Reign of Blood

The battle was over but we were left with scars so deep, nothing would ever be the same again. And there were other wars to be fought. I had finally reunited with my broken family but my mother was weakened nearly to the point of death. Her only chance for survival was endless transfusions of human blood boosted with an occasional dose of vampire blood. I wasn’t sure if that was what she would have wanted but I was pretty sure we “humans” could not be turned from the vampires’ blood; our immunity seemed to prevent it, at least up until now. But we were no ordinary mutations. Something had to be done.

  Her initial refusal of vampiric blood frustrated me to no end, but how do you change the mind of someone so traumatized, someone who did not wish to go on in a world like ours? She had lost her will to live. Even if Jeremy and I were there for her, she would not return from the deep chasm inside her mind that she had let herself descend into. She lay almost catatonic, lost inside herself. She accepted human blood to be transfused into her veins from the frozen stores in the hive but anything vampiric, even disguised as a unit of human blood, she’d somehow sense and would begin bouts of endless screaming until the unit was removed. That was torture to me in itself. I often left the room when this happened, hoping it would end soon. Despite her protestations, I felt that the little bit of vampire blood we’d managed to put into her body would help her recover.

  Jeremy was much less affected. He was a strong young man and had remained at my mother’s side at all times, when they had let him. They had left him alone, unsure of what to do with a young boy. Even the desire for a cure had not brought them to the point of harming a child, not one as young as him. Maybe someone my age, but not him. It had been his salvation.

  I’m hunting game again, having brought my mother and Jeremy back to our mountain sanctuary for some peace and normalcy. But it’s not the same and I fear we’ll have to return to the company of others soon. My mother seems more at ease in the mountain air but she’s still a shell of her former self. She had lost something in those missing days of her life. I have no idea how to get it back. She was no longer withdrawn inside herself but she wasn’t the same either. Her spark, her light, was missing, and the darkness within her made me wonder what exactly had happened inside the enemy hive. She did not tell and I did not ask.

  I miss Rye, even though he comes to visit regularly and see if I need anything. I never do, but his love keeps me going. Even though he wants more from me he knows that for now, this is enough. It has to be enough.

  For now, the days rush by and the nights are mostly silent. The soothing hum of the camera monitors, Jeremy’s soft snores and my mother’s weak whimpers from her nightmares keep me company at night. They keep me calm as I wait for another dawn.

  And now a sneak peek from book 2 of

  The Vampires of Vegas Series:

  Disarming

  Prologue

  Resonating