Chapter 1

A curse.

It had to be.

What I'd done to deserve the fate I'd just happened on, laid out in front of me in unambiguous terms in the ancient grimoire I'd just delicately unpacked from tissue, I had no clue.

But a curse it certainly was.

I ran my fingers over the words on the crumbling parchment—dark, red-brown lettering with an odor suspiciously reminiscent of… copper.

Lingering, after all this time.

This was a hard-won artifact, hunted down over years of searching, scheming, lying, bribing… but I'd done worse for lesser treasures. When I finally found it, it barely felt real. The merchant knew it was valuable when it was discovered buried in a trunk with a bunch of other old books, but no idea how valuable.

I'd purchased the whole lot to avoid showing my hand, resisted the urge to insist on showing up in person.

Honestly?

I'd have paid triple the asking price to get my hands on it.

To get one of my family's ancient texts back into my possession, to maybe understand the genesis of our… decimation.

And indeed, I'd found a written accounting of our history, from before it happened.

Words foretold, instead of remembered.

Larivye.

Seeing my name written there, centuries before I was born, had set my chest aflutter.

The words that followed made my heart drop into my stomach, sitting like a boulder of acid.

Dramatic?

Maybe.

But… my supposed fate was one I couldn't fathom.

I slammed the book closed, unable—or maybe just unwilling—to let the words sit there in the open, uncovered and available for anyone to see… to believe.

I couldn't believe it.

Wouldn't believe it.

Except the nagging voice at the back of my mind told me it wasn't really a choice.

It wasn't something I could run from, not really.

But it wouldn't stop me from trying.

I hopped up from where I'd been seated, knowing exactly what I needed.

The talisman.

I went first to where it should've been, and couldn't find it.

Then I looked where it could've been, and it wasn't there either.

So… where the hell is it?

Thus began a much, much more desperate search.

"What"s going on?" I jumped, startled at the sound of voices; my friends, Celeste and Ambrosia.

I'd been so consumed in wondering about the necklace I hadn't heard knocking… So why were they in my home?

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, hands full of the contents of the trunk I was searching.

"We were coming to see the antique dildo collection, but you"re clearly occupied," Celeste said. "What are you doing?"

"I"m looking for something."

"Well duh," Brosia said, her gaze darting around my bedroom, which I hadn't realized I'd trashed until just now. "What though?"

"Uhhh… a necklace," I said. "I know I had it."

"Did you know your front door was open?" Brosia asked, and my eyes went wide. In my excitement for the delivery, I must've dragged the box holding the trunk inside without ever bothering to go back and actually close the door. "Is the necklace like, an emergency?"

"It's fine," I brushed off the door thing, which also explained why they'd just walked into my house. "I"ve gotta find that necklace."

"Okay, well… just tell us what it looks like?" Celeste suggested, already stepping further into the room.

"It's a black stone, on a really dark cobalt chain. Really old. Really old. It"ll be in a little black velvet box."

Brosia nodded. "Okay… black on black… on black," she murmured, then turned to Celeste. "Hey… you know that thing about not being able to enter a home without an invitation. You know… 'cause of our condition?"

Celeste looked up from where she had already started helping look for the necklace to nod at her. "Uh… Yeah. Why are you bringing that up… right now?"

They looked at each other, then looked at me.

"Because," Brosia said, taking a step back. "She did not invite us in."

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

"Well. This is quite awkward, isn't it?" I laughed, attempting to tamp down the panic attack I was just barely keeping at bay.

I was an even-keeled type of bitch usually.

Usually.

Tonight?

I... didn't have time for this shit.

I looked at my friends standing at the doorway of my bedroom, trying to figure out how they'd walked uninvited into my home, given that whole vampires can't cross the threshold of a human's home unless invited of it all.

It wasn't complicated.

There was an obvious reason.

I just could not get into that right now.

Especially with recently turned vampires. Which, honestly, was a blaring red flag for how this was all unfolding, and somehow I'd missed it.

Somehow, I'd deluded myself into believing this was a coincidence.

"We'll talk," I promised, looking away from them to go back to my search. "But?—"

"The necklace, right." Celeste was the first to speak up and Brosia was right there with her. "What does it look like again?"

"A little black velvet box, with a deep scratch across the top," I explained. "The necklace is inside, a blue-black chain, black setting, and a black stone, a scapolite."

I stopped, scrubbing hands over my face as I cast my gaze around the room.

The necklace—and the box too—were priceless to me, and weren't something I would've misplaced. I kept it tucked in my bottom nightstand drawer, to keep it close to me instead of locked away in a safe or something. There was no monetary value, except maybe as an antique, and even then… it was negligible compared to the other, obvious treasures scattered around my home.

It wasn't the type of thing to catch the eye of any thief.

At least, not a typical one.

So where the hell could it be?

It has to be here somewhere.

"Can you think of any other possibility of where the necklace could be?" Celeste asked, pulling my attention back to the present.

"Did you lose it while you were traveling?" Ambrosia added. "Leave it in a hotel or something?"

"No." I immediately shook my head. "I never take it with me. I keep it here, where it's supposed to be safe."

"So this is a personal piece?" Ambrosia asked. "Not something for your shop or your collection?"

"Yeah," I said. "Very, very personal."

Celeste and Ambrosia exchanged a look, and from there, I knew what questions were coming next.

