Kerrelyn Sparks: How to Seduce a Vampire (Without Really Trying)

I have to go. Thank you for your help.

You’re leaving? But we just met. And you’re my friend now.

You’re a good dog. Zoltan gave it another pat, then zoomed out of the village.

Wow! The dog’s voice grew dimmer. You’re really fast for a human. I bet you could catch a rabbit. Just don’t get yourself killed, okay?

Neona pressed a hand into the round earthen mound where her twin sister, Minerva, was buried. Two weeks had passed. Two weeks since half her soul had been wrenched from her. Tears sprang to her eyes, and the same litany of questions ran through her mind.

How can I live without you? How will I face each day? Her hand fisted around a handful of dirt, squeezing it into a hard ball as a jolt of anger ripped into her grief. Why didn’t you fight harder?

A tear rolled down her cheek, and Neona dropped the clod of dirt. She knew the answer. Seven years earlier, her sister had given birth to a son. Male children were not allowed in Beyul-La, so Minerva had been forced to give the little boy to the Buddhist monastery thirty miles away. Her broken heart had never quite mended.

At first, Neona had tried her best to alleviate her sister’s pain by putting up a cheerful front. But as Minerva’s despair had grown more entrenched, frustration and regret had seeped into Neona’s heart. She and her sister should have defied the queen and kept the baby boy.

With a sigh, Neona lay back on the grassy hillside and gazed up at the stars. How could they have defied the queen, when she was their mother? They could have ended up banished from Beyul-La. How could they have left their home and everything it meant to them?

Neona loved Beyul-La. It was the most beautiful valley in the Himalayas. In all the world, she suspected. It gave them life and purpose, while the outside world seemed to promise only hardship and death. But there had been times when they’d lounged on the grass, stargazing, that Minerva had claimed they were prisoners.

“Look how vast the sky is,” Minerva had said. “The world around us must be just as wide. Do you not yearn to see it?”

Neona had attempted to soothe her sister’s unhappiness by repeating the words they’d heard since childhood, the mantra that had comforted them for years, making them feel special and important. “We are the chosen guardians of this sacred valley and its secrets. Our mission is noble and necessary.”

“What is noble about being forced to give away my baby?” Minerva had muttered bitterly.

With a sigh, Neona wiped the tears from her face. The mantra no longer provided comfort. And her sister had escaped the only way she knew how. In death. The battle two weeks ago had claimed her and four others.

“Neona!” a sharp voice reprimanded her. “You shouldn’t spend your life here among the dead.”

Neona sat up to see Lydia approaching her. For a few seconds she considered reminding her old friend that she had some of her family members buried here among the dead. A line of five new earthen mounds now marred the hillside, alongside one older mound covered with grass. But the haggard look on Lydia’s face stopped Neona from speaking. Lydia was suffering in silence.

All the warrior women of Beyul-La were suffering. The battle two weeks ago had been devastating. In a matter of minutes, their number had gone from eleven to six.

Lydia stopped halfway up the hillside. “The queen has sounded the alarm. An intruder has crossed into our territory.”

Neona leaped to her feet and rushed down the hillside. “Only one?”

“It appears that way.” Lydia accompanied her to the small village of a half dozen stone buildings with thatched roofs.

The other women were there, lighting a few torches before the main campfire was extinguished to leave the valley in darkness. Then the five women hurried to the cave where Neona’s mother, Queen Nima, was waiting.

The torches were slid into brackets on the stone walls, and the large room brightened. Pink- and cream-colored stalactites glistened with moisture high overhead, and sparkling water fell from a fissure in the stone wall, splashing into the pool below. Behind the pool, a narrow corridor wound deep into the inner recesses of the sacred mountain. In front of the pool, there was a wide stone floor, worn smooth over the centuries.

Queen Nima paced across the floor and motioned to the owl perched on the back of her throne. “He has spotted one male intruder, invading our territory from the north.”

Lydia’s niece, Winifred, muttered a curse. “Do you think it could be Lord Liao?”

“Possibly,” Nima replied. “Or one of Master Han’s soldiers.”

“They’ve never gotten this close before,” Neona said. The battle two weeks ago had occurred forty miles from their border. The women warriors of Beyul-La had borrowed horses from the nearby village to travel that far to fight the enemy, for it was imperative to keep the sacred valley a secret.

“No man can be allowed to see Beyul-La,” Nima warned them once again. “Freya, take the eastern territory. Winifred, the west. Neona, the north. And Tashi, the south. Find him. If he’s a lost villager, show him the direction home. Threaten him with death if he returns. If he’s one of Master Han’s men, kill him without hesitation.”

The four women bowed their heads to acknowledge the acceptance of their orders.

Neona rushed to the area where they kept their armor and weapons. She always wore the breastplate and helmet left by her father, a warrior from Greece.

“There are only six of us now,” Winifred said as she slipped on a metal-studded leather breastplate.

“We know that,” Lydia muttered, watching her one remaining daughter, Tashi, put on armor.

“I think we should each consider having a daughter,” Winifred continued.

“Perhaps,” Queen Nima replied. “We will discuss it later. First we must deal with this invasion.”

“Oh, I see what Freddie means,” Freya said, coming to her sister’s defense. “The intruder might have potential.”

“Exactly!” Winifred nodded. “He could be fair of face, strong, and fleet of foot.”

Lydia snorted. “More likely, he’s a stumbling fool who has lost his way and doesn’t have the sense to get home.”

“But if he’s a good specimen,” Winifred argued, “we should consider taking his seed.”

Freya sheathed her sword. “I hope I find him.”

Winifred scoffed. “It was my idea. I should be the one to find him.”

With a laugh, Tashi handed them each a coil of rope. “Here. In case you need to tie him up.”

Neona frowned. Freddie and Freya seemed awfully eager to have a child. Didn’t they care that they would have to give the baby away if it was male? Neona had tried only once to get pregnant, but when the seed had failed to take root, she’d secretly rejoiced. After seeing the pain her sister had gone through, she was afraid of falling into that same trap of despair.

“Very well,” Queen Nima conceded. “You will take the man’s seed, but only if he is exceptional. Our daughters must be warriors, superior in mind and body. And don’t forget the main purpose of this mission.”

Neona nodded, while the other women murmured, “Yes, your majesty.”

With a growing sense of unease, Neona slid on her father’s helmet. It was brass with a black plume and decorated cheek guards. She’d always wondered what had happened to the brave Greek soldier who had journeyed so far from home and become the father to her and Minerva.

When she was young, she’d asked her mother, and Nima had said he’d gone back to Greece. Then she’d warned Neona never to speak of him again. Over the years, Neona had come to suspect that her mother had not told the truth.