Chapter 1
Angel’s laughter filled the air beside me.
I turned my head and glared at him.
“I’m serious.”
“I know.” He was still laughing.
I looked back at the ridiculous city stretched out over the ocean.
Show-off.
I didn’t even know where to look first. Everywhere I turned there was something else that shouldn’t exist. A building twisted toward the sky like someone had grown it instead of built it. Water ran down the side of another one without apparently giving a single fuck about gravity. People crossed golden bridges hundreds of feet above the ocean like that was a perfectly normal way to get to work.
And somewhere in all of this was apparently Angel’s home.
“What did you expect to see?”
“I don’t...” I ducked my head to hide my blush.
“Oh, no. Not so fast.” He scooped me into his arms and made me look at him, a small smile playing at his lips. “What did you expect to see?”
“Darkness.”
“And?”
“A red sun that never sets.”
“And?”
“Stalagmites with bats pouring out the top desert everywhere and lava,” I whispered in one fast breath.
He raised an eyebrow. “Lava?”
“Yeah, okay, maybe not lava.”
Because that was the most absurd part of what I’d just said.
Sure.
He laughed, and I could feel my face heating back up.
He loosened his grip, and I turned back to him. He pulled me tight against him again so my back was pressed to his chest. I rested my head back against him.
“So where do you live?”
His laughter finally died down, but I could hear the smile in his voice. “My clan’s territory is farther inland.”
I blinked.
“Your territory?”
“Yes.”
I looked around again. “Well, I suppose we could probably get there and let everyone know I’m okay.”
He turned me around and looked deep into my eyes. Whatever he was searching for, he must have found it because he nodded, pecked my lips, took my hand, and we started walking toward a strange phone booth-looking thing across the street from the hospital.
Angel stepped inside, pulling me with him, then punched a series of numbers into a panel on the wall.
And—
WOOSH.
We dropped.
Except we didn’t?
My feet were still planted firmly on the floor, but my stomach sure as hell thought we were falling. I could feel the thing twisting and turning, moving at an alarming speed, yet somehow we weren’t moving inside it.
So... like an elevator?
“What the hell is this thing?”
Angel laughed. “It was designed after the tube system you have in banks. It works really well. The tube is spelled so anyone inside still feels gravity with the floor as the bottom.”
HOW FUCKING COOL.
He chuckled.
I could feel it and hear it slowing to a stop. Then it made a single ringing sound, and the door opened.
I stepped out.
And stopped.
Again.
“You have got to be f-ing kidding me.”
Angel stepped out behind me.
We were standing at the edge of a cobblestone square that looked like we had just stepped backward about six hundred years.
Old stone cottages surrounded the square, some with dark wooden beams running through their walls and others made almost entirely of stone. Their roofs were steep and covered in thatch, and narrow cobblestone streets disappeared between buildings that leaned just slightly toward one another.
But that was where anything resembling normal ended.
Thick vines climbed the stone walls and wrapped around wooden balconies. Purple flowers hung in heavy bunches over the streets, and pale moonflowers grew practically everywhere, some winding around windows and doors, others wrapped around the old iron lampposts.
And they were glowing.
Because apparently regular flowers weren’t good enough here either.
I slowly turned in a circle.
There were people everywhere. Merchants stood behind wooden carts overflowing with flowers, herbs, bread, and things I couldn’t identify. Someone was playing some kind of flute near the center of the square. Children ran across the cobblestones chasing glowing little seeds floating through the air, while the smell of fresh bread, flowers, and woodsmoke drifted around us.
My mouth fell open.
I stared at him.
Then at the cottages.
“This is where you live?”
“Well, this is the main part of town for the clan, but yeah. This is my village.”
“Holy—” I looked around again.
Everything was so beautiful.
“Does it have a name?”
He laughed. “Of course it does. It’s Nocturnis Covenant.”
I just looked at him for a minute because...
WHAT?
“Well, that’s a mouthful.”
He laughed, and I turned back toward the village, wandering closer to some of the shops.
“It means bound by night magic.”
I stopped. “What does?”
“The name of the clan.”
“But...” I looked up at the perfectly bright sky. “That doesn’t make any sense. You’re out in the daytime.”
“According to clan legend, the Nocturnis Covenant began over two thousand years ago during a rare total eclipse known as the Veilfall.” He started walking again, casually looking over the things displayed at the booths as he talked. “A mortal mystic named Aurelia Nocturna sought forbidden arcane power to protect her people from invading warlords.”
He stopped at one of the stands and pointed to a necklace.
The woman behind the counter smiled and handed it to him.
It was stunning.
Intricate silver vines and leaves twisted together with tiny rubies scattered throughout them. Angel paid her, then stepped behind me.
Oh.
I lifted my hair.
He fastened the clasp around my neck as he continued. “In desperation, Aurelia forged a pact with a primordial night entity often called the Shadow Sovereign.”
I touched the necklace as we continued farther into the village. We turned down a narrow side street, and Angel took my hand.
“The pact granted her immortality, blood-sustained power, and dominion over nocturnal magic.”
The road beneath our feet wasn’t anything like the roads at home. It was maybe wide enough for a single lane of traffic, but...
I looked around.
I definitely didn’t see any cars.
“In return, she and all who followed her would be bound by night magic—unable to wield their abilities under the sun and eternally tied to the Sovereign’s will.”
“Um, Angel? Not to state the obvious or anything, but...” I pointed upward. “Again. You walk in the sun.”
He smiled. “I’m getting there, sweetheart.”
“Okay.”
“Aurelia transformed her most loyal companions into the first generation of Nocturnis vampires. Unlike other vampiric myths, their transformation was ritualistic rather than infectious.”
