The Amarant
Prologue

Kerrich entered the coven house with a smile on his face, walking past all the other vampires with a sense of self-importance, for he had news for Delilah, news that would intrigue her greatly.

He walked down the hall toward Delilah’s master bedroom, not making eye contact with the girls who watched him with curiosity. Of course they should stare. Kerrich knew how pleasing he was to look at. But he would never pay these girls any mind; his attention and complete devotion belonged to Delilah.

He stopped before her door, waiting for his mistress to give him permission to enter. Not a second after, the door opened by no other force than simply Delilah’s will. His goddess sat on her lavishly garnished canopy bed, wearing a penoir of white lace, reading a book by candlelight. She is more lovely everyday, he thought. She is like the Moon, with luminescent flesh and ringlets that are spun of the night itself.

She raised her pretty eyes from the pages of her book and trapped him in her gaze.

“What news do you bring?” she asked, her voice like tiny bells.

He came around her bed and knelt on the floor beside her.

“I have been keeping a close eye on him, just as you instructed,” he said. “And I have noticed a strange new development. For several months now, he has been watching a mortal girl.”

“A girl?” she mused. “I didn’t know he hunted girls. His tastes have changed.”

“No, he isn’t hunting her,” Kerrich said. “He just watches her. For some reason, he seems very interested in her.”

She looked away thoughtfully for a moment.

“Kerrich, do you love me?” she whispered, stroking his cheek ever so tenderly.

“With all my heart, mistress,” he vowed, wanting so badly to take her snow white hand and plant a kiss on her fingers.

“I want you to follow this human. Watch her closely, but do not let him know you are watching. I want you to replace out what is so special about this girl, what he replaces so interesting about her.” She looked down into her lap, with a smile that was an impossible merger of innocence and wickedness. “She will be the key to my revenge.”