Seduced by the Vampire King. Laura Kaye

culminated right here.

      Pomogite mne. Help me.

      At the sound of the distant voice, Kate spun, wielding her flashlight phone like a weapon and shining the light around. “Who’s there?” But the alley was otherwise empty.

      Trembling, she cut the glow back to the man and scanned his body with it. Blood soaked through the dark fabric of his pants on his right thigh. A lot of blood. A hole tore through his coat near his right shoulder. Long strands of blond hair peeked out from underneath a black knit cap.

      She stepped to the other side of him, the dull ache of her ankle forgotten, and crouched near his head. Her light shined on the side of his face, but between his position and the cap she couldn’t make out much except… “Oh, shit.”

      Blood coated his jaw, neck and the arm he’d collapsed on, and it had dripped to the ground beneath him, not soaking in but pooling on the frozen surface. Heart in her throat, she gingerly peeled back the lapel of his coat. Her stomach turned. His neck was literally torn apart.

      Thoughts shot through her brain in a rapid-fire barrage. Is he alive? Oh, God, he’s gotta be dead. Could the shooter still be here? That blood…that freaking blood is what I smell. But how? Help him. Help him!

      Kate dialed 03 on her phone and waited, eyes still on the man’s form, trying to discern movement. Gently, she laid her hand on the middle of his back. There! Her hand felt the soft rise and fall her eyes couldn’t perceive.

      Relief rushed through her.

      The operator answered in Russian, inquiring about the nature of her emergency and her location, and Kate had never been more glad for her fluency in the language. “I found an unconscious man. I think he’s been shot. He’s bleeding really badly from his neck and leg.”

      “Did you see the shooting? Is the shooter still in the area?”

      She whipped her gaze to the right, then the left. All remained silent and still, except her. But what if whoever did this was hiding? Watching her. Watching him. Rage shot up Kate’s spine, almost stealing her breath. She was nearly disoriented by the emotion’s intensity and unexpectedness. No one will hurt him again. Dizziness threatened at the bizarre thought. She shook her head and struggled to be present in the moment. “Uh, no. I…I didn’t see anything. And I don’t think anyone else is here.”

      The dispatcher fired off a stream of questions Kate did her best to answer. At the woman’s suggestion, she yanked off a glove and sacrificed it to the cause of applying pressure to his neck wound.

      Anything to help him.

      She turned down the offer to stay on the line until the ambulance arrived. The flashlight feature drained her cell battery quickly and it was already running low.

      Nuzhna pomoshch′. Need help.

      Kate fumbled her cell phone at the reappearance of the voice. Her nerves were just frayed. That’s what it was. Must be. There was no one else here.

      She set her phone on the ground next to them, light shining where she was working on his neck, and blew out a breath that failed to calm. “Come on, mister. Hang in there. Help’s on its way.”

      Blood saturated her glove and Kate gasped as the warmth kissed her palm. She jerked back and scrubbed her right hand against her thigh. The oddest tingling erupted in her other hand as she rubbed against the denim. Ignoring the sensation, Kate tossed the ruined glove away and pulled off her left one. Her gaze scanned him as she murmured in low tones for him to hold on.

      His hat. His hat was thicker than her glove. Gently, she pulled the cap off the back of his head, spilling blond hair mostly pulled into a ponytail. She slid her palm under his forehead to provide some cushion against the cold hard ground as she removed the front of the hat. Securing the thick folded knit against the crook of his neck, she eased her hand out from under him.

      His head rolled enough to reveal his face in profile.

      Kate gaped and moaned.

      She scrabbled backward until her spine slammed into the brick wall of the looming building.

      Between his parted, anguished lips, two sharp teeth protruded.

      Fangs.

      He had fangs.

      Chapter Three

      Vampire.

      Her heart pounded in her chest, forcing her blood through her veins so hard and fast the roaring whoosh of it filled her ears.

      He was a freaking vampire!

      But…oh, God…what kind?

      Kate had to look. Either way, she had to know what she was dealing with. Light-headedness threatened from her rapid breathing, but Kate forced herself to creep onto her knees and reach out a shaking hand. Shining her flashlight on his face, she flinched as her thumb pressed to his eyelid.

      Please, please, please. The light quivered as she lifted the thin membrane of skin, hoping against hope it didn’t reveal the soulless black iris and sclera of a Soul Eater. Her whole body sagged in relief. A perfectly white sclera and bright sapphire-blue iris shined out at her.

      Oh, thank God.

      Not one of the evil ones, then. She dropped her head into her hands and sucked in deep breaths that did little to ease her.

      She’d traveled five thousand miles to get away from vampires—from studying them, preparing to serve them, from the possibility of a future involving them—and here she sat, in a pitch-black alley, with an unconscious one at her feet.

      And, holy shit, she wasn’t even going to let herself think about why the vampire’s blood had affected her that way. Why it still affected her body and instincts and reactions even now.

      Everything she’d been running from had just caught up to her. Her parents were members of the Electorate, a group of influential humans who knew about the presence of vampires in the world, hid their existence and worked with them in their fight against evil vampires known as Soul Eaters. For their efforts, the humans reaped benefits from the alliance—including earning the vampires’ protection and access to their blood, which cured disease and slowed the aging process significantly.

      When she’d turned sixteen, Kate’s parents had shared their secret and encouraged her to enroll in a program that would immerse her in the history and culture of vampires, preparing her to one day take their place on the Electorate Council. The program also entered her in a training class to become what they called a Proffered, a virgin human woman trained to serve the blood needs of the vampire warrior class—and possibly become a lifelong mate. Apparently, all vampires were born male, so the perpetuation of their species could only be achieved through the joining of the races, a joining that cemented their alliance through kin ties and not just diplomacy alone.

      In the beginning, Kate had been interested. She loved medieval history and was intrigued by her discovery of this world within a world. Her parents’ enthusiasm and pride also drove her. And, as she learned of their prominence within the council, she felt the weight of familial obligation, too. But the whole Proffered thing…it scared her as much as it fascinated her.

      The idea of it felt objectifying and exploitative. When she gave someone her virginity, she wanted it to be because they liked and cared for her—she didn’t even have to have full-out love. But she certainly didn’t want it to be because she happened to have the ability to fulfill some biological need. And the idea of becoming a vampire’s lifelong mate—what did that even mean? The whole thing raised so many questions.

      So, as she’d neared her twentieth birthday—the year in which human blood apparently became particularly powerful for a vampire—she’d known she would never be able to go through with it, and she’d withdrawn from her training early.

      She stared at the man—the warrior, probably—in front of her and had to admit that, despite her jaw-dropping surprise at encountering the very thing she’d believed she could