When Valentine’s sire is forced to take a mate by his Clan leader, Valentine is reduced to stoking the castle’s furnaces as nothing more than a cindered servant to the new matriarch. With his sire Libertine incarcerated and Valentine forced to wear a cursed collar, there seems no way to escape Belladonna’s hold on them. When a stranger appears, Valentine is surprised by how quickly he trusts the other vampire. He accepts the request to go to the castle of his Clan Lord, the ancient and powerful Hades, to uncover who is working to overthrow him. His reward is freedom for both him and his sire. No one is meant to know who he really is, and Valentine pretends he’s one of Hades’ favorites while in the castle, adopting the name Cinder and playing his Seductive nature to its full. But his world is shaken to its core when Valentine finds himself falling for the enigmatic Cole. As a Seductive, Valentine never imagined he’d want an Alpha Predator as a mate. Worse yet, it may be that Cole could be the very one he’s been sent to uncover. When the battle for dominance begins, where will Valentine’s loyalty lie?

Cinis

“By all that’s unholy. You’re gorgeous.” Arsen stared at Valentine as if he was about to pounce and devour him, but Valentine simply tossed his head and performed a slow pirouette.


“I love it.” Valentine studied his dress.


The tight bodice was leather and red ribbon and skimmed low enough to show that he had pecs. The full skirt seemed to change color from vivid blue through to deep green, and then black with glints of gold. It also changed from tantalizing transparency to opaque in a constant swirl of motion. “It’s like the night sky with stars twinkling.”


“Perfect. Now, shoes. I think…these.” Seth aimed his cane at Valentine again.


This time when Valentine looked down at his feet, it was to see he wore crystal shoes with an elegant copper spiked heel. Valentine nodded.


Chapter 25