by Kayleigh Sky
Zev kissed him, pressing in firm against Asa’s skin, wrapping an arm around his back and pulling him close.
Asa’s eyes snapped open, and his pulse slowed.
Zev kissed up his neck to the underside of his chin. “No.”
Asa croaked. “What?”
Cupping Asa’s face in his palms, Zev pushed him back and smiled. A twinkle softened the dark of his eyes. “When you’re not afraid.”
“No, I—”
“I want to lose myself in you. I am lost.” He moved a thumb and stroked Asa’s lips. “But you can’t be lost too.”
“I want you to feed.”
“I want it too. Your blood in my veins. On my tongue. I long for it, but you aren’t ready.”
“I—”
“Not this day. But one day,” Zev said, dropping a hand to the pendant over Asa’s heart and smiling into his eyes. “I promise.”
The sale of this book without its cover is unauthorized. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it was reported to the publisher as “unsold and destroyed.” Neither the author nor the publisher has received payment for the sale of this “stripped book.”
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright © 2020 by Kayleigh Sky
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All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
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For information, address Kiss Drunk Books in writing at 712 Bancroft Road, Ste 277, Walnut Creek, CA 94598.
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ISBN: 978-1-7329134-7-9 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-7329134-8-6 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-7329134-9-3 (box set)
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Editor: Sue Laybourn, No Stone Unturned Editing Services
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Cover: Tiferet Designs
The Ellowyn Royal Families
In order of rank
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Dinallah
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Nezzarram
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Orla
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Gennarah
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Lotis
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Senera
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Wrythin
Cast of Characters
Abadi Nezzaram, vampire, witch and mother to Rune and Mal, former wife of Qudim Senera
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Absalom, vampire, one of King Zeveriah’s enforcers
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Adalyn, human, Zev’s housekeeper
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Anin Hadil, vampire, one of Zev’s enforcers
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Asa (Emek) Gladstone, human, blood whore sent by Solomon Frenn to seduce the vampire king and locate the royal necklaces, fated love of Zev
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Bettina, vampire, the Senera’s cook and mother figure to Jessa
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Bronwen Wrythin, vampire, member of a royal family
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Camiel Nezzarram, vampire, a powerful witch
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Clara Bloom, human, assistant to one of Mal’s colleagues. A linguist
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Dawn Senera, human, mother to Jessa, second wife and fated love of Qudim
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Esseline Orla, vampire, member of a royal family
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Gareth Wrythin, vampire, cousin to Bronwen Wrythin
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Isaac Hart, human, Prince Jessamine’s blood donor, one of Zev’s servants, fated love of Rune Senera
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Jessamine “Jessa” Senera, half human, half vampire, a prince and drainer, fated love of Otto Jones
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Justin Lotis, vampire, attempted to assassinate Zev, once Zev’s head butler and personal assistant
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Malia “Mal” Senera, vampire, a princess
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Marcus, human, Zev’s cook and Isaac’s mentor
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Mateo, human, blood donor for Comity House, implicated in the murder of a vampire and murdered by Solomon Frenn
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Moss Goran, vampire, Zev’s cousin and confidant, fated love of Uriah Nezzarram and Yair Lotis
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Morjin Gennarah, vampire, member of a royal family
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Otto Jones, human, detective with the Comity police, now employed as head of security for Zeveriah, fated love of Jessa
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Protis Crinnian, vampire, artisan, and glass blower
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Prydwen “Wen” Wrythin, vampire, owner of Comity House, murdered by Solomon Frenn
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Qudim Senera, vampire, father of Rune, Mal, and Jessa
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Rune Senera, vampire, prince and head of the Senera family, seeking the royal necklaces and the Adini Treasure, fated love of Isaac
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Solomon Frenn, vampire, called the light bearer, de facto leader of the Adi ’el Lumi. Also seeking the royal necklaces and the Adini Treasure
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Thomas Mithrinin, vampire, former enforcer for Abadi, president of New West Bank
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Uriah Nezzarram, vampire, former enforcer for Qudim and cousin of the Seneras
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Yair Lotis, vampire, Essie’s grandson, fated love of Uriah and Moss
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Zeveriah “Zev” Dinallah, King of the Vampires
Terms