Back to the ones I desperately did not want to answer.

"We can't keep getting around it," Ambrosia said. "Tell us why the hell we were able to come through your front door? And don't pretend you don't know what I mean."

Shit.

I shrugged. "I mean, look around. That's a mermaid scale brooch in your hand right now," I pointed out. "A real one. Do I seem like a regular type of bitch?" I asked, already knowing I wasn't going to be able to simply leave it there.

"Okay, you're not a regular type of bitch," Celeste said. "What kind of bitch are you then? Are you a vampire too?"

"No," I answered, sighing as I dropped to a seat at the edge of my bed. "I'm not a vampire. I… It's hard to explain."

Ambrosia huffed. "Harder than half-vampire, half-immortal who had no idea until my reckless future brother-in-paranormal got impatient and sicced vampire acolytes on me to awaken my powers?"

Good point.

I pushed out another sigh. "Fine. Way, way back, my ancestors were… sorcerers, to put it simply. Powerful. But a lot of that power was lost—stolen, actually. Siphoned and hoarded by one bitch, for… eons."

I caught the hike in Ambrosia's brow over my use of that particular word, but couldn't derail the conversation with that right now, so I kept talking.

"Through time though, despite that, we've been… oracles, mystics, conjure women, shamans… witches," I said, shrugging. "None of that broom riding shit though."

"So… you're a witch?" Celeste asked, brow furrowed in uncertainty.

"Hardly," I admitted. "I know what I need to know, and can do what I need to do, but I don't really practice."

"Why?" Brosia challenged, and I shook my head.

"I… don't really have anyone to teach me anymore." I moved from where I'd been, trying to escape the weight of their attention, even a little. It was suffocating. "Like I said… a lot of power has been lost over the years, to the point of it just being… a trickle."

A fate I could change, if I were willing.

I swallowed hard, shaking my head a bit to clear thoughts of the prescription laid out on the worn pages of the grimoire. Although, it reminded me of what I was supposed to be doing.

"I still need to find my necklace," I announced, hoping they would take the hint. "Weren't you guys on your way out?"

"No," Celeste countered, stepping in front of me. "And we're not finished talking. We're friends, remember?"

I sighed. "Of course I remember."

"Okay then, friend," Ambrosia said, moving to get beside Celeste. "Tell me, did you know about the Blacks already? What they were?"

I met her gaze and shook my head. "That's not what you actually want to know." She frowned, and started to offer a rebuttal, but I cut her off. "You want to know if I knew what you were. Before you even met Cassius Black," I said and her expression softened with my accuracy. "And the answer is no, I didn't. My best guess is because you were dormant, it wasn't potent enough for me to feel it."

"Okay, but still, what about the Blacks?" Celeste asked. "Did you know?"

Here we go.

"Yes," I admitted, because it made little sense to tell anything but the truth, even though it made Celeste's face crumple in disillusionment.

"Seriously, Riv?" she said. "You let me go to that house, go on dates, you joked with me about the man being a vampire, I?—"

"Would you have even believed me?!" I asked, tossing up my hands. "Either of you, would you have believed me? The answer is no," I laughed. "And even then… vampires, witches, sirens, lycans, djinn, fae—they walk around every day doing regular shit with everybody else, all the time. I didn't know you were going to buss it wide open and end up that man's goddamn vampire queen," I snapped.

For a moment after that, the room was silent.

And then all three of us burst out laughing.

"Bitch?!" Celeste giggled, eyes wide. "Why would you?—"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," I said. "I'm sorry. I'm just really stressed." I scrubbed a hand over my face as my mirth died, dragged my fingers through my hair. "I cannot even articulate how important this necklace is. I have to find it."

"It's not just a necklace, is it?" Brosia asked. "It's some type of… protection?"

"Uh… I guess it could be considered that," I agreed.

"Why do you need protection? Is someone after you?" Celeste grabbed my hand, linking her fingers through mine and squeezing. "Do you need help? I can ask El?—"

"No!" I shrieked, snatching away from her. "Seriously, no," I insisted. "I don't need help from them. As a matter of fact… I need y'all to go, before they start looking for you."

"What?" Brosia frowned. "Is there like… beef between vampires and witches or something?"

"It's not that," I replied. "I just… I need to be alone, to think, and process some information I just found. And figure out what I'm going to do if I can't find this necklace."

Celeste nodded. "Okay. But are you sure you don't want some extra hands? We could?—"

"I'm sure," I insisted, already moving toward my front door, hoping they'd take the hint, and they did. Just a bit more hemming and hawing then I finally had them out the door.

As soon as they were over the threshold, I set to work, using ink from a certain box at my bedside to draw a little symbol at each entry point to my home, warding off any visitors, not just those of the blood-sucking type.

I'd just put the finishing touches on the final rune when a cold draft raised the hairs on my arms. I whipped around, looking for the source, even though on some level I already knew.

I wouldn't find one.

What I would find was a tall, broad-shouldered, wickedly handsome vampire standing in the middle of my living room, fangs glistening as he grinned at me.

My heart fell into my ass as he raised a hand, showcasing my amulet dangling between his fingers.

"Bonjou, Larivye," he said, the words dripping from his mouth in perfect, beautifully accented Haitian Creole. "èske sa ou t ap chache?"

?*

* ?Haitian Creole - Is this what you're looking for?