“Humans break, and then they break our hearts.”

* * *

The household was sent into a tailspin when, in an unprecedented move, Victorija Dred arrived at the harbour seeking a meeting with Byron. Victorija hadn’t set foot in the Debrek estate since she was a child, five hundred years ago. While Alexis advised against meeting, Byron decided they should meet again.

Byron made do with bottled blood.

Sera and some guards were keeping their guest company in the drawing room. When Byron got up there and walked into the room, she found Sera giving a grinning Victorija a deadly stare. The silence was deafening.

When Victorija saw her she smiled and said sarcastically, “Byron, thank God. You have saved me from your sister’s sparkling conversation.”

“Victorija, to what do we owe this pleasure?”

Victorija stood and opened her arms in an apparently warm family greeting. Byron ignored her and simply took a seat in the armchair by the fire. Sera stood by her left hand side in support.

“Is that really the way to greet your cousin?” Victorija said with mock hurt in her voice.

Victorija was her cousin twice removed and her senior by several generations, but the difference in the way they presented themselves made Victorija appear younger than her.

Byron crossed her legs and fought every urge she had for blood to appear calm and in control. “Forgive me if I don’t find the family concern sincere since we haven’t had so much as a Christmas card in centuries.”

Victorija took a seat, and a human female, whom she had brought and who looked dazed and was probably compelled, sat on the arm beside her.

“Byron, please, I come here in good faith, without my Duca or any protection, simply to talk.”

Byron flourished her hand and said, “Then talk.”

“Very well, firstly I must apologize for not coming to see you sooner after my ascension to Principe, but my father’s passing was such a shock and strain on the clan.”

“I can quite imagine.” Byron played along, but she knew from her own intelligence that the Dreds had spent the time building up their vampire army and resources.

Victorija continued, “Secondly, I see no reason why we have to have the same family hostility as our elders. We may have branched off and gone our separate ways, but we are family, we share the same DNA, the same history.”

As conciliatory as that statement was meant to sound, what Victorija was really saying was, the Debreks were her family too, and she had as much claim to the Debrek birthright as Byron. In other words, their secret of reproduction.

That one tool gave the Debreks an edge over every vampire clan on the planet. Each new generation of born Debrek vampires was more powerful than the last, making Byron stronger than her older cousin.

“As you say, we have a history in common but different ideals,” Byron said.