Chapter One
The sun had long since risen above the horizon line, and yet Calissa found herself wide awake. Her ruby red lips, redder even than the blood she was drinking from the wine glass to her left, were pursed in frustration, while her long, immaculately manicured fingernails drilled rhythmically against the hard wood of her desk.
Three younglings had been staked the previous night, and it had been due to a serious lack of foresight on her part, something she found highly inexcusable.
As she looked over a hand-drawn map, detailed with all the attacks against vampires in the past month, the door to her study opened. A male vampire dressed in simple blacks entered, without any form of warning or permission.
A sigh escaped her lips and she bared her fangs in an unfriendly fashion as the man invited himself to a chair, flopping into the soft, maroon cushion with a noisy sigh.
“You’re not invited,” Calissa snapped, eyeing the man in clear irritation, at which he merely shrugged, a grin on his face.
“And I didn’t ask for your permission to be here. Last I checked, this manor belongs to me, so I can go anywhere I want. This chair is the most comfortable, so I think I’ll sit here for a while,” he hummed.
“If you enjoy it so much, why don’t you take it somewhere else, hmm?” she asked, rolling her eyes when he merely sank deeper into the chair and made a show of getting more comfortable. “I don’t have time to deal with you today, Lee. Your people are dying. You’d think you’d be a little more interested in how to stop the humans from killing them.”
This highly infuriating creature was none other than Lee Dameron, the prince of the vampire coven she belonged to. The fact irritated her to no end, particularly because he showed absolutely zero desire to rule his coven, which meant that, as the coven warlord (or lordess, in her case), any responsibility not fulfilled by his “royal highness” fell to her.
As if she didn’t have enough problems in her own job description to handle.
“Oh come now, Leesi—”
“Calissa,”
“It can’t be nearly as bad as you say. You’re just simply not sending out the right vampires to put a stop to the humans’ shenanigans,” Lee hummed. Had Calissa had anything but her map and the wine glass of blood, she’d have thrown something at his smugly smiling face. “Besides, one of these days the Council will step in.”
“Careful, Lee. Arrogance is not a trait that attracts women,” Calissa snapped. Her eyes, dark brown and brooding, glared daggers at the crowned prince, yet, as always, he didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest.
In fact, he snatched her glass from her desk and took a deep drink, his eyes fixed on her in amusement.
Disgusted, Calissa slammed her hands down on the table, stood up from her chair and walked threateningly over to Lee, her skin tight jeans and low cut shirt accentuating every curve and angle of her body.
“Listen here, Lee Dameron,” she hissed, a strand of her usually perfectly curled, pinned up hair flopping into her face. “If you have nothing productive to contribute towards destroying the human hunters, then you can march your pretty little ass out of my office so I can try to save your people. Understand?”
To her surprise, a feral light flashed in the vampire prince’s eyes and he moved with inhuman speed and grace, so fast that she could barely track him with her eye. Before she really understood how it had happened, she was pinned against the wooden wall of her office, his hands on either side of her shoulders and his fangs sinfully close to her throat.
“Be careful, Leesi,” he purred. A tongue like ice flicked out from between his lips and licked against her neck, while the very points of his fangs pricked against her skin, leaving beads of dark, red blood welling up to meet his tongue.
Calissa shivered softly and her hands instinctively tangled in Lee’s dark hair as she pulled his mouth closer to her throat. Faint memories swirled in her head; memories of many nights of passion, drunk off lust and with the thirst for blood satiated by the taste of another vampire.
A hum rumbled deep in Lee’s throat as he sank his fangs deep into Calissa’s pale throat, his lips locking around the wound he had made. Blood welled up into his mouth, leaving the searing burn of lust on his long dead heart. As he pulled away, and Calissa whined despite herself, a smirk crossed his bloodied lips.
“That’s what I thought,” he purred smugly. “Now, where can’t I be?”
Calissa just glared as she brought her hand up to cover the bite wound in her neck.
“Satisfied?” she growled, a husky, lustful hint in her tone despite her hostilities.
Lee nodded and licked his lips free of her blood as he moved toward the door. Just before he shut it, he poked his head back in and grinned wolfishly. “Oh. If you happen to finish anytime soon, you know where my bed is,” he winked, cackling as this time Calissa chucked her wine glass at the door.
By the time it shattered against the wood, Lee had already disappeared, leaving a trail of laughter behind him.