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CHAPTER ONE

THE CHANGE

Early April

Chicago, Illinois

At first, I wondered if it was karmic punishment I'd sneered at the fancy vampires, and as some kind of cosmic retribution, I'd been made one Vampire Predator Initiate into one of the oldest of the twelve vampire Houses in the United States

And I wasn't just one of them

I was one of the best

But I' you how I becahth birthday, the night I coht I awoke in the back of a li across the University of Chicago campus

I didn't reh to be thrilled to be alive To be shocked to be alive

In the back of the limousine, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to unpack the memory of the attack I'd heard footsteps, the sound rabbed ht my way out, but he pushed- and he bit my neck with a predatory ferocity that left little doubt about who he was What he was

Vampire

But while he tore into skin and , he'd stopped and jue of the main quad

My attacker temporarily vanquished, I'd raised a hand to the crux of my neck and shoulder, felt the sticky war, but I could see the wine- colored stain across h

Then there was movement around me Two men

The men my attacker had been afraid of

The first of them had sounded anxious "He was fast You'll need to hurry, Liege"

The second had been unerringly confident "I'll get it done"

He pulled me up to my knees, and knelt behind ne - soapy and clean

I tried to

"Be still"

"She's lovely"

"Yes," he agreed He suckled the wound at ain, and he stroked my hair "Be still"

I recalled very little of the next three days, of the genetic restructuring that transformed me into a vampire Even now, I only carry a handful of memories Deep-seated, dull pain - shocks of it that bowed reen eyes