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  The queen of the vampires lives a solitary and protected life. She must be very selective when she hunts and even more so when she takes a lover. Marcus is there to protect his queen from the evils of the world, but he quickly discovers one of the reasons she is such a powerful queen is because she brashly and independently protects herself. Both of them are used to asserting their dominance over a situation and they quickly learn they have this and other things in common...including a common enemy...the most dangerous sycophant to ever rule the Eastern Seaboard's underground. But Draz is more than a pain in the ass and an inconvenience. He has his eyes set on Simone's throne. He's no longer content with ruling just the underworld. He wants to rule the vampires too.

  In the midst of this struggle, Marcus finds himself falling for the headstrong woman he is meant to protect. But how can he love her and protect her at the same time? All he has to do is look into Simone;s eyes and fall into her heart in order to find all the answers.

  FAMISHED

  Prologue

  Draz contemplated the glass of brandy he held in his hand, looking at the amber liquid as he tipped the glass back and forth, watching it climb the glass then drift down over it again as he tipped it another way.

  “I-I’m sorry sir,” the man before him said.

  “Indeed, you are,” Draz agreed. “Very sorry. A sorry, sad excuse for a vampire.”

  “I can do better!” he insisted quickly. He held out a placating hand to Draz. “I just need a little more time.”

  “Time. Why not? I’ve waited this long,” he said negligently.

  His underling exhaled, his shoulders relaxing. “You won’t have to wait much longer,” he promised Draz.

  “You said this before. Perhaps I ought to turn the responsibility over to someone else?” he suggested archly.

  “No! That isn’t necessary. I’m close. Really close. We’ll be able to move on the queen by the end of the month. She’ll never know what hit her. Especially now that Danton is leaving.”

  This perked at Draz’s attention.

  “Danton is leaving?”

  The underling nodded vigorously. “He quit. She’s looking for his replacement. The transition will be the perfect time to hit her.”

  “This is very good news. You might have led the conversation with that instead of groveling.”

  “Yes sir. I’m sorry sir.”

  Draz sighed with exasperation. “Yes, yes, you’re always sorry.”

  He was silent as he mulled this news over in his mind. Danton had quit? He had never thought the queen’s loyal dog would ever think of abandoning her. She had been nigh untouchable with him by her side, thwarting Draz by providing him with little opportunity to catch her out.

  He could have attacked her at any time with a full force of men, killing her and anyone she had watching her, but he didn’t want that. What he wanted required a little more finesse. However, the surgical precision he needed required opportunity…and that had been lacking.

  “You will plan to attack her right at the peak of the transition between Danton’s departure and the new authoritarian’s arrival. They are guaranteed to overlap, Danton not leaving until the new man…or woman…is in place. But as soon as he is gone…that moment is the moment we have been looking for…when the transition is raw and new. It will leave her completely vulnerable.”

  The underling nodded vigorously.

  “I’ll make plans immediately.”

  “You should have already been making plans,” Draz snapped. “You shouldn’t need me to point out the weakness and the opportunity. I was depending on you to figure it out on your own…clearly you are incapable of doing so.”

  Draz snapped his fingers and two of his personal guards stepped forward and grabbed his underling by each of his arms. The man…what was his name?...began to struggle violently.

  “No! Please! I can do better! I promise you! I’m already in place. Putting in someone new will only weaken our position. Give me another chance. I won’t let you down!”

  The vampire’s voice grew shrill as Draz’s guard began to drag him from the room.

  “Wait,” Draz said with a sigh. “He has a point.”

  The guards stopped and the man they held sighed in relief once again. It annoyed Draz. Maybe he could still make an example of the fool. After all, he couldn’t let any of his underlings think it was safe to disappoint him.

  “Take him to the chamber. Teach him a lesson. Only…don’t leave any visible marks,” Draz said.

  “No! Please!” the vampire squealed. He knew, just as all his underlings knew, what went on in the chamber. He made sure they knew. Made sure it was advertised. Sycophants and turncoat vampires were an unruly bunch…and as their sovereign lord he was required to keep them in line…by any means necessary.

  Then again, he did enjoy his work.

  “I’ll come myself in a little while. Make certain he’s ready for me. And do shut him up,” he added with impatience as the vampire’s high-pitched pleading began to drown out Draz’s thoughts.

  They dragged the flailing vampire from the room and the door slammed shut in their wake. The relief of the sudden quiet washed over him as he took a swig of the brandy. There was a female on her knees at his feet—he couldn’t remember her name either—her cheek resting adoringly on his thigh. He contemplated fucking her to get the disappointment in his underling out of his present thoughts. He knew that she…like so many before her…would very much be willing and open to it. But…sometimes they were too willing. It grew tedious.

  “Bring me a cow,” he commanded.

  “How can you be hungry?” the female at his feet asked. “You fed just this morning.”

  “Did I say I wanted to feed from her?” he snapped. “And what business is it of yours what I do?”

  He kicked her aside and got to his feet. He paced the room, his thoughts churning. He could abuse others all he liked, but nothing would satisfy him. Only one thing would.

