Prologue

Byron stared down at the pain-racked body of Kristof Beauchamp and wasn’t sure if he could fight off his rage much longer. The man responsible was in this house and Byron would see to it that he paid. But his duty, through friendship, was here, by his dying friend’s side.

“Katrine…will you take care of her? So young, she is, and now alone…”

Byron held tight to Kristof’s hand and broke a promise. The Inherent was so battered in body, so injured—the vampire doubted the shifter would even notice. As Byron slid inside and separated the pain from the man, Kris was able to breathe and think without the pain caused by the silver and poison.

“I’ll take care of the girl as though she were my own,” Byron promised, smoothing back Kris’s sweat-tangled hair. The air stank of the poison that was eating through Kris’s body and Byron shoved his fury under control again. Wolfsbane…the poison served only one purpose, and it was exactly what it sounded like. It had been put inside a hollow silver bullet that had exploded on impact with Kris’s body and even now was eating away at him like acid.

“She will not be a girl always. What then?” Kris asked, his accent thick with his weariness.

“I’ll see to it that Kit has everything her heart desires,” Byron promised. “She will want for nothing.”

Kris laughed, and when he did blood leaked from his mouth. “My Bella is telling me…da, you had best remember that. Kit will want what she wants. Da.” His combined French and Russian upbringing made his accent, at times, difficult to understand. Bella? The lady had died in childbirth three years earlier. “Ah, my Bella. I see you now. But Katrine. To leave her, my bebè, my heart breaks.”

“Go to Bella,” Byron whispered roughly, feeling tears sting his eyes. He could hear the baby crying. The hearing of an Inherent child was sharp, and she had heard her father. One of his people should have taken her away. They’d be lucky if heads didn’t roll for letting the baby be upset this way.

“I will take care of Kit, I promise. I will do everything in my power to see her happy.”