The Bite That Claimed Me

[SERA POV – FIVE YEARS LATER] Hope was five years old. Five years of peace. Five years of no attacks. […]

[SERA POV] Hope was six months old. Growing rapidly. More powerful every day. Telepathic. Conscious. Ancient soul in baby body.

[SERA POV] Hope was two weeks old. Two weeks of constant vigilance. Two weeks of protecting prophesied child from threats.

[SERA POV] Fifth month. Pregnancy progressing rapidly. Hope growing strong. I could feel her power. Her magic. Her—unified nature creating

[SERA POV] Pregnant. I was pregnant. With hybrid baby that shouldn’t be possible. That had never happened before. That— “How?”

[ISADORA POV] I’d ruled vampire court for three centuries. Three centuries of political maneuvering. Three centuries of crushing challenges to

[SERA POV] The bonding ceremony happened at sunset. In the ruins where Maya had died. Where Lavinia had lost everything.

[SERA POV] The ruins were haunting. Stone foundations. Burned timbers. Scattered bones from massacre six hundred years gone. This was

[SERA POV] We left for the ruins at dawn. Three days of travel south. To abandoned village where Lavinia’s daughter

[SERA POV] Isadora called emergency vampire court the night before we left searching for Lavinia. “They need to hear it