CHAPTER ONE
White Lotus Village, Blood Kingdom
Lanlin Sin, Alpha Shadow Vampire Prince
Lies feedmy royal House of Sin, as much as blood. My twin, Lazarus, with his dreamer’s heart is easily tricked. But I am cursed to see through illusions.
Tonight, the truth is that under the haunting beauty of the silver moon, our souls are about to be torn apart.
I prefer to be the one with my fangs in someone else’s throat. I’m addicted to the sweet taste of stolen blood.
Isn’t that what everyone expects from the monster prince?
Why would Mother and Father do this to me?
“Run.” I glance over my shoulder at Lazarus in frustration. “By my heart,faster.”
My canines elongate into two sharp fangs in my distress. My dominant pheromones become stronger, rolling off me in waves.
I wrinkle my nose at the intoxicating fragrance of the sweet lotus flowers.
“Why?” Lazarus struggles to keep up with me in the dark, tripping over the long linen tunic, which he had been sleeping in, before I dragged him out of bed to make our escape from White Lotus Tower. “It’s our birthday. We’re going to be nine.All grown up, nurse said. There will be celebrations. Dancing and honey and date bat cakes. They’re my favorite.”
Lies.
“The only bat you’ll see tonight,” I mutter, “is me if I shift into one.”
Looking at Lazarus is like looking into a mirror.
He is small, olive skinned, and pretty. His long, black hair flutters in tangled lengths to his waist.
A matching obsidian scarab beetle pendant to my own with diamonds for eyes, as if it’s only waiting to spring to life, rests on his chest.
The scarab beetle is the emblem of the House of Sin. The pendants are the singular gift that Mother has given us. They are heirlooms, which are the only things we possess that show we belong to the oldest royal line, the House of Sin.
As the Shadow Twins, we have dwelled in the darkness of this kingdom. I hoped that clinging to the shadows would keep us safe.
But I have been lying to myself.
Is that worse than being lied to?
Like the calf being fattened up to be sacrificed, my twin and I are being prepared to be bled out tonight.
What would it feel like to be accepted by my family?
As the nurse has often told me, however, while tucking me into bed as the dawn light kissed the roof of the tower, as the only vampire of my generation with The Power, I ama freak.
Each night, I have been made to pray to the Shadow Devils to give thanks that I have been allowed to live.
Shadow Devils, choke on my curses.
I am not grateful.
I am going to live because I choose to. I am going to kill anybody who harms me. And I am going to destroy the Shadow Devils themselves if they hurt my twin.
When a sharp rock slices open the sole of my bare foot, I hiss in pain. I didn’t even take the time to grab sandals, when I discovered what was truly planned for my birthday.
Instead, I grabbed the only person in this world who I love…who I love more than myself…to make my escape from the one place that I could call home.
