Midnight Lover

Forget Me Not

Zane's POV

Five years. It's been five years since I lost my second in command, Roscoe. He had taken over a shift for Lukas, Zuther's father, at one of the Council safehouses. Lukas had been arranging a female to help with Zuther's transition, which occurred right on time after his 24th birthday. The ambush by the demons was brutal, leaving no survivors. The two families at the safehouse were the last of their names and Roscoe was my best warrior. We've been at war with them for my entire 300 years and for centuries before. We thought the safehouse locations were secure... but clearly we have a leak somewhere. We have accelerated our hunting since that night... but those bastards seem to have an endless supply. The hybrid they sent to attack us tonight was stronger than the average demon... but still no match for the strength that comes from having royal blood. Roscoe had been close to tracking the location of their lab, which is why he was targeted that night.

And now I'm about to erase the memories of his only daughter in order to protect her. Roscoe always did his best to keep her out of this life. After all, she was human like her mother. She was beyond the normal age of transition and therefore had no reason to be involved. Yet, for some reason, her blood is calling to me. She has no clue that her father was like me, a vampire. Well, not quite like me. I am the King.

Modern society has this crazy idea that vampires are bloodsucking monsters that prey on helpless people. That couldn't be further from the truth… but it makes it easier to hide in plain sight. The only thing they have right is the fact that the sun harms us. As far as blood? We need to feed off our counterparts in order to survive. Drinking human blood is really just an act to enhance their pleasure during s*x, or for bonding with mates. Vampire/human matings are usually avoided for this exact reason. Mates do not like sharing, and having a mate with the need to consume blood from another leads to nothing good. Roscoe didn't care though, he fell in love with a human and created the girl I currently have in a trance. Unfortunately, her mother died in childbirth. That is very common, even with two vampire mates. Another reason our population is rapidly declining...

I was pulled from my thoughts by my little brother, Zhaeden, saying, "Are you ready?"

"Yes," I growled, hearing the annoyance in my voice at being rushed, "let's get this done."

I looked deep into Nora's pale green eyes and began extracting the true memories while replacing them with constructed ones. She would remember nothing of the fighting or our interaction. Zhaeden had already taken care of her partner, who was currently sleeping in the unmarked car they left by the entrance of the park. By the time dawn broke, everything would be fine. They would just assume they fell asleep after searching the empty community building.

I did one final sweep through her mind to make sure the new memories were solid and then I put her into a deep sleep. All vampires have the ability to erase and alter human memories, another skill that helps us avoid detection. Vampires of the Royal line, like my brother and I, also have the ability to alter memories of other vampires. A strong-willed individual might get a sense of Deja Vu but they usually chalk it up to a faint memory of a dream.

We got her back to the car and settled her in just as dawn was breaking over the horizon. I looked at my brother and Zuther and said, "Let's get back to the house before we fry. We have a busy schedule once the sun goes down." They both gave a silent nod and we started running to the hidden underground passage that would lead us home.