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PROLOGUE

ADEN STONE THRASHED ON his bed, his sheets falling to the floor Too hot Sweat poured fro he wore, to stick to his thighs Tooi darkness, horrid chaos and brutal pain

Couldn’t take… vah his veins Powerful vah the eyes of its donor, if only for a little while That wouldn’t have been so terrible--he’d experienced it before--except he had ingested blood froht before Accidentally, of course, but that didn’t irlfriend, the Princess Victoria The other, Dmitri, her dead fiancé Or betrothed Whatever

Now their blood fought a vicious tug-of-war for his attention A toxic back-and-forth No big deal, right? Over the years, he’d fought zohosts; he should be able to laugh about a little ADD Wrong! He felt as if he’d drunk a bottle of acid with a chaser of broken glass One burned him while the other sliced him to pieces

And noas--

Switching focus again

"Oh, Father," he suddenly heard Victoria whisper

He winced She’d whispered, yeah, but, too loud His ears were as sensitive as the rest of hih the pain and center his gaze Big s had given way to the sparkling colors of Victoria’s Aden peered through her eyes now, unable to even blink on his own

"You were the strongest man ever to live," she continued in a sole, his throat rubbed raw "How could you have been defeated so quickly?" How could I not have knoas happening? she thought

She, her bodyguard, Riley, and their friend Mary Ann had driven Aden hoht Victoria had wanted to stay with him, but he’d sent her away He hadn’t knoould react to the two different types of blood inside him, and she’d needed to be with her people in their ti and turning, his body recovering froiven--and received Then, about an hour ago, the tug-of-war had begun Thank God Victoria had beat feet What a freaking nighth her eyes, in his current pathetic condition, and knohat she was thinking

When Victoria thought of hi that, he’d ht she was perfect, in every way

Perfect and sweet and beautiful And his Her i, dark hair that tulittered like crystals and lips that were cherry red Kissable Lickable

He’d h he felt as if he’d known her forever Which, in a warped kind of way, he had Well, at least for the last sixin his head Yeah, as if vah of an oddity, Aden shared his head with three other human souls More than that, each soul possessed a supernatural ability

Julian could raise the dead

Caleb could possess other bodies

And Elijah could predict the future

Through Elijah, Aden had known he would encounter Victoria before she’d ever arrived in Crossroads, Oklahoma A place he’d once considered hell on earth, but now considered The Awesoround for so-called oblins, fairies--all enemies to Victoria--and of course, vampires Oh, and olves, the vampire protectors

And, okay That was a lot of freaking creatures But if one myth had been true, it kinda oing to do with--" Victoria began again, drawing his attention to the present

He really wanted to hear her complete that sentence Before she could utter another word, however, his focus switched Again Darkness suddenly enveloped hi away his connection to Victoria Aden’s thrashing on his bed renewed, pain exploding through him just before he linked with the other vampire Dmitri Dead Dmitri

Aden wanted to open his eyes, to see soether Through panting breaths, he s his throat He coughed, and coughed, or was D? Was D because Aden’s thoughts sparked through their shared mind?

He tried to ain so the ashy air, and suddenly he couldn’t breathe at all

"Burn him," someone said coolly "Let’s make sure the traitor stays dead"