Blood and Kisses

Prologue

The corpse on the stainless steel table wasn’t Lily. It couldn’t be.

Lily’s skin glowed with a peachy tan, nothing like the icy pallor of this poor soul. Her cousin’s lips were fuller too, the lines of her face more angular. And her eyes, well this woman’s eyes were closed, but there was no way she had summer-sky eyes like Lily’s. And Lily’s hair had been golden, not this dull sandy blonde.

Thalia Kent shook her head in denial, closing her eyes against the burn of tears. Death had bleached the brightness of her cousin’s skin and hair, stolen the plumpness from her lips and bloated her face, but despite the protests of Thalia’s grieving mind, the lifeless body before her was Lily.

Thalia leaned forward, tracing the contours of her cousin’s beloved face. The grinding ache in her chest made it hard to breathe.

Lily looked so cold lying there under the merciless lights. Thalia knew it made no sense, but she reached out a shaking hand to tug the thin sheet a little higher.

Lily’s eyes flew open, pupils glowing red. Thalia recoiled, swallowing a scream. Lily lurched up and clamped Thalia’s wrist with a hand transformed into a frigid claw. Her pointed nails bit into Thalia’s flesh. Thalia wrenched her arm back, trying to break free, but Lily was too strong. Her cousin snarled, exposing two-inch fangs, and pulled Thalia closer. A glacial wave of terror washed over her.

Lily’s eyes flashed red-hot. “You’re next,” she said.

Air exploded into Thalia’s lungs with a whoosh as she sat up in bed. Panting, she gazed into the darkness of her room. Sweat chilled her bare skin. Dread constricted her chest.

A nightmare. That’s all it was. Nothing but a terrifying dream—except the first part had been real.

Lily was dead.

Murdered.

And although Thalia was certainly the weakest witch of her family line, she knew the second part of the nightmare for what it was—a prophetic dream.

Goddamnit.