Stalked by Seduction and Shadows

Centuries of visits to Crescent Haven have only brought Rune ghosts—memories of his human life, a village unchanged since his canines first sharpened.

Centuries of visits to Crescent Haven have only brought Rune ghosts—memories of his human life, a village unchanged since his canines first sharpened. Then he finds a girl picking flowers near the vampire wards, utterly unafraid of the monster lurking feet away. When she stumbles upon a rabbit trapped in iron, her tears and gentle hands crack something open inside the ancient vampire lord. He frees the animal after she leaves, whispering a prayer he hasn't spoken in decades. Her voice, when she sings, is angelic enough to terrify him. He names her Little Flame and returns every year or two, watching from the shadows as she grows—her loneliness deepening alongside her radiance, her song piercing through walls he built centuries ago.

Vampires come for Scarlett but drag Isabella into the dark

Scarlett has been planning her escape from Crescent Haven for months—savings divided, a letter written, a firebird ride arranged with her best friend Jaxon, a wolf shifter. On their last night, vampires smash through her cottage door. From behind overgrown bushes, Jaxon holds Scarlett silent as two born vampires drag Isabella's limp body across the porch. They mutter that this isn't the one—they wanted whoever left that intoxicating scent on the bedsheets. Scarlett. Jaxon refuses to let her intervene, knowing they'd both die. Scarlett finds blood splattered across Isabella's sheets and understands the traffickers will return. She abandons the coast plan and tells a horrified Jaxon she's going to Aristelle—the city of vampires—to bring her sister home. He walks out without a goodbye.

Scarlett trades her village for a city that steals her breath

A grieving man named Adair, whose girlfriend was killed by vampires near Crescent Haven, offers Scarlett a free ride on his firebird Sheela. As the village shrinks below her, everything Scarlett has ever known becomes a small patch of forest. The frigid wind numbs her toes, but she grins—she's flying, unmoored from the earth for the first time. Aristelle materializes at nightfall as a sprawling constellation of twinkling lights and domed onyx architecture that stops her breath. She rents a cramped apartment in Lumina, the mortal district, next to a witch-owned bakery where she meets Snow—a sharp-witted ice blonde her own age. Snow tells Scarlett about Odessa, the city's most lucrative vampire club. Its owner is the infamous lord Rune himself.

Rune hires Scarlett on sight and secretly marks her blood Scarlett enters Odessa dressed in Snow's borrowed red silk, and the room's collective desire floods into her like voltage. Before she can find the manager, a man in midnight black…