I can’t believe what I am hearing. My father, an experienced bounty hunter, was killed years ago in an attack that also claimed the life of my younger brother and caused permanent injuries to my mother. We never found out who ordered or executed the attack, but I had always suspected that it was a vampire. My father liked hunting vampires, he called them vermin, said all of them needed to be exterminated.

“You know who killed him?!” I demand to know.

“I have some information that might help you,” he says carefully.

“How do I know that you are not just trying to trick me?”

He smiles, sending shivers down my spine. “Ah, Izzy, so distrustful.”

“But I understand, of course.” He sighs. “I will give you another bit of information, which you can check, if you are satisfied, it will show you my good intentions. I will tell you the rest once you have concluded the case.”

“What information?” I demand.

“You father came to see me on his last assignation.”

“He did?” This is news to me. I couldn’t imagine my father asking a vampire for advice on a job.

“He was ill, and he knew he didn’t have much time left, he wanted to consult me on a matter that was… delicate.”

“My father wasn’t sick!” I respond, sure that I would’ve known if he was. In the back of my mind, though, I wonder ifI would have. My father was never easy to read, a man of few words.

Lucca nods. “He’d been exposed to amber water, as you know, it is highly toxic. He was keeping it from you and your mother, but the effects were beginning to take hold. I could see it in him and he admitted as much to me.”

Before I can deal with the thought that my father was dying before the event that actually killed him, something else happens.

King Lucca is suddenly beside me, his hand against my breast, protectively standing in front of me as his coat swirls around me. I find his proximity intoxicating, despite my ability to resist his charms. He appears unaware of me as he is facing the west of the graveyard.

“I think my royal guards are here,” he whispers. “I wanted to come alone as this matter needs to be dealt with… privately. I came early, but I knew they would find me eventually.”

The air fills with birds, black birds, like crows, but bigger and more threatening. They swoop through the air, screeching. Lucca holds up a hand and says something in a loud voice, a command that expands in the air, dispersing the crows and they vanish as if they’d never been there in the first place.

“I must go,” he says softly, stepping away from me. “I have so many enemies now, more than ever before. I had hoped… it would be less. But…” He seems tired, wiping his face.

It strikes me as a calculated move, designed to make me feel sympathy for him. It does not work.

“Send word to me as soon as you have decided. Use this phone,” he says, handing me a mobile device, before disappearing into the shadows.

My heart is still beating fast as I try to make sense of what just happened. But the graveyard is tranquil now again, no hint of birds or vampires.

I feel my body relax and I turn back to face my father’s grave.

I try to conjure up his face again, to access his presence but it is impossible now. The vampires have disturbed the atmosphere, and my mind is filled with information that I hardly know how to process. The fact that he had come onto holy ground says a lot about his personal power, as well as his arrogance. Ordinary vampires would not have been able to do it but it seemed not to affect him at all.

Also, his family is notorious and known widely. They had survived for many centuries, waged countless battles and always emerged victorious, usually due to some evil acts or activities. I recall my father saying that the vampire’s instinct for survival was eclipsed only by an insatiable hunger for power.

The Executive Council, our highest authority, consisted of five individuals who were meant to represent the many different beings and ways of living. It ruled over our lands and had done so for the last hundred years, bringing a kind of peace to a world that was torn apart by violence and war before.

My father believed in the Council and I did too, but I knew there were stories about some strange decisions and questionable outcomes. But was this not always the way with the highest level of government? Didn’t the people distrust those who made and kept the peace? Was there not always a cost involved?

I didn’t want to second-guess the Council. I also wanted nothing to do with the vampire king and his family. But I was intrigued by his story and compelled to find out if he spoke the truth about my father. Where he had touched me, my skin was tingling, almost burning. I have kept my distance from men, have never been in a relationship and I have not been touched by anyone. Being a virgin has been my choice, a way of keeping my body and mind clear.

But King Lucca is a threat.

I responded to him in a way that I had never done with another vampire.

I didn’t like that and couldn’t understand it, I had always been immune to their charms. It was a sign I needed to keep away from him. Perhaps he had found a way past my resistance, I didn’t like that.

Not at all.