Page 2 of Bite of Vengeance

I was born with black blood. One of a kind.

My mother never let me forget the prophecy surrounding the one born with black blood. Vampires had been repeating the story since the beginning, and humans had learned it before the war started.

“One day, you will bear twins. Only once can you get pregnant. Baby girls will grow up as humans until their twenty-fifth birthday. Once their blood turns black, their fate is dependent on what they choose. This world is created by dark and light. They are the delicate balance of both. They will either help the human race survive or the vampires to destroy.”

My mother’s words haunted me my entire childhood. But she was human and passed away before I turned twenty-five and stopped aging. She never told me who my father was. Why I was born with black blood. Maybe she didn’t know. But she always had insight about what was going to happen in the future. And she was usually right.

Something she passed down to me. The entire pregnancy, I had an overwhelming feeling someone would enter one of my daughter’s lives—someone who would help her, someone who would love her. Maybe it was just that my hope was so strong, I was creating stories in my mind to appease my worry. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone would enter one of my daughter’s lives when she needed it most.

When the war started, I realized the world needed my babies to create a balance again. The vampire I loved promised me we’d do everything to protect the twins. To keep them from Amaros and PARA, raising them and keeping them safe until their twenty-fifth birthday. I had every intention to guide them into what they were expected to do.

But none of that happened. Because the vampire I loved was working with Amaros. When I found out right after I realized I was pregnant, I went to the humans, knowing they were my onlychance. I had no idea PARA was working with vampires until it was too late. The humans were skeptical any of this was true, but it didn’t stop them from making a deal with Amaros.

PARA would take one of my babies, and Amaros would take the other, along with me. They would keep the twins separate until they turned twenty-five to see if the stories were true.

Another wave of pain crashed into me, and I staggered a step. I choked back a sob. The physical pain was nothing compared to the sorrow for my babies. I didn’t want them to grow up, trapped in a life of cruelty.

“Please, Gia,” I cried, clinging to her. “Do what you can to protect my babies. Don’t let Amaros or PARA use them.”

“I’ll try,” she said in a strangled whisper. “I promise.”

By now, the others realized I was in labor, and they were all yelling. Gia began guiding me back to the door of my room. I didn’t fight her even though I was stronger. There was no escaping fate.

No matter how much I wanted to.

Chapter 1

Kali

Ipressed the blade against the inside of my arm, my hand shaking so much I nearly sliced myself on accident. My gaze drifted around the room, the surrealness at being here again setting in. It was the same room in the back of Impulse where I’d changed clothes the first night and hid my weapon in the couch. Very little time had passed but it might as well have been a lifetime ago. A tear escaped, sliding down my cheek as I stood frozen. If I did this, then there would be no denying it. I’d been locked in this room for hours, and the entire time I’d convinced myself the blood on Amaros’s finger was not mine.

I wasn’t a Shadow.

I couldn’t be.

But what if I was?

Choking back a sob, I squeezed my eyes shut before pushing the blade deeper. A small sting proved I sliced my skin, and I held my breath as I pulled the knife away, letting it clatter to the floor. I blew out a shaky breath, instantly regretting what I just did. I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to be a fucking Shadow.

The tears flowed free as I opened my eyes. I stared blankly at the wall in front of me until I couldn’t take it anymore. Thesecond my gaze locked on the small cut; my stomach rolled violently. I staggered back a couple of steps, gasping for breath as the truth slammed into me.

My blood was black.

“No,” I cried hoarsely, wiping the blood away. The wound was still open, and I pressed my palm over it to stop the bleeding.

Dizziness claimed me, and I fell on to the couch cushion, closing my eyes again. This wasn’t real life. Everything waswrong. Warner was—I shook my head, pain invading every cell of my body. My heart imploded like dynamite when I thought about him. He was gone. My only family. And I was trapped with vampires.

What now? Would I be a prisoner at the Pen like all the other Shadows? I was still me at the moment, but how long until I began thinking like a Shadow? Bile rose in my throat. When would I have to drink blood?

“You should eat.”

My eyes flew open, and I leaped off the couch to face the door. Pax stood in the doorway with a plate of food in his hands. Pity was scrawled across his face which created a raging fire in my veins. I didn’t need him to feel sorry for me. He was one of the vampires keeping me here.

“Go away,” I hissed, my voice nearly cracking.

He sighed as he strode forward. “Eat, Kali.”

“Fuck off.”

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