Demon Blood Read Free

notice, but like the angels, Guardians had to follow the Rules; they could not interfere with human free will or kill humans, no matter how terrible some men were. If a Guardian broke the Rules, he either had to Fall and return to human form, or Ascend and go on to his afterlife.
    Centuries passed, and although the numbers of Guardians increased, many also died. Their lives were fraught with danger, and they often had to defend themselves in combat against demons and nosferatu. They avoided bargains and wagers with demons; if left unfulfilled, a demon’s bargain would trap their eternal soul in Hell’s frozen field. And they fought to save as many humans as possible, all the while concealing their existence from them.
    In time, the Guardians discovered that humans who had been attacked by nosferatu might be saved by drinking the creature’s blood. Though much stronger than humans—and a vampire created from nosferatu blood was stronger than one transformed by another vampire’s blood—the vampires were weaker than Guardians and could not alter their shapes. Like the nosferatu, these transformed humans were vulnerable to daylight and suffered from a deep and powerful hunger—the bloodlust. Fearing discovery and persecution by humans, vampires formed secret communities, living among humans in their cities, but feeding only from one another.
    The vampires’ souls were not transformed; their characters were the same in undeath as they had been in life. The vampires were not bound by the Rules, just as nosferatu were not, and so the Guardians took upon themselves another task—to guard humans against vampires should the need arise. For the most part, Guardians allowed the vampires to live as they willed, but there were those vampires who had to be watched more closely than others, and who would be destroyed if they broke the Rules.
    So the Guardians fought to keep the influence of those Above and Below from touching humanity. There is no end to this story; the Guardians are still fighting. They will keep fighting for as long as they exist.
    When the girl heard this she was overjoyed, for it meant that although her brother had become a vampire, he could still be saved. His transformation had not corrupted his soul; the demon had. She persuaded Michael not to slay her brother and allow her the chance to undo what the demon had done.
    She could not immediately begin, however—first, she had to complete one hundred years of training in Caelum. Those years were filled with hope. Even the discovery of her Gift to manipulate darkness and shadows, so painful to use beneath Caelum’s sun-filled sky, did not diminish her happiness. After a century, she returned to Earth, her hope still bright within her chest.
    It took almost two more centuries for her brother to kill that hope. Then he was killed, too.
    And so the tale closes with the girl left alone and her hopes shattered, with no one to save—and the demon, though defeated, ultimately the victor. Unlike other stories, this does not have a happy ending.
    Not yet.

CHAPTER 1
    The string quartet in the corner of the ballroom slipped from a sleepy minuet into a sleepy waltz. Rosalia lifted her champagne flute to her lips to cover her sigh. Thank God for the demons. If not for their conspiring, boredom would have killed her by now.
    The small circle of humans she’d joined burst into laughter. Rosalia smiled vacuously in response. She hadn’t heard the joke, but no one at the gala would expect a reply, anyway. She’d changed her dark hair to a wispy, baby blond, donned a vapid expression over soft features, and paired them with an insubstantial pink dress for that very reason: She wouldn’t be expected to talk. She only needed to stand and look pretty. So she stood with humans she didn’t know in the center of a chateau ballroom, watching three of Belial’s demons solidify an alliance.
    Others watched them, too. Some humans glanced in their direction; some stared. Rosalia