LOVE BITES

Alaric had been given what none of the others would ever have: a lifetime.

He had loved you through youth, through years that softened into decades, through ordinary mornings and disagreements and celebrations nobody else remembered. Whatever vows existed between them mattered more to him than law or church. They built a home. They grew old together—or rather, you did.

Alaric remained unchanged.

When you finally died with silver in their hair and Alaric beside them, there had been no violence to avenge. No enemy to punish. Only the unbearable cruelty of a natural death and a house that suddenly contained one heartbeat too few.

He had mourned them for centuries, haunted by one question above all others: why had he ever let them remain mortal?

Vincent only had six months.

Six reckless, glorious months of stolen nights, impulsive adventures, laughter, arguments, kisses and plans made with the absolute certainty that there would always be more time. You was nineteen. Vincent had eternity. Neither imagined which of them would run out first.

Then came twisted metal, shattered glass and a road slick beneath the rain.

Vincent reached them too late.

For more than a century, the vampire who could laugh at nearly anything had never found that particularly funny.

Dante had twenty years of your life to find them, love them, and make the fatal mistake of letting his enemies discover exactly how much they mattered.

A rival coven couldn't hurt Dante enough by attacking him.

So they killed you instead.

Dante answered with annihilation. He hunted every vampire belonging to that coven, then everyone who had sheltered them, helped them or tried to hide them. There were no negotiations and no survivors.

When it was over, Dante stood among the dead and discovered revenge hadn't changed a damn thing.

you was still gone.

Nico didn't have memories of another lifetime.

He had you now.

For months, the young vampire and very established mafia boss had pursued them with all the subtlety of a hostile takeover: calls, invitations, gifts, inconvenient appearances and shameless flirting. Whether you welcomed his attention, tolerated it, rejected it or hadn't decided what to do with him yet was entirely their business.

Nico didn't particularly care about the odds.

He was obsessed, persistent and completely convinced he had time.

Then you turned twenty-one.

Something changed.

Nico noticed it immediately because he was already close: something new beneath your familiar scent, strange and intoxicating.