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his jaw.
    Aden opened his mouth to issue another command, but in the back of his mind, he heard another rumble. Stronger this time, more than a yawn. Every muscle in his body tensed.
    Chompers had awakened.
    A sense of urgency filled Aden. “Victoria. Now! Or I swear I’ll never feed you again.”
    Another beat of silence, then, “You will go away,” she said, thrums of subdued power wafting from her voice. Why subdued? “You saw no one, spoke to no one.”
    Unlike before, several seconds passed before thehuman responded to her command. In the end, his brown eyes dulled, and his pupils contracted. “No trouble,” he said in a monotone. “Leave. No one.”
    â€œGood,” she said, anger pulsing from her now. Her arm fell to her side. “Go. Before it’s too late.”
    He stood. Walked to the entrance. Exited without looking back. He would never know how close he’d come to dying.
    The rumble in Aden’s head intensified yet again. Any moment now, and the rumble would become—
    A roar.
    So loud, consuming, rocking him to his soul. Aden covered his ears, hoping to block the sound, even though he knew how ineffective the action was. Louder and louder, the roar became a scream, high-pitched, slashing through his mind like a razor until his thoughts broke apart and two words hacked their way to center stage.
    Feed.
    Destroy.
    No, no, no. I did feed, he said to Chompers. Let’s not—
    FEED. DESTROY.
    The spiderwebs returned to his vision, interspaced with red. Both zeroed in on Victoria. Still she crouched,her gaze leveled on him, wary. She knew what would happen next.
    FEEDDESTROY.
    Yes. Aden rolled from the rocky dais and settled his weight on unsteady legs. Victoria unfolded to her full height, reed slender and lovely. Wild. Her hands curled into fists. He’d just eaten, true, but he needed more. Had to have more.
    â€œFeed,” he heard himself say, two voices layered together, one familiar, the other smoky and harsh. Fight this, he had to fight this. Couldn’t let Chompers tug his puppet strings.
    A whimper escaped Victoria as she scratched at her ears. The souls must be waking up. He knew how loud their voices could be. As loud as Chompers’ roar.
    â€œProtect,” she said, her eyes suddenly sparkling with brown, green and blue. Oh, yes. The souls were in there, chattering.
    Protect her, as she’d said. He must protect her. But he ground out, “Destroy.” And even though he tried to root his feet into the floor, he found himself stalking toward her, his mouth watering.
    D e s t r o y d e s t r o y d e s t r o y. DESTROYDESTROYDESTROY.
    Chompers had always been insistent. But this…this was savagery at its most basic.
    Somehow, some way, Aden’s time with Victoria was about to come to an end—the knowledge was suddenly as much a part of him as his healed heart—and he had a feeling only one of them would be walking away.

TWO
    V ICTORIA T EPES, DAUGHTER of Vlad the Impaler and one of the three princesses of Wallachia, braced herself for impact. Good thing. A split second later, Aden slammed into her, knocking her into the same cave wall against which she’d thrown the human. Goodbye, beloved oxygen.
    There was no time to refill her lungs, either. One of Aden’s hands closed around her neck and squeezed. Not enough to damage her but enough to trap her. He was fighting the monster’s urges with every bit of his strength, she knew. Otherwise he would have already crushed her.
    Soon, he would lose the battle.
    Anger would have helped her push him away, but she couldn’t summon a single spark of it. She had done this to him, and the guilt ate at her, a malignant cancerwithout a cure. He’d told her not to try and save him. He’d told her bad things would happen if she did. But as she’d peered down at the boy she’d come to love, the one person who had ever accepted her for who and