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Chapter One

Mastyr Vae where two of his Guards carried between the practice The night air, though usually fresh in early April, carried a rancid edge, so time

But he’d lost another of his Guard here at Sweet Gorge, killed sometime this past week, but located by a search patrol just a half hour ago And this was the fourth murder in a month

So was on the wind

“Invictus?” Finn scratched behind his right ear He was Ethan’s second-in-co red hair a beacon in any situation

Using both hands, Ethan shoved his own unruly hair away from his face Sweat dripped froisson Realm this time of year, but when his blood-starvation reached difficult levels, he’d often perspire like he’d been battling for hours “What the hell was Paul doing patrolling in this area?”

Ethan didn’t know Paul well, but he felt responsible for him, as he did for all his Guard He’d built his force to three hundred strong, but Paul, as a new recruit, wasn’t well-known to many of the Guardsmen

“He didn’t have orders to go out here, not with three other Guards the eastern border” Ethan let his gazethe uilt clawed at his chest This part of his real been the place of a massacre forty years earlier

“Maybe his body was dumped”

Ethan’s frown tightened his forehead “Most likely”

There was a connection between Sweet Gorge and the Invictus He just didn’t knohat it was

Sweet Gorge used to be a place of great beauty and had once been a modest resort, a place his family had been to a lot in its prime Fae leadership had also met here often

Now hiswith many loved ones, over two hundred realm killed all at one time

Afterward, the stream had dried up, the source cursed by a powerful fae of unknown ancestry No one had seen the fae female or the deed, only that the stream was blocked and no amount of power had ever released it A wall of crystals resided there and none of the fae he kneould go near it

Besides, there was always the stench to warn realht, very ancient, and deadly

He glanced over the wooded ridgeline along the north ridge A breeze picked up sending sharp pine scents through the air

But soic, as though it waited there Histhe insides of his arle fae of power, in any of the Nine Realure out where all that poas co from, not even Vojalie, the most powerful fae he knew

He reset his long hair with the traditional woven clasp He’d been flying through his real the red wind of the Invictus, a sign that preceded an attack He hadn’t found anything yet, but the night was young

He’d used up a lot of precious energy, however, and he needed to feed again, the bane of his station as a true mastyr vampire All the mastyrs he knew experienced desperate levels of blood-need and lately, for no reason he could figure out, his starvation had worsened

His mouth filled with saliva as he drew his cell from the pocket of his battle leathers He sent a quick text to one of his doneuses and wasn’t surprised at all when he got a e back to stop in for a quick tap Bless the dozen women who serviced him