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Chapter One

As a general rule, people don’t like to date monsters

I don’t mean in a my ex-boyfriend was such an asshole, he was a total irl was a e New Yorker if they’d like to have a girlfriend whose primary source of food was human blood, and most of them will say no

At less than five and a half feet tall with bouncy blonde, curly hair and big doe-brown eyes, I didn’t really look like an evil creature But don’t they say it’s what’s inside that counts? Inside I was a htmare--half olf on my mother’s side and half vampire thanks to my father Which isn’t to say I inherited the latter part naturally My nant when my human father was turned He attacked her, then fed her his blood to keep her alive afterwards

Talk about a guilty conscience

As a result, my human cells were attacked and infected with the vaenes already dormant within me, and voila--cute, perky and totally bloodthirsty

I’d been raised by randmere, my mother’s mother, and she named me Secret, which is probably what my mother hoped I would stay Instead I ended up in New York City as the employee of the vampire council, where my job title is bounty hunter but my real job is more assassin than retriever

Not really so yourself to guys Unless of course they have a weird Buffy the Vampire Slayer fetish, but I try to avoid that comparison whenever possible

Then there was always the pesky problem of how none of it--vampires, olves or vampire slayers--was supposed to exist Humans don’t like to think their bedtime stories are based in reality Yet those tales, be they scary or fairy, frorimmer of the Grimm, are rooted in truth But no one before me has been afflicted with two kinds of monster curse in the same body

Aren’t I lucky?

Due to ht hours, and et out ular basis were my business partner, Keaty, and my liaison with the council, Holden Chancery

Keaty, pushing forty and every inch the cold-blooded killer, was not a dream match romantically He was the best partner I could ask for, and handsome in an ex-CIA sort of way, but I would never be able to picture hiure And that’s saying so how fucked-up my real father was

Holden, on the other hand, wasn’t exactly hard on the eyes, being a tall, lean, handsome brunet with beautiful dark eyes and a killer sense of style No, I didn’tat him The problem with Holden was he was a vampire, and not only that, he was sort ofa the ranks, and I had never asked It wasn’t the kind of question you brought up whenwith a thousand-plus-year-old Finnishyou to kill people while looking at you like he wanted to taste you

So I was left with few options and no real desire to seek out alternatives I le in the city, but I couldn’t wrapscene

It wasn’t like I orried about eating

Well,my time in New York I’d had two semi-serious relationships, and one of the ot too weird for hiotten pretty content being unattached

And that’s when irlfriend decided to put her nose into my business Mercedes Castilla was a detective with the NYPD and in her third go-round of being twenty-nine Also perennially single, she seeiven up on her own love life and had taken over ht in August, I foundmy rear end in a mirror and was less than thrilled with the results Maybe vayain why I have to do this?" I asked into the phone crammed between my shoulder and ear

"You wantout to dinner with a handsome, unmarried, well-educated detective?" Mercedes was sarcastic at the best of tiathered she was getting annoyed with my hesitations

"Yes?" I replied, not entirely sure I wanted her to respond I pulled on ht i with a little toorown since the last ti to cancel a date because of too much ass and too little boob?

"Secret" Now her voice did nothing to hide her irritation "You have cancelled on two different guys I’ve tried to set you up with One of them was rumbled

"So?"

"You know -into-a-cloud-of-ash schedule It was pretty strict