Night Blood (Night Ties Book 1)

Chapter 1

Kaida blended seamlessly into the darkness of the night, making sure to keep to the shadows. As a nightwalker, she was one of the few beings that easily hid herself amongst the darkness.

Not too long ago, night had fallen and she didn’t want to waste a single moment of it not hunting. It’d been nearly three weeks since she’d last been out to hunt, and it may very well be three more weeks, maybe more, before Dioses let her back out to feed.

While he usually let her out around every two weeks, he had a tendency to find some sort of reason to be angry with her and, as a result, he would keep her locked away in her lair longer than that. It was a tool he used to keep her pliant, but more often than not, she still managed to find ways to piss him off.

It sucked, but until she was freed from his evil clutches, or somebody staked the bastard in his dead heart, what could she do?

The latter was merely an enticing fantasy, however. A well respected, or well-feared, vampire clan chief, there weren’t many who would dare attack the brute. She was a young nightwalker that only his clan knew existed and they certainly weren’t making a move to help her anytime soon. Either they were too scared of Dioses or just didn’t give a damn about what happened to her.

To be honest, she suspected the latter of the two. If Dioses was using her as a scapegoat for his frustrations instead of them, what did it truly matter?

Damn all their rotten souls to the deepest bowels of hell, or she would damn their souls, if vampires had souls to damn.

Sighing, Kaida paused to close her eyes. Clearing her mind of all thoughts, she allowed the predator within her to take control. When she opened her eyes again, the silvery blue of her eyes shimmered with a deadly light. She’d already wasted enough time with her thoughts.

It was time to hunt.

She continued moving forward again with a liquid grace inherent in all her species, or so she thought was inherent in all her species. Being the only nightwalker you knew still alive today could really fuck with your sense of knowledge about your own race.

Almost immediately, the scent of Silverfyn blood flooded her nostrils.

As silent as a wraith, she followed the scent trail until she came across three full grown adult male Silverfyn demons taking a breather in what she knew to be a no flashing zone that belonged to the Shatal demon clan nearby. To flash in or out of this zone was to declare war on them.

They were obviously injured. She guessed from some sort of scuffle with some of the Shatal, a nasty race of demon who were extraordinarily territorial and even gave Dioses a run for his money.

She couldn’t believe her luck, though.

The silver blood that flowed through the veins of the Silverfyns was an aphrodisiac to not only vampires, but her kind as well. It was amazing curative abilities that could heal wounds caused by iron or even wood, so long as it wasn’t directly through the heart.

She licked her lips, her fangs elongating.

She was definitely going to feed well tonight, damn the consequences.

A cold wind swept over Keene’s skin, sending chills down his spine despite the fact that he was wearing a heavy knee-length coat. He closed his eyes briefly, opening his senses to his surroundings. They snapped open after a short few seconds; something was watching them.

Damn it, he didn’t need this right now. He had a wound in his side that needed tending to and Chasen and Liam were in worse shape than he was. They needed to get back to the island where they’d be protected.