Chosen by the Vampire, Book One

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Two Weeks before

“Are you ready for this?” Jacob grabbed my hand. “You can back out, it’s not too late. You can take longer to think about this. Make a better plan.”

Make a better plan?

I stilled, sucked in an icy breath, and slid my hand from his. “Revenge has always been the plan, Jacob. You’ve known this for the last eleven years.”

It’s been your plan. Not mine.

The words raged in his eyes. He was hurt. Betrayed. Already pining in my absence. I licked my lips and tried again, this time making my voice a little less cutting. “I’ve waited a long time for a chance like this, and there won’t be another…”

He turned from me, his fists clenched by his side, corded muscles in his arms trembling. He took a step away, as though to leave me behind, his voice a growl. “You know what they do to girls like you, don’t you? You know they bite them...they seduce them...they...fuck them.”

My breath caught with the word.

He’d never spoken like that to me before, never used those kinds of words.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a little girl anymore.”

He turned toward me. Hate raged in his eyes, still, he lowered his gaze in a slow slide along my body. “I have noticed, that’s why I don’t want you to go. They’ll ruin you...they’ll change you. They’ll take your innocence and turn it into something sick and depraved. I’ve heard the stories, and I’ve seen the girls when those Vampires are done with them. I’ve seen how they crave them, like a d**g they can’t get enough of. They’ll do the same to you.”

“No, they won’t. I’m going for one reason, and one reason only...to drive a stake through their hearts.”

The words sank deep, stilling the shake in my hands. The sky was brighter in the distance. Midnight blue blended to amber with the fires already blazing in the middle of town. They’d burned earlier tonight, hungry licks of fire warding off the beasts in the dark.

A lone howl cut through the night, sending goosebumps racing across my skin. The townspeople were scared tonight, and they had good reason to worry.

Wolves flanked the streets, and stole our children. Two were taken last night...one the night before. So we pledged our loyalty to the Vampires. Three infernal beasts who invaded our towns with their guards. We pledged with our honor to the Sinful...still, it wasn’t enough.

I’d waited eleven years for this plan. I smoothed down my dress and watched Jacob take a step until he towered over me.

There was a second when I thought he’d say something, where he’d beg and plead. Instead, he leaned close and brushed his lips across my cheek and slid his hands to my waist. “Please, Asena. You trust too easily, and they’ll hurt you. Don’t go,” he murmured, and yanked me closer.

His lips were on mine in an instant, bruising my mouth as he bowed my spine. I couldn’t think, couldn’t react. My thoughts were a flurry as he drew me harder against his body.

Then he broke away. I sucked in hard breaths, trying to understand what just happened. “Jacob.”

Sparks of hope flared in his eyes.

“I have to,” I answered.

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat and stepped away from him. My pulse was pounding inside my head. Panicked thoughts moved in, threatening to derail the entire thing. The flare of hope in his eyes hardened to stone. “You’re leaving me...for what? Hate and bloodshed, or maybe you just want to leave? Is that it, Asena? Are you that blinded by your own need to get away from this town...or is it me you’re running from?”

“Jacob.” I murmured his name once more, only this time, a heaviness consumed me.

Is it worth it? All the heartache and the terror. Is it worth leaving all of this behind?

I stepped away from the stony wall of my home and felt the ache move deep. I had a life here, had a home here, one that came with so many memories. But the only ones I could remember were the ones where I built this person...carefully constructed, immaculately created to be everything these monsters wanted.

Now was my chance.

I left Jacob behind, just like I left everything behind. Guilt weighed down my steps as I walked along the footpath of my family home and out through the open gate, taking one last look at the pathetic garden surrounding the front of the house.

The Vampires killed my family, leaving a nine-year-old girl alone in the world.

I’d done my best after losing them, as much as a young girl could. I’d tended the leaking roof and fixed the windows when they swelled with the rains and became stuck.

I scrubbed and cleaned my home until it was spotless, and then went to work in Mrs. Orion’s haberdashery to afford food and protection. Protection everyone paid for. Everyone but me. I held onto the money, shaking my head when the Sinful guards came.

I knew not paying them was dangerous, a debt with the Vampires was not a debt you wanted. Still, I played the poor orphan, answering the door with fake tears and desperation time and time again.

I knew what was coming.

A chance to reclaim their debt...

