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hard enough to make her wince. She had long ago learned the art of inflicting pain on her daughter while outwardly appearing to be a doting mother. “As for Jules, you don’t have to love him or even tolerate his company—just marry him and bear his offspring: that is all . And that’s exactly what you’re going to do, young lady! Because I’m not going to let you get in the way of my very own palace on the Côte d’Azur, you understand?”
    “Perfectly,” Lilith said as she massaged the quickly fading bruises on her wrist.

CHAPTER 2

    C armen Duivel smiled wanly as her escort, Sergei Savanovic, handed her a champagne flute full of blood. Sergei frowned. Normally Carmen was the life of the party. He’d never seen her so subdued before.
    “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be whooping it up with Lilith and the others. Why are you sitting on the sidelines, watching everyone else party?”
    Carmen heaved a deep sigh, and for a moment it seemed like she might cry. “I know I should be out there having a good time, Sergei, but this has turned into the worst night of my life—ever!”
    “It can’t be as bad as all that.”
    “Just before midnight, while we were in the waiting room upstairs, things kind of got out of hand between Lilith and Cally. I ended up saying some things I shouldn’t have and, well, Lilith found out about me and Jules.”
    “I stand corrected: that is bad!” As Jules’s best friend, Sergei had known about the affair from the start. He had his own opinion about why Carmen was sleeping around with Jules, but he knew enough to keep his trap shut.
    “Now I’m afraid Lilith is going to tell Oliver.”
    “So what if she does?” Sergei shrugged. “It’s not like you’re promised to each other.”
    “It’s just that whenever Ollie feels like he’s been slighted, he goes into these awful tantrums!”
    “I’ve never cared for the guy,” Sergei said bluntly. “No offense, but I’ve never understood why you hang with that jerk.”
    “My mom thinks we make a good-looking couple.” Carmen gestured at her mother, Camille Duivel, who was busy hobnobbing with some of the members of her country club. “She says that makes it easier to get into hot nightclubs and attract prey. Which is true, I guess. But Oliver treats me kind of mean. That’s why I started fooling around with Jules in the first place. Now Jules treats me just like Ollie does. No one ever appreciates me.”
    “Well, I appreciate you,” Sergei said, patting her hand.
     

    As Cally watched the stylishly dressed partygoers swirl around the floor to the strains of Die Fledermaus, she found herself thinking of Peter. Because her father was a vampire and his father was a vampire hunter, it had been impossible for them to enjoy the pleasures young lovers take for granted, such as going dancing. Although she was the one who’d insisted on breaking up, she still had strong feelings for him. Indeed, while waltzing with Jules earlier that night, she had even imagined Peter’s face, pale and distraught, pressed against one of the windows that looked out onto the gardens.
    Although she would miss her friends, Cally was beginning to think that perhaps moving to Europe wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Clearly she needed the space in order to get over Peter—and she was certain it would help him get over her, too.
    Being in the same city made it far too tempting to try to reestablish contact. And the more time they spent together, the greater the risk. Not even her father’s status could protect her if it was discovered that she had been intimate with a descendant of Pieter Van Helsing, legendary scourge of the vampire race.
    Cally suddenly became aware that she was rubbing the palm of her left hand against her thigh and forced herself to stop. She had been experiencing an odd, intermittent prickling sensation in her hand throughout the evening.
    It must be nerves, she told herself.
    Hearing a polite cough at her elbow, Cally