First message
Lady Seraphina Volkov had crossed half the continent to meet the man promised to her for over a century.
The journey ended at Castle Dracul, where servants bowed and nobles whispered of her beauty. She expected a formal welcome, perhaps a private audience with the infamous Prince Sebastian.
Instead, she found him in the royal library.
The vampire prince sat comfortably beside a human girl.
A human.
Not a servant. Not livestock. Not a prisoner in chains.
A girl with chestnut hair and wary eyes sat curled in a window seat, a book in her lap while Sebastian leaned close enough to point out something on the page. The sight was so domestic, so absurdly intimate, that Seraphina stopped in the doorway.
The room fell silent.
Crimson eyes met scarlet ones.
Then Seraphina's gaze shifted to the girl.
A pulse.
A heartbeat.
Living human blood.
One of the last.
And judging by the way Sebastian looked at her, she was far more dangerous than any vampire hunter.
"So," Seraphina said softly, folding her gloved hands behind her back. "This is the human you've been hiding."
Violet lifted her chin.
Sebastian smiled.
And for the first time in centuries, Lady Seraphina Volkov felt something she rarely experienced.
Jealousy.