Page 1 of Heir of Blood and Moonlight

Prologue

Once upon a time,back when the gods walked the earth, terrible demons found their way in from the shadow realm. They threatened to cover everything in darkness and despair. But don't worry, my shining girl, for this story has brave heroes too!

Three kind and powerful gods named Selene, Helios, and Eos saw the danger the demons posed. They joined hands and hearts to fight the vile demons. Selene was the gentle goddess of the moon, Helios the warm god of the sun, and Eos the hopeful goddess of the dawn. Together they were strong and wise.

To help them in the battle, each god shared some of their special magic with groups of humans they trusted most. Selene gifted magic to people who became like her, creating the vampires of the House of the Moon. They were fierce and graceful, and they could live forever, drawing power from blood and from moonlight. Helios gave power to warriors who could transform into mighty beasts, forming the House of the Sun.And lovely Eos blessed her chosen with command over nature's elements, and these witches made the House of the Stars.

The three magical houses and the gods fought the demons for a very long time. In the end, with the gods' guidance and their combined powers, they were victorious! The awful demons were pushed back into the shadow realm where they could no longer hurt the earth or its people. Everyone was so relieved. The gods thanked the magical warriors for their courage. Peace and happiness spread through the world again under the watch of the kind gods and the immortal guardians.

As time went on though, the shapeshifting warriors of the House of the Sun began to forget their duty. When in their beast forms, they let the animal instincts take over too much, lashing out and damaging the land and other creatures. This made Selene and Eos very sad. They asked Helios to please help his chosen ones control themselves better. But proud Helios refused, not wanting to admit there was a problem.

With no other choice, Selene and Eos put their magic together and placed a spell on the House of the Sun warriors so they could only become animals under the light of the full moon. At all other times, they would be like normal humans, without special powers and able to get hurt like humans too.

This made Helios and his warriors very angry, because they felt Selene and Eos had betrayed them and taken away their gifts unfairly. Even though the reason was to stop the animal warriors from hurting others, they couldn't see past their wounded pride. So Helios and the House of the Sun pulled away from the other gods and houses, allowing bitterness and resentment to grow in their hearts.

The age of unity and peace had ended, and a new time of distrust between the houses began, with each thinking themselves better than the others. Selene, Eos and the Houses of Moon and Stars hoped Helios and his warriors would seethe error of their ways. But the House of the Sun only plotted and dreamed of a day they could strike back against the other houses.

And so, my shining girl, while the demons were defeated and the earth saved, a new danger lurked, not from a distant shadow realm, but from the shadows growing within the hearts of the shifters. And one day, that darkness would gather and lash out, and the greatest battle of all would begin.

1

Blood, blood all aroundme, but not a drop to drink. At least, not a drop of the right kind of blood.

On the dance floor below, a mass of bodies—mortal bodies, filled with mortal blood—swayed and ground against each other to the heavy, pulsing beat of the music. I had been down on the main floor for all of two minutes, searching for my quote-unquotefriends, before I had to get out of the throng. Glad to be free of it, I lurked alone on the balcony bordering the hallway to the bathrooms.

Some of the tension in my body eased as I gripped the balcony railing.Some. I couldn’t shake the feeling that coming here had been a mistake. I was dying, after all. And not in the sense thatwe’re all dying. I was slowly wasting away without the one thing I truly needed to survive: immortal blood. Undead vampire blood. Shifter blood. Witch blood. Any would do, yet all I had was a waning supply of a tincture made from the blood of an undead vamp, slowing my inevitable decline to a glacial pace.Maybe I should have just ended it instead of dragging out my excruciatingly pathetic death, but I was afraid.

Of what came after.

Of what didn’t.

I wasn’t willing to leave this world when there was still something here worth living for. One single thing.

Mood darkening, I scanned the club-goers below, searching for Lily and Mark. They were late. But then, they were always lateforeverything. Librarian meetings, lunch dates, lectures…. Honestly, I only had myself to blame for actuallybeing on time. Or for showing up at all.

Ugh. I didn’t like people enough to be here, wasting whatever time I had left surrounded by strangers. I could have been home with my book and a glass of wine, while Sombra purred on my lap. The huge black stray tomcat had quickly snuggled his way into my heart. Outside of my hushed interactions with Lily and Mark in the library, Sombra was all the companionship I needed.

“I should just go,” I muttered under my breath. I pushed off the railing and headed for the stairs, descending quickly.

I was across the dance floor and almost to the exit when someone grabbed my arm. My heart lurched into my throat, and my muscles tensed automatically, my rusty fight response kicking in.

“Sophie!” Lily squealed, throwing her arms around my neck and pulling me in for a quick hug. “You werenotabout to bail, were you?” She released me and stepped backward, planting one hand on her plump hip and waggling a finger at me with the other. “Youpromisedme two drinks.” She made a fist and planted that hand on her other hip. “Two!”

My shoulders slumped. She was right. Ihadpromised. Again, I should have known better. A promise was a promise, and I wouldn’t break it just because I was uncomfortable. Besides,maybe if Lily and Mark saw just how lame I was in social settings, they would recognize me for the lost cause I was and leave me be.

I glanced down at the hand still gripping my arm, expecting to see Mark’s dark, slim fingers, but the skin wasn’t nearly dark enough and the hand itself was far too robust to belong to him. I craned my neck, following the attached arm to its owner, and was surprised to find Bastian Garcia, the new library intern, standing at my shoulder. Mark was there, too, his familiar tall, lanky form behind the intern.

Bastian didn’t just work with us down in Special Collections in the basement of UW’s Allen Library, but since his focus within his degree program was on locating and preserving rare books, he had been spending a fair amount of time with us.

Bastian was a conundrum. His drab, ill-fitting V-neck sweaters, neat side part, and Clark Kent glasses did little to hide the fact that he was hot as hell—built like an MMA fighter, with copper skin and the bold features of a Roman god. It was almost like he googled “how to dress like a dweeb” and was putting in minimal effort to play the part. Lily had nicknamed himTelenovelabecause of his Latin good looks, and she frequently speculated that his glasses were fake, their only purpose to tone down his good looks.

Honestly, I wouldnothave been surprised if our little three-person department ended up in a mandatory workplace harassment training session one of these days because of her.

That Bastian was here suggested Lily and Mark were adopting him, as well. Or maybe they were auditioning him as my replacement. It had taken them over two years to get me to go out on the town with them, but he had come along after barely two months.

Bastian released my arm and pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose. “Hey, Sophie,” he said, flashing me a lopsided smile that brought out hints of dimples.

Something about the way he looked at me ignited a spark low in my belly, and heat crept up my chest and neck. Feeling flustered, I raised a hand to push my own glasses higher up, only to realize as I touched the bare bridge of my nose that I had swapped them for contacts. My cheeks burned with embarrassment.

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