A Vampire Queen's Secret Baby I awoke in a pile of garbage in a dark alley with no memory of what happened to me or even who I am. All I know is my name, Karmen. By the vicious scars on my body, I've been through hell and lived to tell about it. Barely. In the hospital, my memory slowly beings to return. Something is after me. It's not safe. I have to get away. But I don't know who to trust. Certainly not the man who left me in the alley. He smelled like a wolf. Or the doctor, who asks me if I'm even human. Then the doctor drops a bombshell. I'm pregnant. And I have no idea who the father is. Only that his monsters hunt me in the burning light of day.

A secret burns inside me that will very likely get me killed. The wolf king may have gotten me out of Chicago alive, but he couldn’t burn rubber fast enough to get away from me once he’d dropped me off at his sister’s. Wearing nothing but a hospital gown and his borrowed coat, I have to face an Aima queen for the first time. Alone. Luckily, she has enough scruples to fill me in on some vampire queen basics without trapping me into a sibling alliance without my knowledge. There is so much about this world that I don’t know. I’ve never lived as a vampire queen. I’ve certainly never fed. I have no one on my side. No Blood of my own. I don’t know who to trust. With Soldiers of Light and blazing sunfires on my trail, I’m trapped. I’ve got nowhere else to go. But they aren’t taking me back to Heliopolis alive. Note: Karmen is recovering from abuse with flashbacks to her past, which may be triggering to survivors of sexual assault.

I will not go back. I thought we were free. I dealt with Ra’s spawn and freed my sunfires. I have a place of safety outside of space and time where I can develop deeper relationships with my Blood. Former Soldiers of Light, they were legendary human warriors resurrected to march the golden streets of Heliopolis at Ra’s command. They know nothing about Aima and goddesses’ daughters. Neither do I—which is a lethal liability in the game of vampire queens. I need someone I can trust, but who? The House Sunna consiliarius I’ve never met? The Isador queen who helped Helayna protect her nest? Or her brother, the wolf king? Eivind should have been my first Blood to teach me what I needed to know to survive. Instead, he left me to my fate in a filthy alley of garbage. He made his choice. Now I have a terrible choice to make. I might have escaped Heliopolis, but I will never be free as long as I still carry Ra’s foul touch. Karmen is recovering from abuse with flashbacks to her past, which may be triggering to survivors of sexual assault. This series includes themes of pregnancy and pregnancy loss.