CHAPTER ONE
Lilith. She was the world’s first woman. The Queen of the Night. The mother of all vampires.
She got credit for none of it, but after a few millennia of existence, praise…or even acknowledgment…for her contributions to society didn’t matter. It all happened so long ago, and Lilith didn’t hold a grudge against anyone.
Well, except for Adam, but that little weasel didn’t count. He got her exiled from Eden, after all, and for what? Because she wanted to be on top for a change. Because she refused to obey him and wanted to be his equal. His partner.
Whatever.
Apparently, that was too much to ask because he’d kicked her to the curb and had her cursed to rely on the blood of mortals for sustenance. Of course, back then, Adam was the only mortal. Her curse was supposed to be a death sentence, but Lucifer had been kind enough to take her in. Demon blood had sustained her just fine…made her more powerful than those nitwits could have imagined. Now there were plenty of mortals topside to feast on.
Fuck you and the being who cursed me, Adam.
She groaned and pulled the blanket over her head. Why did she have to wake up thinking about him? Squeezing her eyes shut, she rolled to her side and willed herself to go back to sleep and have a pleasant dream for once. If only her magic worked on herself. She could glamour a heavy-weight boxer into eight hours of slumber, yet she couldn’t sleep for shit.
It was time she dragged her butt out of bed and started her day…or night…whatever time it was. Lucifer controlled the “skies” in The Underworld, so who knew?
Percival called for his breakfast, and the gentle caw, caw, caw brought a smile to her lips. Lilith sat up, stretching her arms over her head, and her crow familiar flew from his perch to the bed before hopping across the deep blue comforter.
“Hello, moonlight. How are you today, my pet?” She stroked his sleek black feathers, and he answered with another caw.
“Okay, okay. I’ll get up.” She scooted to the edge of the mattress and placed her feet on the marbled concrete floor. Wiggling her toes, she focused on the smooth, cool surface, feeling the chill all the way to her spine. With a deep inhale, she stretched her arms over her head one last time before rising and padding to the pantry.
She filled his bowl with trail mix and gave him fresh water as he danced across the counter in anticipation. Dipping his head, Percival pecked at his meal, and Lilith strode to the terrarium, where Esther, her magical snake familiar, lay sleeping. Much like a chameleon, Esther could change her coloring to match her environment, her mood, or whatever the occasion might require. Most of the time, she took on the coloring of an overgrown scarlet king snake—red with black and yellow bands—a harmless, non-venomous creature. At four and a half feet long, she could be intimidating to some, but she was the sweetest, most adorable animal ever created.
Today, however, Esther had donned an albino white aesthetic. That’s new. She’d coiled herself on top of a large, flat rock beneath the heat lamp, her face pointed toward the wall. Lilith stood in front of the terrarium and crossed her arms, waiting for the snake to lift her head.
“Good morning, love. It’s time for breakfast.” She tapped on the glass, but Esther refused to acknowledge her. “Come on, my little danger noodle. We have things to do. We have to…”
Lilith pressed her lips together and drummed her fingers against her biceps. What, exactly, did she have to do? Lucifer didn’t require her to work, so she had no job. She had plenty of blood in the fridge, so she technically didn’t need to go hunting—though, nothing beat a meal straight from the vein. Grabbing her phone from the nightstand, she opened the calendar app, and her shoulders slumped as she took in all the empty squares on the screen. Her schedule had been wide open for weeks. There wasn’t a damn thing she had to do today.
“Maybe we can meet Eve for a drink.”
Esther still didn’t move, so Lilith used telepathy to send her thoughts to her familiar. “Don’t make me traipse through the streets of The Underworld without my favorite accessory.” Lilith was rarely seen without her snake draped over her shoulders. Percival traveled everywhere with her as well, but her crow preferred flying as his mode of transportation.
The snake started to lift her head, a minuscule movement that stilled as quickly as it had begun.
“I feel you, sister.” If Percival didn’t need to be fed, Lilith would’ve been in bed as well.
Her crow glided into the room and perched on the edge of the terrarium before leaning in and cawing at the snake. Esther’s skin rippled as if she were going to move but thought better of it.
“Come here, nope rope. Stop playing.” Lilith reached inside and slipped one hand beneath Esther’s head, the other a foot down below her belly. Normally the snake would have coiled around her arm before slithering up to her shoulder. Now her body hung like a wet noodle.
“Esther?” A sense of dread tightened Lilith’s chest, dragging her heart down into her stomach. “What’s wrong, my sweet?”
She laid the snake on the bed and crouched in front of her, running her fingers over her head. “Connect with me.” Focusing her magic into her familiar, Lilith tried to become one with the snake. Esther was an extension of Lilith, created by Lucifer himself to be her companion in the early years of her cursed existence. She should have been able to bond her consciousness to her familiar, seeing through Esther’s eyes as if they were the same being.
Something was wrong. Okay, that was an understatement because, as Lilith reached into Esther’s psyche, instead of the loving little snake she adored, all she found was a void. Emptiness as dark and cold as the rumors about Lilith’s heart.
“Percival, what’s wrong with her?”
The crow landed on the bed and gently pecked at Esther’s back. Her muscles crawled in reaction, but she didn’t lift her head. Pressure built in Lilith’s eyes as she dragged in a breath. Esther had been her companion for millennia, and she’d never seen her behave this way. Sure, she got moody every now and then, but who didn’t? This was something else entirely.
“Esther, please.” She slipped her hand beneath the snake’s head, and Esther finally opened her crimson eyes. “There’s my girl.” Lilith tried to smile, but the fear making her muscles tense wrapped around her heart, squeezing it until she thought it would burst like a tapioca pearl in bubble tea.
Esther’s forked tongue darted out, lapping at Lilith’s wrist before the snake closed her eyes and stilled.
“Oh, my baby. Let’s get you back under your lamp.” Lilith gathered her familiar into her arms and returned her to the terrarium before looking at Percival. “We need a doctor. Are there any vets in The Underworld?”