  And that one thing was having the queen of the vampires at his mercy at last.

  “I’ve got you now Simone,” he muttered under his breath. He raised his glass to the absent queen. “It’s been a jolly chase,” he said, “but it’s over now. You’re as good as mine.”

  He tipped his glass, draining it of its contents. He slammed the glass down upside down on the end table by a sofa containing two of his favorite sycophants. Now their names he remembered.

  “Alina…Corbin…come. Let’s make certain our inside man learns how very much we’re depending on him to get this right."

  Alina smiled, her wickedly painted red lips curving becomingly. She rose from her seat gracefully. She was such a hauntingly beautiful creature…for a sycophant. Sycophants tended to grow wan and tired looking over time, becoming thin and clearly suffering from their addiction to poisonous resources. Alina wore her slenderness and paleness well, looking fragile and bold all at the same time. Draz found her incredibly appealing and compelling…and not just in looks. She had a coldness in her that went straight to her soul. She was just the perfect sort to enjoy the torture of another creature.

  It was nice to be able to share the experience with others of like minds. Corbin was his right hand man. He counted on him for just about everything he didn’t want to do himself. All of the little menial things that were beneath Draz were Corbin’s domain. Corbin was not a sycophant. He was a vampire. The difference being that a vampire was not tainted from drinking from unclean or addictive resources. Or…at least that was the distinction the high and mighty vampires made. Draz was a sycophant… he enjoyed feeding from any source…some more than others. Clean or ‘dirty’ he had a taste for it all. He especially preferred to feed from addicts. He could essentially get a contact high. There was nothing like the feeling in the wo
rld. He had resources peppered all about the room for himself or his closest companions to feed from. Like an opium den they lounged about, reveling in their highs and paying court to Draz…their king.

  He called himself the king of the sycophants even though his influence presently only extended to most of the eastern seaboard. From Main to Georgia he was in command and organized all of the sycophants who were looking for direction and guidance. They were like children, wallowing in their pleasures aimlessly, in need of a guiding hand. He provided that hand. He had lieutenants in every state…just like Simone had princes peppered throughout her realm. He was just as powerful as she was, he thought with a mental growl. She thought she was so all-important, that only she was capable of a solid rule. Well, he was proving her wrong. Before long he would be the king of all the sycophants everywhere…and he would take her place as well, leading the vampires into the world of sycophanthropy.

  For he believed vampire purity was unnatural. They were meant to feed from any and all sources. Just as a human was meant to feed from resources that were considered less than stellar…like fast food was less ideal than a healthy meal. Yet they could still live off of it, could still enjoy the pleasure of consuming it. Draz believed there was nothing wrong with the contact high they got off of feeding from ‘tainted’ sources. They were meant to feel the pleasure of it…otherwise why make it feel so good? It was an evolution in his mind. Just as they had evolved into the need to feed off of human energy, they had evolved into being able to feed from all forms of that energy.

  But now was not the time to mull over his philosophies. He had work to do. Preparations must be made. Assurances must be had.

  He reached to take Alina’s hand and she flowed into step beside him. Corbin did likewise on his opposite side. Their instant instinct to obey him pleased him. It was one reason why he kept them so close. Also, Corbin was a wickedly powerful fighter, able to sneak into vampire strongholds and pass for a lawful vampire. He had guarded Draz’s safety and carried out some of the most critical missions in Draz’s scheme for a better vampire world. He trusted him just about as much as one could trust a ‘lawless’ vampire.

  Alina was no slouch either. For all her pale and tragic looks she was a perfect reaper of souls. Lost souls. Lost human souls. She organized the humans who allowed themselves to be fed from. Their food and pleasure resources. She provided them with housing and drugs and anything else they could need. She groomed the humans to be the perfect resources. Druggies and addicts who would normally be lost to the streets found a home and a haven with Draz and his people. He was doing them a service, acting the humanitarian. He didn’t see the high and mighty queen of the vampires taking in hundreds of lost souls and giving them purpose and safety and direction.

  Draz once again shook off his hostile thoughts toward the vampire queen. She would get hers…and soon. He would teach her and all those other so-called ‘lawful’ vampires not to look down on the sycophants like they were second-class citizens. He was going to prove that they were superior, full of strength and perfect in their unfettered power. The lawful vampires’ denial was unnatural. He would show them that. He cooled his temper by savoring the coming session where he would ensure and correct his errant associate’s behavior. Really, it was for his own good. By learning how important his role was he would better be able to carry it out and commit himself to the role he must play.

  Draz walked out of his presence chamber with his two most treasured companions, passing by others in the halls that immediately bowed their heads at his passing, acknowledging him for the superior creature that he was. Simone’s followers didn’t bow to her. They showed her no deference or visible respect. She didn’t garner or demand such tribute. It just proved his theory that she was inferior. She must be brought down. It was for the best of all vampires everywhere. It was time the sycophants took their place as the superior creatures they were, and Simone was in the way of that.

