on is also smeared with red as am I. Actually, I am covered in it. My jeans are splattered and the shirt on the floor next to the bed is soaked in crimson as well. My mind races trying to piece together what is happening. Last thing I remember is going to bed and falling asleep to the sounds of Kinley's heartbeat.

The most disturbing part is the blood covering me isn't just human. It's vampire and demon as well.

The memory of me waking up during the night because I was so thirsty my throat felt like it was on fire hits me full force. I remember now. I went to the kitchen to get something. When I closed the fridge, the Beast of the Damned was right there. Before I could react, he lunged at me. With one quick twist, he broke my neck.

I'd like to believe this is a side effect of antherest, but I haven't touched the stuff since the first bad trip.

"Why are you covered in blood? Whose blood is it? It's on me. Someone's blood is on me." Kinley panics when she sees blood also stains her silk nightclothes.

Last night was the first night she's ever worn them, but that's probably because it's what I handed her after she forgot to grab clothes when she took her shower.

I attempt to drown out Kinley's frantically racing pulse and shrieking voice so I can try to piece together what the hell has happened.

The thumping music of a club pounds in my ears as flashes of last night enter my conscious mind—two human girls loudly laughing as they exit a nightclub, one nearly falls off her platform stilettos in her drunkenness. Her friend had to support her. The next image that comes to me is the human girls unlocking their apartment door in a not so nice part of town. They are giggling and having trouble standing up, yet they invite me in.

I'm not me. There are no black veins, but I am not me. The Beast has taken over me. I can feel his ravenous hunger growing out of control. One human goes to get me a drink and the other puts on music and starts to dance.

The Beast lets the human walk right up to him and circle her arms around his neck. There's a knock at the door. His head snaps in the direction it came from, searing heat turning his eyes black immediately.

The one whose arms are around my grandfather that possesses me screams as the black veins pulse into sight and his fangs elongate preparing for who is on the other side of the door.

What comes next is a blur of three vampires and two demons, body parts, and massive amounts of blood. It all happens so fast my brain can't process the speed of the Beast's movements.

When it's all said and done, the two human girls with blood splattered all over them are the only ones left standing. They don't get the chance to scream before one's heart is ripped out and the other's throat is torn wide open in his feeding frenzy.

The buzzing on my cell phone from an incoming text pulls me back into reality and away from the massacre that I took part in last night.

Thank you for trusting Shadow's services. Remember, there is no mess too big for us to clean. They end their text with a smiley face as they usually do when you use their cleaning services for damage control.

"You're not answering. That means it's human. You killed someone." Kinley begins to shake as she stares down at her clothes like the soul of whoever I killed has attached itself to the life force that stains them.

Getting out of bed, I leave a trembling Kinley to speculate as I head to the bathroom. I need some time to sort through everything, the faces. I know I saw those faces at Deviant House, but I don't know them personally which means they are more than likely friends of the Norvak.

I barely have a moment to myself when Kinley comes barging in here on shaking legs and a spine made of steel apparently.

"How...how many did you kill?" She locks eyes with me, the stumble of her words doing nothing to tone down the hate seeping through.

A sharp laugh cuts through the air, slicing my throat on the way out. "Don't ask questions you don't want answers to, human."

It's like somewhere in Kinley's head she thought because I let Maya go and killed one of my own to save her that now I am a "changed" vampire-a little cuddly, non-killing monster that she has touched with her purity and selflessness.

Gag me.

"Do you really have no remorse for the humans you kill?" This time her voice splits, cracking as if I have wounded her human sensitivities in the most grievous of ways.

"I was fashioned solely to consume the blood of my prey. Humans are vampires' prey. Me killing a human is no different than you eating an apple or consuming the carcass of the animal in those tacos you seem so fond of." The bite in my words causes Kinley's heart rate to spike, which agitates me more than I already am.

By the expression on Kinley's face, I can tell she's struggling to formulate a reply. If I had not included the apple, I bet she'd tell me she would go vegan if I promised to stop killing her kind.

"How can you kill something that looks so similar to you?" She attacks the topic the only way she can at this point.

I reach Kinley in three long strides. "Easily." I continue moving forward till her back hits the wall behind her. "Your kind does it all the time."

"They...they don't eat them." Kinley's gaze doesn't know where to go with me so close so it roams over my chest that she is eye-level with down to the red that is smeared on my arms. When her gaze lifts after taking in the horror show that resides on my skin, it doesn't move past my mouth.

Kinley sucks in an uneven breath as she stares at my mouth, having no trouble picturing the teeth behind my lips after her exploration of them.

"You are wrong, human. There are many tribes through your kinds history that feasted upon other humans." I let the weight of my lower body sink onto Kinley, grabbing her chin and lifting it until our gazes meet. "You call my kind a monster, but we have never consumed our own kinds' flesh."

Kinley's complexion whitens at my mentioning of humanity's dark dealings as she sees it. I want to tell her that famine in her kinds world has led to some unsavory things I've witnessed and that there are places where cannibalism still exists. That may end with puke on me so I don't, as she looks ready to hurl.

