The night air hit my lungs like a bucket of icy water, clean and brutal, clearing the haze of lust and terror Darius had woven around me. The rough, cold pavement bit into my bare feet, sending shocks of pain up my legs. I didn't see the street; I saw the crimson flash of his eyes and the impossible, dagger-sharp points of his teeth.
Vampires. Are. Real.
It was the stupidest sentence I had ever thought, and yet it was the bedrock of my new, apocalyptic reality. It was more real than the burning in my chest, more real than the chill of the silver locket against my skin.
I didn't have a plan. Plans were for people who weren't running from four-hundred-year-old blood oaths and undead aristocrats. I was just throwing distance between myself and the house. Between myself and the cold, posses
