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August 5 - September 27, 2025
“No one deserves to be forgotten. If it’s any reassurance, Samara, I intend to live a very long life. And I will not forget you for any of it.”
“Listen to me, Samara. You can tell yourself I killed him because I’m an evil vampire. Or because I found his voice irritating and the wine he gave you smelled suspicious, or simply because I didn’t care for the way he looked for any excuse to put his hands on you. It matters not. He’s dead, and you still have to travel with me. As long as you’re in my care, you’re mine. No one else’s.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” His steps slowed as we hit another trap. “I’ll tell you my secrets as soon as you start volunteering your own.”
“Is it home?” There was a long pause. So long I wondered if perhaps the vampire had gone to sleep. But then— “I confess to you, I think I’ve forgotten the meaning of the word.” Perhaps the vampire and I were more alike than I’d realized.
“Should you or anyone else lay a hand on what’s mine, let your lives be forfeit. You live only as a warning to them.”
As long as you’re here with me, dove, you’re mine. And I protect what’s mine. Ruthlessly.” Ruthlessly. With dismembered hands and decapitated bodies.
“My name is Amalthea, court seer to the Vampire Kingdom of the West and resident know-it-all. Or if not all, at least the interesting parts. That disapproving fanged menace is Iademos, right hand to the Vampire
“Oh, you’re much more than that. You’re the first human Raphael’s ever claimed as his Chosen.”
“Is it wise to needle him like that?” I asked, unable to help myself. “Oh, Demos likes it. He has the rest of the castle too well-trained. A person can only take so much bowing and scraping before they want to fling themselves off a cliff. I keep him sane.”
She paused, gauging the effect of her words on me. “And those he’d taken in the past out of necessity, he killed shortly after so he wouldn’t be bothered.” My skin turned to ice. “Biscuit?” she offered.
his sense of justice, his dedication to the kingdom, his wit, his majestic presence. Some might bear a grain of truth, but I suspected the same words would have been applied to a lobotomized rooster if it wore the crown.
Just because theoretical ‘others’ had it worse doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care of yourself.”
Fire gods, if there’s any mercy, just turn me to ash now.
“At least you tried and found out for yourself, rather than letting fear stop you.”
though in six hundred years I’ve never developed an affinity for paperwork.”
So I pulled a page from his book and waited in silence until he answered.
“What do you excel at, then?” My voice was soft. He held my gaze. “Truthfully? Surviving. At any cost.” He was a survivor. Like me.
“Samara, there is nowhere in this world I would not go if you wished me to.”
