What a pleasure.”Ĭarved in the deepest part of the mountain, Lilith’s sanctuary was as far as possible from the sunlight that would peel the skin from her body. “I believe this is the first time you have ever come to me of your own accord. “Maximilian.” Lilith’s voice was a purr, and her red-ringed blue eyes were avid as she cast her gaze over him. She opened the heavy wooden door to Lilith’s private chamber and stepped back to allow him in.

Max passed yet another of Lilith’s Guardian vampires, ones that had eyes that burned pale ruby and fangs that released a strong poison at will. Her branding of him was an obscene protection from the undead that guarded her compound. The only reason he’d made it so far into the bowels of Lilith’s refuge was the fact that he bore her markings. Even if it resulted in his death, he chanced it-because it could also result in his freedom. But after what he’d been through in the last months, he was willing to accept the consequences of this visit.

Max was never foolish, although he had his brazen moments. As he was a Venator, it was his way of sensing the presence of the undead.Ĭoming here was foolish and brazen. The howling winds and blinding snow that came much too early and stayed too long in these Romanian mountains had nothing to do with the chill that burned his neck, and everything to do with the fact that there were vampires nearby. The back of his neck felt as though a brick of ice rested on it but it was not because of the winter that blustered outside of the stone-cut chambers in the mountain. The throbbing never fully went away, but there were times when it ebbed enough that he could forget about the fact that he was permanently linked to the vampire queen.

Permanent ones left by Lilith herself.They burned and tingled as he approached the entrance to the interior chamber. The only reason Maximilian Pesaro had been able to find the hideaway was because of the two bite marks on his neck. The lair of the Queen of the Vampires was tucked away in the snowy mountain range of Muntii Făgăraş. In Which Max Faces the Vampiress in Her Den

The Bleeding Dusk by Colleen Gleason