Cathedral (Cradle of Darkness 1)

Alcohol served.

I snatched another glass from another white-coated server, Cristal running down my throat.

Next, I’d marched toward the food. Caviar, candied bacon, delicacies too difficult to pronounce. I picked at the offered fare, smiling and making small talk with anyone and everyone nearby. Because that was my job.

That’s what I was.

A showpiece existing only to overhear gossip and have my mind stripped at my father’s leisure.

A fallible disappointment.

The devil would see me crucified for the slip I’d made that night. So why not exacerbate it?

Act a fool before the masses.

Pretend I loved it all, that I was friends with everyone. That I mattered.

Most of my act was for the single interloper who’d invaded my stage.

I saw him before he’d dared speak to me. Slurping down an oyster, assuring he had a clear view of how I sucked the shell as if human food were ambrosia, I sneered.

Of course, night had fallen. My kind had arrived.

Undying, gorgeous, and the last thing on earth I desired, he pushed through the crowd to approach. “Your father granted me rights tonight.”

“Have we met?” I could never be sure, because I made no effort to engage with my food.

“I’ll be careful of your fragile state.” Beautiful chocolate eyes in a Nordic face. That man had been a warrior ages ago, bore the years and experience I lacked.

Pointing out my inferiority and documented physical weakness let me know exactly what type of male my father had sent to seed my womb. “How kind.”

Leaning closer, the most beautiful male in attendance dared run his nose near my neck. “You smell of sunshine.”

And he’d forgotten sunshine centuries ago. No born vampire would notice such a thing. “Let’s get this over with.”

“I have a fine room prepared.” Smiling, thinking he might seduce by flashing the tips of his fangs, he beckoned me inside.

“I know someplace better.” Weaving my arm through his, daughter of the king of evil, I edged him toward the exit.

Chapter Four

Arm in arm, I led my father’s chosen stud through the city’s finest five-star hotel, down halls meant for employees, around corners no patron should see. Escorting him out the side exit where the kitchens tossed their garbage.

A stinking alley infested with rats.

Stiffening, the male seemed to catch onto my game. But it was too late. I had already slighted him and shown the stranger exactly what my father meant when he offered me up for the night.

Dumpster to my right, some poor soul’s vomit to my left, I hiked up my skirt and placed my forehead against aged brick. “I’m ready.”

No panties. Dry as a desert.

Ass up like a cheap whore, I waited for the inevitable complaint.

“I earned this right! There is a room upstairs where you will serve me.”

This old speech I’d heard thousands of times. “You were told you had the right to seed me. That you’d been honored with the opportunity to potentially father the next in my bloodline.” And that was a fucking fact. “Not that I was to entertain your pleasure or orgasm. Get to it. I have laundry to do.”

He wasn’t the first to exact violence when I failed to live up to the fantasy.

Sexy daywalker reeking of bad perfume and the heat of sunshine. A poor vampire weakling who failed to thrive within the hive and bedded down with humans.

How lucky I was to be granted their old cocks.

It was the nose that always broke first. Smashed into my chosen wall as they hissed and tore down their flies.

Not once had my father ordered they be gentle with his weakling offspring. After all, I was immortal. It might take my body time to stitch itself back together, but very few things could actually kill me.

A violent lover certainly wouldn’t.

And if he truly wanted the honor of fathering my child, no vampire male would take it too far. The womb must remain intact, after all. Otherwise, where would their little spawn implant?

But before my father’s chosen might get underway, the air rippled with the chill of magic. Cursing at the interruption, the man dropped fang and hissed.

A portal opened in our special space.

Fuck.

At my back, my paramour stiffened, but wisely withheld acting out further once he beheld who walked through the gate.

“She’s been summoned. Finish your business and go.” Melodic, wondrous. I hated that voice with a passion.

The blunt head of a half-hard cock prodded my entrance. “I slaved for this honor!”

Blasé, cold, the perfect soldier… my despised guardian folded his arms over his chest. “Enter her, seed the womb, and make offerings to our God. Perhaps he will deem you worthy to try her again.”

Under the Viking’s breath the slander, “Bastard,” paired with a forward thrust.

I didn’t recognize entry, or pay any attention to the animal rutting. It’s not as if this situation were unique. All vampire-kind were consistently ordered to fuck in an effort to keep the bloodlines strong. Even the pretty asshole trying to spend his cum in me must have been forced to mate hundreds of times, considering his age.