Adi ’el Lumi, an ancient sect devoted to Ellowyn culture. Believe in Ellowyn superiority and want to enslave humans
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Adini Treasure, God’s reward for following the Revelatory Passion. Its contents and location are unknown, but some myths state that it is a collection of the jewels gathered from the riverbeds of Eden
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Blood Centers, legal locations where drainers feed from humans
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Blood Whore, a human who feeds a vampire for money and often includes sex
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Comity House, a blood center
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Comosoro Leaders, a business group that took their name from one of the original Ellowyn cities, destroyed in the war that had brought the Seneras to power
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Council of Families, annual coven meeting to discuss Ellowyn business and the needs of the families
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Crossling, the offspring of a human and a vampire
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Dimming, phenomena where vampires appear to disappear. Occurs at dusk or dawn, and depends on the light and angle
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Drainers, vampires whose bodies rejected Synelix and must drink human blood to survive, marked by a tattoo of a broken infinity sign on the neck
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Letters of the Revelatory Passion, cuneiform symbols representing qualities the Ellowyn believe God desires from them
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Light bearer, Solomon Frenn, the light bearer is the title given to the servant of the True Heart and the first faith. To the Adi ’el Lumi, the True Heart was Qudim, and the first faith is the belief that Ellowyn are superior to humans and meant to rise above them
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Rilith Collection, archeological treasure, on display at the Celestine Library
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Ryzoks, ceremonial swords, long and hooked like scythes
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Swain, betrothed from an arranged marriage, common among vampires
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Synelix, synthetic blood created by Gladstone Solutions and Asa’s father. Asa stole the formula and gave it to Zev
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Upheaval, a catastrophic
fracking accident that caused massive earthquakes and destroyed the underground Ellowyn cities
Locations
Abbatine, Zev’s home city
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Baggins, small desert town several hours outside of Bakersfield
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Celestine, the jewel of all Ellowyn cities, home to the Seneras
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Comity, a human city, current home of the Seneras
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Onoppiel, the Wrythin home city
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Opal Lake, vacation property in the Sierra Nevada mountains, owned by Zeveriah and the Gorans
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Pomariah, a small vampire city open for tours
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Kolnadia, a vampire city, inhospitable, where Abadi and her family were exiled
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Majallena, home city of the Nezzarrams
Ellowyn Lore
The Ellowyn, commonly called vampires, believe they are fallen angels, descended from Lucifer. According to their legends, they will one day rise again, led by the True Heart, the one who discovers the Adini Treasure. This treasure is considered a reward from God for learning the lessons embodied in the Letters of the Revelatory Passion. No one knows where or what the treasure is, but some myths claim it to be the jewels God collected from the river beds in Eden after the fall of humankind. The Revelatory Letters are the vestiges of a lost language: only nine letters remain, and each one decorates one of the nine royal necklaces lost in the Upheaval. Replicas are cheap and popular costume jewelry for both humans and vampires.
Ellowyn Words
Emmolith = Sacrifice
Lith = Love
Dilme = Resurrection
Joal = Salvation
Remorra = Hell
Fal’litha = True Heart
Falla = Metal
Fal = Pure
Geli’feth = Goodbye
Geli’lith = Forgiveness
Prologue
I have something your king wants…
Your, meaning Uriah’s king, not the king.
The message had come to Senera Castle by regular mail. A plain envelope, no return address, but the folded slip of paper inside had the New West Bank logo, Bakersfield Branch, at the top of the page. Signed President of Operations, no name, only a date and a time.
Uriah crossed the sandy floors of the house, the crunch under his boots like fingernails scraping a slate wall.
Teeth clenched, he opened the veranda doors and stepped out toward the empty pool. The hot sun spread a white haze through the sky. If Rune had been there the last few days, he’d left no sign. Uriah turned back to the house. It had been vacant a long time, and why not? Nobody wanted to live here, not even vampires—but once, somebody had made the two-story house their home.
Moss lives in a two-story house.
Don’t think about Moss.
Thinking about Moss led to thinking about Yair, and that always set Uriah’s teeth on edge. Of all things—he’d never believed in fated loves and had somehow ended up with two.
He climbed into his jeep and started the engine. He had other things to think about anyway. Like where the hell was Rune? Uriah ignored the oddity of Rune’s random arrivals and departures. Their suddenness had a taste of witchery to it, which made sense considering Rune’s mother had been a witch, yet people didn’t just appear out of nowhere, not even vampires. But Rune…
Well, he was different.
