Thorne's breath hung in the midnight air as he ascended the crumbling stone walls of Ravenspire Castle. Moonlight reflected off the silver hilts of his daggers—both consecrated by the Order of the Azure Twilight, both capable of ending immortal life with a single stroke to the heart. Six years of searching had led him to this place. Six years of tracking down the most elusive and deadliest vampire lord man knew existed.
Baron Viktor Karlov. The Blood Sovereign of the Eastern Realms.
Thorne's informant had been correct: Karlov would be vulnerable this evening following the Feast of Dark Renewal. The vampire guards would be sated and complacent. It was the optimal time to attack—perhaps the only time he would ever have.
Reaching the balcony, Thorne crept stealthily across the railing. Stained glass doors towered ahead of him, battle scenes from ancient wars in which pale warriors stood triumphant over seas of corpses. A shiver ran through him and he produced his lockpicks.
The lock yielded with a satisfying click. Too easy.
Thorne halted, instincts yelling. The hairs at the nape of his neck stood on end as chill air caressed him—not from the outside, but from within.
"I do so love when dinner comes to me," a voice like velvet over steel whispered behind him.
Thorne spun, daggers already out. The vampire was impossibly close—tall and elegant in a midnight blue waistcoat, auburn hair falling in waves to his shoulders. His eyes glowed like polished amber, pupils vertical slits that dilated with interest.
"Baron Karlov," Thorne growled, dropping into a fighter's crouch. "Your blood-soaked rule ends tonight."
The vampire's laughter was songlike, nearly tender. "How many hunters have ever said those same words to me, I ask?" He weaved around Thorne with supernatural facility. "Though I must admit, none were quite so. charming as you."
Thorne lunged forward, daggers flashing with deadly precision honed by thousands of hunts. Karlov moved like a liquid, each blow missing by inches. The vampire was not fighting back—he was sparring.
"The Order of the Azure Twilight trains their pets well," Karlov observed, snapping Thorne's wrist into an iron manacle grip. "But they've sent you to die, little hunter."
"I'm not dying tonight," Thorne growled, wrenching free and slashing across Karlov's chest.
The blade bit deep, cutting through a thin line of black blood. Karlov's smiling face disintegrated, replaced by something nastier, hungrier.
"First blood to you," the vampire acquiesced, placing the cut with delicate fingers. "Now shall we start in earnest?"
Whatever followed wasn't a fight—it was a storm. Karlov dived at velocities greater than the speed of human sight, striking from angles that seemed to bend to his command. Thorne parried, riposted, and dodged every trick he had mastered, but with each second growing nearer to exhaustion.
A brutal blow slammed Thorne into a marble pillar. Agony flashed across his back, daggers scattering to the ground. Before he could catch his breath, icy hands closed around his throat, lifting him off the ground as if he were a feather.
"Superb resistance," Karlov breathed, leaning forward to study Thorne's face with scientist-like interest. "Most would have fallen in seconds."
Thorne spat blood onto the vampire's flawless face. "Go to hell."
Karlov smiled, his fangs gleaming like highly polished ivory. "I've been there, hunter. It's not worth it."
The last Thorne saw was Karlov's face moving closer, those unnatural eyes filling his line of sight before all went dark.
---
Awareness came in waves of pain. Thorne's body was a tonnage, his veins pulsating like filled with ice water. He opened his eyes, wincing at the dim light of wall torches.
He stood in a room that could have once been decadent but now appeared to smell of rot beneath the patina of wealth. Frayed tapestries depicted battles and drunken revelries. The ceiling arched high above, featuring constellations unknown to mortal astronomers.
Cold metal bit into his wrists and ankles. Silver manacles—one irony, as they were traditionally used against vampires—scanned him to a stone slab propped upright on the wall.
"Finally awake. How disappointing—I had hoped for more endurance from one with your reputation."
Karlov sat in a ornate chair next to him, a crystal goblet brimming with dark liquid in his hand. The vampire lord had changed into a black silk robe covered in silver symbols that hurt Thorne's eyes to look at directly.
"What. have you done to me?" Thorne's voice was a rasp.
"Singly sampled what you so generously dropped on my doorstep." Karlov rose to his feet with fluid ease, walking to stand before his captive. "Your blood is. remarkable. Full of hatred, determination, and something more—ah, yes. Hope." He smiled unpleasantly. "Delicious."
Thorne struggled at his bonds, ignoring the tearing pain in his wrists. "The Order will save me."
"Will they?" Karlov traced one icy finger down Thorne's cheek. "The same Order that sent you in to fight an ancient vampire lord by yourself? That guaranteed you I would be compromised this evening?" He laughed, a low, rich sound. "Your masters knew perfectly well what they were sending you into, hunter."
"You're lying," Thorne sneered, but doubt crept in like poison.
"Your heart gives you away," Karlov observed. "You suspected it yourself, didn't you? That you were a pawn, not a hero."
Thorne turned aside, he couldn't bear the truth he saw in those old eyes.
Karlov grasped his chin, forcing their eyes to connect. "There will be no rescue, hunter. No flight. This castle has imprisoned folk for eight centuries—many far more cunning than you."
"I'll find a way," Thorne swore. "And when I do, I'll run a blade through your heart."
"Such mettle." Karlov stepped closer, his cold breath against Thorne's ear. "I shall enjoy watching it crack."
The vampire's fangs scraped against Thorne's neck, not yet breaking but promising future trespasses. Then Karlov retreated, studying his captive with the calculating gaze of a collector evaluating a prized discovery.
"Sleep while you can," he said, moving toward the door of the chamber. "Tomorrow your new life begins."
Beyond the door, Karlov paused and glanced back with a grin that made shivers run down Thorne's spine.
"You're mine now."
END OF CHAPTER 1