Page 1 of For Love and Blood and Fury

Chapter One

Men called them wolves.Cold. Ruthless. Loyal to none but themselves. And who could blame them? The women defied understanding. Defied control. They were fear made flesh. The terror that stalked the night. Vengeance incarnate. They were women. Men had been their prey.

Prey. Elena had a love-hate relationship with the word. Things rarely fit into four neat letters. The term was reductive and incomplete, but no one had found a better one. Hadn’t found a word that captured how much some people deserved to die slowly— and painfully.

Checking the time, Elena stepped into the lavish powder room in her office. White marble and gold fixtures were extravagant enough to embarrass the Sultan of Brunei, but they suited Elena’s image. There were certain expectations put upon the head of theSangre EternaCartel—though not all of them came with terrifyingly intelligent Japanese toilets. She couldn’t have dreamed those up from the chamber pots and outhouses of her first life.

“She’s here,” Librada said through the closed bathroom door.

Elena grinned at her own reflection. “She can wait,” she called back, voice deep and unhurried even as her skin warmed with anticipation.

In the enormous gold-framed mirror, Elena tossed her long, wavy brown hair to one side. She’d already painted her eyes with thick black lines that would please Cleopatra. The only Daughter of Lilith she identified with if forced to pick.

Dressed in a fitted black pantsuit, no shirt to obscure the lethal plunge revealing a generous sliver of her cleavage and the olive skin of her sternum, Elena was going for a wordless…have you missed me?Remembering Zuri’s weaknesses like she’d only left her bed that morning rather than five years ago, Elena painted her lips a sinful blood red.

With one hand in her pocket, she tried different poses, debating changing. Zuri liked her androgynous side, but she liked when she was hyper femme too. An old ache roiled in Elena’s belly. There had been no version of her Zuri didn’t like. Their problem had never been acceptance or chemistry or the singular appreciation they had for each other’s bodies.

Certain she’d made Zuri wait just long enough for impatience to be making her roll her eyes and mutter about Elena’sdramatic vampire fuckery, she pulled open the door.

Elena’s sprawling office, like her bathroom and homes and yachts and various commercial ventures, had a meticulously crafted flair. She strode to her throne-like chair behind the imposing wooden desk that monks had allegedly carved but was probably a knock-off. She’d never been sentimental about history. The past was never as interesting as the future.

The imposing desk was a prop. A symbol of power. So were the opulent decorations and dim lighting in her office. Plush velvet sofas in shades of dark pink and rich crimson invited visitors to sit and wait for an audience with the big bad boss.

It delighted Elena to adopt the ceremonial trappings and pageantry of royalty in this private chamber so few entered. She’d become a little addicted to watching expressions change and confidence falter in her presence. Every inch of the territory was hers. Nobody could question that here.

At the door stood Librada, Elena’s blood daughter and second-in-command, waiting for instruction. Her long black hair hung dead straight, ironed to perfection. Tall and formidable, Lib had a fondness for filing her nails into lethal points. How it didn’t frighten her lovers away, Elena had no idea. Maybe when those auburn eyes turned on them, they decided it was worth risking a little scratch or two.

“Let her in.” Elena arranged herself on her mock throne. She was going for relaxed yet authoritative, a lioness surveying her territory but still undecided on whether to pounce.

If her heart could still race, it would have leapt into her throat the moment Zuri walked in wearing her barely concealed restlessness like an expensive fragrance. The witch she’d brought with her, skin fair against blue-black hair, followed behind. Her darting eyes and tensing shoulders gave away her discomfort at being led into a vampire’s den of iniquity.

Zuri had changed so little. Her curves were steeper and even more enticing than they’d once been, but her bright brown eyes and resolute gaze were just as Elena remembered. Her dark curly hair framed her gorgeous full face. A white blouse—unbuttoned just enough to reveal a tantalizing glimpse of her generous cleavage—accentuated her warm, caramel skin.

For someone who’d lived as long as Elena had, the handful of years since they’d last seen each other should have felt like a blink. But Elena carried the lost time in the longing in her chest and the coiled ache in her belly.

“If it isn’t the one who ran away.” Elena grinned before crossing one leg over the other instead of standing to greet her.

Elena read every microexpression on Zuri’s face. Every muscle twitch that would be undetectable to the human eye. Zuri was good at concealing her emotions, but not good enough to hide from her. Not good enough to mask the regret that matched the one Elena couldn’t shake.

“It has been a while since I visited Miami’s ownDiscount Dracula, hasn’t it?” she replied after a beat, brown eyes alive with the joy of a little verbal sparring.

Laughing, Elena invited Zuri and her friend to sit in the heavy and incredibly uncomfortable chairs across from her desk. Zuri accepted, but her friend remained standing—as if that would save her if Librada decided to open her throat on a whim.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Elena let her eyes roam down the perfectly curvy body she could paint from memory.

“You mean apart from the joy of your company?”

Pleasantries had never been Zuri’s strength. And Elena knew her well. Even when she had honey on her tongue, there was lightning in her heart.

Leaning back in her chair, Elena smiled. “And here I thought you wanted something from me. If I’d known it was a social visit?—”

“I need help to deal with a coven that’s poaching my witches,” Zuri explained, thirty seconds of feigning niceties her apparent limit. It was thirty more than she would have given before.

“Squabbling and infighting?” Elena shook her head. “What a profound waste of resources—using them against your own kind.”

“We all can’t be lucky enough to have a hive mind,” she replied flatly, irritation a lovely flush on her cheeks.

Elena laughed at Zuri’s open envy. She couldn’t blame her. Vampires were simply more civilized, understanding thatbattling each other could only lead to mutually assured destruction as it had done in the past.

---