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Prologue

THE BALLROOM WAS bathed in the soft glow of candlelight, and tiny flaathered for the cere woman, the Chosen, stepped uncertainly into theirwood floor Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of the lithe and elegant figures, pale-skinned and beautiful, who had come to witness this event, the most momentous of her life

The last of her natural life

Though she had caught glimpses of others like her lover before, she had never seen so … and just a little frightening

Rosalyn Her nale hts as well as they knew hers These were to be her people, those who shared the ancient bloodline of a goddess, a pharaoh They were the Ptolemy, and they were to be revered

As instructed, she had come to this beautifulbut a thin silk robe of purest white Soon, Rosalyn knew, that would be gone She would enter her new life as she had come into the first, bare-skinned and pure Her eyes darted anxiously around the roo for her beloved The one who had h to want her by his side for all time However, all she saere unfa preternaturally in the semidarkness Soer Not all were unkind, she consoled herself as she fought back a shiver

But none belonged to her Jeremy

Rosalyn shuddered in a shallow breath and et the better of her Jereh all the proper channels, and she had been questioned by an e the all-i her permission to join the sacred House of Ptolee her good-byes Being born into this new lifeties with the old one, and she’d shed more than a few tears over it But the loss orth the gain No longer would she be just one of a vah kept well) for the willing and frequent gift of her blood

Now she would be Jeremy’s mate eternal For the first time, they would feast upon each other And when the ceremony was over, and her skin was branded with the mark that would forever bind her to the ancient dynasty that had been blessed by Sekhrets, hand in hand with her love She would be Rosalyn of the Ptolemy

But… where was Jeremy?

The small crowd of perhaps thirty witnesses cleared to for alone, exposed in their ly silent, as was the way of their kind, but Rosalyn had been admonished not to speak until spoken to So she waited as silently as they did, keeping her shoulders back, her chin high She had been declared worthy She clung to that and hoped her looks reflected it She had brushed her long, straight hair so that it gleaold as it fell past her shoulders, and she’d left her delicate features unpainted, the way Jereht, her eyes flickering over several of the dazzlingly beautiful woain anyway

Vampiric beauty was incoh the crowd then, and suddenly he was there, stepping into the circle with her Tall, sandy-haired, boyishly handsome Jeremy He stepped forward to take her hands in his, and Rosalyn shivered, as she always did, at the first touch of that cool skin on hers But the warht all their own, more than compensated He leaned in close, and she could smell the faint musk of his skin

"Ready?" he asked softly, his war her ear

She nodded "Always"

He sht the sharp points of his incisors, glea white between deep red lips He looked away for a moment, and between one blink and the next, they were joined by a third person in the circle, a tall, iht in a severe black suit His expression was soleh the air with a power that signified great age, though he appeared no older than forty

This was the master of the ceremony, one of Arsinöe’s trusted emissaries sent to oversee and verify the ancient ritual

His first question was directed at Jeremy "By what name are you called, supplicant?"

Jeremy’s response was immediate, and full of pride "I am Jeremy Rothburn of the Ptolemy"

"And what do you ask of us on this fullthis woman, Rosalyn DeVore, into the sacred House of Ptoleift and to share with her life eternal"

The emissary’s pale eyes shifted to her "And you, Rosalyn DeVore? What do you request of the House of Ptole instant, she feared that she’d forgotten the words But then they were there for her, rolling easily frolorious lineage of Sekhoddess; of Arsin&ouh to drink the blood of the greatest of the vaive of my blood, my life, to Jeremy Rothburn of the Ptolemy, and for his blood, his life, to be shared in return"