  It was time. Time she learned who really had all the power.

  He did. He was destined to be king of all vampires and sycophants alike. He was destined to break down the walls of prejudice between the two factions. Like Martin Luther King he would stand for the equality of his people. Someone had to. Someone with strength and perseverance.

  That someone was him.

  Chapter One

  Simone had reached the midpoint of her ascendancy to the throne of the e-vamp world, that is, the world of the energy vampires, and she had already negotiated world peace between all of the vampire factions and city-states all over the world.

  At least she had on paper.

  Getting all of the city-states to forget years of contention with other bordering states due to any number of reasons…be they religious or otherwise…was not as easy as it sounded in the treaty all the princes had signed. Princes, both male and female, had signed at the bidding of their queen. People falling into line and following their princes’ example…now that would be a massive undertaking.

  Just the thought of it made her feel tired.

  She was among the oldest of her kind. She was among the exemplars…the few remaining e-vamps who had been among the original group of aliens that had landed on this planet so many hundreds of years ago. She could count on both hands those that were left of the exemplars.

  She remembered those first days on earth without any fondness. She didn’t imagine any of the exemplars did. The day they had landed their ship had been caught in a terrific lightning storm, the hull of the ship and everyone in it being electrified in one fell swoop. It had taken half of them starving to death before someone had figured out that their alien physiology had been changed on a molecular level, and that the only way they could survive was by feeding off of the clean energy of the humans that populated that planet.

  They had dismantled and hid their ship in the mountain range they had crashed in, somewhere where no one would look for it or find it, and had gone about the business of fitting into the primitive world they had landed in. It had taken quite an adjustment learning to live in Elizabethan times. It had served them best to be at the hub of human activity, and that had meant large cities like London and Paris and the cities of Spain. These were the places where the most food sources could be found. At first they had travelled together as a whole…supporting one another, breeding with one another. Expanding their population. Their children were born energy vampires as well, their reproductive systems having been changed on the same fundamental level as the rest of them had been. But it hadn’t taken long for the first energy vampire to fall in love with a human, forcing them to come up with all new laws about how to integrate humans into their society. Cross breeding had expected effects. Half were born human and half were born energy vampire. Purely genetics.

  But for the most part energy vampires and those that knew about their existence were an insular bunch. They knew of the risk if any of the primitive humans found out what they were. Their superstitious ways would mean an all-out witch hunt. So they protected themselves above everything else.

  Of the original four hundred to land, half had gone on to survive and reproduce. Enough to seed the world with energy vampires until now, generations later, they were everywhere. Cross breeding had been kept at a severe minimum, the act frowned upon by their society as a whole. But again, there were exceptions. However the rules stated that half-breeds had to mate with full breeds in order to keep them from being too diluted. This was how arranged marriages had come about. In the beginning there had not been arranged marriages. There had been no marriages period. If they wanted their species to survive they had to breed with as many other mates as they could. It didn’t help that it was incredibly difficult for them to reproduce at all. Their alien physiology was very different from humans. Women did not ovulate every month. It was more like every three months. However, they muddled through somehow. Enough to perpetuate themselves. Arranged marriages had come later, as a way of keeping cross breeds all in the family…so to speak. To kee
p human DNA from diluting their gene pool too much.

  It hadn’t been easy to find matches for half-breeds. Energy vampires were nothing if not purists and incredible snobs. But there were those who were willing…for the right price…to take on the duty of lessening the damage caused by the original cross breeding.

  In the end, the influx of human DNA had been part of what had saved them…though few of the exemplars would admit it, the fresh DNA had allowed them to keep from too many instances of cousins being forced to mate with cousins in order to survive and perpetuate their species. Of course, inbreeding had happened, all vampires could trace their roots to one of only two hundred exemplars after all. It was bound to bring more than a few instances of kissing cousins. But that had been true of human matches in history as well.

  But that was all history. And now Simone was trying to make new history. As queen over all the princes she held ultimate power, although she risked not being re-elected if she exercised her power against the will of the people too much. So, instead of vetoing policy, she made up new policies. She helped construct new laws, negotiating the sensitivities of those princes and vampires that had grown to be hostile toward one another. Not an easy task. However, it was done. The treaty was signed. In it was the agreement that they would stop all of their infighting and instead focus on the true enemy.

  The sycophants.

  The sycophants—or phants as they’d become more commonly referred to—were vampires that had crossed over from clean and lawful to dirty and lawless. Meaning…vampires who chose to feed from tainted sources in order to obtain a high—like the high a human would get from drugs—and whose behavior became increasingly lawless and savage, even to the point of killing their food sources, which was strictly forbidden in the clean vampire world. In the beginning this had not been a problem. For all their questionable bathing habits of the time, Elizabethans had been relatively clean in the majority. At least their energy had been. Drugs had not been rampant…although there were taints like too much alcohol, but that wasn't enough to cross them from lawful to unlawful resources. However, laudanum and use of the poppy plant had been another story. Opium had been the true taint of the times, but still had not been a widely used drug and so was not much to worry about.