“Yes, his talent was unsurpassed,” Byron replied.

“I often wonder what advances we would have made, if he was still alive today. He was the cleverest man I ever knew.”

She turned around slowly, leaning on her walking stick, and smiled. “Little Byron, you have grown to be such a strapping, intelligent, moral vampire, what your great-great-grandfather always envisioned for this family’s future.”

“Thank you, grandmother,” Byron said.

The Grand Duchess gave her a pointed look, one that would be enough to frighten most people who were not her close family. Lucia was Byron’s great-great-grandmother, but she did not like to be reminded of her age.

Byron smiled and corrected herself. “Sorry. Thank you, Lucia.”

“That’s more like it. I don’t need to be reminded how very, very old I am.”

Lucia looped her arm though Byron’s, and Byron said, “Please, you look no older than two hundred years.”

Lucia pointed her stick to the couch. “Enough flattery, young vampire. I need to sit.”

Once they were seated comfortably, Lucia looked deeply into her eyes and said, “You are terribly hungry?”

Byron nodded, and Lucia rang a bell on her side table. A tall elderly man came into the drawing room.

“You rang, Duchess?”

“Yes, Archer, could we have a pot of tea, and a bottle of Debrek Special Reserve?” Lucia said.

Archer bowed his head and smiled. “Of course, Duchess.”

“Tell me what’s wrong, Byron. Why are you struggling with your hunger so much?”

Byron looked down at her clasped hands, unsure of where to start.

As if reading her mind, Lucia said, “Start at the beginning—start with your young woman.”

Lucia always seemed to know everything without being told, which made her the matriarch she was.

“Amelia Honey. She is the niece of my tailor. As soon as I laid eyes on her, my heart was hers.”

“Just as Rose always told you,” Lucia said.

Byron looked up sharply. “You knew about that?”

“Of course.” Such a statement from the Grand Duchess needed no further explanation.

“I tried for the longest time not to go near her. I knew somewhere inside that my love for her would cause hurt and pain, and it has.”

“Love is all those things, but if you try to outrun love, she will always catch up with you,” Lucia said.

Byron stood and walked over to lean on the fireplace. “My mother told me if I ever fell in love, I would have hunger like I’d never experienced before, but this is different. I had one taste of her blood, just before I left her, and it’s been calling me like a drug ever since. Now I can’t think of anything else, and it’s breaking down my control.”

“How so?” Lucia asked.