CHAPTER 1

JULIANUS

Windows to the soul

I DREAMED OF blood and death.

Wasn't the first time; definitely wouldn't be the last. That I could dream at all was a constant wonder to me.

The hunger was there when I awoke, sharp and insistent, but something felt different tonight. Like Fate was toying with the carefully woven threads of a routine I had spent centuries establishing.

Perhaps I had grown too comfortable.

Perhaps it was time to move on.

I resented that thought. I had come to like it here. A city small enough to remind me of my youth; large enough to absorb my unnatural habits. Such places were becoming increasingly difficult to find in the world, and I didn't relish the thought of searching for another .

Perhaps it was merely hunger, after all.

I dressed in my favorite charcoal gray suit and made my way out into the crisp autumn evening. A new distraction was what I needed, something to tempt my cock and slake this cursed thirst. With school back in session at the college, the streets were like an all-you-can-eat buffet. I wound my way leisurely through the herd, sampling sights and scents for one worthy of my attention.

Young succulent flesh.

Eager open minds.

Blinded by their own invincibility.

I didn't know what drew me to the bar, or why I looked in the window when I got there, but the jolt I received when I met those eyes shook me to my core.

It couldn't be. Not now. After all these years…