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I’d never seen that much money in one place before, let alone had called it my own.
    “Lucian, devil though you may be, you have yourself a deal!” I laughed aloud.
    Drawing a knife, I used the blade to poke through the rest of the envelope’s contents: an itinerary for a trip to Venice, departure: four hours. A passport for Cassidy Edwards—it had to be forged, but it looked real enough, a crystal vial on a silver chain, and finally, an aged, brass skeleton key.
    How positively gothic.
    The key fascinated me. When I touched it, I felt something vibrate. There had to be mana in it, I was certain. So, mana could be infused with an object. There wasn’t enough for me to even bother trying to extract. It would be like trying to sate your hunger with a single grain of spelt.
    It didn’t take me long to get ready; I had packed my meager belongings in less than a half an hour.
    I certainly wasn’t going to miss that dingy studio.
    Tossing some bills to cover my back-rent in full, I left my pickle-scented apartment without a backwards glance.
    It was getting late. Darkness had fallen. I squared my shoulders and headed for the bus stop.
    It was then that I smelled her.
    My mother.

Leaving Philly

    I’d seen my mother only twice since I’d left her house in New York four years ago. Both times, I’d been the one to seek her out; she’d never reached out to me. She was always on the move and never interested in my doings.
    But there was no doubting her unique scent filling the night air, the curious mixture of what seemed like a sickly young man—must be her latest victim—and the spicy fragrance of death that was uniquely Blair.
    Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and honed in on the direction. It came from the left. She was close by.
    Was she waiting for me?
    That was a first.
    Dragging my suitcase behind me, I followed her trail around the corner to a rundown diner with a humming neon sign flashing to the world outside that it was open.
    The single bell gave an anemic clang as I pushed the door back and stepped inside.
    The place was a dive. Cold, greasy burger leftovers scattered the surfaces of the empty tables plastered with dried ketchup and who knows what else. It didn’t matter. There weren’t any customers that I could see. I supposed the cockroaches skittering by the floor baseboards helped with that.
    Blair’s scent was overwhelming.
    “Cassidy,” she suddenly whispered from behind me.
    The coolness of her breath never failed to send chills down my spine.
    I turned to look at her.
    She was gorgeous, as usual. Long, dark hair. A model-perfect smile. Big brown eyes, and a slim, svelte figure. She hadn’t changed a bit since I’d seen her last. But then, she was a vampire. She didn’t age.
    “You haven’t changed,” she said the same of me. “It’s as I suspected. You won’t grow any older now.”
    I raised a brow. I’d never really wondered about my lifespan before. I was too hungry and consumed with revenge to bother worrying about that.
    “Blair,” I said with a nod. “What are you doing here?”
    Her lips thinned with displeasure at my abrupt greeting. I honestly don’t know what else she expected. Waving her hand to a dark, winding staircase at the back of the room, she motioned for me to precede her.
    On the third step, I smelled the mana of the young man that my mother had apparently just bitten. He was still alive. Apparently, she’d taken only a nip, not enough to turn him into a Chosen One. But maybe she wasn’t finished with him yet.
    His scent grew stronger with each step. I found him in the first room by the top of the stairs. He turned out to be a sandy-haired man in his early twenties, decked out in black leather, tattoos, and body-piercings. He lay on a stained mattress on the floor in the corner. A broken window shade hung over the open window. I could tell from his scent that he was under the influence of drugs and who knows what else.
    The thought of dining on him made