Uriah put the jeep into reverse, swung into a half circle, and sped off down the twisty, one-lane driveway. Two miles away, it connected with the highway and led toward Baggins.
As he drove, he shook his head at the way things had turned out in his life. Working for Otto kept him busy, but it wasn’t Otto he’d sworn to serve. It was Rune. Still, except for the occasional task, he worked for Otto because Rune wanted him to. Added to that, he wasn’t supposed to have two fated loves, and definitely not one mixed up with the Adi ’el Lumi.
Don’t think about Yair.
He tightened his grip on the wheel and squeezed the back of his neck with his other hand. He had another two-hour drive to Bakersfield, but first he needed gas and food.
Was the subject of the strange message from New West Bank about the royal necklaces? Was that what Rune wanted? Maybe, but the question for Uriah was why? Chasing the Adini Treasure was a slippery slope to madness as far as he was concerned. With Solomon Frenn and the Adi ’el Lumi after the treasure too, Uriah didn’t have to think long to conclude it was better to let it lie. But it wasn’t his job to think.
A strip of desert-beige buildings wavered in the sun.
Baggins sprawled on either side of the highway for several miles, but Uriah pulled into the first gas station on the outskirts and tugged his shirt away from his sticky skin as he climbed out of the jeep. A roof over the tanks threw out a wedge of hot shade, reminding him of the orange-walled caves of Jasper, radiant in the dark, but always boiling with wet heat. He filled the tank and hurried to the office. Fuck, but the air conditioning felt good.
“Filled it?” asked the kid behind the counter.
“Yeah. Got anything cold to drink?”
“There’s a cooler in back. Gonna be thirty-two dollars, plus anything you get.”
He pulled a Coke off the shelf, rubbed the bottle against his forehead, paid, and returned to his jeep.
At a deli on the next block, he bought a sandwich and another Coke, stepped outside, and frowned at a blonde human, who clucked her tongue at him and pointed at his hood. “Black absorbs heat.”
You don’t fuckin’ say.
“That’s because it’s hot out.”
She grinned, wagged her fingers at him, and continued down the sidewalk.
Humans. He got back behind the wheel and headed out of town.
Bakersfield was close enough to Baggins for Uriah’s gut to warn him of trouble. Rune, who’d gone back to the cabin at Opal Lake after everyone had left the coven meeting, had already instructed him to find a place to stay near Baggins, which was, to Uriah, nothing but a spitball in the desert. He wasn’t happy with Rune’s insistence on coming here, as though something was calling to him, but Uriah had nothing to say about it.
After he’d found the house here, he’d returned home to help Otto run down answers to a strange rash of murders. Now he was back, but Rune was gone.
Fuck, it’s hot. The wind blowing through the windows sucked at his skin. He took a drink of his Coke. Concentrate on Mithrinin.
Thomas Mithrinin, president of the New West Bank.
Mithrinin traveled from branch to branch, including the one in Baggins, but the page from the notepad led to Bakersfield. Did Mithrinin not want to be seen with Uriah in Baggins?
He swiped sweat from his forehead and drank more of his Coke.
In the last year and a half, Rune had come under suspicion for murder and gone on the run. He contacted Uriah when he wanted him and then fell silent again. Uriah often had no idea where he was or what he was doing.
Scowling to himself, he set his Coke on the seat beside him. Was Rune looking for the necklaces? It grated on Uriah’s nerves when the prince exposed himself to danger. That was Uriah’s job as enforcer. He’d trained long years for it and few could fight him and survive.
Though the damn sun might kill him.
He’d taken care of Jessa too, but Jessa had found his fated in Otto after Solomon had murdered Wen, Jessa’s betrothed, and a human blood donor named Mateo.
That sent Uriah’s thoughts tumbling to Yair again. Yair’s uncle had conspired with Solomon to murder the king at the yearly coven meeting, and he might have succeeded if Asa, one of Solomon’s spies, hadn’t fallen for the king and saved him.
Uriah snatched up his Coke and took a long swallow. His fated was a miserable traitor. Don’t think about that now. Think about the clues.
Clues to what though? Power? Money?
The necklaces Rune had sought for years were rumored to unlock the hiding
place of the legendary Adini Treasure. Supposedly, the treasure was a gift to the one righteous enough to rule. Rune was determined that wouldn’t be the Adi. Uriah didn’t believe the treasure was real any more than he believed the Ellowyn were descendants of fallen angels. But then he hadn’t believed in fated love either.