"I don't understand you," she says softly, water gathering in her sea-green eyes. "I don't understand any of this. Sometimes, I feel like none of this is real. That the truth is I'm in a coma and this is all some long extended nightmare. I keep thinking I may wake up and see my parents again."

Kinley stiffens when I lick the tear making its way down her cheek. "You read too many novels and have seen too many bad movies, human."

A smirk forms when my calculated action pays off by ceasing the storm trying to well inside her by shocking her with the feel of my wet, cold tongue against her warm flesh.

"If it makes you feel better, most of the blood isn't human."

My hand slips to Kinley's hip, teasing her flesh with the backside of my knuckles as it rubs along the skin above the rim of her sleep shorts. I'm succumbing to her cinnamon scent. The beast inside of me has had his fill of blood, and now he's ready to take the other thing he thirsts for.

"Are you thinking about biting me?" Kinley sucks in her stomach, extremely uncomfortable with the intimacy of my caress and where I am touching her.

"What did you just say?" My hand stops moving, my tone darkening instantly.

"Your eyes." She swallows hard. "They've turned black."

I push myself away from Kinley and turn around to look at myself in the mirror. The blue of my irises is still visible, but I can see the black veins crawling into the blue even from here. It won't be long before searing heats shoots into me so fast it brings me to my knees.

"Argh!" I growl out as the black tunnels through me with a vengeance. It's takeover hostile and swift so I can't fight back. By the strength buzzing through me, I know this is a battle I will lose. And I do as an internal explosion of power turns my world into a black hole where my consciousness ceases to exist.

"Tristan? There is someone at the door." Serena's voice breaches the vacuum of blackness that overtook me.

When my vision becomes my own again, I find I have Kinley up on the counter and am situated between her legs while my mouth is positioned at her ear. I must have been saying something to her because she's still as can be and nervous. Not the nervous because she's scared of our kind, nervous because I've unsettled her in a different way.

It's the way one of my hands is holding onto her left hip while the other is gently massaging her right above her knee in an almost soothing manner. I'd ask her what I said, but I can tell she doesn't know. The Beast must have been speaking in Latin or another language all together like he did last night. I didn't recognize anything he said the moment before the drunken human girl opened the door and let in the uninvited company.

"I'll be right out." I back away from Kinley, my cells still feeling as if they are on fire.

The Beast told me he would rise in her blood, yet I haven't consumed any of her life force. The blood I had the other day when she nearly died or the drop of red I ingested from her pricked finger, can so little bring him to the surface?

I'm honestly not sure it's only Kinley's blood that stirs him. I think it's just being near her.

Kinley squeaks as I grab her by the throat and crush her against my solid frame.

"What are you?" The fire in me gets extinguished by freezing ice blasting into me.

"I...I'm human." She grabs onto my wrist out of instinct. It's normal for a human to latch onto the object that is threatening to squeeze the life right out of them.

"What. Are. You?" The evil hiss in my words causes the hairs on Kinley's arms to stand on end as I apply more pressure to her throat.

It doesn't get lost on me that my hand is shaking. I want to squeeze harder but I can't. The beast that wants to possess Kinley isn't allowing it.

"I'm human." She attempts to pry my hand away from her throat even though she knows it's useless.

"No, you aren't. You are something else." I release her because, despite every impulse in me that wants to rip into her in my frustration, I'm incapable of hurting her and that only proves my point.

If she were human, I'd have killed her a long time ago.

I leave Kinley on the tiles of the bathroom floor where she collapsed as air rushed back into her lungs too quickly. Her lungs failed her in her fear of me.

It's the most conflicting feeling, wanting her to fear me but, at the same time, it saddens me. Hurts almost to see her look at me like I am worse than the devil herself.

I don't know why I care. Why I give a damn what she feels or thinks. What creature known to this planet has the power to embed light into a dark being? That is what she is doing. That's the heat. She's pushing away the darkness that lives in me and twisting it into something it shouldn't be. She speaks directly to the thing that lives inside me. She controls it, not me.

This human has to be able to communicate with the spirits if she is summoning my grandfather, but witches aren't real. I've been alive for almost 900 years and never heard of or seen one. There is a sector of demons who are spell casters that have been dubbed "witches". They mask themselves as humans, which is probably how the tales of witches started among the humans because humans can't tell the difference.

Kinley can't be a demon. She has too much sweetness in her blood.

"Who is at the door?" I ask Serena curtly, wondering if the massacre last night is using this moment to come back and haunt me.

"We don't know. Dorian said not to open it until you were there as well."

The second I step into the living room, the atmosphere is charged like an exposed live wire. There is so much power coming from whoever is on the other side of the door, I can feel the vibrations coursing through me.

"It's here. That power I felt the other night. I told you something was coming." Sabrina wraps her arm around Kalista's waist, unsure who the Norvak have sent after us.

It's not the demon Wroth. His power doesn't come close. I've never felt something this strong before. It has to be an ancient which means the head of a bloodline is at our door. The problem is I've met all the bloodlines and none of their power has ever felt like this.

