BOUND BY FATE: PROLOGUE
"Memory is a fragile thread, easily cut by those who rule the night. But power born of blood cannot be silenced forever, nor can fate be compelled into forgotten shadows."
— Excerpt from The Archives of the First Bloodlines, Chapter IV
Twenty Years AgoThe smell of burning oil and damp earth hung heavy in the midnight air.At the bottom of the embankment, the overturned car was crumpled against the treeline, its headlights flickering weakly against the storm. Rain fell in sheets, but it could not drown out the faint, terrified heartbeat inside the wreckage.Alexander stood at the edge of the ditch, his pale gray eyes fixed on the mangled metal. He wasn't supposed to be here. In the years following Lucas Blackstone's coup, his family was forced to keep a low profile, avoiding any unwanted attention from both humans and rival vampires.Yet, as he reached the shattered window, he reached inside and carefully pulled the tiny, shivering toddler into his arms, keeping her safe from the jagged glass and metal.He leaned down, locking his cold gray eyes onto hers as the rain poured over them."Forget the fire," he whispered into the dark, lacing his voice with compulsion. "Forget the rain. Forget the past. Dream of the future."He watched her eyelids flutter shut, her small body relaxing against his shoulder. He thought his command would lock away the horror of that night forever. He thought she was just an ordinary human child.He was wrong.
