But of course, he would never risk it. Nor would he dirty his pasty-white hands.

Her brother was older than she in both mortal years as well as vampir years. He’d been twenty-two when Lucifer visited him and offered him a life of power, wealth and immortality. That was more than fifteen years ago, and he looked exactly the same as he had at that time. Even the crooked tooth and the awkward set of a broken jaw that had never healed properly remained unchanged. It was that malformed jaw that gave his voice the faint lisp.

Cezar had waited three years, until Narcise turned twenty, before he arranged for her to be offered to Lucifer. During that time, their elder brother, who’d become the voivode, or ruler, over Moldavia through his marriage, had conveniently died…and Cezar had married his sister-by-law, thus becoming the new voivode. Their father and the original voivode had died just after their brother’s wedding, and Narcise had come under Cezar’s control shortly thereafter.

She always counted herself fortunate that she’d managed to lose her virginity to a man she fancied she loved before being turned into an immortal Dracule. And that female Dracule couldn’t get with child—for they didn’t have their monthly flow.

Since then she’d had little power over her own body.

The door behind her opened and Narcise didn’t have to turn to know what was there. The rush of weakness flooded her and she gritted her teeth against the wave of paralysis.

It was, she thought dully as two of Cezar’s thugs approached, a good thing that her brother liked to watch her win more often than lose. For, despite his earlier comments, Cezar would have the loss of a titillating form of entertainment, as well as a bargaining tool, if he didn’t have his sister to beat up his friends and enemies alike.

Narcise remained still as her brother’s men flanked her on each side. One of them fastened a cuff around her wrist. Woven of three brown feathers that were soft and delicate against her skin, and yet burned as if they were a branding iron, the bracelet leached her strength by its very proximity.