Is this the ace the Norvak have been keeping a secret for millenniums? Did the head of another bloodline survive the Great War?

Dorian opens the door and all we can do is brace ourselves because this is a power much greater than even my warrior bloodline can take on.

Gasps fill the room when the vampire at the door comes into view. There is a body at his feet, a messenger from the Norvaks whose rib cage has been cracked open while his head is lying between the ancient's feet.

"Hello, Tristan." His gaze lands on me first and he doesn't look away as he steps over the head and enters our home.

His voice is thick with a strange accent but none of that matters to me. It's the way he looks. He is like a tanned, slightly older version of myself only he has black eyes instead of blue.

"It has been a long time." He passes me in favor of walking over to the fireplace where the banner of the Darkos family crest is hanging.

"Who...who are you?" Serena asks.

All of us are thinking it, yet I can't take my eyes off him, off our similarities. He claims it has been a long time, but I have never seen him before and I don't forget faces.

"What? No hello?" He turns to face me, the black clothes he is wearing similar to the ones in the dream I had. "That's okay. I wouldn't expect you to know who I am. Princess." He bows his head in Kalista's direction when she and Sabrina cautiously join us in the living room.

"I come bearing news. You may want to sit as I fear it will be quite upsetting to you." The vampire motions for Kalista to take a seat on the couch in front of him.

"You may sit with the daughter of Therrien. I'm sure you will need her support once I tell you the news I have come here to deliver." He smiles warmly at Kalista to put her more at ease.

My head rings with Kerrien Norvak's words. Is it too late? Have they already taken the castle? Is this vampire here to take Kalista back to the Norvaks?

Serena stays standing behind the couch as Sabrina and Kalista take a seat. Dorian comes and stands by my side, casting a glance in my direction before turning his attention to the vampire neither of us recognizes.

"First, I feel an introduction is in order. My name is Thron. I am the Great Warrior who slays in the name of our Dark Prince."

A snorting giggle comes out of Kalista, which causes the vampire to look up from his bow. Kalista covers her mouth immediately when he tilts his head at her reaction.

"I'm sorry. Everyone knows Thron was the Beast of the Damned. His father was the Great Warrior and his mother was the Prince's mate."

"Ah, I see someone has read her history. You see, Princess, the great thing about written history is that it is so easy to change. The Great Warrior's name is Thron. The Beast of the Damned went by another name, but I am not here to correct your mislead teachings. I am here to inform you that your father, Alekos, is dead."

"What?" Kalista's shoulders pull straight as she moves to the edge of the couch.

"It is terrible news I know, but it was his sacrifice to make."

"The Norvak took the castle in Valderanna?" I interrupt.

Thron raises his gaze to me, he just stares at me for a long silent moment before answering.

"No, they did not take anything. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Alekos has awoken the Prince who has thus awoken me."

"You are telling us that the Prince of Darkness has risen? What about his mate?" Serena asks in disbelief.

"You said my father sacrificed himself?" Kalista stands, her hand clenched over her heart.

"His mate can never rise again. The last of her power was given to one of her children during the time of the Great War to help bring it to an end. She will forever remain stone. As to answer your question, Princess, he gave himself over to the Dark Prince to ensure he could keep you safe."

"What do you mean he gave himself over? You are lying. Everything you say is a lie. You are not Thron. Thron is in the tomb with the Prince and his mate. I saw him when I was younger. You aren't him. You aren't."

Sabrina grabs Kalista before she makes it over to the vampire claiming to be the second most powerful being on the planet. A being all of us were told could never wake again.

Red streaks down Kalista's face as she sobs into Sabrina mumbling how it's all lies and her father can't be dead.

I step to the vampire because there is only one question on my mind. "If Thron is the Great Warrior's name then what name did the Beast of the Damned go by?"

"That depends. He was called many things, but the name he was given was Tristan."

"So I was named after my grandfather?"

I don't know why the Royal bloodline would choose to conceal the Beast of the Damned's real name, but they must have had their reasons if even I was kept from knowing the truth about the Darkos lineage.

"No, you were not named after your grandfather. You don't have a grandfather because Therrien is not your father, I am. Therrien is one of your half-brothers, Terion's sons. Terion was but a fledgling when the Great War broke out."

The bitter taste of my blood mixes with my venom as I bite my cheek in anger. "That doesn't make sense. I can't be your son. I'm only 900 years old. I'd have to be over 5,000 years old to have been alive during the war.

"Yes, I suppose you would."

"What does that mean?" My nails dig into the flesh of my clenched fists so hard blood drips from my hands.

"I know this must be confusing for you, but the only way we could keep you contained was to erase the truth of who you were from your mind. You would have bled this world dry if we had not of stopped you. Stopping you is what put an end to the Great War."

The recollection of the blue glowing liquid in the syringe hidden in the cellar enters my mind. It's a blue that matches the blue in my irises.

"I'm with the princess on this. You have to be lying. I was born of Therrien and Lessandra. They had twins and I consumed my other half."