They’d come for me, I’d always known they would. The Sinful guards were sending men into the towns, mercenaries who stole young women as payment for a debt their families could never repay and take them to a place where the Sinful were waiting. I lifted my gaze to the full moon in the sky. I could feel them close. Don’t ask me how, I just did.

A howl came once more, this time further in the distance. The Wolves were growing restless, hunting in packs. So the fires burned a little higher.

This world was ruled by beasts, one just as cruel and ruthless as the other.

Vampires and Lycans.

Memories flashed inside my head. Bodies lying in the darkness. My mother...and father, blood cooling under them. Terror rose in the back of my throat, just as it had that night.

I cut across our street to the main road leading into the town. Fires burned all around us, the pyres stacked high. Every day the woodsmen would carve and chop enough to carry us through the night.

But that wasn’t the protection we paid for...protection that barely kept the other beasts at bay, and paid for in money and flesh. I hated the Sinful more than I hated anything in my life.

They said it was better the devil you knew.

No one knew them better than me.

Windows were alight in the houses that lined both sides of the streets. Families busy with their dinner and children. I risked a glance over my shoulder to the darkened front yard of my home.

Jacob was gone, not that I expected him to stand there to watch me forever. But the darkened front yard speared an ache through my chest. He’d been my best friend, my rock. The one I turned to when I first came up with a plan to get revenge.

I knew what this was doing to him...what I was doing to him. Still, there was no other way. He had to see that.

The roar of the fires grew louder the closer I came to the town. I’d been careful, very careful. No one suspected I was hunting the beast paid to protect us. Not with the careful questions to the old woman in the hills. The one who knew the Sinful best of all.

I’d sat with her for hours, listening to who the Sinful really were and what they wanted. She’d been their housekeeper for a time, tending to their house...a castle in the middle of nowhere. She said they’d been cold, and detached, and merciless. She told me of the many parties they hosted. The endless wine...and the endless mortal women...an unrelenting parade of degradation and filth.

I shuddered as her words filled me, and dragged the cloak higher around my shoulders. The sound of my boots echoed behind me as I walked into the heart of the town. I had a plan...this might be my last chance...my only chance.

The red ribbon of my cloak flapped against my throat with a gust of wind. I fought the need to watch the shadows. Instead, I kept my head down, grabbed the crimson tie, and kept walking.

Footsteps sounded behind me, faint at first. I slowed and risked a glance over my shoulder at the sound, before I hurried toward Mrs. Orion’s. But the sound came once more, this time closer…

My pulse sped, mirroring my steps.

Shadows blurred at my right as I passed Olden’s Grocery and lifted my gaze to the darkened doors in the distance. The haberdashery’s windows glinted orange with the fire. I reached into my pocket, fingers skimming the cold metal keys, before a hand grasped my arm from behind.

“Nice night for a walk,” a man growled against my ear.

I spun, panic rising, and met savage brown eyes. The male met my stare and then dropped his gaze to the crimson ribbon around my neck. There was a flicker of something in his eyes...regret?

“No!” I shook my head, clenching my jaw, and tried to yank free. “Get away from me.”

Those brown eyes darkened, muscles flared along his jaw. “You’re young,” he growled. “I have a daughter your age.”

Fear spiked, ramming through my chest. I sucked in a breath and spun. Movement came from the street in the distance, a couple strolled arm in arm. They turned at the last minute as I lunged, driving my hand into the air.

But there was no scream, nothing but a muffled moan as he slammed his hand over my mouth and dragged me backwards. The couple watched it all with resignation in their eyes as I thrashed and fought. I saw it all...it’s the will of the Vampires their wide eyes screamed. The woman clutched her partner, and held on for dear life as I dragged my heels in the dirt, tearing my head from side to side.

“For Christ’s sake,” my attacker snarled. “Stop it...stop fighting.”

I kicked harder, swinging my hand through the air to beat his head. His head snapped to the side with a slap. The flare of anger replaced guilt. The shift was sudden in his eyes as he shoved a hand into his pocket and dragged a folded piece of fabric free.

“Didn’t want to do it this way…” he snapped, wrestling me into the shadows. “But you’ve left me no choice.”

The slosh of liquid in the bottle came before he shoved the cloth against my face. The sharp stench of something foul invaded my nose. I shoved and thrashed, punching his hand as I tried to scream.

But there was nothing but the muffled sound of my screams, nothing but the bitterness in my nose invading my lungs, and suddenly, the world around me grayed.

Darkness moved in.

Darkness and panic.

And I knew no more.